How the lab platforms compare
Four platforms, compared on the jobs engineers do every day: build a topology, get images, launch, troubleshoot, and automate. Every claim links to the vendor’s own documentation.
Best fit
- VEX-NX
- Engineers and educators who want a browser lab on their own VMware or server, and who want to rebuild a network from its configs and then break it on purpose.
- EVE-NG
- Teams that want a mature browser lab designer with QEMU and Docker nodes, and paid classroom controls such as roles and folder locks.
- Cisco Modeling Labs
- Learners and teams centred on Cisco who want licensed Cisco reference images included with the product.
- Containerlab
- Engineers who keep labs as code: YAML in Git, container-native operating systems on Linux, and vrnetlab for VM-only images.
Side by side
A dash means the vendor’s documentation we reviewed does not state it. Scroll sideways on small screens.
| Dimension | VEX-NXStudent and Enterprise | EVE-NGFreemium, Base, RBL | Cisco Modeling LabsCML-Free (v2.10 docs) | ContainerlabWith GUI and vrnetlab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topology authoringHow do you create a lab? | Browser Topology Designer with nested maps; Guided Labs; Generate Lab from pasted running configs; Containerlab YAML import and export. Source: docs.vex-nx.com/getting-started/features, checked 2026-11-15 | Browser lab designer with design objects, link styling, and multiple startup-config sets per lab. All editions. Source: eve-ng.net/index.php/features-compare, checked 2026-11-15 | — | Write a *.clab.yml file, or edit the same YAML in the TopoViewer GUI (VS Code, desktop, or web). Source: containerlab.dev/manual/gui, checked 2026-11-15 |
| Image acquisitionWhere do the network OS images come from? | FRRouting and Alpine ship with the appliance. You import vendor disk images you are licensed to use; none are included. Source: docs.vex-nx.com/getting-started/what-is-vex-nx, checked 2026-11-15 | — | Cisco reference platform images are included, licensed for use only inside CML. CML-Free includes IOL, IOL-L2, ASAv, and Linux host images. CML-Free. Source: developer.cisco.com/docs/modeling-labs/cml-free, checked 2026-11-15 | Container images run natively. VM-only images are packaged by you with the srl-labs vrnetlab fork from disks you supply. Source: containerlab.dev/manual/vrnetlab, checked 2026-11-15 |
| Lab launchHow do labs start, and what limits apply on the free tier? | Operate → Start all, with Preflight checks first. QEMU/KVM, Docker, Dynamips, and IOL runtimes. Student: 5 concurrent labs, 100 nodes per lab, 1 user. Student. Source: docs.vex-nx.com/admin-guide/licence-editions-and-activation, checked 2026-11-15 | QEMU and Docker nodes. Freemium allows two concurrent admins; its node limit is listed as both 7 running nodes per instance and 63 per lab on the same page. The two Freemium figures conflict on the vendor page. Freemium. Source: eve-ng.net/index.php/features-compare, checked 2026-11-15 | Up to 5 nodes running at once; unmanaged switches and external connectors are not counted. CML-Free. Source: developer.cisco.com/docs/modeling-labs/cml-free, checked 2026-11-15 | Deploy, inspect, and destroy from the CLI or GUI on a Linux host. VM-backed nodes need nested virtualization when the host is a VM. Source: containerlab.dev/manual/vrnetlab, checked 2026-11-15 |
| TroubleshootingHow do you see what the network is doing? | Traffic Lens utilization and bandwidth paint, packet capture on links or nodes, and delay, jitter, and loss impairment from the link dock. Source: docs.vex-nx.com/labs/link-inspector-and-impairment, checked 2026-11-15 | Integrated and local Wireshark capture; link quality controls for delay, packet loss, and jitter. All editions. Source: eve-ng.net/index.php/features-compare, checked 2026-11-15 | — | Packet capture through Edgeshark and Wireshark; link impairments for delay, jitter, loss, rate, and corruption. Source: containerlab.dev/manual/gui, checked 2026-11-15 |
| AutomationHow do you drive labs from code? | JWT REST API with OpenAPI reference; MCP-style tool catalogue over REST for agents; Automation Studio playbooks and Configuration Studio. Student and Enterprise. Source: docs.vex-nx.com/developers/mcp-and-ai-tools, checked 2026-11-15 | — | — | Labs stay as YAML in Git; clab-api-server exposes lifecycle, terminal, capture, and image operations. Source: containerlab.dev/manual/gui, checked 2026-11-15 |
| ClassroomCan an instructor run a class? | Lab sharing on both editions; timers, instructor dashboard, grading, and LDAP, SSO, RADIUS on Enterprise. Enterprise. Source: docs.vex-nx.com/getting-started/features, checked 2026-11-15 | Lab timer and per-user quotas on all editions; roles, folder locks, and account validity on RBL. RBL. Source: eve-ng.net/index.php/features-compare, checked 2026-11-15 | Single user. CML-Free. Source: developer.cisco.com/docs/modeling-labs/cml-free, checked 2026-11-15 | Web and desktop GUIs authenticate Linux users through the API server. Source: containerlab.dev/manual/gui, checked 2026-11-15 |
Notes on each platform
EVE-NG Freemium is not the legacy Community edition
EVE-NG’s features-compare page lists the current Freemium, Base, and RBL editions only. The legacy Community edition is not described there, so we do not mix its limits with Freemium.
CML’s reference platforms
Every CML product includes Cisco VM images, so you can build a Cisco topology without sourcing images yourself. Those images are licensed for use only inside CML. CML-Free ships IOL, IOL-L2, and ASAv plus Linux host images; paid tiers add more node types.
Containerlab’s YAML-first workflow
A lab is a *.clab.yml file. The GUI (VS Code extension, desktop app, or web app) edits that same file, so labs stay reviewable in Git. Images that only ship as VMs run through the srl-labs fork of vrnetlab, which wraps the VM in a container.
Where each one runs
VEX-NX ships as a VMware OVA or a bare-metal USB ISO and runs on infrastructure you provide; there are no hosted labs. CML-Free installs on bare metal or a VMware VM. Containerlab runs on a Linux host you provide.
Performance figures
We publish speed and memory comparisons only from runs on matched hardware, images, and versions, with the raw results alongside.