Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Icinga comparison

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

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85% willing to recommend

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Icinga and Cisco Secure Network Analytics are competing in the network monitoring and security domain. Cisco Secure Network Analytics may have the upper hand due to its advanced threat management features.

Features: Icinga provides robust network monitoring, flexible alerting systems, and integration with third-party tools. Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers comprehensive threat detection, real-time insights, and advanced analytics capabilities focusing on security.

Room for Improvement: Icinga can improve its security analytics, enhance real-time threat responses, and expand its detection capabilities. Cisco Secure Network Analytics could benefit from simpler deployment processes, improved flexibility, and cost-effective pricing structures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga offers a straightforward setup with open-source flexibility, supported by a strong community and commercial support. Cisco Secure Network Analytics involves a more complex deployment due to its extensive security features, supported by enterprise-grade resources.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga is cost-effective with low setup costs, offering ROI through its open-source model. Cisco Secure Network Analytics has higher initial costs, leading to greater ROI for businesses requiring advanced security solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. Icinga Report (Updated: August 2026).

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. Icinga

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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 Secure Network Analytics

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

33rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (5th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (6th), Cisco Security Portfolio (8th)

Icinga

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

41st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (48th), Cloud Monitoring Software (32nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is 0.9%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Icinga is 1.1%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Network Analytics	0.9%
Icinga	1.1%
Other	98.0%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Harun-Owr-Roshid

CEO at BRIGHT-i SYSTEMS LIMITED

Have streamlined network visibility and troubleshooting while seeing benefits from AI integration

In terms of improvements for Cisco Secure Network Analytics, from the implementation point of view, now that AI is in use, some other features need to be upgraded considering AI solutions. Proper management of the database is also important; it should be centralized for easier data collection from a single database. When precise manual analysis is needed, it's sometimes difficult, so having a centralized database will allow network admins to find actual scenarios more effectively, especially since some information may not be visible on the GUI. Cisco should upgrade their hardware part to run the database, because sometimes it cannot handle the load while all features are running in the network. The database management should indeed be centralized because while AI runs behind the systems, central management is essential. For example, in a network with 100 Cisco switches, a few routers, firewalls, and access points, all data generated should be preserved in a central database. This approach simplifies management and analysis for troubleshooting, as GUI interfaces may not always provide visible information. Centralizing the database will allow for better understanding of which information is preserved for each specific device.

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reviewer2292201

Innovation Service Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have but average multi-tenancy aspect

It's supported by the community. We use Icinga, which is not part of the Open-Source platform but is wrapped into a commercial solution from another provider, a local provider in Italy. Icinga is an open-source platform, so it is supported by the community. It's quite easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have. So it's not expensive, and it's quite a general purpose. We can easily monitor any kind of infrastructure we encounter. The ability to customize scripts and build your own queries to request information from the infrastructure elements you want to monitor. This level of personalization and customization is highly appreciated. The alerting is the same as any other monitoring platform. It's not a "wow" feature that has changed our lives, but it's perfectly adequate.

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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

"Overall, It seemed like a good product."

"This solution has increased our threat detection rate by forty to sixty percent."

"Stability is the most valuable feature we have seen in this solution."

"The amount of information that this product gives us for detecting threats is very valuable, and we don't have another product like this in our environment."

"There's nothing like it and a dream to operate, very intuitive."

"The best feature of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is its reliability, which I find to be the one that gets used the most."

"I value the feature which enables me to detect devices talking to suspect IPs."

"AI provides suggested common lines and protection features that help safeguard networks from various threats or unwanted situations."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics pros

"The value of Icinga is that it has hundreds of plugins, so it's really easy to monitor pretty much anything."

"Icinga has multiple automation and integration features. There is an API for everything and a web UI for configurations. The APIs enable you to automate tasks in Icinga. We can also use plugins to talk to the API. The Icinga Director talks to a database in the background, and you can import settings from the CMDB to all systems in Icinga."

"The best thing about the solution is how it highlights errors, the issues, and what needs my attention. The solution directs me to areas that I should look for first."

"I would recommend Icinga; it's an open-source solution, it's quite easy and simple to use, and checks can be run with Python code and Shell Script code."

"The ability to customize scripts and build your own queries to request information from the infrastructure elements you want to monitor. This level of personalization and customization is highly appreciated."

"Icinga does the job and is fairly stable."

"I use it for monitoring infrastructure and it was very good for that issue."

"The most valuable feature is one that not many are even aware of, as Icinga has a self-healing event handler where if the service is down, it is automatically restarted, and you can configure the handler to take action after the critical alarm without human interaction."

More Icinga pros

Cons

"Stealthwatch is still maturing in AI. It uses artificial intelligence for predictions, but AI still needs to mature."

"They should include Citrix VDIs in the next release."

"We are continuing down the road of ACI and ISE with Cisco, so we would like to see the continuation of Stealthwatch integrating into ISE for exchange of information, and also, more into the ACI environment too."

"At my company, we might not be using it enough with other applications that we have that can integrate with it."

"We determined that Stealthwatch wouldn't provide the machine learning model that we required."

"Reliance on Java. Get away from that."

"If there was one improvement I’d suggest it would be that it detect traffic through an intranet. The product requires that traffic flow through a managed network device. The product is designed mostly for enterprise environments and not smaller environments or businesses."

"Cisco Stealthwatch needs more integration with device discovery. We have to do a lot of hard work to figure out what things are. Better service integration is required."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics cons

"Network Discovery capabilities would be extremely helpful."

