Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Huawei eSight comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Huawei are both solutions in the Network Management Applications category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.7, while Huawei is ranked #16. Cisco holds a 2.3% mindshare in NMA, compared to Huawei’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 72% of Huawei users who would recommend it.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Read 105 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN reviews

15,514 Views
1,396 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Huawei eSight

Read 10 Huawei eSight reviews

4,918 Views
1,820 Comparison Views

72% willing to recommend

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Huawei eSight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Huawei eSight and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN compete in the network management category. Huawei eSight has the advantage in pricing and customer support, while Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers superior features, justifying its higher cost.

Features: Huawei eSight includes alarm management, visualization of network device health, and RTLS similar to Cisco Prime. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers deep packet inspection, centralized management, and application-aware routing for VOIP and video calls using MPLS.

Room for Improvement: Huawei eSight could enhance its cloud integration, expand compatibility with non-Huawei devices, and improve its real-time network analytics. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN may benefit from simplifying complex configurations, reducing deployment times for large-scale networks, and enhancing its WAN optimization features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides a cloud-based model, facilitating easier installation and scalability, supported by robust customer service. Huawei eSight relies on an on-premises deployment, requiring more resource commitment, though its customer support is highly responsive.

Pricing and ROI: Huawei eSight offers cost-effective solutions with good ROI through its efficient network management. It is generally lower-priced, appealing to budget-conscious enterprises. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, although more expensive, provides high ROI due to improved network performance and reduced operational costs, making it an attractive long-term investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei eSight Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei eSight

September 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 917,433 peers since 2012

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 Catalyst SD-WAN

Ranking in Network Management Applications

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

105

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (2nd)

Huawei eSight

Ranking in Network Management Applications

16th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (56th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huawei eSight is 4.2%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN	2.3%
Huawei eSight	4.2%
Other	93.5%

Network Management Applications

Featured Reviews

Ashwani-Tyagi

Regional Manager at Orange

Centralized control has simplified cloud access and has improved operational visibility

If they can have better firewall features as their competitors have, such as Fortinet and Versa, that would help to place this solution better so that we can address security related things. If they can have all the IPS, IDS, everything built on all the edge devices, whether physical or virtual, that could be one improvement. Actually, if customers are existing Cisco customers, if Cisco can be more flexible to leverage the existing investment, that could be another important aspect to save on cost and be more competitive from a pricing perspective. Overall, the pricing or the segment that Cisco deals with is a bit premium, which they charge a bit premium against the competition on the licensing, hardware, and services. The implementation is not straightforward. You need a specialized partner or specialized people who can implement this. It can be simplified a bit from that perspective as well. Mostly the way we implement the policies for a big environment requires a lot of things that we need to take care of. If that can somehow be improved, because they have different components, like they have vManage, they have vSmart, and vBond and all these components have to work with a certain flow that they need to follow.

Read full review

Gary Strydom

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco SD-WAN's most valuable feature is the ease of transition."

"The most valuable features, application awareness, and failover resilience, stand out as key considerations for users."

"This is a good solution, and it's a new technology that people should look into because it provides for seamless management of the whole network, including switches."

"The scalability is the most valuable feature."

"The first part that we like is that we can reuse certain hardware, which is a valuable asset."

"The most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN include the DIA and its integration with Cisco Umbrella for DNS security."

"This solution has allowed us to implement much more flexible payment models than the current ones, better plan the budget that is needed for technology, and see the cloud differently with more confidence since the orchestration is SaaS, so we do not see a compelling reason to avoid introducing more services in this format."

"The most valuable features of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN include their support, which is really good compared to other vendors because we do deal with other vendors, and I have seen FortiGate, and I don't think they will ever be able to match up to what Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offerings are, that is for sure."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pros

"One of the most beneficial features of Huawei eSight is its simplicity and ease of use."

"The solution's most valuable dashboard features include monitoring storage, resource availability, and hardware alarms."

"Huawei eSight provides businesses with monitoring capabilities of network devices across your network."

"I like that it supports all our Huawei devices. Unlike other network monitoring tools that monitor Huawei devices, it provides more details when it comes to monitoring or management. We can get complete details about the devices, and management is also simple."

"eSight allows me to monitor and solve any problem in the backbone and any switch in real-time."

"We use Huawei eSight to monitor devices like Wi-Fi controllers, LAN switches, and routers."

"We have found the product to be stable and reliable."

"The most important features are alarm management and the visualization of the health of our network devices."

More Huawei eSight pros

Cons

"Its license model needs to be improved. They always make the license model too complex. There are too many license models and too many options. They should have a flexible license model. They can improve a lot of things in terms of scalability, templates, and automation, mainly automation for onboarding a number of sites. If you want some new features, it can take quite a long time. If you want a feature and it is not yet developed, you need to have the support of the business units to have the feature developed. If the feature is not on their roadmap, it can take quite some time before you get the feature."

"Cisco needs to improve the technical support for this solution."

"The tool is very expensive."

"All of the configurations are based on templates, and we need to spend a lot of time doing the templates. It's good because that means that all of the configurations will be equal in the network. However, we need to spend a lot of time implementing the templates and doing the customizations."

"Cisco could provide you your firewall and your SD-WAN solution together."

"I would like them to add some more SD-WAN ports. We have seen one implementation where there were four ISPs. Currently, we have a maximum of two ports for ISP in this device. Therefore, we cannot connect directly, and we need other switches. There should be some option to have more than two ports for SD-WAN."

"If you don't have an in-house design team or outsource to a third party with expertise, the setup will be difficult."

