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DX Spectrum vs LinkSprinter comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 11, 2024

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

DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Troubleshooting
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (11th), Network Monitoring Software (30th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (29th), DX NetOps (1st)
LinkSprinter
Ranking in Network Troubleshooting
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Network Diagnostics (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 4.9%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LinkSprinter is 5.4%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Troubleshooting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
LinkSprinter5.4%
DX Spectrum4.9%
Other89.7%
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

PinchasAlbalya - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Monitoring has become centralized and management now sees real‑time health of key network assets
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we took an external vendor to install and make the customization. If we want to make others changes without paying for customization, we need to learn it deeply by ourselves. The tutorials are very complicated. They could work on that area. The tutorial part could be more simplified. I know there are many explanations, and you can get help or documents in one click on the current page in the product, but it is not very clear. If you want to do something new that you did not see from the vendor in the installation, it is not very simple. The documents are good for people that know how to operate the product well, but for new users, it is not simple.
JamesStout - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at JVS Consulting
A small, convenient tool that is very stable, but needs to have a longer battery life
They could make it easier to set up originally, because the initial setup can be quite hit and miss. It is also quite battery intensive, so it might last a bit longer if it had a lithium battery. You're always having to replace the batteries, so it would be good if it could be USB-charged or something like that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a good tool; it's simple to do the configuration and has good discovery and integration."
"The most valuable features of DX Spectrum are the comprehensive alerts."
"The ability to monitor your WAN and LAN infrastructure in a simple GUI."
"The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability."
"The granular access control that it provided so that you could only see devices that were related to what you were working on was great. I couldn't see the entire inventory of devices. I could only see the ones that were related to my work. It has got a very granular access control component."
"Everything being centrally located in one infrastructure management tool allows anyone anywhere, between the IT help desk, to Windows teams, Unix teams, or the network team to see exactly what devices are causing the issue, as well as the severity of those issues."
"DX Spectrum uses an SNMP Trap to accept all the details, especially for device monitoring of faulty devices, allowing me to use Spectrum effectively."
"CA Spectrum is a powerful solution that will allow you to do almost everything you ever needed to monitor your network infrastructure."
"The solution provides switch port and VLAN information."
"The tool fits in your pocket, so it's easy to carry and you don't have to have a big bag of tools."
 

Cons

"Needs better integration with all the other products in the Agile suite of tools; anything they could do to make that less complex, would be great."
"The documentation of this product is not very easy to understand without any screenshots or application windows."
"HTML5. Right now, it is a very Java driven application. We have lots of issues."
"Occasionally, usually after an upgrade, we see a few issues but these are almost always cleared up quickly by opening a case with CA."
"We have had one support issue that's been open for a couple of months, and it is currently open."
"It's not the best product for availability and outages reporting."
"I would suggest improving the web GUI to improve the device monitor configuration and to improve or to integrate the new tool for reporting."
"The solution's stability needs improvement."
"They could make it easier to set up originally, because the initial setup can be quite hit and miss."
"The solution should improve cable testing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good enough to expect an ideal solution. It's expensive."
"Spectrum is expensive."
"The cost of some of these products are a little cost prohibitive, which is unfortunate. We have to find lower cost solutions for some of the things that we have to pull in. For the most part, CA has capabilities in pretty much everything that you would need. You just have to figure out where are you going to spend the most money for what you have to actually get done. You can do all these things but, which ones do you have to do? And that's hard to choose sometimes because you want to do them all."
"DX Spectrum's pricing depends on the license number. It is affordable."
"It’s a great tool, but an expensive one. Learn how to use it properly."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Since the acquisition by Broadcom, we have not had such a good experience with licensing and pricing. Since they were bought by Broadcom, every sales contract is getting complicated. It's very complicated, and it's much more expensive than before. It's not a good pricing strategy from Broadcom."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
"You pay for the device, but you don't have to pay for the app."
"The product is a little bit overpriced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
University
14%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Hospitality Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise90
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we to...
What is your primary use case for DX Spectrum?
The university purchased DX Spectrum, called ICE. DX Spectrum NAC is working for us only on Cisco 9200 switches. It is not working on any other switch like C1000 or HG or any 2960X. Even other Cisc...
Ask a question
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CA Spectrum
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Cisco, Marriott, Sands Expo, Valparaiso University, Memorial Hermann Health Care System, Mount Sinai, Cox Enterprises, George Washington University, University of Iowa.
Find out what your peers are saying about DX Spectrum vs. LinkSprinter and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.