Cisco DNA Center vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE comparison

Cisco and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while NETSCOUT is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Cisco DNA Center

Read 41 Cisco DNA Center reviews

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1,023 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Read 49 NETSCOUT nGeniusONE reviews

2,508 Views
1,728 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Cisco DNA Center

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE and Cisco DNA Center compete in the network management solutions category. NETSCOUT focuses on deep traffic insights, offering an advantage in network visibility, while Cisco offers advanced automation and integration capabilities.

Features: NETSCOUT nGeniusONE provides NetFlow traffic analysis, packet inspection, and comprehensive features like top-talkers monitoring and dependency mapping. It facilitates effective troubleshooting and proactive performance management. Cisco DNA Center delivers strong analytics, seamless integration with Cisco devices, and automation capabilities, simplifying network management with highlights in wireless assurance and centralized control.

Room for Improvement: NETSCOUT nGeniusONE could improve GUI usability, reduce dependency on physical agents, and adopt better modular pricing strategies. Managing the tool without expert help is challenging. Cisco DNA Center needs pricing considerations and enhancements in configuration management and integration with third-party devices. Users seek better real-time data replication and more user-friendly dashboards.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both NETSCOUT nGeniusONE and Cisco DNA Center primarily offer on-premises deployment with some hybrid options. NETSCOUT often requires dedicated personnel due to complexity, while Cisco DNA Center benefits from its centralized control but demands thorough setup. Customer service for both is generally supportive, although NETSCOUT's complexity may require more frequent assistance.

Pricing and ROI: NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is high-cost but potential ROI is achieved by reducing troubleshooting times and improving network visibility. Cisco DNA Center is also priced high, valued for centralized management, ideal for large enterprises due to the expense. Both solutions contribute to positive ROI by saving troubleshooting time and enhancing network uptime and customer satisfaction.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

March 2025

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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 Monitoring Software

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

19th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.4%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is 1.6%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

AvrahamSonenthal

Senior Network Engineer at Inside Global

Efficiently manages our wireless network and provides valuable monitoring features

The platform's biggest benefit has been in managing our wireless network. Having a single pane of glass to control all wireless controllers and access points and to monitor activity has been a significant advantage. We're a small federal agency with around 300 network devices, so automation is a minor focus. It's more relevant for larger networks. The main benefits we've seen are in inventory management and the potential for configuration automation. However, I recommend using the DNA Centre only for larger networks with over a thousand devices; otherwise, it may not be cost-effective. Before proceeding, ensure that your devices are compatible with DNA Center, as not all Cisco devices are supported. Also, investing in proper training is different from plug-and-play. I rate it an eight.

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Ruslan Melnyk

Business Unit Manager at BAKOTECH

Useful for network performance monitoring

My manager can explain the use cases attached to the product. I am a unit leader in my company, and I don't sell the product directly to our partners or customers. In my company, I manage certain processes and a team while building, developing, and providing them with a direction for the market. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is a good solution for network performance monitoring since it is not cloud-based. My company sells NETSCOUT nGeniusONE in eight to ten countries. I think the solution is not good for capacity planning, but it is better to help find problems in applications because not every infrastructure is good at managing working applications. I think it is a solution meant for applications. The tool is useful for solving problems attached to applications. The tool's real-time network monitoring capability was used when the product was more reactive. In our company, if we use real-time monitoring, then we need to deal with raw traffic. In our company, if we don't see any problem in the real-time systems, we have the possibility to rely on the tool since it acts like a time machine for us, which can allow us to get back to the areas of problem and solve them. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. For many users, it can be a good monitoring system that can be scaled up in the future. I think it is a good product to start with when working systems in an environment. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is another tool used to manage raw traffic, and I find it to integrate well into our customers' network. I am not using it actively on the system. I use the tool for network packet brokers. I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Automation is another key highlight. With automation, you can automate everything through a single port."

"The most valuable features of Cisco DNA Center are wireless assurance and visibility."

"The product gives a consolidated view."

"We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."

"It is very versatile in terms of analytics."

"The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features...It is a highly scalable solution."

"It enables monitoring of various components such as access points, switch cards, and other elements within the company's solutions."

"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."

More Cisco DNA Center pros

"It gives me the MOS, latency, and jitter."

"Among the valuable features, if it's TAP'ed well, are the density of the data that you can get and the relatively high veracity or accuracy rate that we see from it."

"The packet-based searching capability of NETSCOUT is highly valued as it allows us to better analyze the network."

"The product is very good. We have very few problems."

"It has versatility to correlate different traffic types and performance management statistics."

"The VoLTE model, call search and Media Monitor were essential when we launched VoLTE. We're relying heavily on them to troubleshoot our VoLTE calls."

"The most valuable features are visibility, real-time, on-demand."

"The most valuable feature of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is it helps customer to understand what risks are in their network. For example, if a customer has some wrong configurations. It could cost them some critical services to slow down."

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE pros

Cons

"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."

"The product doesn’t have good monitoring capabilities."

"There should be an option for automation of template deployment by using the stored data. It is not easy to save configuration information for lots of devices without using other tools. There should be a tighter, better repository of information that can be merged with the templates."

"The task failure reporting or provisioning failure reporting could be a little bit better in the UI, with more information given to the user."

"The solution’s security side could be improved."

"One area that needs improvement is the upgrade process."

