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Cisco DNA Center vs NetBox.dev comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Automation
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (1st), Network Monitoring Software (18th)
NetBox.dev
Ranking in Network Automation
8th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
IP Address Management (IPAM) Tools (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Network Automation category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 9.7%, down from 13.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetBox.dev is 3.6%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center9.7%
NetBox.dev3.6%
Other86.7%
Network Automation
 

Featured Reviews

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.
TM
Consulting Engineer at Racing Victoria Limited
Works as an IP asset management platform but improvement is needed in report automation
I recommend the tool to others. I would suggest ensuring that whoever is working on the deployment is fully dedicated during that time. It's important not to be distracted. In my experience, when someone's focus is split, we encounter a few issues. I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the advantages is Cisco support."
"It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols."
"I like the visibility, instant build, network, policies, and the ability to control access. I also like that you can visualize your whole network."
"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."
"We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
"Cisco is a leading network company."
"It is very versatile in terms of analytics."
"I find NetBox. dev's interaction and user-friendly GUI most valuable. It makes editing and removing items easy for users. Moving away from spreadsheets has been a benefit for our clients. It saves them a lot of time and makes everything accessible."
 

Cons

"We encountered issues with their response times, which had a big impact on our workflow."
"One area that needs improvement is the upgrade process."
"The solution can be quite pricey."
"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."
"It seems to be a little bit more centered toward wireless than wired. You've got more options you can do wirelessly than you can with the wired switches, but it works for what we need it to do. We would like to see a little bit more about the traffic, and we're looking at what's out there to see about that. We are looking at something that might give us a bit more insight into the actual traffic. If they had the full functionality on the wired side, as they do on the wireless side in terms of being able to view traffic and everything, it would be good."
"An area for improvement in Cisco DNA Center is the latency in data correlation. For example, sometimes, when an issue happens, and I check the logs, I can't find the corresponding log. There's a delay in log replication, so this is what needs improvement in Cisco DNA Center. Reporting in Cisco DNA Center could also be improved because it only has a few templates, and you can't customize it based on your requirements. There aren't many options available in Cisco DNA Center regarding reporting, versus Cisco Prime, which has excellent features for different levels of detailed reports. I'd like to see real-time data replication in the next release of Cisco DNA Center, similar to what's done in Meraki. Data in Meraki is real-time with no delay, so data is immediately replicated in the cloud. Currently, there's a lag in Cisco DNA Center, and addressing that lag is the enhancement I'd like to see in Cisco DNA Center. The solution also needs to be more user-friendly."
"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."
"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."
"The tool should improve report automation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"I rate the product's pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive."
"The price of the solution is expensive. The hardware is licensed on the device, but the hardware on the server is expensive."
"Our licensing agreement is for three years."
"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."
"The solution is a little bit expensive but depends a lot on the customer's usage. If you use it in the right place, you can easily pay for it."
"The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users."
"I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

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

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco DNA Center?
In my organization, we currently have some Cisco devices such as access switches, and we also have infrastructure, but that is not part of our responsibility. We do not manage that infrastructure. ...
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Also Known As

DNA Center
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Cisco, SolarWinds and others in Network Automation. Updated: June 2026.
900,277 professionals have used our research since 2012.