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Cisco DNA Center vs Forward Enterprise 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 (17th)
Forward Enterprise
Ranking in Network Automation
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Network Modeling and Simulation (21st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Automation category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 8.5%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forward Enterprise is 2.6%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center8.5%
Forward Enterprise2.6%
Other88.9%
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.
RA
IT Architectural System Expert at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Plenty of useful features, and simple implementation
Forward Enterprise has improved the way my organization functions All the features are valuable in Forward Enterprise. Forward Enterprise could improve by increasing flexibility. Additionally, there should be an Android version or desktop. I have been using Forward Enterprise for approximately…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives us automation capabilities for pushing out a configuration to branch networks, and it also provides visibility into the health of user network devices."
"People like to use the dashboards to get an overview of their network."
"In day-to-day operations, especially post-pandemic, the majority of our customers have to work from anywhere, and having that single integrated dashboard for each and every activity while being able to correlate those activities in line with a business objective has been very well addressed by Cisco DNA."
"In terms of software-defined networking, I think it's an outstanding product."
"The advice I would give to other people who want to use Cisco DNA Center is to go for it, particularly if they have Cisco infrastructure, though these days integration could be an 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."
"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."
"It enables monitoring of various components such as access points, switch cards, and other elements within the company's solutions."
"All the features are valuable in Forward Enterprise."
"Forward Enterprise has improved the way my organization functions."
 

Cons

"Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable."
"When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."
"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."
"Cisco DNA Center was a new technology for us, at the beginning, it was not easy to do, but Cisco did a lot of training with us to a level we could handle everything. The team is managing itself now without the assistance of Cisco."
"They can improve the network visibility. Licensing and its maintenance are also needed."
"Better compatibility with third parties and to other Cisco products because if versions are not perfectly matching requirements, it gives a lot of problems."
"They should include UTM features in the product."
"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."
"Forward Enterprise could improve by increasing flexibility. Additionally, there should be an Android version or desktop."
"Forward Enterprise could improve by increasing flexibility. Additionally, there should be an Android version or desktop."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users."
"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 partnership price is notably high, but it ultimately depends on the chosen business model."
"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."
"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."
"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."
"The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."
"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."
"We pay for the solution annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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 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 ...
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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: May 2026.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.