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Cisco DNA Center vs Huawei eSight comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

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 Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (19th), Network Automation (2nd)
Huawei eSight
Ranking in Network Management Applications
11th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (35th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 8.7%, down from 24.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huawei eSight is 3.7%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco DNA Center8.7%
Huawei eSight3.7%
Other87.6%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Mahir Öztürk - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Gary Strydom - PeerSpot reviewer
Desktop Analyst at Transnet
Used to monitor devices and provides the hardware alarms feature
Huawei eSight has helped me overcome many monitoring aspects of the hardware. From a single view, I can monitor all the hardware. Instead of logging on to each piece of hardware and monitoring it individually, I can monitor them from one single point. I would recommend the solution to other users because it provides a single point of view of the hardware. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the advantages is Cisco support."
"It does a lot of things automatically, and that's the big thing with it. They're making the software so that you don't need to be as knowledgeable as me on the switching and routing side to get your work done. If you want, you can have DNA troubleshoot your problem for you and give you solutions or fix it itself, if it was something that's just a configuration issue."
"Deployment is easier than it was five or six years ago."
"The advice I would give to other people who want to use Cisco DNA Center is to go for it, particularly if they have Cisco infrastructure, though these days integration could be an issue."
"Cisco DNA Center is easier to use than Fortinet FortiManager."
"What I found valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the Software-Defined Access Network, so the entire LAN network can be centralized and managed from a single dashboard. Cisco DNA Center is suitable for centralized management and lets you deploy switches in a centralized fashion. You can also do multiple switch port configurations simultaneously and segregate your traffic into multiple fabrics. Another valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is enhanced security through Scalable Group Tags. Cisco DNA Center can be integrated with your Cisco ISE to enhance the port securities, and this paves the way for Software-Defined Networking in the LAN segment, which is the main advantage of Cisco DNA Center. I also like that you can use Cisco DNA Center for data assurance or correlation. The solution shows your network and client health parameters, which I find convenient for troubleshooting."
"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."
"I think that their LAN automation is a very good feature."
"Technical support is good from Huawei."
"The product is stable."
"eSight allows me to monitor and solve any problem in the backbone and any switch in real-time."
"Since we have a central monitoring system, we can proactively monitor those devices, easily capture any abnormalities before major downtime, and quickly address the issues before they become a bigger problem in the future."
"I like the real-time location monitor or RTLS feature. It is similar to the monitoring feature in Cisco Prime."
"We use this solution to monitor our sales."
"The most important features are alarm management and the visualization of the health of our network devices."
"We have found the product to be stable and reliable."
 

Cons

"They should include UTM features in the product."
"The product has many features that do not work properly."
"As a user, it would be good if I could plug in controllers, suites, and devices from other vendors to Cisco DNA Center."
"Requires more focus on the digital side of things."
"What I want to see in Cisco DNA Center in the future is more support for other platforms so that you can manage third-party products, such as Fortinet."
"Cisco DNA Center isn't as stable, particularly with the logs, because it doesn't replicate the exact logs."
"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."
"Cisco could improve the security side of their solutions."
"It will be better if they can make the simple network topology part more presentable. It would also be better if they had API integration and integration with third-party devices."
"When I implemented this Huawei solution, I faced some limitations in particular areas like wireless scanning."
"The solution and the operating system come separately. It would be easier if we did not have to deploy anything. A bundle feature would be better."
"It is not a very flexible product. We cannot change much from our side."
"The solution needs to improve it's user interface to make it more modern and stylish. They need to design proper menu positions, features, etc. Right now the layout is complicated."
"The price is very expensive."
"The price could be less costly."
"eSight has many features and options, but sometimes, we feel that it should be more advanced, like Cisco. It would be good if they can enable some automation part in eSight. Most of our customers want automation in their network. They don't want a dependency on everything. That's why the automation part must be improved in Huawei. It will be beneficial for customers. Cisco has different products, and there are multiple products for monitoring, automation, etc. In the software-defined network, Cisco has ACI, and VMware has NSX. Such options must be there in Huawei to move to a software-defined network. Unlike Cisco, in the case of eSight, there is only one product. I am not aware of any other product. It would be good to enhance it with at least some automation options so that we can use it effectively in the campus network or big data center environment. When I implemented this Huawei solution, I faced some limitations in particular areas like wireless scanning. This is another part that they can improve. Wireless reporting option is not as effective as other monitoring solutions. For a particular use case, if a customer is asking for some reports, sometimes they are not 100% satisfactory. The reporting structure must be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."
"We have a three-year license with them."
"The tool is medium-priced."
"The product is very costly."
"I rate the product's pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The solution is expensive."
"Affordability is a problem because it's created for large enterprises only. So, some customers, even if their engineers want the solution, might have problems with budget limitations."
"I would rate this solution a nine out of ten for pricing. The pricing depends on which features you use and can become expensive."
"The price is very expensive."
"Its pricing is better than any other Huawei product. Some products are cheaper in Huawei, and some products are cheaper in Cisco. Cisco has more benefits and options than Huawei if you consider different network environments."
"Pricing depends on the competition. If your competitor is like Cisco, then Huawei is much more competitive when it comes to pricing."
"The pricing for Huawei eSight is reasonable, especially with the base license and incremental licenses for additional devices. However, the variety of license types can be a bit complex. We used to sell eSight but switched to another solution, so we're not actively trading it anymore."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?
After evaluating other solutions, we will provide feedback.
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The deployment of Cisco DNA Center was complex due to the fact that on the data center side, we have a Juniper infrastructure, which created some complexity, though not significant. The deployment ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco DNA Center?
In my organization, we currently have some Cisco devices such as access switches, and we also have infrastructure, but that is not part of our responsibility. We do not manage that infrastructure. ...
What needs improvement with Huawei eSight?
Huawei eSight should work on the option to have the email notification working on Office 365 Exchange.
What is your primary use case for Huawei eSight?
We use the solution to monitor the hardware environment of our data center. We mainly use Huawei eSight to monitor the devices. It assists in monitoring our devices in terms of utilization and moni...
What advice do you have for others considering Huawei eSight?
Huawei eSight has helped me overcome many monitoring aspects of the hardware. From a single view, I can monitor all the hardware. Instead of logging on to each piece of hardware and monitoring it i...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Marina Bay, CITIC Pacific Mining
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. Huawei eSight and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.