Managed, smart or unmanaged

An unmanaged switch forwards traffic and offers nothing to configure. For a handful of devices in one room that is exactly right, and anything more capable is wasted money. A smart or web-managed switch adds VLANs, port configuration and basic monitoring through a web interface — the usual sensible middle for a single-site business. A fully managed switch adds Layer 3 routing, link aggregation, spanning tree control, SNMP and a command line. The question to ask is not how large the network is but whether anyone will actually configure it: a managed switch nobody administers behaves like an unmanaged one that cost three times as much.

Power over Ethernet, and the budget that matters

PoE delivers power and data over the same cable and is what makes wireless access points, IP cameras and IP phones practical to install. Check two figures rather than one: the per-port standard — PoE at 15.4 W, PoE+ at 30 W, PoE++ at 60 or 90 W — and the switch's total power budget, which is frequently less than every port running at maximum. A 24-port PoE+ switch rarely supplies 30 W on all 24 ports at once, and that is the number that decides whether your camera rollout works.

Speed, uplinks and where the bottleneck really is

Gigabit to the desk remains right for most offices. 2.5G access is worth it where Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 access points are going in, because a modern AP can exceed a Gigabit link. What matters more than access-port speed is the uplink: a 48-port Gigabit switch with a single Gigabit uplink concentrates everything through one link. Specify 10G SFP+ uplinks wherever the switch aggregates real traffic.

Stacking, mounting and noise

Stackable switches manage as one logical unit, which saves considerable time at scale. Check the form factor too — a 1U rack switch is designed to live in a cabinet with cooling, and it will be too loud for the corner of an office.

Brands

Cisco and Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba Networking, Ubiquiti, NETGEAR and PLANET.

Trade pricing and business accounts are available for UK organisations, and bulk orders are welcome — request a quote.