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DX Spectrum vs NetBrain 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
117
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (11th), Network Monitoring Software (32nd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (30th), DX NetOps (1st)
NetBrain
Ranking in Network Troubleshooting
16th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Network Automation (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 4.8%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetBrain is 3.0%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
DX Spectrum4.8%
NetBrain3.0%
Other92.2%
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

ON
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
Provides proactive network monitoring and effective fault detection for large-scale environments
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently, they appear as pop-up messages, but I would prefer having alarm messages shown as a scrolling bar at the taskbar for easier visibility.
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

"The capability of handling and monitoring with SNMP and working with the SNMP traps is much better than other products."
"The containerization of different objects was very helpful in building an org structure. Being able to separately manage your MSP clients with separate visibility was also helpful."
"Allows us to have a single console/notification point, with the alarms of all the tools that we use for monitoring."
"It does correlation so instead of producing 20 alarms if a site goes down, it only creates one."
"The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability."
"It creates transparency and makes everything work by being more transparent."
"The most valuable features of DX Spectrum are the comprehensive alerts."
"The most valuable feature is the auto-discovery, which is nice because you don't have to do anything to add a new component."
"Enables maps to be drawn out."
"This product has good network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities."
"A reliable, time-saving tool for providing accurate layer 2 and layer 3 network mappings."
"Chain management is a good feature. I don't get it on other solutions."
"NetBrain is a very simple tool."
 

Cons

"It doesn’t give you performance metrics: You need CA eHealth for this."
"It doesn't really allow for multi-tenancy. If you're an ISP or an MSP and you want to use this tool to provide these types of fault management services to your customers, you would need a separate SpectroSERVER for each customer..."
"Its visualization can be improved. It doesn't have a very advanced GUI. It is very basic and simple, but it does work."
"The CA Technologies sales team destroyed their relationship with our business units."
"Make it easier to certify devices."
"There's a little bit of complexity to the initial install because you're dealing with operating systems. You have to make sure all the prerequisites are done, anti-virus exceptions, etc. Then there's the bringing it up and then there's discovery of the network and setting that up. It takes time."
"The visual is a little archaic."
"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 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 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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
"The solution's pricing could be better."
"It is expensive compared to other tools in the market."
"It’s a great tool, but an expensive one. Learn how to use it properly."
"In general, the license cost will be about 30% of the total TCO for this tool (hardware/support team, OS costs, and OS management)."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Currently, a perpetual license but some services are moving to a subscription"
"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
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise89
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DX Spectrum?
The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has caused us to lose many deals.
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently...
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Also Known As

CA Spectrum
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
CompuCon, TD Ameritrade, Move Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about DX Spectrum vs. NetBrain and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.