Top 10 Best Network Configuration Management Software of 2026

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is a comprehensive solution for automating network device configuration management, including discovery, backup, comparison, and deployment across multi-vendor environments. It offers robust features like real-time change detection, policy-based compliance auditing, firmware management, and scripted automation to minimize errors and ensure network reliability. Integrated with the SolarWinds Orion Platform, NCM provides a unified interface for configuration oversight alongside performance monitoring.

ManageEngine Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is a robust solution designed for automating the backup, management, and compliance auditing of network device configurations across multi-vendor environments. It provides features like scheduled backups, change detection, firmware management, and scripted automation to ensure network consistency and security. The tool supports over 400 device models from vendors like Cisco, Juniper, and Huawei, making it suitable for diverse IT infrastructures.

Gluware is a model-driven network orchestration platform designed for configuration management across multi-vendor environments, including Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and others. It enables intent-based networking by allowing users to define desired network states in a centralized model, which automatically generates, validates, and deploys configurations while ensuring compliance and drift detection. The solution supports automation of change management, backups, and rollbacks, reducing manual errors in large-scale networks.

Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is a model-driven network automation platform designed for provisioning, configuring, and managing network services across multi-vendor environments. It leverages YANG models and NETCONF for declarative configuration, enabling intent-based automation and full lifecycle management from design to operations. NSO excels in complex enterprise networks by abstracting device-specific details through Network Element Drivers (NEDs), ensuring consistency, compliance, and scalability.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is an enterprise automation solution built on open-source Ansible, enabling declarative configuration management, orchestration, and deployment across IT environments including networks. It uses agentless, idempotent YAML playbooks to manage network devices from vendors like Cisco, Juniper, and Arista via modules supporting SSH, NETCONF, and NAPALM. The platform includes a web UI (Automation Controller), analytics, RBAC, and execution environments for scalable, secure operations.

Puppet Enterprise is a comprehensive IT automation platform that uses a declarative domain-specific language (DSL) to manage configurations across servers, applications, and network devices. For network configuration management, it leverages modules for vendors like Cisco, Juniper, and Arista, enabling consistent deployment, compliance enforcement, and drift detection on network infrastructure. It supports both agent-based and agentless (via Bolt) approaches, integrating network ops into broader DevOps workflows.

Chef Infra is an open-source infrastructure-as-code automation platform that uses Ruby-based cookbooks to define and enforce desired configurations across servers, cloud resources, and applications. While versatile for general IT automation, its application to network configuration management relies on custom cookbooks, SSH/WinRM execution, and integrations like InSpec for compliance testing on network devices. It supports idempotent convergence in large-scale environments but lacks native modules for major network vendors compared to specialized tools.

SaltStack, now the Salt Project, is an open-source configuration management and orchestration platform that uses a master-minion architecture to automate infrastructure provisioning, compliance, and remote execution at scale. For network configuration management, it integrates with NAPALM for multi-vendor support, enabling declarative configuration of devices like Cisco, Juniper, and Arista via proxy minions or salt-ssh. Its event-driven Reactor system allows real-time, reactive automation, making it suitable for dynamic network environments.

Oxidized is an open-source Ruby-based tool designed for backing up network device configurations by periodically fetching and storing them in a Git repository. It supports a vast array of vendors and models through pluggable 'model' scripts, enabling diffing, versioning, and change tracking across diverse networks. Additional features include hooks for notifications, grouping devices, and integration with external UIs like oxidized-web or Webster.

RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ) is a mature open-source tool designed for backing up and managing configurations of network devices like routers and switches from vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, and others. It automates login via Telnet/SSH, retrieves configs and show commands, commits them to a version control system (CVS/SVN), and emails diffs for detected changes. While reliable for basic backup and change tracking, it lacks modern GUI interfaces or advanced automation features found in newer tools.