MikroTik Routers and Switches Reviews

We primarily use the solution for high performance, low-cost routers and for low-cost wifi environments where we need specific configurations.

The cost and versatility are the solution's most valuable features. You can do anything with them if you know how to. The solution has a whole portfolio of routing features available.

You don't need to buy special licenses for the solution. You have everything there. The configuration capabilities are good too. They're very flexible. 

The solution doesn't fit every need. There are lots of things you cannot do. There is no management and there is no controller in wireless. It's not a real whole network. You have to work them into other solutions. Mikrotik is mostly a standalone solution and you have to manage how it relates to other solutions, unlike Cisco, which is something that you can easily put into an ecosystem.

They could improve their product if they set, for instance, a controller for wireless LAN.
That would allow them to really have something more than an access point.

The solution isn't really scalable. Each machine has a purpose, and while you can swap it out for a bigger one, you have to create a new design. They're stand-alone products. There is not a flow of products that brings you to the next step easily.

I haven't reached out to technical support myself, however, my colleagues have, and my understanding is they were able to resolve the issues. They were satisfied with the level of support they received. However, it was a process to get in touch with them, share the problem, and work together to solve it.

The initial setup is complex. Users will need to do a bit of research before implementing the product. You must prepare and understand how to set each parameter. You couldn't use Mikrotik if you're not certified or have a deep knowledge of the solution.

We use a few different solutions. We are installing big networks with Aruba and use Extreme Networks as well. Which solution we ultimately use depends on the project itself.

We buy from wholesalers, but we don't have a special selling agreement with anyone.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten when it fits. It's useless if it doesn't fit. If it fits, I don't think there's a better product when you are looking at price-performance. Overall, I'd rate them nine out of ten. Any requirement would be fulfilled from Aruba or from Cisco, but not necessarily from Mikrotik, which is why I don't give them a perfect score.

I like the routing features.

If the client wants bigger capacity, there may be some issues. That is, there may be issues with scalability.

There's a general complaint of slowness, but it could be a bandwidth issue.

I would like to see the addition of Wi-Fi features in the next release.

I've been using it for about a year.

It's deployed both on the cloud and on-premises.

It is a very stable solution.

It is scalable.

They have really good customer service and technical support. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate them at ten.

Positive

In comparison to other solutions, MikroTik is easy to install. It's a small unit as compared to that of Cisco. Also, the Cisco router is complex.

The initial setup is quite easy, and it took two days to deploy it.

It's reasonably priced. It's not the most cheap solution, but also, it's not the most expensive one.

I would highly recommend MikroTik Routers and Switches and would rate it at ten on a scale from one to ten.

We primarily use MikroTik routers and switches for LTE solutions. It's 3G, 4G, and gravitating to 5G solutions and we do a lot of data center type of solutions with the heavy-duty cloud core routers. We also do premises type of solutions with a lot of their switches. 

As far as which version we're using, the products are fairly standardized—what changes is the version of the operating system. We try and use the latest long-term versions of the operating system, but we use a wide variety of their products. 

This solution is deployed on-prem. We use the whole rack of MikroTik switches and routers. 

The most valuable aspect of this solution is the combination of value for money. They're extremely cost effective, yet they provide you with an extensive feature set of things you can do across the board. Also, they're pretty reliable, as far as equipment goes. 

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.

We've been using MikroTik switches and routers since 2014, so it's going to be the eighth year now. 

I have been using these routers and switches for eight years and they have proved rather stable. 

I think the solutions scale to multiple millions of packets per second products and that they scale right into the data center core. I know that there's still significant apprehension from a lot of large companies concerning their products, but I think that MikroTik has proved to be an extremely good tool for what we are trying to do. 

It runs our infrastructure and we provide services to clients, so we have several hundred nodes out in the field who are managed services providers. There are quite a few people that take advantage of the infrastructure that we provide. 

I haven't actually contacted technical support directly. We have a very knowledgeable partner that provides us Tier 4 consultancy in the UK. We've been working with him for many years, and so that's where we get all our technical support from. 

We gave up on Cisco and Cisco's competitor seven years ago, and we've been using MikroTik ever since. 

The installation process is extremely simple. I did it all by myself, but I'm a telecoms engineer, so I have a skill set in that area. 

We have a small technical team of five engineers. It's not a heavyweight job. 

We implemented this solution through an in-house team. 

There is a lifetime subscription already embedded when you buy the product. 

I rate MikroTik routers and switches a nine out of ten, and I would recommend them to others. 

We primarily use our MikroTik devices as layer three routers.

The best part about MikroTik Routers is the price.

The biggest thing that needs improvement is the support. There are lots of bugs but you can find workarounds for these. However, without support for professional use, you don't know when it fails and why it fails. You have to troubleshoot on your own.

I have been using MikroTik Routers for two or three years.

The stability is poor because it's dropping packets. As you control it through the GUI, the device is starting to drop packets, so it is not stable.

The scalability is hard for me to judge at this point.

