Cisco DNA Center vs Plixer Scrutinizer comparison

Cisco and Plixer are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.2, while Plixer is ranked #52 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Plixer’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Plixer users who would recommend it.

Cisco DNA Center

Read 43 Cisco DNA Center reviews

7,884 Views
1,892 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Plixer Scrutinizer

Read 15 Plixer Scrutinizer reviews

1,289 Views
877 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco DNA Center

Plixer Scrutinizer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Plixer Scrutinizer and Cisco DNA Center compete in the network monitoring and security category. While both offer valuable features, Cisco DNA Center has an upper hand in centralized management and comprehensive analytics, ideal for seamless device integration and real-time network monitoring.

Features: Plixer Scrutinizer offers advanced traffic flow analysis, detailed historical data, and Active Directory integration, efficiently handling formats like sFlow and NetFlow. It supports massive data traffic from varied devices, aiding network troubleshooting. Cisco DNA Center stands out with centralized management, LAN automation, and extensive analytics, supporting seamless device integration and real-time monitoring. Its capabilities in managing both wired and wireless environments with automation are notable.

Room for Improvement: Plixer Scrutinizer could enhance its user interface, metadata extraction, and report generation. Its handling of large data traffic volumes could be improved for broader user access. Cisco DNA Center might benefit from a more affordable pricing model for SMEs, streamlined data correlation to reduce latency, and less complex deployment processes. Better integration with third-party tools and flexible licensing options could increase its appeal.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Plixer Scrutinizer is often deployed on-premises with strong user environment control, receiving praise for outstanding technical support and effective assistance during deployment and upgrades. Cisco DNA Center provides flexible deployment options, including on-premises, cloud, and hybrid, catering to diverse enterprise needs. Its technical support is also reliable and known for quick problem resolution.

Pricing and ROI: Plixer Scrutinizer's device-based licensing is cost-effective, providing clear ROI through faster issue resolution and cost reductions. In contrast, Cisco DNA Center is seen as expensive due to extensive features, though justifiable for large networks with long-term value. Its pricing strategy may be too high for smaller enterprises, limiting accessibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco DNA Center vs. Plixer Scrutinizer Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,760 peers since 2012

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

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Plixer Scrutinizer

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

52nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco DNA Center	1.4%
Plixer Scrutinizer	0.4%
Other	98.2%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Mahir Öztürk

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.

Read full review

Ira Mulyanti

Sales Director at ARGA SOLUSI

An affordable product with great integration capabilities

Plixer Core Platform is a valuable feature and a good software. Plixer Scrutinizer uses NetFlow analysis to monitor whatever is there in a network. Price-wise, Plixer Scrutinizer is not an expensive product. Basically, Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that can integrate with any other brand or product in the market, so it is not an area of concern.

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

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

"Application Assurance works very well."

"The solution has the capability to scale."

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

"Cisco is a leading network company."

"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."

"Automation helps configure devices without manual intervention, enabling zero-touch provisioning."

"The monitoring features are very useful for network engineers."

More Cisco DNA Center pros

"One of the most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer is the reporting, particularly how easy it is to drill down into the reports. Another valuable feature of the solution is its overall visibility. It's great. I also liked Plixer Scrutinizer in terms of deployment time and that it's very simple to set up. Once you get the appliance set up and connected, the customer starts to see results immediately, versus other solutions where that could take a while."

"The solution helps to enrich the data context of our network traffic. It allows me to see what applications are most in use on a slightly historical basis, going back a day or week at tops. It allows me to tune QoS or traffic shaping around what's being used. It saves me from having to unnecessarily upgrade, if I don't need to."

"It's agnostic as far as what your network gear is. As long as it supports an sFlow, JFlow, NetFlow, some kind of flow monitoring, Plixer will support it very well."

"It helps us determine what is going on with our Internet and who is hogging it all up. If we get a real high throughput or a throughput that's going over and getting dropped fairly quickly, we can tell who (or what device) is consuming that traffic."

"It shows us the saturation of the network of devices. It gives us a clear view of the flows in the network to understand, for instance, planning upgrades in the network to get an idea of what's going on the network on traffic flows. It gives us insight, for instance, on what's going on on our VPN Client. There are a lot of things where it provides very helpful information. It also gives us our security reports with quite detailed information on what's going on in the network, and whether there are data exfiltrations and so on."

"The reporting and generating troubleshooting reports would be the best feature; our host-to-host conversation reporting."

"One feature I found most valuable in Plixer Scrutinizer is the very extensive reporting. Reporting is very flexible, though sometimes you need a little bit of support from Plixer Scrutinizer to create custom-made reporting in a very short time. Reporting is a very strong feature of the product."