"The solution lacks many features important to higher-level IT management and network support."

"One of the areas that are frustrating is remote monitoring for more than one machine."

"The tool currently fails to provide notifications to users."

"Scalability is problematic. If you have a stable environment it's good, but if the environment is growing, I had some problems with Icinga."

"One thing that Icinga lacks is the capability to create advanced and customized dashboards within the tool itself."

"Icinga’s automation could be improved."

"It is not really adequate for our current needs. It causes additional issues which we have to work around and takes us time that a better solution would not."

More Icinga cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is worth the cost."

"Licensing is on a yearly basis."

"On a yearly basis, licensing is somewhere around $30,000."

"Licensing is done by flows per second, not including outside>in traffic."

"The yearly licensing cost is about $50,000."

"Today, we are part of the big Cisco ELA, and it is a la carte. We can get orders for whatever we want. At the end of the day, we have to pay for it in one big expense, but that is fine. We are okay with that."

"We pay for support costs on a yearly basis."

"There are additional licenses needed for the number of so-called network flows. It's hard to plan the number of flows you need in the network, this is a problem. The price of the Cisco Stealthwatch is relatively inexpensive"

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics pricing and cost advice

"The product is inexpensive compared to other DBM products."

"It's an open-source solution."

"It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low."

"Even though Icinga's financial cost is low, it is an expensive product regarding the resources required to maintain and operate it."

"We're using the free version of Icinga."

"The solution is cheap."

"The solution is free to use."

"This is an open-source solution with paid support."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

Government

Educational Organization

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	52

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Stealthwatch?

Regarding cost, for the Bangladesh context, Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a little bit high-priced because we are a developing country, making it tough to manage affordable solutions. However, ...

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What needs improvement with Cisco Stealthwatch?

Several features often look very promising during evaluation or implementation but end up being used only lightly in day-to-day operations. Advanced reporting and scheduled compliance reports look ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Stealthwatch?

My main use case for Cisco Secure Network Analytics has been network visibility and anomaly-based threat detection within the enterprise environment. In security operations and VAPT-related activit...

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Product Reports

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Download Cisco Secure Network Analytics product report

Download Icinga product report

Also Known As

Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, Lancope StealthWatch

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

Overview

Cisco Secure Network Analytics enhances network security through integrated threat detection and detailed traffic visibility, optimizing performance with AI analytics and strong platform integrations.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers deep visibility into network traffic, with tools like network maps and server response times. Its AI-driven analytics help detect threats, focusing on east-west traffic. Integration with platforms such as pxGrid and ISE complements its capabilities. Reporting and telemetry help in identifying bandwidth issues, yet improvements are desired in AI for better data organization. Installation complexity and false positives present challenges, and managing network loads effectively is a recognized need.

What are the key features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics?

Deep Visibility: Provides comprehensive insights into network traffic and server behavior.
Network Maps: Enhances understanding of traffic flow and infrastructure layout.
AI Analytics: Uses AI for superior threat detection and anomaly recognition.
Integration: Compatible with platforms like pxGrid and ISE for enhanced security management.
Telemetry: Delivers detailed bandwidth usage and traffic analysis reports.

How does Cisco Secure Network Analytics provide value?

Enhanced Security: Elevates threat detection and response capabilities.
Traffic Insights: Identifies encrypted and anomalous network behaviors.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting industry standards for data protection.
Endpoint Protection: Guards network endpoints against potential threats.

Industries such as banking, defense, and police rely on Cisco Secure Network Analytics for securing networks against threats. Its capability to provide insights into encrypted traffic and facilitate device auditing makes it a sought-after choice for those requiring extensive network visibility. Users appreciate its application for threat prevention and response in demanding sectors.

Cisco

Icinga is a robust tool for monitoring IT infrastructure, known for its distributed monitoring capabilities and seamless integration with multiple platforms. It efficiently observes servers, network devices, and environments like Linux and Windows, enabling proactive issue identification and resource management.

With a focus on task delegation and clustering, Icinga offers an intuitive interface through its GUI and Icinga Director, simplifying configuration. The extensive plugin library supports diverse technologies, while the API allows automation with tools like Terraform and Ansible. Despite its strengths, users report challenges with data display in the GUI, a need for improved dashboards, and complex configuration processes. Users benefit from its SNMP alerts, email notifications, and automated incident handling, making it essential for managed service environments and enterprises.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Task Delegation: Streamlines monitoring tasks across distributed systems.
Event Handler: Enables automatic service recovery with minimal intervention.
Plugin Library: Offers extensive support for integrating diverse technologies.
API Accessibility: Facilitates automation with popular tools like Terraform.
Custom Plugins: Allows easy creation and personalization for monitoring needs.

What benefits should you consider in Icinga reviews?

Flexibility: Tailors monitoring to specific requirements with community support.
Scalability: Successfully manages growing infrastructure demands.
Proactivity: Enhances issue identification and resource allocation.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing IT operations platforms.

Icinga is widely adopted in IT environments for monitoring servers, networks, and applications across industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology. Its ability to integrate with various operating systems and automation platforms makes it a versatile choice for industries prioritizing comprehensive surveillance and proactive management of their infrastructure.

Sample Customers

Edge Web Hosting, Telenor Norway, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Webster Financial Corporation, Westinghouse Electric, VMware, TIAA-CREF

Puppet Labs, Audi, Spacex, Debian, Snapdeal, McGill, RIPE Network Coordination Centre

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. Icinga