Appgate SDP vs Portnox comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Appgate and Portnox Security are both solutions in the ZTNA category. Appgate is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5, while Portnox Security is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3. Additionally, 100% of Appgate users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Portnox Security users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Portnox and Appgate SDP both compete in network security and access control. Based on user feedback, Portnox seems to have an advantage due to its pricing strategy and ease of integration.

Features: Portnox stands out with network visibility, proactive threat management, and agentless deployment which simplifies maintenance. Appgate SDP is praised for its policy-based access control, granular rule-building, and reliable connectivity across environments.

Room for Improvement: Portnox could improve integration ease, adjust its licensing model, and enhance firewall integration. Appgate SDP would benefit from an improved user interface, cost-effective solutions for smaller deployments, and simplified policy management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Portnox is noted for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer support. Appgate SDP offers powerful deployment options with good customer service, albeit with a more complex configuration process.

Pricing and ROI: Portnox is favored for its competitive and flexible pricing, offering significant ROI through streamlined IT tasks. Appgate SDP is seen as more costly with a premium price reflecting its strong security controls, yet users seek improvements in ease of use for better perceived value.

To learn more, read our detailed Appgate SDP vs. Portnox Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Appgate SDP vs. Portnox

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iboss

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula

Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support

The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.

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Joseph Koomson

Ip Network Security Specialist at MTN Ghana

Zero trust access has strengthened remote connectivity and secures diverse office devices

Appgate SDP support is always available to assist, which is the primary strength. However, there are areas for improvement. When a user is unable to connect, the platform should display detailed information such as the user's IP address, MAC address, and specific reasons for connection failure. Currently, aside from invalid username and password errors, Appgate SDP provides generic errors related to policy, such as a policy admin error. The system should provide deeper diagnostics to explain why a user cannot connect. The dashboard could also be enhanced with additional features and logins to provide better visibility. Sometimes there is no immediate clarity about what is happening. After using Appgate SDP for a long time and experiencing various errors, we have learned where to investigate, but this would be problematic for new users trying to resolve issues. The dashboard could display user connection times, failure reasons, and other relevant information. The user activity logs and accounting features should be improved in particular.

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Maurice Mwaura

Product Manager at Applied Principles Limited

Unified access control has improved compliance visibility and simplified passwordless access

There is work to be done when it comes to making the solution more seamless. For example, when a user is denied access, they would need a way to maybe self-resolve themselves, perhaps a way to generate a ticket on their own, something around resolutions. When it comes to users using the product, that is where good products are differentiated from products that are a bit of a challenge. Portnox has much to do in terms of their reporting. The generated reports need improvement. Things that other tools would say are normal are usually not present. For example, there is a page called NAS devices or NAS network that is able to show the switches that have been managed. Currently, there is no way of generating an easy report or an easy way of just generating something to tell the customer what they have been able to achieve so far. This is not done yet and is still very manual. I think there is work to be done there. More integrations around the various products being used would be beneficial. So far I have not encountered any major challenge. Where there was a challenge, I think support came in and helped us resolve. In fact, most of the challenges are not with the product; they are with the customer environment. I think that is just to update their documentation where they have come across a new vendor for easier integrations in the future.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

"As I mentioned, the return on investment is significant, as it saved our office locations' bandwidth because when you are working remotely at home, your internet traffic routes directly to iboss and will not go to your office building, saving bandwidth bottlenecks and ensuring that issues with our building internet circuits will not impact your internet connectivity because you are directly going to the iboss data center."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."

More iboss pros

"Appgate SDP is the best solution for micro-segmentation and supplying VPN solutions."

"One of the most important features is stopping lateral movement across our network."

"It is a scalable solution...The support answers your questions very fast."

"Previously, with AnyConnect, we experienced frequent issues, and in comparison to that solution, we have seen significant improvement and minimum downtime."

"The flexibility of the tool is valuable; it is very robust, has a very robust configuration capability, is pretty well documented, and is also good interface-wise."

"The simplicity of the SDP platform is a standout feature; instead of navigating through intricate details, users can seamlessly connect to the company's network or switch to the internet with minimal effort."

"Appgate SDP has positively impacted my organization, as we are using it to securely access the internet after the cyber attack."

"The interface is really friendly. It's simple to understand."

More Appgate SDP pros

"I'd recommend others to use it; it's easier to use and has this GUI that can give you more visibility to all you are doing on the device, and also it gives you a more analytic view of the people that are trying to connect."

"CLEAR is one of the best of its kind on the market with respect to compatibility."

"It's agentless, and it's scalable."

"One of the features I enjoyed the most about Portnox was the ability to dive in with proper details on an endpoint."

