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Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access vs Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secu...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is 5.1%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches is 2.7%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

Uri Harf - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration with cloud management simplifies network expansion
Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is expensive, and this initial cost can be a barrier, especially for new businesses setting up from scratch. Although the machine is robust and lasts for years with rare technical issues, the initial price can be high. Sometimes, I have to offer alternatives like Aruba or HP, which might be cheaper.
PRADIPJOSHI - PeerSpot reviewer
Virtual chassis technology enhances connectivity and simplifies management
Juniper EX series switches offer great technology, particularly their Virtual Chassis technology, which is an excellent feature for stacking switches and functions like a single virtual switch. The EX series provides a separation of control, management, and data planes, reducing the attack surface area, ensuring a lesser extent of vulnerability. The PoE budget is commendable, and they manage connectivity effectively.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Ability to manage FortiAP, FortiClient, and FortiGate all from a single console"
"The solution is easy to scale."
"The policies are very good."
"The most valuable feature would be network management, separating the network management component from security. It can do both but we promote it on its own. It's a good solution to do network management."
"I would rate the the ease of management and scalability within our network architecture an eight out of ten, with ten being best."
"Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access has essential features for managing switches."
"I can say that the product is easy to use...The initial setup of the product was easy."
"It's easy to be configured and powerful in terms of performance."
"I like the simplicity of it."
"We have found the product to be scalable."
"The platform is very stable in terms of consistency and reliability."
"The tool's most valuable feature is stability."
"I like the VLAN capabilities, and the Junos interface is easy to use."
"It's easy to use."
"The performance is very good."
"The campus switches and access switches are the most valuable and simple to deploy for Virtual Chassis."
 

Cons

"The reporting capabilities should be included."
"Renewing the annual licenses for Secure the Switch FortiSwitch can be cumbersome, especially considering the relatively high cost of Fortinet licenses."
"I'd like to see more integration with different platforms."
"The central management needs improvement. The initial setup could be easier."
"I would like Fortinet to make this product easier to configure."
"The product's pricing needs improvement for small and medium businesses."
"The solution has SD-WAN but it doesn't have SDN. This should be added."
"It could be simpler but compared to the competition, it's not so bad."
"There are multiple areas of improvement in Juniper EX series switches. In terms of speed and pricing, while Juniper provides good quality services, some clients still find the price very high compared to other competitors. Also there is a need for certain features to be enhanced like clear our configuration process which will help to make Juniper switches more stronger. However, there are also multiple challenges including understanding and configuration of certain aspects difficult without assistance. Despite these kinds of challenges, there have been multiple solutions and huge potential of improvement in Juniper."
"One potential drawback of the Juniper EX Series has been that those without experience using a command-line interface (CLI) may find it intimidating. However, Junos is working on improving this by offering tools, such as Juniper Mist with Wired Assurance and Apstra. Additionally, the graphical user interface (GUI) could be improved as it has been considered lackluster across the board in Junos."
"The Virtual Chassis Fabric is kind of complicated to troubleshoot sometimes. On the MPLS side, they're good — they're fine for the pseudo-wires and stuff—but they need more work on the LAN. It is difficult to troubleshoot their LAN technologies like Virtual Chassis."
"The operating system could be better."
"Juniper should consider reducing its pricing."
"The initial setup for Juniper switches is complex. Juniper has a new program that solves that problem a little bit, but it is expensive, so I don't use it. It is Juniper Mesh, Juniper Wire, or something like that where you plug in a switch, and it goes out to their cloud, finds a config, and brings it down. So, you can do everything cloud-based, but there is a fee for that. It is expensive, so I've never used it. If we were starting, we would try to do something like that. It is more for a large enterprise for managing hundreds of switches versus what we're doing. They should make its price more cost-effective or include it for new or smaller companies."
"Support could be improved."
"We need to start seeing some kind of AI to assist with some of what we really want to accomplish from a policy standpoint to achieve better efficiency."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is fine."
"The product's pricing is good."
"The pricing is cheap and only a yearly licensing cost needs to be paid."
"We have to renew and pay for the licenses."
"We have to pay for the solution's subscription."
"Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access requires a license and the price is expensive."
"The solution is cheaper than Cisco but more expensive than Huawei."
"We have an annual licensing cost. There are no additional costs."
"The price could be cheaper."
"The product's pricing is less and almost half of Cisco's."
"The solution does not require a license to use it."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches are cheaper than Cisco or HP."
"The pricing for the support is very high."
"For the QFX5000 Juniper switches, the price is about $10,000, but they would probably sell it for $1,000. Nobody can beat Juniper's pricing when it comes to switches. Juniper out-prices everybody, but they get you on the back end, maintenance, service port, and service contract."
"The initial cost of the solution can be expensive."
"We only pay for support."
report
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Comparison Review

it_user82779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 29, 2014
Benefits of Juniper vs Cisco
Both are decent products. I prefer Juniper for the following reasons: 1) Cleaner separation of data plane from control plane. Higher end Cisco devices are better at this but most of the lower end products still seem to be more integrated than I like. 2) The Hierarchical config design means I can…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - Fortinet Fortiswitch secure access or Cisco Ethernet Switches?
We researched Cisco but ultimately chose Fortinet FortiSwitch Secure Access, mostly because of the price. Fortinet FortiSwitch is an ethernet switch solution that provides security and performance...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access?
With FortiSwitch, you can easily identify who is connected to each port, disable ports as needed, and retrieve configurations from FortiGate when required.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access?
The initial cost of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access is high compared to other options. Although robust and rarely needs replacement, it can be overqualified for some jobs, which affects the re...
In terms of ethernet switches, would you go with Cisco or Juniper?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Cisco or Juniper Ethernet switches were the better fit for us. We decided to go with Juniper. Juniper ethernet switches are a lesser-known...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper Ethernet Switches?
Juniper EX model is ok for the campus network as the ex4300 is EOL in a few years and the new ex4400 is the standard. Now for the QFX model, 5k/10k in CRB mode IP fabric Ethernet switching is horri...
What is your primary use case for Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches?
Throughout my experience, I've deployed Juniper EX switches in various environments, from small enterprise networks to large-scale data centers. In every instance, they have consistently delivered ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Juniper Ethernet Switches
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
BlackLotus, Staminus, Community Bank, BAS Group, Cloud Dynamics, Privalia, Fluidata, and Tesla Motors.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access vs. Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.