Cisco DNA Center vs Zenoss Cloud comparison

Cisco and Zenoss are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4, while Zenoss is ranked #75. Cisco holds a 0.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Zenoss’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zenoss users who would recommend it.

Cisco DNA Center

Read 43 Cisco DNA Center reviews

7,275 Views
2,328 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Zenoss Cloud

Read 8 Zenoss Cloud reviews

2,607 Views
1,225 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco DNA Center

Zenoss Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Zenoss Cloud and Cisco DNA Center are competing in network monitoring and management. Cisco DNA Center often seems superior due to its advanced features and integration capabilities.

Features: Zenoss Cloud offers robust monitoring capabilities, scalability, and supports diverse IT environments. Cisco DNA Center provides advanced automation, superior data analytics, and seamless integration with Cisco infrastructure.

Room for Improvement: Zenoss Cloud could enhance its integration options, improve data analytics capabilities, and bolster automation features. Cisco DNA Center could simplify its deployment process, potentially reduce costs, and enhance user interface usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zenoss Cloud is easy to deploy with minimal technical expertise needed. Cisco DNA Center may require more advanced configurations but provides strong support for network personalization and strategic network alignment.

Pricing and ROI: Zenoss Cloud generally has a cost-effective pricing model favoring budget-focused organizations, leading to favorable ROI. Cisco DNA Center, while presenting a higher initial cost, can offer significant long-term ROI through enhanced network performance and security features.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco DNA Center vs. Zenoss Cloud Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. Zenoss Cloud

March 2026

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Helped 885,376 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

19th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Zenoss Cloud

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

75th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (26th), Event Monitoring (13th), Server Monitoring (24th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (51st), Container Monitoring (7th), Cloud Monitoring Software (42nd), AIOps (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 0.9%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zenoss Cloud is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center	0.9%
Zenoss Cloud	0.7%
Other	98.4%

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.

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ClaudiaChen

Cloud Architect - Senior Technology Architect at Telstra

Generates close to real-time alerts so users can resolve issues, but needs more integration and public cloud monitoring features

As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco is a leading network company."

"It is a stable solution."

"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."

"The most valuable features were the monitoring, maintenance, and configuration."

"It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols."

"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."

"Cisco VXLAN is a protocol that has been around for some time, but the practical implementation and operational capability of Cisco DNA Center bring it to life."

"The product's most valuable feature is the visual representation of the switch's front panel."

More Cisco DNA Center pros

"The most valuable feature is the flexible discovery mechanism."

"Its Docker Container concept is mind blowing. It is the first monitoring tool which comes with Docker features."

"The product offers good documentation that helps with initial training."

"What I like most about Zenoss Service Dynamics is that it monitors the devices and gives close to real-time alerts. For example, in case the device is not available, Zenoss Service Dynamics generates an alert so my team can resolve the issue."

"It is the most flexible solution of this type, but it takes time to adapt."

"Zenoss is more complex than LogicMonitor, but scalable and hugely customizable."

"With this solution, they can have one million users at the same time with no crashes."

"It's easy to use."

More Zenoss Cloud pros

Cons

"There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices."

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

"The tool's IoT integration should be better."

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

"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."

"Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable."

"There is a limitation with the number of VRFs that you can have in your network, and this has caused us problems with some customers."

"The pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco DNA Center are expensive."

More Cisco DNA Center cons

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"There was a problem with Zenoss and storage monitoring."

"It would be ideal if the product offered sound alerts."

"There was a problem with Zenoss and storage monitoring."

"There is room for improvement with the administrative part. They introduced Control Center to manage things in Zenoss 5. The services that Zenoss provides remained the same, but the administrative part, since they introduced Docker, etc., has become a little complex"

More Zenoss Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The tool is medium-priced."

"The solution is expensive."

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

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."

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

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

"Our licensing agreement is for three years."

More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice

"It is very cost-effective compared to the tools I worked with in the past. The company is gaining a lot with respect to the cost factor. It provides agentless monitoring and in a very cheap way."

"There are additional costs you'll have to pay apart from the license fee for Zenoss Service Dynamics. I can't remember exactly how much my company is paying because I don't handle the finance part, but the cost is paid annually. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I'm rating the solution three out of five."

"The pricing depends on the environment, the number of services, and the size of the data center. It can go from $100,000 to a million dollars."

"It depends on the customer, what he wants."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Transportation Company

Performing Arts

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
Large Enterprise	5

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?

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...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

In my experience, I worked with many monitoring software, but the one that gave me the most functionalities of a large-scale company is Zenoss, due to its ability to monitor completely hybrid and a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Center vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

Juniper Mist Wired Assurance vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 4% of the time

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Zabbix vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft System Center vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More Zenoss Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center

March 2026

Download Cisco DNA Center product report

Buyer's Guide

Zenoss Cloud

March 2026

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Also Known As

DNA Center

Cloud Monitoring, Zenoss Service Dynamics

Overview

Cisco DNA Center delivers powerful centralized security, automation, and comprehensive analytics for enhanced network management. With an intuitive dashboard and integration with Cisco devices, it reduces errors, boosts efficiency, and ensures seamless wired and wireless network operations.

Organizations leverage Cisco DNA Center for network management and automation, offering increased visibility into traffic flows and efficient device provisioning. It supports real-time data transmission, network segmentation, and integrates with ISE. Features like wireless assurance, centralized management, and AI-driven insights into network health promote an efficient network environment while addressing compliance issues. However, improvements are necessary for better third-party integration, affordability, and more user-friendly documentation.

What are the solution's most important features?

Comprehensive Analytics: Provides in-depth network insights through real-time data.
Centralized Security: Unifies security management, offering enhanced protection.
Network Management: Simplifies device configuration and policy compliance.
Automation Capabilities: Reduces human error and facilitates efficient network operations.
AI-Driven Assurance: Delivers insights into network health for proactive management.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlines operations by reducing manual tasks.
Improved Security: Enhances protection through centralized policies.
Cost Effective: Simplifies management, potentially lowering operating costs.
Enhanced Visibility: Offers comprehensive data for better decision-making.

In industries like healthcare, finance, and education, Cisco DNA Center's advanced features facilitate the management of complex network infrastructures and aid in achieving compliance efficiently. Its ability to manage LANs and WLANs supports diverse networking environments including greenfield projects and SPN setups.

Cisco

Zenoss Cloud revolutionizes IT infrastructure monitoring with a service-centric approach, prioritizing the overall health of services and applications. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps), Zenoss Cloud offers end-to-end visibility across servers, networks, storage, and applications. Real-time monitoring, event correlation, and automated remediation ensure immediate insights and efficient issue resolution. The customizable dashboards empower users to tailor visualizations to their needs, while scalability accommodates diverse infrastructures. Zenoss Cloud guarantees improved application performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced IT efficiency, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises seeking simplicity to large corporations requiring advanced scalability. Experience unified monitoring and proactive management with Zenoss Cloud, a comprehensive solution that transforms IT infrastructure optimization in today's complex environments.

Zenoss

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

2degrees, Rackspace, State of North Dakota, El Paso Independent School District, NWN Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. Zenoss Cloud

March 2026

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