"They should include UTM features in the product."

"Requires more focus on the digital side of things."

More Cisco DNA Center cons

"The dependency mapping is good, but I am hopeful that they will build some type of partnership and relationship with ServiceNow. I want to see NETSCOUT partner with ServiceNow so they can leverage Service Now Discovery and Service Mapping to automate the build of the service dependency mappings inside of nGeniusONE."

"The solution is not easy to install."

"The solution could do more for security. It should offer more security-related features."

"I'd like to see the nGeniusONE, the nGeniusPULSE, and the OptiView, their three separate products, work a little better together, a little more streamlined."

"Trying to set up dashboards is hard to figure out at times, if you don't do it every day. It's not really intuitive to set them all up... If there were a wizard to take us through, step-by-step, creating dashboards and the like, that would be really helpful."

"NG1 has been stable for a while in our environment - at least we have what we needed. But with nBA, there's a lot of room for improvement."

"On a network the size of ours, the loading times seem a little extensive, 20 or 30 seconds to load up some graphs."

"The pricing could benefit from being somewhat lower for broader adoption."

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The partnership price is notably high, but it ultimately depends on the chosen business model."

"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."

"Cisco DNA Center is a licensed product with multiple levels of licensing available such as basic, advanced, and essential. I don't have the exact figure, but Cisco DNA Center is costly. For example, the box has information about the essential license and costs a considerable amount of money. You need to pay extra to use advanced features in Cisco DNA Center. My company sees Cisco DNA Center as a solution that's worth the money, which is why it invested in the solution. If you want centralized management for your network, especially when upgrading it, Cisco DNA Center is perfect, but it's more suitable for a large-scale rather than a small-scale network."

"The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users."

"The tool is medium-priced."

"We get a yearly license at the time we buy the product."

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."

"The price of the solution is expensive. The hardware is licensed on the device, but the hardware on the server is expensive."

More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice

"It is very expensive, but it's well worth the money."

"The price is only for acquisition; it's not a licence."

"This solution has saved us more than $50,000 a month and freed up 30 percent of our bandwidth."

"We have a premium customized contract for the solution."

"Cost is probably the biggest drawback. Compared to some of the newer vendors that have popped up in the space, it's definitely more on the expensive side... [But] it's been able to keep its value, even in the face of the cheaper competition."

"The scalability becomes very expensive quickly."

"The product is too expensive compared to other products."

"Their pricing is very competitive with other solutions... But what I like about NETSCOUT's licensing is that it's shared across all their platforms. They don't create a new licensing scheme for every one of their products. So for nGeniusONE, you buy a certain license level, and it works on all of their products."

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?

The cost is very high.

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What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?

The system is working fine for me currently.

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Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other solutions, Imperva is a great choice.

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What do you like most about NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?

The pricing is a bit high yet not overly expensive. The cost depends on the size of the customer, as sizing controls the pricing.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time

Juniper Mist Wired Assurance vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 8% of the time

Meraki Dashboard vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco DNA Center Competitors

Dynatrace vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 13% of the time

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 11% of the time

ThousandEyes vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 8% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 7% of the time

Ixia Network Packet Brokers vs NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

Compared 6% of the time

More NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center

March 2025

Download Cisco DNA Center product report

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

February 2025

Download NETSCOUT nGeniusONE product report

Also Known As

DNA Center

NETSCOUT nGenius, nGeniusONE

Overview

Cisco DNA Center offers a comprehensive platform for network automation and management, providing detailed analytics, enhanced security, and streamlined operations for both wired and wireless networks.

Cisco DNA Center integrates with Cisco infrastructure to deliver efficient network automation and management, helping organizations improve network visibility, security, and control. It supports AI-driven analytics and automated workflows to enhance operational efficiency and reduce errors. Challenges include compatibility with third-party systems, steep learning curve, and complex deployment. Its interface facilitates centralized control, vital for troubleshooting, policy management, and configuration management, with support for zero-touch provisioning and SD-Access.

What are the key features of Cisco DNA Center?

Robust Analytics: Provides detailed insights into network health with AI-driven analytics.
Centralized Security: Integrates with ISE for comprehensive security management.
Automated Device Management: Simplifies device provisioning and configuration transfers.
Wi-Fi Analytics: Offers deep insights into wireless network performance.
Zero-Touch Provisioning: Streamlines new device deployments with minimal human intervention.
Scalable Segmentation: Efficiently segments network traffic ensuring security and performance.

What benefits should users consider?

Operational Efficiency: Automation reduces potential errors and streamlines workflow.
Enhanced Security: Integration with Cisco ISE bolsters security capabilities.
Network Visibility: Comprehensive dashboards and analysis tools enhance monitoring.
Troubleshooting: Real-time monitoring aids in identifying and resolving issues swiftly.

In sectors such as healthcare, finance, and retail, Cisco DNA Center is utilized for its ability to enhance security and compliance, manage large-scale networks, and provide detailed analytics for better operational decision-making. Its support for location tracking and policy automation ensures efficient network management across diverse environments.

Cisco

The nGenius Real-Time Monitor software provides you with tools to monitor and display information about your network both historically and in real time. The nGenius Real-Time Monitor software allows you to understand your current network usage and to plan for future needs. It also allows you to proactively troubleshoot problem areas in your network.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Cerner Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

March 2025

Free Report: Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

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