We performed a comparison between Cisco Enterprise Routers and MikroTik Routers and Switches based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below
Comparison Results: MikroTik Routers and Switches comes out on top in this comparison. It is robust and easy to use. In addition, MikroTik Routers and Switches are considered significantly less expensive compared to Cisco Enterprise Routers. One area where Cisco Enterprise Routers did come out on top was in the Support category.
"It's an ideal gateway solution for small and medium businesses, i.e., around 300 devices can be easily handled."
"The solution has good performance."
"The performance is quite good."
"We hardly have issues with Cisco equipment and I believe that reliability is the best part of Cisco."
"It is easy to use and is very solid."
"The main reason for using Cisco Routers is for the proprietor routing protocol that it has."
"They offer a variety of very good features."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Enterprise Routers are the routing tables, and backup solutions available for local sites, and you can use it as a router gateway or simple IPS. They have simple firewalls, that we can use rules to filter traffic."
"The solution is easily scalable."
"The most valuable features are stability and the initial setup wizard."
"The routing is nice and straightforward."
"The price is a big factor. They are very affordable, and the quality is high."
"I think they have very strong routers because they have multiple processors. I like its easy configuration with applications. For example, configuration with Linux, Iptables, and routing protocols."
"The most valuable feature is that you can do anything on all platforms."
"We have use cases like providing power over ethernet, as an access controller for Wi-Fi, and normal networking."
"MikroTik Routers and Switches are good and easy to use."
"The MikroTik Hotspot is great."
"They have amazing speed and reliability, and they also provide value for money. They are pretty powerful."
"There must be a more easy-to-use GUI."
"The solution's cloud management capabilities could be better."
"Recently, there seems to be a lot of people who are leaning towards Juniper CLI, which is easier to pick up."
"The price has room for improvement."
"Over time things have changed where Cisco has not invested in improving the orchestration and simplifying it for people who do not want to get into the details. Cisco has not gone into that focus."
"If I only have one LAN port in which I want to connect more than one device, I have to buy an add-on card so that I can have two LAN ports. The smaller devices and low-end routers have about four LAN ports. This solution is a high-end device but has only one. It would be preferable if they offered more LAN ports."
"It only breaks if you're not using an up-to-date version of the iOS or are not doing upgrades."
"We'd like to see some better UI."
"I would like to see more boundaries and better performance."
"The solution is a complicated device."
"As far as improvements, there are basically only two things I would suggest. First, I think they should provide extensive training for the new releases of products, especially in the LTE space. Second, they could spend more time ensuring that their OS releases are more stable, rather than waiting for things to fall apart on the customer's premises before they make the necessary changes."
"I would like to see a cluster feature added, where multiple devices can be configured and managed as one. One is in a standby state while the other is active, and if one fails then the other takes over."
"In the Israeli market, we are in need of Hebrew support."
"The solution needs to be more robust. In case of power fluctuations, MikroTik routers are more vulnerable to malfunctioning."
"They can improve the way the user interface is laid out. Their user interface is slightly geeky. There is more than one way to do the same thing in the user interface, and they need to work on that."
"f they can improve the OpenVPN, to make that a bit more straightforward, that would be ideal."
"MikroTik Routers and Switches need a firewall policy to secure the network. I also want Mikrotic to add load balancing to the firewall policy, as it's currently hard to do in Mikrotik devices."
More MikroTik Routers and Switches Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco Enterprise Routers is ranked 2nd in Routers with 101 reviews while MikroTik Routers and Switches is ranked 1st in Routers with 62 reviews. Cisco Enterprise Routers is rated 8.6, while MikroTik Routers and Switches is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Cisco Enterprise Routers writes "Allows us to configure NAS through Cisco activities and to create GRE channels with different sites". On the other hand, the top reviewer of MikroTik Routers and Switches writes "A cost-effective networking solutions with a robust feature set, but its interface may have a steeper learning curve". Cisco Enterprise Routers is most compared with Huawei Enterprise Routers, Juniper MX Series Routers, HPE Enterprise Routers, OneAccess Enterprise Routers and MikroTik Cloud Router Switch, whereas MikroTik Routers and Switches is most compared with Ubiquiti UniFi Switches, MikroTik Cloud Router Switch, Aruba Switches, Huawei Enterprise Routers and Juniper MX Series Routers. See our Cisco Enterprise Routers vs. MikroTik Routers and Switches report.
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Mikrotik, as Cisco is not for everyone ... While this popular OS-based router, is simple, it is not for all applications.
When one wants complex results, MK is useful. it is an assistant to ADMs who do not have much knowledge.
But not everything is simple or can be solved with a single team. The particularity of its Agile and intuitive interface makes MK lose in the middle to high segment.
Cisco has years of experience, one may or may not agree with its pricing and especially licensing policy, but its products are made to last, its IOS, is powerful in many areas.
One turns on a Cisco and if the initial configuration is optimal, it does not turn off that router anymore.
MK is a team that must be seen, controlling and above all optimizing. The reasons for choosing one and the other are simple, money, knowledge and, above all, projection.
Cisco can be planned and completed, but it is not for everyone. MK plans to buy and update the HW sooner or later. His continuous releases are tedious but necessary. Cisco in the Enterprise range is clearly superior, as is Juniper or Huawei.