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Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches vs Meraki MS Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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

Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Meraki MS Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
95
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches is 3.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki MS Switches is 4.1%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

Bona Chhith - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides campus switches and access switches that are simple to deploy, but the code isn't stable enough for a leaf and spine design
If we're building a data center and have Juniper, we have hundreds of Juniper switches in a leaf and spine design architecture, and it's horrible. Sometimes after an upgrade, half of the even port can't be detected. They don't recognize third-party SFPs, and now they claim that they don't support that anymore. There are a lot of issues with the hardware and software. Juniper needs to get their code up to par because it isn't stable enough for a leaf and spine design. If you have over 10,000 VMs or Mac addresses, it doesn't scale. I would love Juniper to have more stable features, hardware, and code. We have so many tickets open with Juniper. The switch reboot doesn't detect the port. About 80% of my problems aren't engineering problems, but are Juniper's problems. In comparison, Arista gives me 10% of the problems that Juniper gives me when it comes to hardware and software. It's falling behind compared to Palo Alto because of its features. Juniper's campus switches and data center switches for the leaf and spine design for the overlay and underlay is horrible. I wouldn't recommend that anyone use Juniper fabric, because there are so many problems, issues, and features that aren't supported.
MajidKhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Remote access enhances troubleshooting with potential for more intuitive interface
We are working with Citrix and router, but in Cisco for Cisco vendor only. We are taking from them since 2015.  The main use case involves some small business customers needing one router, one switch, and two to three access points. It is easy to handle the devices with just a small knowledge of…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)."
"The most valuable feature is that the CLI is the same on all of the Juniper devices, including routers, switches, and firewalls."
"I like the VLAN capabilities, and the Junos interface is easy to use."
"The solution is stable and scalable."
"The Juniper Ethernet switch feature I find the most valuable is reliability."
"The product is flexible and easy to set up."
"One of the nicest things about Juniper switches is they work well with other vendor products. When you have to go into a situation where other vendor switches are present, you can make it work."
"The feature I like the most is the ability to reword changes before committing to the change. We can always reword changes in 10 minutes if they don't work."
"I like the flexibility of the Meraki firewall. It gives you the ability to lock things down. Having multiple VLANs is helpful for the switching infrastructure and firewall. It's crucial when you have a public-facing VLAN, a private-facing VLAN, and a secure VLAN."
"The solution is scalable."
"This is a sophisticated product with easy configuration that can save time and effort."
"The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are simple deployment and administration. You can have all your switches in one place and manage them."
"It is easy to set up and easy to monitor. It is also easy to check the status of the switch."
"The most valuable feature is the cloud management architecture from Meraki."
"It is easy to deploy, maintain, and update. It has been trouble-free so far. I am still a Cisco command-line bigot, but the web interface makes it a lot easier for our help desk to interact with a client. When the clients call in and say that they aren't able to connect, it takes the help desk 10 minutes or less to look at everything in the enterprise or location. They can look at the firewall, switches, or access points in the dashboard. That's why I like the dashboard."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to orchestrate the network from the cloud."
 

Cons

"The stability could be better. We find, for example, Cisco, to be more stable."
"The security features for the product should be more unified for the product regardless of the product model."
"The configuration could be made simpler."
"The operating system, Junos OS, often has bugs which forces rollbacks or additional upgrades to resolve."
"EX switches take too long to boot when we restart them for maintenance. We need to minimize downtime. Another issue is the command line interface. Juniper's commands are different from other switches, so it's hard to remember them."
"The technical support from Juniper Ethernet Switches could be better."
"The interface could be better. It needs improvement."
"In an upcoming release, Juniper Ethernet Switches could improve by having more microservices."
"The solution needs to improve its scalability."
"The product demonstrates poor price per performance when compared with its competitors."
"The lead times can be long in terms of actually getting the hardware."
"The pain point for our customers is the pricing and it should be reduced to make it more competitive."
"If they added the option to manage it locally, not in the cloud, it would be better."
"The solution could be simplified a bit."
"Less flexibility than in some other solutions."
"This solution is too simple for some cases, and there should be more configuration options."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a subscription payment model or you can purchase licenses on a one, two, and five-year basis. If you want decent support, the solution is not expensive."
"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The Juniper switches are less expensive than competing brands."
"The product's pricing is less and almost half of Cisco's."
"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 maintenance cost is approximately €2,000 ($2,200 USD) per year, including support, for our entire fleet."
"Support prices and licensing scheme need to be improved to allow some features to be purchased at lower costs, for example, RPM​."
"Juniper costs less than the competition. As a comparison, Cisco is 33% more."
"Extreme switches are more cost-effective than Cisco Meraki Switches."
"If you buy a license for one switch, it will include the licensing for the device RMA, device failure warranty, technical support, and everything else. Also covered is support for software updates for future releases. It's a single license for everything and there's nothing that customers need to pay in addition to the license."
"One key challenge often encountered is the perception that strategic products like Cisco and Meraki tend to be more expensive than alternatives like Aruba."
"This product is more than the competition, but you get what you pay for."
"Meraki is not an expensive switch, like Cisco."
"The licensing is purchased on a one, three, five, and seven year basis."
"My company pays for Meraki MS Switches yearly. Pricing-wise, the product is relatively inexpensive."
"The price of Meraki MS Switches is less expensive than other similar solutions."
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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
16%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Ethernet Switches?
If compared to Cisco, this is a well priced solution. Compared to HP, it is a little bit overpriced. Overall, they are priced in the middle compared to competitors.
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 do you like most about Meraki MS Switches?
The most valuable features of Meraki MS Switches are their reliability and simplicity.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki MS Switches?
Meraki MS Switches, including their licensing, are somewhat expensive, particularly when compared with competitor solutions like HP.
What needs improvement with Meraki MS Switches?
Meraki MS Switches is a complete solution. I don't have specific feedback for improvement. However, there was an issue with the uplink when the port was removed and had to be reinstalled, which cau...
 

Also Known As

Juniper Ethernet Switches
MS220, MS320, MS420
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

BlackLotus, Staminus, Community Bank, BAS Group, Cloud Dynamics, Privalia, Fluidata, and Tesla Motors.
Cisco Live Milan, Hyatt
Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches vs. Meraki MS Switches and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.