Cisco Catalyst 9300 Switch Buyer's Guide 2026 — Stackable Enterprise Access

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Switch Family Buyer's Guide

The Cisco Catalyst 9300 is Cisco's flagship enterprise access switch family. This 2026 buyer's guide compares variants and recommends the right model for your use case.

Catalyst 9300 Variants

  • C9300-24T/48T — 24/48-port GbE, modular uplinks, standard access
  • C9300-24P/48P — 24/48-port PoE+ 30W per port, IP phone and Wi-Fi 6 AP deployment
  • C9300-24U/48U — 24/48-port UPOE 60W, supports IoT high-power devices
  • C9300-24UX/48UXM — 24/48-port mGig (100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10G) + UPOE, modern campus
  • C9300-24S/48S — 24/48-port SFP fiber uplinks, MDF/IDF deployments
  • C9300X-12Y/24Y — 12/24-port 25GbE SFP28, datacenter access
  • C9300X-24HX/48HX — mGig + 90W UPOE+, high-power applications
  • C9300X-48TX — 48-port mGig copper, current generation

L2 vs L3 (Network Essentials vs Advantage)

Network Essentials (E): Layer 2 + static routing, IPv6, DHCP. Suitable for access-only deployments.

Network Advantage (A): Full Layer 3 (OSPF, BGP, EIGRP), VXLAN, SD-Access, segmentation. Required for SD-WAN, campus virtualization, advanced security.

Stacking

StackWise-480 (480 Gbps) on standard C9300, StackWise-1T (1 Tbps) on C9300X. Up to 8 switches per stack.

Power Supplies

  • PWR-C1-350WAC — standard 350W
  • PWR-C1-715WAC — PoE+ deployments
  • PWR-C1-1100WAC — UPOE deployments
  • PWR-C1-715WDC/1100WDC — DC variants for telco environments

Order from Alo Tech

Sealed Cisco OEM C9300 switches with SmartNet eligibility. Free worldwide DDP shipping. Email info@alotechsolutions.com.

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