Ubiquiti Enterprise 8 PoE vs Fortinet FortiSwitch 2048F: Specs & Price Comparison

Ubiquiti Enterprise 8 PoE

★ 4.2 Value Score

Switching Capacity: 80 Gbps
Forwarding Rate: 59.52 Mpps (Ubiquiti tech specs list 60 Mpps)
Non-Blocking Throughput: 40 Gbps
Ports (breakdown): 8 x 2.5GbE RJ45 (all PoE+; 2.5G/1G/100M/10M) + 2 x 10G SFP+ (10G/1G)
PoE Budget: 120W total PoE; 802.3af/at (PoE+) only, up to 32W per port
Layer: L3 (managed)
Stacking Support: Not stated in official specs
Packet Buffer: 1.5 MB
MAC Address Table: 16,000 entries
Power Consumption: 30W excluding PoE; 150W including PoE output
Form Factor: Compact desktop, wall-mount kit included
Dimensions: 200 x 248 x 44 mm
Management Display: 1.3-inch color LCM touchscreen
Product Status: Listed as 'Enterprise 8 PoE (Vintage)' on Ubiquiti's store; no official replacement or EOL announcement found

✔ Pros: Eight 2.5GbE PoE+ ports suit multi-gig Wi-Fi 6 access points and desktop devices; Layer 3 managed feature set at a low price for the class; 80 Gbps switching capacity and 59.52 Mpps forwarding rate cover small-office and branch loads; Two 10G SFP+ uplinks allow 10G backhaul or fiber links; Compact desktop form factor with wall-mount kit and LCM touchscreen for local status; 120W PoE budget is enough for several PoE+ access points or cameras
✘ Cons: Only 802.3af/at PoE+ (max 32W per port), so it cannot power PoE++ devices such as Ubiquiti's U7/E7 access points; Product is listed as Vintage with no official successor named, so long-term availability and firmware support are uncertain; 120W total PoE budget limits how many high-draw devices can be powered at once; Only two SFP+ uplinks and no stacking support, which limits scaling; Price varies widely across resellers ($479 on Ubiquiti's US store, up to about $688 or more at third-party sellers)
Est. Price: $479 - $688

Fortinet FortiSwitch 2048F

★ 3.4 Value Score

Switching Capacity: 4 Tbps (4000 Gbps duplex)
Forwarding Rate: Up to 4000 Mpps (vendor-quoted; one reseller lists a conflicting 1310 Mpps figure)
Ports: 48x SFP28 (1/10/25 GbE); 8x QSFP28 (40/100 GbE uplinks); 2x SFP+ (1/10 GbE, per some listings)
PoE Budget: None (non-PoE switch)
Layer: L2/L3 (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, RIP, VRRP, PIM-SSM, VXLAN, static routing)
Stacking support: Not confirmed in available sources; managed via FortiGate/FortiLink
Latency: Under 1 microsecond
Packet Buffer: 32 MB
MAC Address Table: 96K entries (per reseller listings)
VLANs: 4K
Form Factor: 1RU rack-mountable
Power Supply: Dual hot-swappable AC power supplies

✔ Pros: 25GbE SFP28 density in a compact 1RU chassis; 8x 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks for aggregation and data center leaf/spine roles; 4 Tbps switching capacity with sub-microsecond latency; Layer 3 routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, VXLAN) included; Dual hot-swappable AC power for redundancy; Managed via FortiGate/FortiLink as part of the Fortinet Security Fabric
✘ Cons: No PoE, so it cannot power access points, cameras or phones; Very high list price (about $30,653 MSRP) compared with most switches; Stacking support is not confirmed in available sources; Forwarding-rate figures vary between resellers, so the official datasheet should be checked; Designed for data center and aggregation roles, which is more than most campus access deployments need; Requires optics and cabling budget for SFP28/QSFP28 ports on top of the base price
Est. Price: $17,368 - $23,690

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