Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics

Name: Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics
Brand: Cisco
Rating: 4.5 (469 reviews)

Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics is a synthetic monitoring capability that proactively tests DNS/HTTP, browser journeys, and voice/video-like application flows, visualizes hop-by-hop network paths to correlate latency and loss with application metrics, and provides external WAN/Internet/cloud visibility for incident isolation.

Website

MarketsSecurity Service Edge (SSE)Digital Employee Experience (DEX)Infrastructure Monitoring Enterprise Networking Observability Platform

Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics screenshot

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

ThousandEyes vs Catchpoint - Both emphasize external visibility and synthetic vantage points. - Some buyers compare them directly. Catchpoint’s pricing presentation is more explicit for entry plans, which some procurement teams prefer. ThousandEyes vs Dynatrace - A pattern in community commentary: ThousandEyes is strong for network-path intelligence, while Dynatrace may be preferable when synthetics are needed tightly integrated with APM and broader telemetry. - At least one practitioner characterized Dynatrace synthetics as preferable for their needs, which is relevant if an organization prioritizes browser journey depth and app-level correlation within a single platform. Other credible alternatives to include in a shortlist - Datadog Synthetics (fast time-to-value if already using Datadog) - New Relic Synthetics (if already standardized on New Relic) - Kentik (if the primary need is network visibility and traffic analytics rather than synthetic test orchestration)

	Cisco ThousandEyes Network & Application Synthetics	Catchpoint	Dynatrace Synthetics
Starting Price	Not purely self-serve; published per-unit and product-plan pricing available from the vendor	Publicly states an entry plan with an annual-cost example	Usage-based subscription; public pricing pages and calculators (exact depends on consumption)
Suitable for	NetOps/IT needing path visibility and external dependency assurance	Teams focused on internet performance monitoring and external node coverage	Organizations wanting synthetics integrated with a full observability suite
Key Strength	Internet/WAN path correlation and alignment with Cisco ecosystem (SD‑WAN, collaboration cases)	Clearer entry pricing presentation and a focus on outside‑in monitoring	Unified platform (APM, infrastructure, DEM) and automation/AI features
Key Weakness	Cost perception; licensing complexity; not a replacement for core telemetry	Can be costly at scale; requires expertise to operationalize	Perceived premium pricing; complexity and potential for cost increases based on usage

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

ThousandEyes vs Catchpoint

Both emphasize external visibility and synthetic vantage points.
Some buyers compare them directly. Catchpoint’s pricing presentation is more explicit for entry plans, which some procurement teams prefer.

ThousandEyes vs Dynatrace

A pattern in community commentary: ThousandEyes is strong for network-path intelligence, while Dynatrace may be preferable when synthetics are needed tightly integrated with APM and broader telemetry.
At least one practitioner characterized Dynatrace synthetics as preferable for their needs, which is relevant if an organization prioritizes browser journey depth and app-level correlation within a single platform.

Other credible alternatives to include in a shortlist

Datadog Synthetics (fast time-to-value if already using Datadog)
New Relic Synthetics (if already standardized on New Relic)
Kentik (if the primary need is network visibility and traffic analytics rather than synthetic test orchestration)

	Cisco ThousandEyes Network & Application Synthetics	Catchpoint	Dynatrace Synthetics
Starting Price	Not purely self-serve; published per-unit and product-plan pricing available from the vendor	Publicly states an entry plan with an annual-cost example	Usage-based subscription; public pricing pages and calculators (exact depends on consumption)
Suitable for	NetOps/IT needing path visibility and external dependency assurance	Teams focused on internet performance monitoring and external node coverage	Organizations wanting synthetics integrated with a full observability suite
Key Strength	Internet/WAN path correlation and alignment with Cisco ecosystem (SD‑WAN, collaboration cases)	Clearer entry pricing presentation and a focus on outside‑in monitoring	Unified platform (APM, infrastructure, DEM) and automation/AI features
Key Weakness	Cost perception; licensing complexity; not a replacement for core telemetry	Can be costly at scale; requires expertise to operationalize	Perceived premium pricing; complexity and potential for cost increases based on usage