Cisco Catalyst Center vs ISC Stork
Cisco Catalyst Center
cisco.com
ISC Stork
isc.orgSide by side
| Figure | Cisco Catalyst Center | ISC Stork |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · DHCP Management Software | 7.8 (#9) | 8.6 (#2) |
| Founded | 1984 | 1994 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, United States | ISC lists PO Box 360, Newmarket, New Hampshire 03857, USA as its address. |
| Integrations | Cisco documents integrations with ISE, ThousandEyes, Webex, Microsoft Teams, ServiceNow, Infoblox, and BlueCat, plus generic APIs for other ITSM and IPAM systems. | Stork can export traffic activity data to Prometheus for display in Grafana charts. |
| Purpose | Cisco Catalyst Center is a centralized network controller and management dashboard for enterprise network operations. | Stork provides a web-based graphical interface for monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintaining Kea DHCP server configuration. |
| Support | Cisco says Catalyst and Cisco DNA software subscriptions include embedded software support and downloads; opening a support case requires a Cisco Service Contract. | ISC offers paid professional Stork support alongside free community help through the stork-users mailing list. |
Plans
Cisco Catalyst Center
- Cisco DNA AdvantagePriced on request
- Cisco DNA EssentialsPriced on request
ISC Stork
- Stork open-source softwareFree
- Stork open-source softwareFree
- Kea/Stork support subscriptionPrice not published
- Professional support for StorkPriced on request
In their own words
Cisco Catalyst Center
Cisco Catalyst Center has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
ISC Stork
ISC Stork is a free, open-source web interface for monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintaining Kea DHCP server configuration. It reports host and daemon health, including memory, CPU utilization, software versions, and uptime, and monitors DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 pool use and high-availability status. With the required Kea hooks installed, administrators can manage reservations, subnets, and pools through its interface. Stork can display BIND configuration and DNS zone information, but DNS support is in early stages and it does not change BIND settings. Traffic activity can be exported to Prometheus for Grafana charts, and LDAP can be used for administrator authentication and authorization. A deployment uses a Stork server and agents installed on application servers; the server requires PostgreSQL. The server and agents communicate through TLS-encrypted gRPC channels. Stork expects the running Kea configuration to be authoritative, and the Kea Configuration Backend hook is incompatible with Stork management. It runs on most Linux and Unix platforms and macOS under the MPL 2.0 license. ISC offers free community help and paid professional support.