"Some competitors are much faster in providing out-of-the-box solutions, more innovative solutions. In terms of innovation, in many cases, they're lagging behind."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN cons

"The variety of license types should be made simpler as, at present, it is complex."

"This solution could be improved by offering monitoring for all devices and not only Huawei devices."

"When I implemented this Huawei solution, I faced some limitations in particular areas like wireless scanning."

"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."

"Something that could be improved is the lack of integration with Cisco switches. In the next release, I would like to see better reporting."

"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."

"Technical support for the solution is not so good."

"The price could be less costly."

More Huawei eSight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for Cisco SD-WAN is more expensive than other brands or solutions, such as Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks, so it's one out of ten."

"The pricing of this solution is very expensive."

"The license model is too complex with too many flavors and options. You might not be able to see it from an end user's point of view, but from a telco point of view, their license model is too complex. They should have a flexible license model. If you want to have good pricing, you need to buy it for a two-year, four-year, or five-year license immediately. Some other vendors have much more flexible license models."

"The costs are a bit on the high side."

"Cisco is more expensive than FortiGate."

"You have to pay between 3000 and 10,000 euros, or something in that range. The core switches Nexus cost me between 10,000 and 20,000 euros."

"The product is not too expensive."

"Cloud subscription management must be paid for, although this does not incur a perpetual fee."

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN pricing and cost advice

"I would rate this solution a nine out of ten for pricing. The pricing depends on which features you use and can become 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."

"The price is very expensive."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	50

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?

Cisco offers premium enterprise capabilities, but its pricing, setup cost, and licensing models represent the most significant hurdles for IT organizations. Cisco hardware commands a premium price ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?

I cannot speak to programming-side improvements since that is not my area of expertise. On a base level, improvements could include a better interface, more AI capabilities, better pricing, and bet...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco SD-WAN?

The primary use case is for network management and routers we have for WAN connectivity.

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Prisma SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 23% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 4% of the time

Huawei Enterprise Routers vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 4% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Competitors

Cisco DNA Center vs Huawei eSight

Compared 5% of the time

H3C intelligent Management Center vs Huawei eSight

Compared 5% of the time

Zabbix vs Huawei eSight

Compared 4% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Huawei eSight

Compared 4% of the time

Huawei iBMC vs Huawei eSight

Compared 3% of the time

More Huawei eSight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

October 2026

Download Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Management Applications

September 2026

Download Huawei eSight product report

Also Known As

Cisco SD-WAN

No data available

Overview

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers centralized management and integrates seamlessly with existing Cisco ecosystems. It simplifies deployment with zero-touch provisioning, delivering robust security and optimized application routing.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides essential capabilities for organizations seeking secure remote connectivity and cost reduction, notably through its support of hybrid environments. While pricing and complexity present challenges, its advanced application control and cloud compatibility make it a valuable asset for connecting branches and data centers. Users benefit from enhanced security, network assurance, and simplified management, driving operational efficiency.

What are the key features of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?

Centralized Management: Streamlines network operations through a single interface.
Zero-Touch Provisioning: Simplifies deployment, reducing manual setup efforts.
Application-Aware Routing: Enhances performance by prioritizing critical applications.
Robust Security: Integrates strong security measures for data protection.
Hybrid Environment Support: Facilitates connectivity across various environments.
Integration with Cisco Products: Ensures seamless operation within existing networks.

What benefits can users expect from Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces networking expenses by optimizing resource usage.
Operational Simplicity: Streamlines processes, reducing resource strain.
Enhanced Security: Strengthens defenses with integrated security features.
Improved Connectivity: Ensures reliable communication for remote sites.
Scalability: Supports varying enterprise sizes with tailored solutions.

In banking, retail, and enterprise sectors, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN facilitates effective network management by enhancing connectivity between branches and data centers. Its security features and zero-touch deployment are particularly valued, providing scalable solutions for locations that demand reliable, application-prioritized networking.

Cisco

Huawei eSight provides efficient network and infrastructure management, known for supporting all Huawei devices. With features like alarm management and device health visualization, it remains a stable, scalable tool for Huawei partners seeking effective monitoring and control.

Huawei eSight offers detailed monitoring, supporting Huawei devices seamlessly, praised for its simplicity and integration with Windows servers. Users appreciate its Network Traffic Analyzer and dashboard, which includes storage and resource monitoring. It is cost-effective and scales well for Huawei users. However, interface and menu design updates are needed, alongside better automation and third-party device integration like Cisco switches. Improvements in wireless reporting and licensing options would enhance usability. Excessive alerts and flexibility issues should be addressed, as should support and deployment processes.

What key features does Huawei eSight provide?

Alarm Management: Provides timely notifications for potential issues.
Device Health Visualization: Offers clear insights into device status and performance.
Real-Time Location Monitor: Tracks device locations efficiently.
Network Traffic Analyzer: Analyzes traffic for better decision making.
Resource Monitoring: Monitors resources ensuring optimal usage.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides value suitable for Huawei devices.
Stability: Ensures reliable performance.
Scalability: Adapts to growing network demands.
Efficiency: Simplifies management tasks.

Huawei eSight is widely adopted in industries for managing network infrastructure. Organizations use it to monitor switches, routers, and access points, often in data centers or enterprise networks. It aids in device configuration, management, and support, tailored to networks built on Huawei's product ecosystem.

Huawei

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates

Marina Bay, CITIC Pacific Mining

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei eSight

September 2026

Free Report: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei eSight

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei eSight and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei eSight report.

See our list of best Network Management Applications vendors.

We monitor all Network Management Applications reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.