Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE comparison

Cisco and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #43 with an average rating of 8.0, while NETSCOUT is ranked #50 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 0.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

Read 24 Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reviews

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1,596 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Read 7 NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE reviews

944 Views
897 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance and NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE compete in network performance monitoring and management. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set and overall perceived value.

Features: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers real-time monitoring and troubleshooting, integration with Cisco ecosystems, and seamless deployment in Cisco environments. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE provides extensive network performance monitoring, improved visibility across platforms, and proactive problem detection.

Room for Improvement: Cisco could enhance compatibility with non-Cisco environments, offer more in-depth analytical features, and improve cross-platform performance. NETSCOUT can benefit from faster integration with existing ecosystems, more intuitive user interfaces, and reduced setup complexity for less technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance's integration within Cisco infrastructures facilitates rapid setup with reliable support from its extensive resources. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE provides straightforward deployment across various network types, complemented by a responsive customer service network known for expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers competitive pricing for organizations invested in Cisco systems, yielding reliable ROI. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE, while potentially higher in initial cost, justifies its pricing through significant ROI derived from its expansive features and network visibility, proving valuable across diverse IT landscapes.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

December 2025

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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 Provider Connectivity...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

43rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (43rd)

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

50th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is 0.7%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is 0.5%, 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 Provider Connectivity Assurance	0.7%
NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE	0.5%
Other	98.8%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Sylvain Germe

Application and Network Performance Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Highly scalable, responsive support, but lacking new features

This solution is geared towards on-premise setups, and would not be useful if the company plans to move to the cloud within the next two years, such as Google Cloud for example. If the goal is to monitor bandwidth at remote sites and identify performance issues because the network is under the control, this solution is useful. However, if a company primarily uses cloud-based servers and does not manage the internet connection of its remote sites, the solution becomes less useful. I rate Accedian Skylight a seven out of ten. I have a positive opinion of the tool, but it can be challenging to set up. It is also limited in its applicability to certain use cases. I am familiar with the engineers behind the solution and have a good impression of them. However, I am not pleased with the fact that the company removed many features and raised prices after it was acquired by Accedian.

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Ian Munoz

Ingeniero en Telecomunicaciones at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has improved traffic visibility and simplified dashboard use, but could benefit from better integration with other tools

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE works very well in our case. We have not experienced any troubles with traffic analysis SolarWinds has a dashboard that is older and not as user-friendly. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE has an easier dashboard to manipulate compared to SolarWinds. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is not…

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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

"One valuable feature we have is real-time monitoring for connection issues."

"It is about finding operational problems. When sites go down, we try to determine who is at fault. While there is not much finger-pointing, the solution is just trying to analyse when there is an outage and where do we start looking to fix it. The very nature of why organization chooses to use the solution is to accelerate the meantime to resolution and find where problems lie to get them rectified as quickly as possible."

"The ability to measure performance end-to-end across the cloud data center allows us to take corrective action to keep our channels online."

"I think the analytics features are okay. My customer also likes the interface, the GUI, because it's easy to operate."

"The solution’s UI and single pane of glass is good. The new dashboard is modern with its new design. The look of it is not pretty, but it is efficient, which is good. It is user-friendly; you can find what you need on the interface quickly."

"For us, the most valuable feature is something called TWAMP that allows for real-time traffic in a way that is 10 times lighter than things like SolarWinds. It's in the sub-milliseconds of accuracy, and you can divide tasks so that you can literally see things like the tagging for Quality of Service. That had been incorrect with the carrier, but there was no way on this planet you'd be able to tell a carrier that they're wrong. I have dozens of scenarios where we found "No, that's not right," and got it resolved instantly."

"If [the problem] is something related to HTTP or VoIP, then I can have a quick look into the protocols, a process which gives me some good ideas..."

"I always have the Skylight dashboard on one of my screens... Now you can create your own dashboard, specific to an application, specific to a server, or to something else."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pros

"This is a very reliable and complete solution for troubleshooting and monitoring environments."

"I like the single pane of glass view because it presents everything in one window, obviously. You can see it all. With a quick glance, you get a pretty good snapshot of what's going on in a particular situation."

"The solution's technical support team consists of good engineers and technicians."

"I like the single pane of glass view. I like being able to go to one place instead of having to hunt around for everything."

"NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE has an easier dashboard to manipulate compared to SolarWinds."

"The most valuable features of this solution are monitoring and maintaining traffic queuing, as well as seeing who is using the bandwidth."

"The most valuable feature of NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is the network troubleshooting analysis. You can pinpoint an issue before it could shut down the network."

Cons

"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."

"It's a bit slow. When I execute a query, something general with a short timeframe that covers one month, for instance, and I do not specify the IP source or IP destination, it can take ages because it has to query the whole database."

"It needs the possibility to export data because it is not easy to see larger data sets, e.g., for one month. It would be interesting to export data into a PDF or dashboard to keep a history of the situation."

"For the PVX, they are in the process of getting the results to export to cloud and SaaS for analytics. They told me that this will happen later this year. Right now, for the most part, I create that data myself."

"The UI interface of Accedian Skylight could improve."

"I would like to see some improvements in parts of their synthetic transactions, which includes all the latency, jitter, and throughput. I would like to see some Layer 7 analytics in there. I want to be able to do a DNS request, HTTP GET request, or even SIP call point-to-point or via registration."

