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Cisco DNA Center vs Cisco Prime [EOL] comparison

Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Prime [EOL] are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Additionally, 89% of Cisco DNA Center users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Cisco Prime [EOL] users who would recommend it.
Cisco DNA Center
Read 42 Cisco DNA Center reviews
  • 8,314 Views
  • 4,490 Comparison Views
89% willing to recommend
Cisco Prime [EOL]
Read 35 Cisco Prime [EOL] reviews
    91% willing to recommend
     

    Comparison Buyer's Guide

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    Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

    Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Prime are both network management solutions. Cisco DNA Center has the upper hand in terms of automation and user-friendly management, while Cisco Prime offers more detailed reporting capabilities.

    Features: Cisco DNA Center offers comprehensive visibility, advanced security features, and integrates seamlessly with Cisco's infrastructure. Its AI capabilities enhance troubleshooting and decision-making, and it provides a centralized management dashboard. Cisco Prime focuses on reliable monitoring, wireless management, and heat maps. It is known for its compatibility with older Cisco products and offers detailed reporting tools.

    Room for Improvement: Cisco DNA Center is criticized for its high cost and complex configuration. It has a steep learning curve for new users and the user interface lacks detailed task failure explanations. Cisco Prime also faces cost issues and requires better integration with third-party solutions. Transition processes for newer Cisco products and site-survey tools are challenging, hindering its integration with emerging technologies.

    Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco DNA Center offers flexible deployment across on-premises and cloud environments, while Cisco Prime is primarily on-premises. Technical support for DNA Center can be inconsistent, whereas Prime users report more consistent support experiences, though documentation needs improvement for both solutions.

    Pricing and ROI: Cisco DNA Center is often viewed as expensive for smaller businesses, with additional licensing costs for advanced features. However, it justifies its price for larger enterprises by providing significant ROI through time savings and automation. Cisco Prime, although costly, is cheaper than DNA Center, offering reasonable ROI with bundled Cisco solutions. However, its higher price compared to competitors may limit its appeal for smaller-scale deployments.

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    Network Management Applications
    August 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
    Average Rating
    8.0
    Reviews Sentiment
    6.3
    Number of Reviews
    42
    Ranking in other categories
    Network Management Applications (1st), Network Monitoring Software (11th), Network Automation (2nd)
    Cisco Prime [EOL]
    Average Rating
    7.8
    Reviews Sentiment
    6.5
    Number of Reviews
    35
    Ranking in other categories
    No ranking in other categories
     

    Featured Reviews

    Ahmed Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
    Experience unified visibility and monitoring for enterprise campus and significant time savings and enhanced troubleshooting with reliable support
    We have been working with Cisco DNA Center for ten years. Our clients use Cisco DNA Center for unified visibility/monitoring across Enterprise Campus both LAN & WLAN along with Access and fast technical issues troubleshooting The solution provides fast troubleshooting capabilities and fast…
    Read full review
    ZeeshanAli1 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Robust, cost-effective, and provides good visibility, but the scalability could improve
    We are extremely satisfied with the reliability and robustness of Cisco Prime Infrastructure, which we have been using for many years. Compared to newer products such as DNS centers or others, it has proven to be much more stable, which is important for large-scale operations. Stability is a primary concern for us, and we are glad that Cisco Prime Infrastructure meets our expectations in that regard. Furthermore, in regards to Legacy Plus new hardware, Cisco Prime has proven to be a reliable and adaptable solution thus far. Not only can it support older hardware, but it also has the capability to handle new features with the latest updates. If we consider new solutions such as DNS Center, we may have to sacrifice some legacy features that we still rely on. We may need to continue using these legacy features for a few more years due to various reasons such as budget constraints or the site not being a high priority. However, if we switch to a new product at this stage, we may lose a lot of the monitoring and other capabilities that we have with Cisco Prime. We have a close relationship with Cisco and understand that they are not prioritizing investments in Cisco Prime as they are encouraging customers to adopt the Cisco DNA Center. This means that we don't anticipate many new features to be added to the product in the future. While we know that we will eventually have to transition to a new solution, in the meantime, we plan to do a quick refresh of our legacy products.
    Read full review

