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Cisco DNA Center vs NetFort LANGuardian comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)
NetFort LANGuardian
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
94th
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 0.7%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetFort LANGuardian is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center0.7%
NetFort LANGuardian0.4%
Other98.9%
Network Monitoring Software
 

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.
it_user172854 - PeerSpot reviewer
Research Special Projects Lead at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Cost effective but when we originally purchased LANGuardian, some features needed further development.
The ability to detect and decipher torrent traffic for the purpose of identifying what some refer to as "copyright violators" Our CIO asked us to track down the source of undesired uploads, which trigger e-mails received by outside bodies regarding what they refer to as "copyright violations",…

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."
"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."
"It enables monitoring of various components such as access points, switch cards, and other elements within the company's solutions."
"The most valuable features of Cisco DNA Center are wireless assurance and visibility."
"Automation is another key highlight. With automation, you can automate everything through a single port."
"The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features...It is a highly scalable solution."
"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."
"We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
"If you are looking for a solid solution that can be easily deployed then I'd recommend considering Netfort solutions."
"Our CIO asked us to track down the source of undesired uploads, which trigger e-mails received by outside bodies regarding what they refer to as "copyright violations", and Languardian was the most efficient and effective tool for the job."
 

Cons

"I would like is to have a small information pointer available. It could be a plus feature that I want to implement. When I hover my mouse over the user interface, it should provide a brief explanation. It would be helpful to have it incorporated into the UI."
"The solution's integration feature can be better."
"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."
"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 weaknesses primarily involve pricing and the ongoing need for increased bandwidth and data throughput."
"Requires more focus on the digital side of things."
"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."
"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."
"It takes a long time to load results. I think it would be great if they fix the slowness issue in the next release."
"Sure, at the time we bought the product, the GUI and graphs/reports/pie charts etc ... were not fully developed."
 

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 product is very costly."
"Cisco DNA Center is expensive."
"Our licensing agreement is for three years."
"The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
"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 expensive."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
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. ...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

DNA Center
LANGuardian
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
City of Armadale, NCG Group, King Faisal Hospital
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. NetFort LANGuardian and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
910,005 professionals have used our research since 2012.