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.
"The solution has good performance."
"It's an ideal gateway solution for small and medium businesses, i.e., around 300 devices can be easily handled."
"Cisco Enterprise Routers are simple. Everything is in a proper manner. You don't need to upgrade or do other things on a daily basis. Cisco sends you the updates, and they are automatically updated. They are good."
"I haven't assessed it in that way, they provided us with excellent service. We had very few issues."
"The most valuable features of this solution are MPLS, BGP, and VRF."
"Its routers are versatile, reliable, and capable."
"They offer a variety of very good features."
"Cisco is a good product that is stable."
"The documentation is very good."
"I like that Cisco Enterprise Routers is a stable solution. Their technical support is also really good."
"The features of the equipment fit all the needs of the customers."
"The pricing is very reasonable. It's not too expensive."
"We have found this solution is quite robust and there are a lot of features in a small device."
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
"MikroTik Routers and Switches are good and easy to use."
"We use the product for VPN."
"I like MikroTik's GUI. It's completely handy and easy to handle because of its GUI. Despite other brands like Cisco urging me to switch, I didn't because they don't have a GUI. This is the most comfortable thing in my project that anyone can use easily. It's effortless to maintain MikroTik routers because both screens make it very easy in GUI mode. You can easily interact with your hardware."
"The most valuable feature is controlling the bandwidth."
"There must be a more easy-to-use GUI."
"Sometimes, I find it hard to learn how some features of the router work. So, these are the issues that may arise when a user might not have knowledge about the product."
"Their support has room for improvement. The regional agents are not that great."
"The main area for improvement with this product is with the price, which is currently very high compared to the rest of the market."
"While scalability is available, it must be paid for."
"There needs to be an integration with SD-WAN for the solution."
"I am happy with the price of Cisco Enterprise Routers, but they could offer more discounts to their customers."
"In terms of room for improvement, I think that there is a need for additional administration."
"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."
"The manageability of the web-based UI needs to be improved."
"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."
"The initial setup could be easier."
"The batch management could be improved."
"The updates as well as the patches could be improved. I believe it would be beneficial to automate the process of router patching to avoid the need for manual checks. With automated patching, as long as the router is connected to the internet, it can automatically perform necessary updates. Failing to patch the router can leave me vulnerable to potential security threats."
"A central management platform would be great."
"I would appreciate enhancements to impose more restrictions on VPN connections."
"It is slow, old and unfriendly."
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.