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Cisco DNA Center vs NetMon comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2025

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
42
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)
NetMon
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
58th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetMon is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

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…
AshishDubey - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable and scalable tool useful for network behavior analysis, DPA, and network forensic services
I have not worked much on LogRhythm NetMon to be able to comment on what needs improvement in the product since there is another team in our company that is working on the solution presently. LogRhythm NetMon's pricing model is an area of concern that should be made a little bit cheaper in comparison to the other players in the market currently. With players like IBM QRadar that propose QNI or Darktrace in the market, LogRhythm NetMon needs to consider a reduction in its pricing model.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."
"Automation helps configure devices without manual intervention, enabling zero-touch provisioning."
"The solution helps with the management and orchestration of campaigns. It helps with visibility and analytics. I also like its SDA configuration."
"It is simple to manage and it is all done from a single dashboard."
"The most valuable features were the monitoring, maintenance, and configuration."
"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."
"What's most valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the ability to manage any Cisco infrastructure and device through it. Setup was straightforward."
"It gives us automation capabilities for pushing out the configuration to branch networks. It also provides visibility into the health of user network devices."
"Visibility is a valuable feature, the ability to see even if the traffic is not going into the firewall"
"The protocols with which you see the traffic for a particular website that a client has in their environment, for example, are valuable. We can monitor whether the traffic is up to the mark or whether they need to add more bandwidth. Also, we can see if we're able to get real-time environment data as well. The customization dashboard is really good. LogRhythm NetMon has its own in-built dashboards which are helpful in guiding customization."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"The analytics feature is the most valuable feature."
"LogRhythm NetMon's most impressive feature is that it's a bundled package, so you're not just relying on monthly data; you get a six-month view for more comprehensive indicators of compromise. This dual approach is precious. We implement LogRhythm NetMon in our cybersecurity strategy mainly for compliance and correlation of network, user, and decision activities, particularly for network firewalls and access control."
"The most valuable feature is the log, which can be analyzed by our SIEM solution."
"The initial setup is straightforward because we can deploy an open server."
"NetMon's best feature is traffic analysis."
 

Cons

"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."
"When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."
"The product has many features that do not work properly."
"The pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco DNA Center are expensive."
"We encountered issues with their response times, which had a big impact on our workflow."
"What I want to see in Cisco DNA Center in the future is more support for other platforms so that you can manage third-party products, such as Fortinet."
"From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor."
"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."
"Could use a topology diagram which would help get an exact visual."
"The platform's integration features often need to be improved."
"The main concern is that LogRhythm has not improved NetMon but instead introduced a separate product, which many customers, including us, would prefer to be integrated into a single platform for easier management."
"LogRhythm NetMon's pricing model is an area of concern that should be made a little bit cheaper in comparison to the other players in the market currently."
"I would like to see better integration with multiple products. Integration is not something that is readily available for most of the products."
"There is an issue with tunneling in relation to how the connectivity is established between the end devices and where NetMon is installed. On the console, I often observe that there's a difference of a few seconds or maybe a minute, and this lag time should not be there."
"Sometimes it's hard to find the network devices' self-audit logs."
"Some of the automated tasks we can perform on QRadar cannot be performed on LogRhythm because the solution has limitations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is medium-priced."
"Licensing for Cisco DNA Center is a little bit expensive, just like any Cisco solution. Its cost could still be improved."
"We have a three-year license with them."
"I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."
"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."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
"LogRhythm's licensing part is something that depends on the license you want since they offer it on a perpetual and subscription basis."
"The product is expensive for smaller companies."
"Pricing is okay. There were some competitors that were extremely expensive and there were some which were really inexpensive but LogRhythm stayed in the middle of them."
"The price of this solution is too high, so it should be made more practical and more valuable for the customer."
"NetMon's licensing costs about $85k per year, with some extra costs for support."
"I don't have visibility into the pricing of LogRhythm NetMon as it's handled through our commercial partnerships."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
No data available
 

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.
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?
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 ...
What do you like most about LogRhythm NetMon?
It has a very strong artificial intelligence engine.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LogRhythm NetMon?
I don't have visibility into the pricing of LogRhythm NetMon as it's handled through our commercial partnerships.
What needs improvement with LogRhythm NetMon?
The main concern is that LogRhythm has not improved NetMon but instead introduced a separate product, which many customers, including us, would prefer to be integrated into a single platform for ea...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
LogRhythm Network Monitor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Sera-Brynn
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. NetMon and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.