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Forward Enterprise vs NetBrain comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Forward Enterprise
Ranking in Network Automation
22nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Network Modeling and Simulation (21st)
NetBrain
Ranking in Network Automation
6th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Network Troubleshooting (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Network Automation category, the mindshare of Forward Enterprise is 2.3%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetBrain is 7.3%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetBrain7.3%
Forward Enterprise2.3%
Other90.4%
Network Automation
 

Featured Reviews

RA
IT Architectural System Expert at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Plenty of useful features, and simple implementation
Forward Enterprise has improved the way my organization functions All the features are valuable in Forward Enterprise. Forward Enterprise could improve by increasing flexibility. Additionally, there should be an Android version or desktop. I have been using Forward Enterprise for approximately…
Deborah Gamelin - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President at Asset Track for Cloud, LLC
Good monitoring and troubleshoot capabilities, improves overall network traffic visibility
In my organization, we had 130,000 network devices that needed to be brought into the solution and mapped. NetBrain can handle the scale but the engineers that manage those devices have to go in and update all of them to allow NetBrain permission to poll them. It can get a little stressful for everybody when you're trying to roll out new stuff when you've got other issues that have to be addressed with other devices. In some cases, our devices had no automation at all. One example is the Cisco 3650. Right now, if you went through the inventory list, you see that we have different versions running. Some are on one version, whereas others are on another version. The problem with upgrading them is that they need to be done overnight because we don't want to disrupt any network traffic during business hours. Consequently, it could take us years to upgrade the versions before we can even get them onto these new tools. This may be an internal issue but it's a big one when you have a lot of devices. Even if you had 10,000 devices, it's still an issue. You have to consider the compatibility of the device against the tool, and being able to use certain commands to upgrade it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"All the features are valuable in Forward Enterprise."
"Forward Enterprise has improved the way my organization functions."
"This tool is exactly what we wanted and needed."
"Other advice to users considering the solution would be: go with NetBrain."
"Once it's up and running and you don't have the strange requirements I had, and you just want some basic maps, it'll work."
"Chain management is a good feature. I don't get it on other solutions."
"This product has good network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities."
"NetBrain is a very simple tool."
"Enables maps to be drawn out."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that you can click once and have a link test, see your network, and get an overall view of your network and its state."
 

Cons

"Forward Enterprise could improve by increasing flexibility. Additionally, there should be an Android version or desktop."
"The IP interface brief isn't consistent."
"Support needs to improve for the installed product and some of the reporting could be more flexible to provide more complete cataloging."
"The solution could integrate more automation."
"It would be nice if the setup was a little simpler. Also, if the solution could provide more training materials for new people coming into our company so they can quickly learn how to use the functionalities."
"Each device needs to be configured to allow NetBrain to poll for the information it needs, which can be very time-consuming for a large network."
"The pricing needs to be improved."
"Licensing is based on a per-device basis, which means that it can get very expensive if you have a large number of devices."
"When I used the installed product before, I wasn't very satisfied with the support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for the solution annually."
"The product is expensive, but less expensive than some of the competition and worth the price."
"Licensing is based on a per-device basis, which means that it can get very expensive if you have a large number of devices."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
CompuCon, TD Ameritrade, Move Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Cisco, Infoblox and others in Network Automation. Updated: August 2026.
912,753 professionals have used our research since 2012.