"The most valuable features of the solution are the ability to track what a device is doing and to go back historically. It is also able to go down to, and identify, very low levels of traffic."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pros

Cons

"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."

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

"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."

"From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor."

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

"Cisco could improve the security side of their solutions."

"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."

"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."

More Cisco DNA Center cons

"There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point."

"They're working on the security areas, so it can provide more insight. What they have is still pretty much IP-concentric. If they were to make it IP and URL, they'd be a little bit ahead on that."

"Knowing that they're coming out with a new user interface, that is an area where there is room for improvement. There are so many variables. They should limit the variables in the user interface and create some classes, like "simple," "novice," and "expert" to narrow down the variables within it."

"Data retention needs improvement. Data retention is a thing where we are looking for a better way to collect flow data for a longer time to do forensic research on security incidents. By default, data retention is quite low. We need detailed data in safe storage for a longer time, e.g., for a couple of months. An improvement would be a way to export data into a secure long-term storage."

"There is room for improvement around the data that they have on the website about solutions... they should have more templated solutions on their website. Going out and identifying how to do RTP performance with a Cisco router, or how to do application response times in an Arrista data center deployment was where most of the work was... They should spend some more time documenting solutions and putting together white papers."

"The visual acuity of how it presents data can sometimes be confusing. It takes a bit for people to spin up how to look at the graphs."

"We couldn't get it set up properly."

"In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required."

More Plixer Scrutinizer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is medium-priced."

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

"The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."

"The product is very costly."

"The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."

"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."

"Our licensing agreement is for three years."

"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."

More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice

"The license is per device. We have 50 devices."

"Currently, the license for Plixer Scrutinizer is subscription-based and at a yearly fee. The price would depend on the amount of traffic you pull in. For example, there are several blocks from a 10K flow, a 40K flow, and a 100K flow, and based on the number of devices that you receive the flows from, that's the license, and it is not a per-interface pricing model, so that is a very strong, very competitive pricing feature of Plixer Scrutinizer. Licensing for the product is also not based on the number of storage, compared to some competing products that are priced based on the amount of storage you need, particularly based on the retention and the amount of data. Plixer Scrutinizer licensing is based on the device, and it's more in the direction of $10,000 because, with just $1,000, you don't have anything."

"There is a recurring maintenance fee after the initial purchase or if we want the license upgrade."

"We have increased the license over time. We have added more licenses as the network has grown."

"The licensing cost for Plixer Scrutinizer is in the middle. It's not the cheapest, but it's not the most expensive. Its licensing model is based on how many exporters, how many devices export information to the system. Plixer Scrutinizer has different modules you could add such as the security module which would cost extra."

"We just renewed. The pricing is 5,000 euro per year. This is the final price. All tax (20 percent) is included."

"I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive."

"We pay our one-off cost for the licenses, per device, in blocks of 50. And then we pay an annual maintenance fee of about $15,000 Australian, which is, at this point in time, about $9,000 US, for those 250 devices. The upfront costs for the 250-license use, were about $50,000 Australian, which is about $32,000 US."

More Plixer Scrutinizer pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	25

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

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 Plixer Scrutinizer?

Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plixer Scrutinizer?

I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Plixer Scrutinizer?

I don't have deep enough knowledge to comment on what requires improvements in Plixer Scrutinizer. In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Center vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 16% of the time

Juniper Mist Wired Assurance vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco DNA Center Competitors

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 28% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 27% of the time

Kentik vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 23% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Plixer Scrutinizer

Compared 22% of the time

More Plixer Scrutinizer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center

October 2025

Download Cisco DNA Center product report

Buyer's Guide

Plixer Scrutinizer

September 2025

Download Plixer Scrutinizer product report

Also Known As

DNA Center

No data available

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 Scrutinizer incident response system leverages network traffic analytics to provide active monitoring, visualization, and reporting of network and security incidents. The system quickly delivers the rich forensic data needed by IT professionals to support fast and efficient incident response.

Plixer

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Oxford Networks, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, UltiSat, Wipro, West Aurora School District 129, SUNY Geneseo College, Bloomington Public Schools, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Kitsap Credit Union, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Houston Texas, Carilion Clinic, Banner Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Phibro Animal Health Corporation, Goodwill Industries, Parmalat, Armstrong Coal Company, Flybe, James Walker

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

September 2025

Free Report: Cisco DNA Center vs. Plixer Scrutinizer

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. Plixer Scrutinizer and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco DNA Center vs. Plixer Scrutinizer report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.