"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."

"There should be an option to update and upgrade the solution to the new version without having to re-buy it. I have clients switching to other solutions. The old solution is great, but if you change your license to a new one, you have to almost re-buy it completely."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance cons

"NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is not integrated with SolarWinds. They work in different ways."

"The GUI interface and dashboards could be more attractive to the customer."

"Usability is the area with the biggest room for improvement. We've found that with NETSCOUT, while it's a fantastic product, the usability is a major factor because there are just way too many clicks. It's obvious, from our experience, that the people who are developing the product aren't using it."

"They require a lot of manual effort as traffic flows, networks, and formal times change."

"Before an attack starts, seeing the traffic behavior and activities would be great. The tool should also share alerts since it is an area where the product has certain shortcomings."

"In terms of additional features, I would like to see better event notification. Right now, we put in an email address to receive an alert and it receives every event and every alert that comes out. We need something a little more granular."

"The price of the solution could be reduced."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It provides value and the cost is not huge."

"The solution was previously well-regarded, but after being acquired by Accedian, the prices have significantly increased. This has made it challenging to sell the product due to its high cost. It is an expensive solution."

"If you look into Riverbed, it's a licensing nightmare. You need to pay for every type of analysis... If you don't look into licensing, Riverbed and SolarWinds are pretty comparable. But if you look into licensing it would not be smart to go for either of them. On the pure, bare-metal basis, it's the same. But when you get the bare metal and a few basic licenses, then you need all those other licenses just to be sure that there's no issue... One of the great things about Skylight is you have them all, and you actually need them all."

"We understand there's a significant cost difference, but have yet to investigate fully."

"It's not for free, clearly. But on the other hand, it offers very interesting functionality. We pay around €100,000."

"The price is competitive overall, depending on the type of customer."

"Pricing is a little bit expensive."

"The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pricing and cost advice

"Cost is contracted on a yearly basis. There is no additional cost beyond the standard licensing."

"The tool's price is okay. On a scale of one to ten, I rate it as a five, where one means it is not expensive, and ten means it is the most expensive."

"The price of NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is high. The other solutions are less expensive but we cannot depend on the other solutions, they are not as stable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

25%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Accedian Skylight?

Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues. I require more tools to file and resolve these issues efficiently.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Accedian Skylight?

I had prepared for COC and the client. I work as a vendor for a client using Flow Mount for network performance monitoring. I focus on resolving client-side issues related to Packy Performance and ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Accedian Skylight?

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE?

The tool's price is okay. On a scale of one to ten, I rate it as a five, where one means it is not expensive, and ten means it is the most expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE?

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE is not integrated with SolarWinds. They work in different ways.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE?

I use the solution in my company to analyze international traffic.

See all answers

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Compared 21% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Compared 15% of the time

Allegro Network Multimeter vs NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Compared 10% of the time

Flowmon vs NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Compared 9% of the time

ScienceLogic vs NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

Compared 8% of the time

More NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

January 2026

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance report

Download Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance product report

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

January 2026

Download NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE product report

Also Known As

Accedian Skylight, Accedian SkyLIGHT PVX, SkyLIGHT PVX, SecurActive, Performance Vision

nGeniusPULSE

Overview

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is known for its user-friendly approach to network analysis and performance monitoring. It excels in real-time diagnostics, helping organizations quickly resolve network issues and optimize performance effortlessly.

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance focuses on comprehensive network troubleshooting and performance monitoring, assisting in identifying bottlenecks and analyzing applications. Real-time data collection and evaluation ensure IT infrastructure efficiency. With active monitoring of latency, jitter, and throughput, users maintain smooth operations across multiple sites and applications. While highly effective, improvements in data handling, protocol support, and dashboard aesthetics are suggested to enhance user experience.

What are the key features of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance?

Flow Matrices: Advanced analysis of network paths and traffic distribution.
SQL and DNS Analysis: In-depth insights into database and domain queries for troubleshooting.
Bandwidth Assessment: Evaluation of network capacity and utilization for performance optimization.
Real-time TWAMP Monitoring: Tracks network performance using Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol.
Application Performance Modules: Monitors the performance of various applications and services.
Customizable Dashboards: Personalized views for tracking critical network metrics and trends.
PCAP Capturing: Detailed packet analysis using tools like Wireshark for deeper insights.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Intuitive design allowing users to swiftly diagnose network issues.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Enhanced visibility of network activity for better control.
Performance Efficiency: Optimization of throughput, reducing downtimes and improving service delivery.
Cost-Effectiveness: Balances features and functionality with competitive pricing for better ROI.

In industries such as telecommunications and finance, where network reliability is crucial, Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers critical network performance insights. It supports high-demand environments by providing data-driven decisions, ensuring infrastructures handle increased loads efficiently.

Cisco

NETSCOUT’s nGeniusPULSE delivers the visibility needed into today’s evolving IT eco-system to ensure the availability, reliability, and performance of your mission-critical business services across your multi-cloud environment, from wherever users need access.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

T-Systems, Thomson Reuters, Bordeaux Metropole, CGI, Citadelle Regional Hospital Center, Lorraine Institute of Oncology, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Groupe BPCE, Group S, Splitpoint, Horus-Net, Audatex, Indexis, Province de Liège, EASI, Spie Batignolles, Faymonville

Banco Votorantim

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE

December 2025

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