Technical support is bad overall. However, when I contacted them last, the answer to that question was straightforward. It was a little bit confusing because they were talking about CPU queues versus hardware queues, and my English is not perfect, but I did get a straightforward answer after the second email.

If you read the manual and the documentation carefully, and also research the Wiki support sites, the setup can be quite straightforward.

The length of time for deployment depends on the type of scenario and what you want to do.

To have a working solution it can take weeks. You have to test all of the limits because if you don't know your limits then you don't know your product area. For example, can a device be placed when serving a 1G internet? Knowing the limits and testing the limits is a time-consuming activity. It can take one to two weeks depending on what you are testing.

The implementation can be done without the help of a consultant. You can do it on your own.

The technical features in MikroTik are not mentionable because it is a low-cost solution. There is no service, support, or proper training. We are using them because our competitors are using them, and we have to stay competitive.

The only real value of MikroTik is the price and I would not recommend this solution for any other reason. If you can get another device from a bigger company at a similar price then I would do that because the support is going to be better. Proper support is important.

I would rate this solution a five out of ten.

I configure and implement WiFi internet and wide area networks using MikroTik Routers and Switches. I also use it for connectivity with end-users and for implementing a firewall and routing protocols.

The switches Mikrotik have a good optimization with MSTP, they can interconnect with other brands equipment such as switches Huawei and Cisco. They can easily configure with the app Winbox, creating bridges, and attached ports to differents bridges, working like a differents virtuals switchs. Electing the spanning tree protocol mode into the bridge configuration such as STP,  RSTP and MSTP.

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.

Technical support could be better. They don't have good support like Cisco. It can also be more stable and scalable.

I have used MikroTik Routers and Switches within the past 12 months. I have vast experience with this solution. I have implemented it in other enterprises and also worked with my partners that have enterprises.

The stability of their switches is very poor. It doesn't have a good score with Spanning Tree Protocol, and it's very difficult to implement.

Scalability is very hard to implement because when I connect through the links, the network doesn't go back.

Technical support could be better. MikroTik Routers and Switches don't have technical support in the cloud.

We use MikroTik Routers, but for switches, we use Cisco or Huawei. Clients prefer Cisco, Huawei, and McAfee, depending on their budget. MikroTik's equipment is very cheap.

It's easy to implement, but it's very hard to fix it when we have trouble. Depending on the project, it usually takes four days to implement this solution.

I implemented this solution in universities, banks, and commercial centers. We have two or three people in charge of deployment and maintenance. 

MikroTik's equipment is very cheap compared to Cisco and Huawei.

The routers are very good, and they are very cheap. We can buy a lot of these routers for backup.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give MikroTik Routers and Switches a six.

The radius and wireless features are the most valuable aspects of the solution.

The queuing functionality needs improvement. The initial setup could be simplified.

The stability of the solution is great.

The scalability of the solution is very good.

We've used technical support a few times and have always found them to be quite good.

We have previously used Cisco and HP solutions.

If you are not familiar with the solution, the initial setup can be a bit complex. It's quite different from other solutions. Deployment times vary, but it should only take a few hours.

I handled the implementation myself.

The cost of the solution is okay. It's not too expensive.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If they made it a bit easier for new users to implement, I would rate it higher.

We use this product to route traffic with dynamic routing protocols like BGP. We also use it for filtering traffic and making network translations to provide access to services that are behind it. In this regard, it acts as a firewall.

It hosts a lot of B2B sessions with our internal and external peers.

MikroTik provides us a quick way to give access to internal services from outside of our network, and a way to manage those services.

This solution offers features that make it convenient for debugging.

Traffic classification is a very convenient feature.

The flexible IP firewall and IP network address translation make it very easy to give access to internal services. 

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.

The stability can be improved.

We have been using a MikroTik router for seven or eight years.

This solution is not very stable. I would rate stability at seven out of ten.

The scalability is good and we have 50 or 60 users, in addition to perhaps five technical staff who can connect devices and configure them.

Technical support responds very quickly. However, we very often catch bugs that they are not aware of, which is bad. MikroTik should be finding these bugs itself.

We are happy with the communication from technical support, but they should improve with respect to testing and releasing updates.

The initial setup is very straightforward and easy. It will take several hours to set up and have it work properly.

The implementation was done by my team.

There is no licensing fee in addition to the hardware, but we do pay an annual fee for support.

I would recommend this solution for those who don't need a very stable solution. You will not have zero-downtime provided by MikroTik. Also, if you need clustered routers then this solution will not work. However, if you are willing to update several times a month with several minutes of downtime while upgrading and rebooting, then it will be fine.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this solution is to write the network plan out before implementing changes. Then, go only by the steps of the plan, and do not deviate.

Overall, it is a very good solution with a lot of features.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for this solution is to provide wireless internet service.

This solution provides our service at a low cost with excellent quality.

The most valuable feature is that you can do anything on all platforms.

The GUI is also good, and the CLI is excellent.

Wireless throughput has not kept up with the competition.