No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco DNA Center vs ThousandEyes comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Cisco DNA Center enhances time efficiency despite high costs and complex licensing, yielding high return on investment ratings.
Sentiment score
6.4
ThousandEyes offers a positive ROI through time savings, enhanced network performance, and improved customer satisfaction with reduced MTTR.
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
There has been a great ROI from using ThousandEyes, with significant time saved in troubleshooting as I can quickly pinpoint issues rather than spending time isolating them, alongside enhancing customer feedback and experience.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
The return on investment is immediate, delivering a 40% to 60% reduction in MTTR by eliminating multi-team war rooms and saving hundreds of engineering hours annually through instant ISP path proof, directly protecting business productivity and SaaS SLA accountability.
Network engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have seen a return on investment by reducing troubleshooting time and having lesser user mapping error issues, in addition to engineering time saved through better observability and reduced organizational MTTR.
Project Manager at Procter & Gamble
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Cisco DNA Center's customer service is generally helpful, but inconsistency and delays in technical support are frequently noted.
Sentiment score
7.2
ThousandEyes is praised for exceptional customer service, proactive support, and comprehensive documentation despite minor response time improvements.
Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
I would rate Cisco support easily at nine out of ten.
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at POST Luxembourg
The support for Cisco DNA Center is good.
Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri
We contacted the support team, and they resolved it within a couple of hours.
System Operation Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I would give it a rating of 10 because whenever we have any issues, we can typically reach someone who has the knowledge to help us.
Network Engineer Iii at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Customer support is very prompt, offering on-demand services and support with separate teams for high-level guidance and break-fix issues.
Observability Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Cisco DNA Center is scalable and efficient for large networks but may face limitations with IPv6 support and costs.
Sentiment score
7.5
ThousandEyes is highly scalable and adaptable, efficiently serving diverse organizations with easy cloud access despite licensing costs.
From my experience, we can easily manage numerous devices.
Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
Scalability with ThousandEyes is straightforward as you don't really need to scale; it's designed to monitor multiple applications, accommodating 50 or 100 applications simultaneously.
Network Assistant Engineer at Staffordshire and Shropshire Health Informatics Service
ThousandEyes's scalability is excellent; it is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Project Manager at Procter & Gamble
We could easily add hundreds of devices with no issue.
Senior Security Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Users generally rate Cisco DNA Center highly for stability, with minor issues often resolved effectively by Cisco support.
Sentiment score
8.0
ThousandEyes is praised for its high stability, reliability, and efficiency, with minimal bugs and minor IT intervention needed.
When we communicate problems, they solve them effectively.
Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri
From my experience, ThousandEyes has been stable up to 95%; I have not seen any stability issues.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
I did not see any downtime.
Senior Security Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
ThousandEyes is not very stable; sometimes you have to reboot the servers to get actual results.
Network Assistant Engineer at Staffordshire and Shropshire Health Informatics Service
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco DNA Center needs integration, UI, security, and support improvements, with high pricing, complex deployment, and feature parity desired.
ThousandEyes needs better usability, integration, documentation, and enhanced features like network monitoring, visualization, and security at lower complexity.
The AI-driven insights have contributed significantly to faster troubleshooting and predictive analytics.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
The deployment part is definitely an area for improvement.
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at POST Luxembourg
The client history in Cisco DNA Center can be longer than 10 days, perhaps extending to 15 or 20 days.
Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri
Incidents should be alerted on and traced early, before they escalate to full outages.
Software Developer at The Code
I think the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for ThousandEyes are too costly.
R&D at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Having a dedicated incident alert system for URL alerts would help manage noise and streamline operations, especially during patch upgrades.
System Operation Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco DNA Center is costly, suited for large enterprises, with advanced features requiring extra fees, and challenging for SMBs.
ThousandEyes pricing views vary, with some users finding value and others noting complexity and potential high costs for small businesses.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that everything was cost-effective.
Project Manager at Procter & Gamble
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it comes in cheaper than alternatives.
Lead Technical Consultant at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
It's too complex, too expensive, and it takes a lot of time to manage the licensing model.
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco DNA Center provides centralized management, automation, AI-based insights, and security, enhancing network operations with scalable automation and comprehensive visibility.
ThousandEyes provides deep visibility and proactive troubleshooting, enhancing user experience with AI integration and Cisco compatibility.
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
If there is a problem, I can inspect the situation and see what is happening, which is beneficial.
Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri
I measure the 70% improvement in customer experience through customer tickets and feedback after resolving issues, where previously, users faced problems and limited time on the platform, and after using ThousandEyes, the user time reached up to five to six hours a day, even for teams possibly totaling 30 hours a day.
Senior cloud engineering lead and IT project owner at KDD
ThousandEyes offers the best features including global internet and cloud visibility from distributed vantage points, application and network performance monitoring, real-time outage detection and incident alerts, end-to-end path visualization for rapid troubleshooting, proactive issue demarcation, and historical data.
Project Manager at Procter & Gamble
ThousandEyes has become critical for swift network troubleshooting as well, so anytime that there's potential issues with applications or we want to be proactive in resolving potential issues before they arise, ThousandEyes is really the platform that we're leveraging for WAN monitoring, Wi-Fi, latency, packet loss, etc.
Vice President, Finance and Operations at Fruitist
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
33rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (2nd), Network Automation (2nd)
ThousandEyes
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (10th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 0.7%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThousandEyes is 1.6%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ThousandEyes1.6%
Cisco DNA Center0.7%
Other97.7%
Network Monitoring Software
 

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.
Siddumanisria Mindi - PeerSpot reviewer
Network engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Monitoring has transformed internet visibility and speeds up resolving external service issues
ThousandEyes needs to specify unit consumption forecasting or scaling testing and deeper app analytics. It needs deeper out-of-the-box Layer 7 code or database-level insights. Additionally, it should unify the GUI with broader Cisco platforms and flatten the learning curve, adding better correlation with local laptop system metrics such as endpoint depth, CPU, RAM, or processes. ThousandEyes isn't designed to be a full-blown SNMP monitoring tool for on-premises infrastructure. While it tracks network paths effectively, it doesn't provide deep local device telemetry such as switch port buffer utilization, fan status, or power supply health. For full internal device monitoring, you'll still need to pair it with traditional tools such as SolarWinds or Cisco Catalyst Center.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Government
7%
 

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 Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise22
 

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 is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or requirements. Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better from a cloud monitoring or APM monitoring perspective. You can check...
What needs improvement with ThousandEyes?
We face challenges with hybrid and distributed enterprise networks since we use Cisco, but we also have other third party integrations. When it comes to ThousandEyes, it does not show anything when...
What is your primary use case for ThousandEyes?
I have been using ThousandEyes with this company for two years. The main use case is that we would like to get insights into our calls. Currently, we are still in the POC state with ThousandEyes, b...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Wayfair, GitHub, Craigslist, Comcast, SurveyMonkey, Lyft, Box, HP, Zendesk, IO Data Centers, Good Technology, NNTCommunications, Proofpoint, Schneider, Crowdstrike, Avera, Pitney Bowes, InstartLogic, Shutterfly, Shutterstock, Condé Nast, Roche, Jive, Actelion, Brocade, Infor, Okta, JLL, DigitalOcean, Zuora, NetSuite, CloudFlare, One, DemonWare, Quantcast, Carbonite, CareerBuilder, Prosper, Oscar, Slack
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. ThousandEyes and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.