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Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs LiveAction LiveNX comparison

 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Network Analytics
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
22nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (3rd), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (5th), Cisco Security Portfolio (7th)
LiveAction LiveNX
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
50th
Average Rating
6.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (48th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is 1.2%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LiveAction LiveNX is 0.7%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Sudhakar T - PeerSpot reviewer
Strong network security analytics with excellent encrypted traffic analysis features
Improvements are needed on the application layer for complete security analysis. The solution should have the ability to analyze security events not only at the network layer but also at the application and OS layers. There's a need for a more comprehensive licensing model where all necessary licenses are included by default.
Mahesh Doshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Very good reporting and alerting abilities but inadequate enhancement support
Before choosing the solution, it is important to rank your requirements from high to low priority. The solution has a lot of features but at a high price. If you will only use 30% of the solution to meet your requirements, then it would be better for you to explore other products. Find the solution that best fulfills your requirements. The solution itself is great. If I could use it properly, then I would rate it a seven out of ten. Unfortunately, support is a factor when determining usability or cost effectiveness. We did not receive the needed support so had to stop using the solution. For that reason, my overall rating for the solution is a five 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

"The artifacts available in the tool provide better information for analyzing network traffic. It enables a holistic view of network traffic and general packet analysis. It's easy to identify anomalies without the use of signatures. The way in which we implemented Stealthwatch Cloud has enabled my team to analyze traffic behind proxies."
"The most valuable feature is its alerts and dashboard."
"It is a good application, providing for real-time monitoring of the organization of data. It can basically identify points of peak traffic where possible issues are being caused."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is data hoarding because it catches threats on a frequent basis that we had no idea of."
"The solution reduces the amount of time it takes to detect and remediate threats."
"The search options on Cisco Stealthwatch are the most valuable. You can get very granular with it, down to the kilobits or the seconds if you want. The product supports any time frame that you need, so that is nice."
"StealthWatch lets me see the ports running in and out and the country. It has excellent reporting, telemetry, and artificial intelligence features. With the telemetry, I can set thresholds to detect sudden changes and the alarms go through the PLC parts. I can see all the ports running on that trunk."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the way the net flow is being merged together in a single pane. That's been extremely useful for us, because can see what's going on with traffic in one single place."
"One of the valuable features is the ability to create CLI scripts on the fly to fix any issues. We were using it for QoS modeling to ensure that we were properly modeling QoS, and it basically said here is what you need to fix to get this QoS done, whether it is ACL or something else. It would either push or recommend. If you have the right credentials, you could also push. It is very good if you are a Cisco shop. It gives you reporting, latency, and bandwidth utilization for your applications, so you can do good capacity management planning. There are a lot of pieces that LiveNX can give you. It is a total NPM solution for SD-WAN."
"The intention and the idea of the filter is great."
"We provide a tool for our customers to manage their reports. It's an extremely highly featured platform capable of producing a lot of data. We spent quite a long time working with customers and LiveAction to create template reports, and they're very good and configurable. You get a lot of data if you don't configure them."
"The alerting feature is very good because it allows you to set MOS alerts at various network junctures or data points."
"The product has a very good graphical interface."
"Its analytical capability is really good."
"All in all, LiveAction LiveNX has become an indispensable tool for maintaining and improving our network's reliability and performance, ultimately supporting our organization's goal of providing timely and dependable delivery services."
"We don't have any complaints about the software. According to my team, it's a very good tool that's very intuitive."
 

Cons

"Stealthwatch needs improvement when it comes to speed."
"One area that could be improved in SNA is the integration with Cisco ISE for user and session details, which currently requires additional setup."
"It would be better to let people know, up front, that is doesn't give you nice, clear information, as seen in the demos, without Cisco ISE installed."
"The configuration of the solution was quite complex."
"It's not great as a standalone solution."
"We determined that Stealthwatch wouldn't provide the machine learning model that we required."
"Some of our customers find this solution to be a little bit tough because they don't understand how to configure and use it."
"I would like to see it better organized when I'm looking at it."
"Improved documentation and more responsive customer support can help in addressing issues faster."
"Sometimes the solution does not register devices properly and that is a bug."
"This is a horrible solution and I think everything needs to be improved."
"The only downside to this software is the price."
"It is not as robust as other NPM solutions. For instance, there is a problem while labeling specific applications. It works well with well-known applications, but when you have to put in new applications that are not very known and set them up with names, ports, URLs, or some protocols, it is not as intuitive."
"They need to create a more simplified UI."
"The tool crashes sometimes when we try to pull reports simultaneously."
"The product is weak in multi-tenancy. We have to install multiple instances of LiveAction, whereas we would like to build it once for our customers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for this solution is good."
"The solution is expensive. It costs several hundred thousand dollars per year (depending on how many flows you are collecting)."
"Licensing is done by flows per second, not including outside>in traffic."
"The yearly licensing cost is about $50,000."
"One of the things which bugs me about Lancope is the licensing. We understand how licensing works. Our problem is when we bought and purchased most of these Lancope devices, we did so with our sister company. Somewhere within the purchase and distribution, licensing got mixed up. That is all on Cisco, and it is their responsibility. They allotted some of our sister company's equipment to us, and some of our equipment to them. To date, they have never been able to fix it."
"It is worth the cost."
"On a yearly basis, licensing is somewhere around $30,000."
"Licensing is on a yearly basis."
"It's very expensive."
"We use the free version."
"The solution is fairly expensive compared to other products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
29%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Stealthwatch?
The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is the Threat Intelligence integration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Stealthwatch?
The organization experienced challenges with licensing as Cisco has multiple licensing factors, and there are concerns about the price. Cisco solutions are considered to be very expensive.
What needs improvement with Cisco Stealthwatch?
Improvements are needed on the application layer for complete security analysis. The solution should have the ability to analyze security events not only at the network layer but also at the applic...
What do you like most about LiveAction LiveNX?
The product has a very good graphical interface.
What needs improvement with LiveAction LiveNX?
The product is weak in multi-tenancy. We have to install multiple instances of LiveAction, whereas we would like to build it once for our customers. Most of these analytical packages have the same ...
What is your primary use case for LiveAction LiveNX?
Primarily, we use the product for monitoring the standard utilization of circuits. The tool has the incredible ability to provide granular details about the traffic passing through an interface on ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, Lancope StealthWatch
LiveNX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edge Web Hosting, Telenor Norway, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Webster Financial Corporation, Westinghouse Electric, VMware, TIAA-CREF
Tampa Electric, Digital First Media, Allscripts, Boxwood Technology
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. LiveAction LiveNX and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.