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Cisco DNA Center vs ThousandEyes 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.4
Cisco DNA Center offers ROI through time savings despite its cost with a user rating of 4/5 to 7/10.
Sentiment score
7.0
ThousandEyes delivers quick ROI by enhancing performance and efficiency, preventing downtime, and optimizing network issues, earning high user satisfaction.
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
There has been a great ROI from using ThousandEyes, with significant time saved in troubleshooting as I can quickly pinpoint issues rather than spending time isolating them, alongside enhancing customer feedback and experience.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Cisco DNA Center support is generally well-received, though some users encounter delays and desire better documentation and consistency.
Sentiment score
7.1
ThousandEyes support is generally efficient and responsive, with high user satisfaction despite some suggestions for improvement.
Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
The support for Cisco DNA Center is good.
We contacted the support team, and they resolved it within a couple of hours.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco DNA Center offers scalable network management with effective expansion, despite limited IPv6 support and high licensing costs.
Sentiment score
7.4
ThousandEyes offers scalable performance, integrates well, and adapts to various environments, despite minor licensing cost concerns.
From my experience, we can easily manage numerous devices.
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
Scalability with ThousandEyes is straightforward as you don't really need to scale; it's designed to monitor multiple applications, accommodating 50 or 100 applications simultaneously.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco DNA Center is generally stable, with users praising its reliability despite minor bugs and stability challenges.
Sentiment score
7.9
ThousandEyes is dependable with minor bugs, high user satisfaction, rarely crashes, and effectively delivers promised features.
When we communicate problems, they solve them effectively.
From my experience, ThousandEyes has been stable up to 95%; I have not seen any stability issues.
ThousandEyes is not very stable; sometimes you have to reboot the servers to get actual results.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco DNA Center needs better integration, pricing, UI, stability, deployment, reporting, training, and troubleshooting for improved usability.
Users seek enhanced server monitoring, Cisco integration, better dashboards, improved customization, and comprehensive documentation in ThousandEyes.
The AI-driven insights have contributed significantly to faster troubleshooting and predictive analytics.
The client history in Cisco DNA Center can be longer than 10 days, perhaps extending to 15 or 20 days.
Having a dedicated incident alert system for URL alerts would help manage noise and streamline operations, especially during patch upgrades.
Introduction of a free version for end-users and enhancements to the user interface for easier navigation.
An area where ThousandEyes can be improved is in providing more in-depth packet analysis; we've found instances where ThousandEyes indicates everything is okay, but it's actually not.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco DNA Center's high costs and licensing requirements can deter smaller businesses, appealing mainly to large enterprises.
ThousandEyes pricing is mid-range with yearly billing; ideal for large enterprises but challenging for smaller businesses.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco DNA Center provides analytics, centralized management, and enhanced security with automation, real-time monitoring, and AI-driven network insights.
ThousandEyes provides comprehensive network monitoring with seamless Cisco integration, ensuring efficient troubleshooting, scalability, and visibility into network connections.
If there is a problem, I can inspect the situation and see what is happening, which is beneficial.
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
I measure the 70% improvement in customer experience through customer tickets and feedback after resolving issues, where previously, users faced problems and limited time on the platform, and after using ThousandEyes, the user time reached up to five to six hours a day, even for teams possibly totaling 30 hours a day.
I find the most valuable feature of ThousandEyes is the ability to directly see the client's exact issue.
The best features ThousandEyes offers include monitoring page load times, assessing how long it takes for an application to load, checking for packet loss and jitter, and monitoring the routing path from the user to the server hosted in the cloud or on-premises.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)
ThousandEyes
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (12th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThousandEyes is 3.1%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ThousandEyes3.1%
Cisco DNA Center1.3%
Other95.6%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Mahir Öztürk - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Abdalraheem Asha - PeerSpot reviewer
Has improved collaboration with providers and pinpointed issues across regional networks
ThousandEyes has been the most user-friendly tool I have seen in the past couple of years, making life easier in troubleshooting and helping us find what's happening while offering vivid options on how to use the agents or the server-side tools with multiple options to trace out the issues. The best features ThousandEyes offers include the ability to place two different points or nodes, such as a server or a node in the cloud in my account, then installing agents and tracing the connectivity which helps me build a perfect user experience to check what's happening while users access my resources. I love the dashboards in ThousandEyes and the way I see the results after placing or doing the tests; this is perfect, and I would say this is the best thing. ThousandEyes has positively impacted my organization by raising the customer experience and positive feedback by over 70% due to the complex situation with local service providers, allowing me to resolve user feedback and issues which enhanced the user experience significantly. I measure the 70% improvement in customer experience through customer tickets and feedback after resolving issues, where previously, users faced problems and limited time on the platform, and after using ThousandEyes, the user time reached up to five to six hours a day, even for teams possibly totaling 30 hours a day.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise11
 

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?
In my opinion, the client history in Cisco DNA Center can be longer than 10 days, perhaps extending to 15 or 20 days. I am using it in a huge factory in Turkey, and sometimes I need to see what occ...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or requirements. Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better from a cloud monitoring or APM monitoring perspective. You can check...
What needs improvement with ThousandEyes?
An area where ThousandEyes can be improved is in providing more in-depth packet analysis; we've found instances where ThousandEyes indicates everything is okay, but it's actually not. I would recom...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Wayfair, GitHub, Craigslist, Comcast, SurveyMonkey, Lyft, Box, HP, Zendesk, IO Data Centers, Good Technology, NNTCommunications, Proofpoint, Schneider, Crowdstrike, Avera, Pitney Bowes, InstartLogic, Shutterfly, Shutterstock, Condé Nast, Roche, Jive, Actelion, Brocade, Infor, Okta, JLL, DigitalOcean, Zuora, NetSuite, CloudFlare, One, DemonWare, Quantcast, Carbonite, CareerBuilder, Prosper, Oscar, Slack
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. ThousandEyes and other solutions. Updated: November 2025.
872,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.