Cisco DNA Center vs Snort: What are the differences?

Developers describe Cisco DNA Center as "The network management and command center for Cisco DNA". It is the network management and command center for Cisco DNA, your intent-based network for the enterprise Provision and configure all your network devices in minutes. Use advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to proactively monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize your network. Integrate with third-party systems for improved operational processes.​. On the other hand, Snort is detailed as "An open-source security software product that looks at network traffic in real time and logs packets to perform detailed analysis". It is an open-source, free and lightweight network intrusion detection system (NIDS) software for Linux and Windows to detect emerging threats.

Cisco DNA Center and Snort can be primarily classified as "Network Monitoring" tools.

Some of the features offered by Cisco DNA Center are:

• Translate business intent into zero-trust network policies. Identify all endpoints and optimize user experience based on business requirements
• Automate deployment and management of network devices and integration of security solutions, to promote consistency across configurations, reduce errors, and save time
• Analytics and AI/ML combined with Cisco best practices help to optimize your network's performance, reduce troubleshooting time, and lower the cost of network operations

On the other hand, Snort provides the following key features:

• Intrusion Agent
• IPSx
• IPS

Snort is an open source tool with 915 GitHub stars and 280 GitHub forks. Here's a link to Snort's open source repository on GitHub.