Mikrotik Vs Cisco – Which is the better router solution

In picking a routing software, Cisco and Mikrotik are among the top choices that a user can get, bur which one will work best for you?

Cisco is a well-established brand for software in a wide range of industries, for its consistency and reliability in spite of its high cost. In recent times, a relatively new software, Mikrotik has been making waves in the router softwarecircles. It is slowly becoming widely used because it not only offers excellent router and firewall service, but also offers great customer care despite being far cheaper than most of its competitors, making it a direct competitor for Cisco when it comes to matters routing.Although Mikrotik and software greatly differ in price and costing, they are similar in that they both offer very good customer care support while being relatively difficult to use for an inexperienced or first time user. Their similarities and differences make it essential for a potential users to take time beyond just looking at ratings and cost to carefully weigh their functionalities against their specific network routing requirements.

What are the differences between Mikrotik and Cisco?

Feature	Mikrotik (Winner)	Cisco
Operating system	Mikrotik-RouterOS	Linux
Pricing	Free and paid versions	Paid
Support for network cards	Great	Good
Packet filtering	Advanced	Intermediate
	Download here	Download here

Mikrotik Vs Cisco- How do they compare?

Pricing

The financial investment into the two routers is primarily a onetime cost, save for the additional cost of support for Cisco. Cisco, has different versions of the router software, depending on your country and the router hardware that you want. It is not really based on different features or applications, though they could be slightly different. It is more expensive than a majority of its competitors, but gives users value for their money in good customer care support and guaranteed quality and software security.

Mikrotik has 6 different packages with various licensing configurations, with the one at the bottom of the list being free. The product costing is arranged in a way that allows the price to be directly proportional to the range and extent of additional router and firewall applications. This is very convenient because it allows the user to assess the different packages and pick the one that best tailor suited to their requirements. In addition to this, the developers and technicians at Mikrotik consistently give excellent product support through emails and a reliable call in service.

Generally, the pricing model and value for Mikrotik is more appealing than that of Cisco because it is affordable yet high quality.

Packet filtering

Both Mikrotik and Cisco have good packet filtering. However, the RouterOS for Mikrotik is heavily dependent on packet filtering which requires that the developers put a lot of time and resource into its packet filtering functionality, making it more effective than the packet filtering offered by your average Cisco router.

This implies that Mikrotik has better packet filtering tools, making it preferable for a user for whom packet filtering is pivotal to their needs.

Switches

Power consumption – Mikrotik switches are notorious for having a high power consumption, which makes them less preferable to Cisco switches that have advanced technology, allowing them to consume less power.

Ethernet compatibility – Cisco switches are easily removable and used by Ethernet users. On the other hand, Mikrotik switches pose a challenge in use with Ethernet because they neither have dual power supplies nor are switchable.

Cisco switches are undisputedly better and more reliable than those of Mikrotik, as well as being more flexible to accommodate the user’s resources.

Mikrotik Vs Cisco- A comparison review

Mikrotik

First developed in 1996, Mikrotik is a network routing software that is becoming increasing popular in network routing. It is based on Mikrotik RouterOS which is specially designed to perform network router capabilities, thereby enabling the computer it is installed in to be an efficient andreliable router. This gives the device an array of features and functionalities which include, DHCP and DNS servers, firewall capabilities and bandwidth limiters, which allow it to serve both wireless and IP based networks. It relies heavily on bandwidth limitation andcontrol, making that its strongest feature. It uses this to ensure that all users on a network get a fair distribution of bandwidth while allowing for any user with the access policy to connect to the wireless hotspot. Mikrotik allows the network administrator to create and modify firewall rules that have a wide range of options for connections and packets. Its routers can also be used in transparent mode, allowing the administrator to control web flow in the public IP domain, effectively monitoring and controlling data flow in the network system.

Pros

• It is affordable
• The solution offers very good support for multi-routing
• It has good customer care support

Cons

• The interface is not very user-intuitive, making it difficult to navigate for a new or inexperienced user

Cisco

Cisco is a widely used and acclaimed producer for web products including firewalls, routers and switches. Cisco products are consistently used despite their high cost because of their stability, reliability and large variety of features. Their router solutions in particular come in various hardware boxes and versions, dependent on the features you require and the size of the network it is meant to service, although they are not very different. These routers have great stability, security and throughput processing capability, which are some of the main factors to consider when choosing a router network. They are also reputed to effectively run 24/7 having little to no downtime and not overheating despite consistent continuous use. Additional features include BGP and MPLS together with a reliable VPN for firewall and improved connectivity.

Pros

• The routers are designed to make set up very easy
• The routers work very well with Cisco switches
• The routers support most routing protocols

Cons

• The cyber solution is expensive

Conclusion

With all the information available, I would conclude that both Mikrotik and Cisco are great router software and hardware solutions in their own respects. If you want to service a large network, or have high concerns about uptime and have the financial resources, then I would definitely recommend going for Cisco. However, if you have a small and easy to troubleshoot network and are not too concerned about uptime, then Mikrotik is the router solution for you.

Verdict- So which is better, Mikrotik or Cisco?

It would definitely be worth your time and resources to give the new kid on the block, Mikrotik a shot, especially if your network is not large.

FAQs

What does Mangle mean in Mikrotik?

In Mikrotik, Mangle is a marker for marking packets for processing at a future time using special marks. This marking technology is incorporated in many facilities in RouterOS including NAT and queue trees. The operating system does this to enable it to identify and appropriately process a packet based on its marking.

What is the difference between a cisco router and a cisco switch?

A router connects to various different computer networks while a switch links different web devices to make a network. Advanced switches, Routers and regular switches all operate on the network layer and the data link layers in a given computer network system