"Portnox has positively impacted my organization by ensuring that only authorized devices connect to the local network, serving as the first point of defense for our network devices."

"The ability of the product to search the entire network and know what you have hidden on your network."

"If your team is burnt out on managing legacy on-prem network access control or wants to move to a pure cloud model, Portnox should definitely be on your shortlist."

"Portnox is a winner for me compared to other vendors, especially other NAC vendors, in terms of pricing."

More Portnox pros

Cons

"The easiest device I have set up was the Barracuda line of products."

"I have heard they are doing DDoS filtering, but I am not certain if they are implementing it correctly."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

"I appreciate that iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard, allowing us to quickly investigate incidents and monitor policy violations without switching between multiple tools, improving operational efficiency; however, the dashboard customization and reporting could be more flexible."

"iboss can be improved because the integration could be better; you need to import all the sites that you access today, and there are a few problems whenever you import thousands of websites, making the integration process messy for the users."

More iboss cons

"One thing that kind of sticks out to me is the ability to do a proper non-split tunnel. VPN tunnel-wise, it is not really a true unsplit tunnel, but I think that's just because of the way it's designed. A split VPN basically allows your system to talk to other systems without being forced down the tunnel. A VPN running in a non-split tunnel mode forces all the traffic down the tunnel to wherever you're VPNing to. It forces the traffic down so that the traffic is subject to the firewall and rules that you have in your corporate environment and such. It helps to prevent remote malicious folks that may be talking directly to that box from piggybacking into the corporate environment through it. They do it partially, but it would be nice to see more of an enterprise-level solution there."

"One limitation is that it's harder to provide access to multiple applications in the company with Appgate, but that's probably because of poor management."

"One thing that kind of sticks out to me is the ability to do a proper non-split tunnel."

"On the cloud, when you make some changes, it may be difficult."

"The user interface should be improved as it is not very easy to work with the updates."

"If I could change or improve anything about Appgate SDP, it would be to enhance the user experience by improving the UI so that it is more explanatory."

"They could provide a single-box solution to manage tools for 4000 users. Additionally, they could add extra features to enhance remote micro connection."

"It would be better to connect to an application portal from any device. Documentation and support could be better."

More Appgate SDP cons

"The price could be better."

"One of the things for the on-premise is that sometimes you click on it and it takes a while for it to respond."

"I believe there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of integration."

"There is work to be done when it comes to making the solution more seamless."

"Regarding improvements, maybe in terms of integration, they could look into something the guest captive portal features."

"During my daily use, I noticed that if you have many devices being managed by a particular server, any device being managed by that server takes quite a bit of time to respond."

"Previously, the support team was quite small, which made it challenging to get timely technical assistance."

"While Portnox has been very effective overall, there are a few areas where it could be improved."

More Portnox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"We pay $100 per user per month. One license for the site is around $17."

"It is a pretty expensive tool. It is maybe about $20,000 per year for a hundred users or so."

"The pricing is according to the market price. It is not a very cheap solution. They have some very aggressive promotions to sell the product in the market."

"Pricing is not cheap. It is based on licenses per port. After licensing is purchased, you only pay for support."

"The pricing is a bit high, possibly due to the cloud features and running instances across regions like the US, Asia, and Europe."

"It's not cheap. It's not expensive. It's in the middle."

"Pricing is quite reasonable."

"It is not bad. It is a bit on the high side, but considering the cloud features and how much it costs to run the instance in the cloud, it is not unreasonable. We do have RADIUS servers for the US, Asia, and Europe."

"The users are not very happy with the new licensing option where there is only a subscription license. There is no perpetual license."

"Portnox CORE's pricing is adequate and cheaper compared to other complex solutions. Its licensing costs are yearly and include support. Cost is calculated per device."

"The solution is very expensive and I would rate it 10 out of 10."

More Portnox pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

I think iboss could be improved by making reporting and dashboard customization more flexible, and simplifying troubl...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

I use iboss as a cloud-based secure web gateway to provide secure internet access, web filtering, and protect remote ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

My experience with iboss's pricing structure, setup cost, and licensing model has been positive, straightforward, and...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appgate SDP?

Regarding pricing and setup cost, everything is already pre-installed in my organization, so I am not sure about pric...

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What needs improvement with Appgate SDP?

Appgate SDP support is always available to assist, which is the primary strength. However, there are areas for improv...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Appgate SDP?

Appgate SDP is used for user connectivity both in the office and outside the office for remote connectivity. When out...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Portnox Clear?

The pricing and setup cost as well as licensing is a bit high compared to the competition. If it were better, we coul...

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What needs improvement with Portnox Clear?

