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Aruba Airwave vs Aruba ClearPass comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Aruba Airwave provides long-term ROI with efficient troubleshooting, significant cost savings, and improved productivity despite initial hardware costs.
Sentiment score
5.5
Aruba ClearPass enhances security and management ease but faces challenges with licensing, high add-on costs, and pricing concerns.
Using Aruba ClearPass has resulted in less engineering time compared to other products we've used.
The investment is huge for enterprise clients, but Aruba ClearPass makes processes easier.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Aruba Airwave technical support is praised for effective service, knowledgeable staff, and multilingual communication, despite occasional slower responses.
Sentiment score
7.0
Aruba ClearPass customer service is highly rated for efficiency, though some desire more thorough, in-depth technical assistance.
I would rate their technical support as a nine or ten, as it's quite good.
Angie was very kind and communicated well in both Spanish and English, making it pleasant to connect with her.
Portnox is one level up, as their customer support is outstanding.
We have faced delays in the resolution of production issues after raising tickets, which impacts productivity.
We have escalated questions to tech support, and I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Aruba Airwave is scalable, supporting different user counts and environments, often used with Cisco tools, rated highly for scalability.
Sentiment score
8.2
Aruba ClearPass is praised for scalable flexibility, handling extensive users effectively but some find it average compared to alternatives.
Aruba Airwave is fully scalable, as we have a large number of tenants using the network with approximately six thousand end users.
Aruba Airwave gives good information about SNR value, signal value, and you can get extensive information.
I believe the scalability of ClearPass is rated as ten out of ten.
Everything will be handled when you add new users because all configurations are deployed from the beginning.
In our environment, ClearPass handles up to 100,000 users, which is better than some other NAC solutions like Fortinox that scale up to 25,000.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Aruba Airwave is stable, reliable, and highly rated, with minor manageable issues during high usage and integration.
Sentiment score
7.8
Aruba ClearPass is stable and reliable, with minor issues usually due to configuration, rated highly by users.
I have found Aruba Airwave to be stable.
As it is centralized, sometimes it disconnects from the cloud, and I need to reboot.
There are issues with some versions, especially in integrating with AD and SSL configurations over port sixty-three.
There aren't many stability issues, but sometimes the guest management function occasionally throws errors.
 

Room For Improvement

Aruba Airwave requires cost reduction, system integration, UI simplification, pricing changes, and better synchronization, support, and compatibility.
Aruba ClearPass needs improvements in user interface, setup, integration, documentation, reporting, certificate handling, and licensing.
The end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website.
I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive.
When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers.
The language and policy enforcement mechanisms are not clear, making it difficult to use the product effectively.
It is also better to improve threat intelligence for built-in threat detection and prevention.
A more streamlined menu of licensing options would be helpful.
 

Setup Cost

Aruba Airwave licensing is seen as complex and costly, yet often cheaper than Cisco, with variable pricing flexibility.
Aruba ClearPass pricing is considered competitive but complex, varying by licensing model and requirements, with potential long-term benefits.
The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.
Achieving the best price requires careful selection from a menu of licensing options.
We cannot mix in prices, and of course, prices are going higher.
Aruba ClearPass is a premium product with higher pricing, which seems unnecessary given its complexity.
 

Valuable Features

Aruba Airwave provides multivendor support, robust reporting, real-time analysis, and easy network management with zero-touch provisioning and Visual RF.
Aruba ClearPass offers strong network security with seamless integration, advanced authentication, centralized control, and flexible deployment options.
It provides near real-time monitoring using AIMON and AURO protocols, which is robust with multiple models and brand support.
Aruba Airwave provides good visibility, offering extensive data on network dynamics, such as access point connections, usage, signal strengths, and potential interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks.
The most helpful feature I noticed, yet did not utilize, allowed us to add our Cisco switches for monitoring.
The ClearPass solution has reduced the amount of engineering time compared to previous solutions, making it more efficient for our purposes.
The most effective feature for us is the OnGuard feature.
Aruba ClearPass is a very user-friendly solution compared to Cisco ISE.
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (2nd)
Aruba ClearPass
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Aruba Airwave and Aruba ClearPass aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Aruba Airwave is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 5.7%, down 8.9% compared to last year.
Aruba ClearPass, on the other hand, focuses on Network Access Control (NAC), holds 24.3% mindshare, down 24.9% since last year.
Network Management Applications
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Bulbul - PeerSpot reviewer
Reports generation remains efficient while support and updates require attention
The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive. Customers start to complain and get annoyed about the license price. For example, when customers have 500 access points and features about access point licenses, moving to Central requires purchasing new licenses. This makes customers annoyed and complaining about this situation. It's hard to move from on-premises to Central because they always compare costs. If Aruba gave free licenses, they could move. But going to cloud and Central means more investment, and their budget doesn't cover the new investment. This creates problems for local partner companies.
Abdelhamid Saber - PeerSpot reviewer
Secures the network with flexible controls and excellent support
We use Aruba ClearPass as a network access control solution. It prevents unauthorized access and allows access for users in the internal environment, performing checks and onboarding We use ClearPass to secure our environment. Before ClearPass, our environment wasn't as secure. The most…
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Airwave?
The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.
What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
The biggest problem for not using Aruba Airwave extensively now is that HP is not upgrading this tool. They're not investing money and time into it, which is why we're not using it. I find the pric...
Which is better - Aruba Clearpass or Cisco ISE?
Aruba ClearPass is a Network Access Control tool that gives secure network access to multiple device types. You can adapt the policies to VPN access, wired, or wireless access. You can securely ...
What is the biggest difference between Aruba ClearPass and FortiNAC?
I've done quite a lot of work with ClearPass, and not a lot with FortiNAC/Bradford. ClearPass incorporates a number of different functions including ClearPass Guest for creating complex wireless g...
What do you like most about Aruba ClearPass?
If you are looking at the base installation, then it was a very straightforward process, which I would rate an eight or nine out of ten.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Avenda eTIPS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
Consulate Health Care, Los Angeles Unified School District, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), San Diego State University, KFC, ACTS Retirement-Life Communities
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.