We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst Switches and NETGEAR Switches based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two LAN Switching solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"I have found that the protocols that Cisco Catalyst Switches support are beneficial for my customers."
"The solution is easy to use."
"It has become easier for us to troubleshoot and find issues faster in the management software for the switches. It saves us troubleshooting time because if the network is down it has a big impact on production."
"The technical support is at an expert level."
"One of the main features of this solution is it is easy to manage."
"We have to use the QoS (CBWFQ) function... and it is easy to use."
"The platform significantly improved our organization by addressing latency issues in our network."
"Cisco comes with built-in software access for network devices."
"Their online portal is one of the most useful features. The portal is very user-friendly, so even someone with not a lot of tech experience can go in and see what's going on with the switch."
"We have a wide range of switches for various applications, including a collection specifically designed for ProAV, as well as Multi-gig Switches, which are also quite well-known or unique."
"The solution is reliable and it is easy to setup."
"The product is easy to deploy."
"Technical support is helpful and quick to respond."
"Valuable features include network monitoring and ease of programming for VLANs, etc. I especially like NETGEAR because it's easy to teach system administrators how to use them, how to look at them, how to make changes to them without having the complexity of CLIs, but still having a CLI should we need it."
"The cloud management has just been huge for us. We have 80 clients and they all have switches... With the cloud-managed Insight ones... we know more information without having to do complicated SNMP traps. We get nice emails, we get a web interface, and we're not having to wait for our RMM tools to get SNMP traffic to notify us. We don't have to do complicated configurations."
"The solution is very powerful and versatile."
"The cost of this product is very high and not all companies can afford it."
"Needs to improve cloud services and mobile software."
"The solution is expensive. They should work on their pricing model to try to make it more affordable for customers."
"Cisco Catalyst Switches do not have an open architecture and you have to buy into the Cisco architecture to be able to use them."
"The configuration process is hard."
"We'd like Cisco to integrate with other solutions, including their own."
"The solution’s pricing and stability could be improved."
"My company would prefer that the price was more cost-effective."
"The M4250 switches needs more SFP models."
"Though the tool's useability is good, it has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The security features must be improved."
"An area for improvement would be creating a wizard that can do a lot of common stuff. Instead of having some manual configuration for common features, they may want to have a single wizard that could be put in place which would let you walk through creating multiple VLANs and different routes between VLANs in a wizard. Then, you wouldn't have to dig in so deep."
"There are a lot of systems that are moving into different areas. There are a lot of cloud-based things happening. One nice feature that I've seen in other switches is artificial intelligence on the actual porting. They've got AI technology that will tell you when a port is down. They not only tell you when a port is down; they also tell you when a port is running slower. You can do a cable-fault check, or you can do other checks. It would be nice to have this information in NETGEAR. This feature might already be there in a new release of the NETGEAR's firmware, but I haven't seen it."
"NETGEAR Switches could be more secure. Scalability could also be better. This infrastructure is a bit old, and we need something that will be more secure. Something that will introduce WLAN, and we will need the knowledge to go with that. Some of the switches were used for more than seven years. I think it was just their lifespan that was exhausted. But other than that, there haven't been any issues that required us to complain or get concerned."
"It's worked for the most part, but we've had to power cycle a few devices. We've had to ask customers to manually power cycle them with the power cord, after some of the firmware updates. Their updating needs a little improvement."
"Support needs to be improved."
Cisco Catalyst Switches is ranked 1st in LAN Switching with 171 reviews while NETGEAR Switches is ranked 5th in LAN Switching with 51 reviews. Cisco Catalyst Switches is rated 8.6, while NETGEAR Switches is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Catalyst Switches writes "Reliable and stable catalyst switch; can be easily installed". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NETGEAR Switches writes "You can stack different models of switches which makes the scalability great". Cisco Catalyst Switches is most compared with Arista Networks Platform, Dell PowerConnect Switches, Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve and Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch LAN Switches, whereas NETGEAR Switches is most compared with D-Link Ethernet Switches, Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches, Ubiquiti UniFi Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches and Meraki MS Switches. See our Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. NETGEAR Switches report.
See our list of best LAN Switching vendors and best AV Over IP Switching vendors.
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