If the MSSP offering could be the primary push or primary concern, it would be the best thing that could happen. Base...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Portnox Clear?

Portnox is for the network access control use case. The use case focuses on wired network access, specifically how us...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

September 2026

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Buyer's Guide

ZTNA

August 2026

Download Appgate SDP product report

Buyer's Guide

Portnox

September 2026

Download Portnox product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

Access Layers Portnox, Portnox CLEAR

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

iboss

Demo not available

Appgate

Portnox Security

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Appgate SDP provides a comprehensive approach to network access control, optimizing security with robust configurations and a user-friendly interface, featuring flexible deployment and server concealment to mitigate risks.

Appgate SDP has been designed to enhance security operations through reliable access management. It prides itself on offering strong documentation, substantial scalability, and an interface that supports easy deployment, creating a seamless experience for local and remote connections. It enables organizations to implement micro-segmentation and integrate multifactor authentication, thus elevating their security posture. Recent updates reflect improvements, yet aspects like cost, cloud modification difficulties, VPN customization needs, and an upgraded interface remain areas for future enhancement. Ideal for hybrid environments, Appgate SDP aids transitions from traditional VPNs, protecting digital assets and preventing lateral network threats.

What are the key features of Appgate SDP?

Robust Configuration: Allows flexible setups to meet specific requirements.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies deployment, enhancing user experience.
Server Concealment: Minimizes exposure to threats by hiding servers.
Scalability: Accommodates growing organizational needs with stable performance.
Access Rule Granularity: Provides detailed options for managing network access.

What benefits should be considered in user reviews?

Security Enhancement: Improved protection against lateral movement and ransomware.
Deployment Ease: Streamlined processes for faster implementation.
Strong Support: Reliable assistance from the vendor ensures sustained use.
Remote Work Optimization: Facilitates safe remote access, vital for modern work environments.

Appgate SDP is prevalent in industries shifting from traditional VPNs to more secure architectures. It supports enterprises embracing cloud technologies by providing reliable network access solutions, especially in hybrid work settings, ensuring the security of digital assets while accommodating multifactor authentication and micro-segmentation strategies.

Appgate

Portnox NAC is a cloud-native network access control solution built for today's hybrid, distributed enterprises. Get real-time visibility into every device on your network, enforce risk-based access policies automatically, and maintain continuous compliance — all without deploying a single on-premises appliance.

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About Portnox Security

Portnox is a cloud-native enterprise access control provider that helps organizations secure every identity - human and non-human - across networks, applications, and infrastructure. As identities, devices, and workloads multiply across modern environments, Portnox enables continuous access verification based on identity context, device posture, and risk signals. Its unified platform brings together passwordless authentication, access control, continuous policy enforcement, and automated response through a single policy engine.

Portnox gives security and IT teams real-time visibility into everything connecting and the ability to quickly restrict, quarantine, or revoke non-compliant access. Today, Portnox actively manages more than one million devices worldwide, secures 40 million authentication sessions, and blocks over one million unauthorized access attempts every day. Learn more at portnox.com.

CAPABILITIES:

• Discover and assess users, devices, and identities connecting to corporate resources

• Unify continuous zero trust access control on networks, applications, and infrastructure

• Enforce identity- and context-aware access policies

• Enable secure remote work without complexity

• Deliver passwordless authentication, device posture checks, and continuous access enforcement

• Control administrative access to routers, switches, firewalls, and other network devices

• Improve audit readiness with visibility, access logs, and policy-based compliance controls

BUILT FOR:

Portnox is designed for distributed organizations that need to manage access across employees, contractors, service accounts, managed devices, unmanaged devices, IoT, network infrastructure, SaaS applications, private applications, and AI agents. The platform helps reduce reliance on on-premises appliances, legacy VPNs, and fragmented access tools by centralizing access policy enforcement from a single cloud-native policy engine.

INTEGRATIONS:

Portnox integrates with the tools you already use (including Azure AD / Entra ID, Okta) and works with your existing network appliances, (such as Meraki, Fortinet, and more), and many other identity and network infrastructure tools.

Portnox Security

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

United States Air Force FINRA Weight Watchers Rackspace DataDog SageNet Verdant Norwegian Cruise Line VoiceBase The Third Floor

Sallie Mae, Roku, Vuori, Legal Zoom, Anaplan, Aecon, H.I.G. Capital, McLaren Construction Group, PFCU, UK Mortgage Lending Limited, CCC Intelligent Solutions

Buyer's Guide

Appgate SDP vs. Portnox

September 2026

Free Report: Appgate SDP vs. Portnox

Find out what your peers are saying about Appgate SDP vs. Portnox and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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