SharePoint Programming

Both the products are used to manage sharePoint's day-to-day tasks like administration,configuration,security from a single application.

Here is a litle comparison chat. This helps you decide between the products.
The below is what you can do with both the softwares at Site\list\library and item level.

You can perform all the Out-of-Box tasks for a site with both the tools.

DocAve :

1. You can set a common versioning and security settings for all the lists and libraries in a site.

2. Can set item level security for each item in list\library.

3. Is a great tool for SharePoint backup.

4. Good for Auditing. It provides you various filtering options as well.


ControlPoint :

1. Need to go to Out-of-box list settings page for each list\library to configure versioning and security.(The New Version I guess supports Item level browsing).

2. It is easy to install and you dont have to run various services(like docave does)

3.You can Copy\Move all or selected list items along with their versioning to another list.

5. You can aslo copy/Move sites accross the farm with ControlPoint.

Note : ControlPoint gives you more custom features than what you get with SharePoint.
DocAve on the other hand, has a good reporting and backup tool and allows you perform item level function from its application.

Related Post :

ControlPoint's Features

Tools Used for SharePoint Administration