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Cisco DNA Center vs NetBox.dev comparison

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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 (2nd), Network Monitoring Software (34th)
NetBox.dev
Ranking in Network Automation
9th
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 October 2026, in the Network Automation category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 9.8%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetBox.dev is 3.4%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center9.8%
NetBox.dev3.4%
Other86.8%
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

"The most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) that provides us with valuable information."
"People like to use the dashboards to get an overview of their network."
"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."
"Cisco DNA Center provides operational support, compliance support, security vulnerability detection, and automatic scheduling."
"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."
"What I found valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the Software-Defined Access Network, so the entire LAN network can be centralized and managed from a single dashboard. Cisco DNA Center is suitable for centralized management and lets you deploy switches in a centralized fashion. You can also do multiple switch port configurations simultaneously and segregate your traffic into multiple fabrics. Another valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is enhanced security through Scalable Group Tags. Cisco DNA Center can be integrated with your Cisco ISE to enhance the port securities, and this paves the way for Software-Defined Networking in the LAN segment, which is the main advantage of Cisco DNA Center. I also like that you can use Cisco DNA Center for data assurance or correlation. The solution shows your network and client health parameters, which I find convenient for troubleshooting."
"What's most valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the ability to manage any Cisco infrastructure and device through it. Setup was straightforward."
"I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot."
"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

"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."
"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."
"Cisco DNA Center isn't as stable, particularly with the logs, because it doesn't replicate the exact logs."
"The weaknesses primarily involve pricing and the ongoing need for increased bandwidth and data throughput."
"The features of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Prime could have more parity."
"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."
"Better compatibility with third parties and to other Cisco products because if versions are not perfectly matching requirements, it gives a lot of problems."
"Requires more focus on the digital side of things."
"The tool should improve report automation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
"The partnership price is notably high, but it ultimately depends on the chosen business model."
"The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."
"We have a three-year license with them."
"Our licensing agreement is for three years."
"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
University
9%
 

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, Broadcom and others in Network Automation. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.