    Quotes from Members

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

    Pros

    "The solution has the capability to scale."
    "The monitoring features are very useful for network engineers."
    "We have many people from the team who manage a lot of devices. By using Cisco DNA Center, it has taken some of that burden away, we are impressed with it. We did the investment in CAPEX, but in the OPEX was very low."
    "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."
    "I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot."
    "Cisco is a leading network company."
    "What's most valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the ability to manage any Cisco infrastructure and device through it. Setup was straightforward."
    "The product offers an intuitive and automated way to manage user networks. It gives me an insight into the network health."
    More Cisco DNA Center pros
    "Cisco Prime, from a management perspective, has good reporting."
    "The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
    "The solution helps with the management and support of the enterprise network."
    "Cisco Prime has been around for a long time, and it keeps getting better and better."
    "Cisco Prime allows us to do a lot of functions with the users and it is flexible."
    "The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
    "The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat maps."
    "Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] pros
     

    Cons

    "They can improve the network visibility. Licensing and its maintenance are also needed."
    "What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."
    "DNA Center has been on the market for a few years and they need to update it."
    "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 network, data center, and SD-WAN are all being treated as different services, but I would like to have only one solution to manage all of them."
    "Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable."
    "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 tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."
    More Cisco DNA Center cons
    "They can also improve the management of more enterprise devices."
    "The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
    "Lacking in integration with a SIEM tool."
    "There is room for improvement in the Access layer."
    "Cisco needs to improve Prime's monitoring tab. If any device goes down, there is a 15-second lapse before we know. It would be much better if we were alerted two or three minutes before a device is about to fail, so we can dispatch a field engineer and avoid network downtime. I would like to see a feature that allows you to access the devices directly from Prime's monitoring tab. That would make work easier for us."
    "The product's pricing can be cheaper."
    "Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."
    "The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] cons
     

    Pricing and Cost Advice

    "It is an expensive solution."
    "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 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."
    "Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."
    "The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users."
    "Licensing for Cisco DNA Center is a little bit expensive, just like any Cisco solution. Its cost could still be improved."
    "The tool is medium-priced."
    "Cisco DNA Center is expensive."
    More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice
    "The solution is not inexpensive but is worth it for large-scale environments."
    "If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
    "You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
    "The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
    "The price of Cisco Prime was reasonable because we purchased it as part of a Cisco One package. The package was a bundle of Cisco solutions together, such as Cisco ISE and CMX. The price is reasonable com compared to other solutions."
    "Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
    "The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
    "I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
    More Cisco Prime [EOL] pricing and cost advice
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    Top Industries

    By visitors reading reviews
    Computer Software Company
    14%
    Manufacturing Company
    11%
    Government
    9%
    Financial Services Firm
    6%
    Computer Software Company
    15%
    Government
    14%
    Manufacturing Company
    8%
    Healthcare Company
    6%
     

    Company Size

    By reviewers
    Large Enterprise
    Midsize Enterprise
    Small Business
    By reviewers
    Company SizeCount
    Small Business10
    Midsize Enterprise9
    Large Enterprise24
    By reviewers
    Company SizeCount
    Small Business9
    Midsize Enterprise4
    Large Enterprise23
     

    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.
    See all answers
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?
    After evaluating other solutions, we will provide feedback.
    See all answers
    What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
    We have utilized the software-defined access (SDA) feature of Cisco DNA Center. The AI-driven needs enhancements and Integration and unification of visibility and monitoring to include other areas ...
    See all answers
    What do you like most about Cisco Prime?
    The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management.
    See all answers
    What needs improvement with Cisco Prime?
    The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive.
    See all answers
    What is your primary use case for Cisco Prime?
    We use Cisco Prime for centralized configuration management backups and monitoring.
    See all answers
     

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    Product Reports

    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco DNA Center
    September 2025
    Cisco DNA Center reportDownload Cisco DNA Center product report
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco Prime [EOL]
    September 2025
    Cisco Prime [EOL] reportDownload Cisco Prime [EOL] product report
     

    Also Known As

    DNA Center
    Cisco Prime Infrastructure
     

    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

    Cisco Prime products deliver next-generation management by supporting an intuitive workflow-oriented user experience and integrated lifecycle operations across Cisco architectures, technologies, and networks.

    Cisco
     

    Sample Customers

    Information Not Available
    Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
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    August 2025
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