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Cisco Catalyst Center vs Jen Kea DHCP Management Console

Cisco Catalyst Center

cisco.com

Jen Kea DHCP Management Console

github.com

Side by side

FigureCisco Catalyst CenterJen Kea DHCP Management Console
Price from—Free
Free plan—Yes
Free trial——
Open source—Yes
WebYesYes
WindowsYes—
macOSYes—
LinuxYesYes
APIYesYes
Self-hostedYesYes
Plans published21
Spec score · DHCP Management Software7.8 (#9)8.4 (#5)
DeploymentCisco describes hardware and virtual appliance deployments, including current guides for VMware ESXi and Ubuntu KVM.Installation is offered through a guided shell installer or Docker Compose with either an external or bundled database.
IntegrationsCisco documents integrations with ISE, ThousandEyes, Webex, Microsoft Teams, ServiceNow, Infoblox, and BlueCat, plus generic APIs for other ITSM and IPAM systems.Jen connects to Kea through the Control Agent or direct daemon control sockets, uses MySQL/MariaDB for Kea data, and uses SSH for configuration and service operations.
PurposeCisco Catalyst Center is a centralized network controller and management dashboard for enterprise network operations.Jen is a full-featured web-based management interface for ISC Kea DHCP Server, managing leases, reservations, subnets and infrastructure from a browser.

Plans

Cisco Catalyst Center

  • Cisco DNA AdvantagePriced on request
  • Cisco DNA EssentialsPriced on request

Cisco Catalyst Center pricing →

Jen Kea DHCP Management Console

  • GPL v3 open-sourceFree

Jen Kea DHCP Management Console pricing →

In their own words

Cisco Catalyst Center

Cisco Catalyst Center has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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Jen Kea DHCP Management Console

Jen Kea DHCP Management Console is a free, GPL v3 web interface for managing ISC Kea DHCP Server. Operators can manage leases, reservations, subnets, and infrastructure from a browser, while the dashboard shows subnet utilization, lease activity, server status, HA state, and alerts. Lease tools include filtering active leases, releasing them, cleaning stale leases, converting dynamic leases to reservations, and CSV import or export. Subnet and pool edits are applied over SSH after Kea validation, a host-side backup, multi-server preflight, and rollback protection. Optional IPv6 support covers leases, devices, reservations, subnet pools, timers, and metrics. Alert channels include Pushover, Telegram, Slack, ntfy, Discord, email, and generic webhooks; optional plugins add network discovery, IPAM Lite, local DNS synchronization, and other functions. Jen connects through the Control Agent or direct daemon sockets, uses MySQL or MariaDB for Kea data, and uses SSH for configuration and service operations. The recommended guided installer runs on Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, and Docker deployment is also supported. The project targets homelab-to-small-business operators managing a handful of servers, not large fleets.

Visit github.com