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Alcatel-Lucent ClearPass vs Cisco DNA Center comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Alcatel-Lucent ClearPass
Ranking in Network Management Applications
23rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (20th), Network Automation (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Alcatel-Lucent ClearPass is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 10.6%, down from 26.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center10.6%
Alcatel-Lucent ClearPass1.6%
Other87.8%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Karthikeyan Ravi - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President of Technology at Netcon Technologies India Private Limited
Has an automated feature for user onboarding and supports heterogeneous devices
We use the product for the automated onboarding of corporate users with secure network access. It helps secure IoT endpoints for specific networks. It allows us to control the devices, including posture, endpoint verification, validation, latest patching, and signatures The product’s most…
Mahir Öztürk - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri
Client history has helped resolve past network issues more efficiently
I mostly use the client history feature of Cisco DNA Center. I didn't use the real-time monitoring capability of Cisco DNA Center because I primarily used it for client history regarding issues and problems. I don't use it for real-time monitoring. If there is a problem, I can inspect the situation and see what is happening, which is beneficial.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I think the best features are the user profiling and the BYOD facilities."
"Good user profiling and BYOD facilities."
"It helps secure IoT endpoints for specific networks."
"One of the advantages is Cisco support."
"I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot."
"It does a lot of things automatically, and that's the big thing with it. They're making the software so that you don't need to be as knowledgeable as me on the switching and routing side to get your work done. If you want, you can have DNA troubleshoot your problem for you and give you solutions or fix it itself, if it was something that's just a configuration issue."
"Scalability in Cisco DNA Center is good; we are using it for Software-Defined Access solution, and we haven't reached our device limit yet— from my experience, we can easily manage numerous devices."
"The best feature of Cisco DNA Center is the visibility page, where you can see everything on the dashboard, and you don't have to be a technical person to view the issues."
"Cisco VXLAN is a protocol that has been around for some time, but the practical implementation and operational capability of Cisco DNA Center bring it to life."
"I like the visibility, instant build, network, policies, and the ability to control access; I also like that you can visualize your whole network."
"Automation helps configure devices without manual intervention, enabling zero-touch provisioning."
 

Cons

"I think the solution would be greatly improved by adding application level visibility on the dashboard."
"There could be in-built end-to-end map integration features for IoT devices instead of using third-party tools."
"Lacks application level visibility on the dashboard."
"The solution's technical support is an area with which my company's clients have a problem. Cisco doesn't provide good technical support unless a user has a big account that Cisco wants to retain."
"The task failure reporting or provisioning failure reporting could be a little bit better in the UI, with more information given to the user."
"It's a very hard software to learn. It's very deep, and when we first got it, there wasn't a whole lot of documentation on it."
"The features of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Prime could have more parity."
"We encountered issues with their response times, which had a big impact on our workflow."
"There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices."
"There is a limitation with the number of VRFs that you can have in your network, and this has caused us problems with some customers."
"The tool's IoT integration should be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Alcatel-Lucent ClearPass is an expensive product compared to other vendors."
"The partnership price is notably high, but it ultimately depends on the chosen business model."
"We get a yearly license at the time we buy the product."
"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."
"I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."
"Licensing for Cisco DNA Center is a little bit expensive, just like any Cisco solution. Its cost could still be improved."
"The price of the solution is expensive. The hardware is licensed on the device, but the hardware on the server is expensive."
"Affordability is a problem because it's created for large enterprises only. So, some customers, even if their engineers want the solution, might have problems with budget limitations."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What do you like most about Cisco DNA Center?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especially since our company is moving from CLI to GUI-based configuration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?
After evaluating other solutions, we will provide feedback.
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The deployment of Cisco DNA Center was complex due to the fact that on the data center side, we have a Juniper infrastructure, which created some complexity, though not significant. The deployment ...
 

Also Known As

Alcatel Lucent ClearPass, ClearPass Policy Management System, ClearPass
DNA Center
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blickle and Scherer, Loughborough University, CSF Inox, Caritas Speyer
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Alcatel-Lucent ClearPass vs. Cisco DNA Center and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.