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Aruba ClearPass vs Sophos Network Access Control comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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

Aruba ClearPass
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sophos Network Access Control
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Aruba ClearPass is 18.0%, down from 24.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Network Access Control is 3.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba ClearPass18.0%
Sophos Network Access Control3.0%
Other79.0%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Darko Skurla - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Enterprise Customer Solutions Specialist at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Role-based policies have simplified secure access control for all users and smart devices
I do not know about the functionality of Aruba ClearPass integration with a third party. If you ask me if there is support for Zebra and for different IoT devices, they have it. However, I do not know how to describe integration with other products. Aruba ClearPass can act as a RADIUS server and it can connect to the domain RADIUS server, for example. The biggest problem is when a customer does not know what they want with Aruba ClearPass. I can recommend Aruba ClearPass to other users because it is very stable. My review rating for this product is ten out of ten.
HirenPatel2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at rspl
Have faced delays in support despite strong multi-layer policy configuration
I have observed some disadvantages as we have experienced one particular problem. We were facing an issue of synchronization of the endpoint with our firewall with help on a cloud for heartbeat syncing. However, it was not syncing as per our requirement. The user has to connect our firewall with the help of VPN. We were supposed to assume a solution on a cloud, which has good synchronization on a cloud with Sophos Central. It will sync with our firewall as well with the help of Sophos Central. Endpoint and firewall synchronization is not as smooth as we are expecting from Sophos Network Access Control. We have to connect with VPN. We are expecting that if we have already installed an endpoint on our system and it is connected to the internet, then it must be synchronized on a cloud with Sophos Central. Through Sophos Central, it must connect with our firewall. If the endpoint is configured on Sophos Central and the firewall is also configured in Sophos Central, then there should be no need to connect to VPN.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The support from Aruba ClearPass is great."
"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."
"I recommend Aruba ClearPass. It is more flexible, stable, and easy to redeploy compared to ISE or FortiNAC."
"It keeps your organization secure in many ways, has easy guest logins, tons of options to customize the portal page, and many other useful enterprise-level features."
"The product's policy management capabilities enable precise control over user access and device compliance."
"Aruba is a highly scalable product. It just works. We have no issues with scalability."
"Bringing mobile devices on to the network has been simplified and secured at the same time."
"It is beneficial from a security perspective because not everyone can connect to our wifi without going through an authentication process."
"Sophos Network Access Control is easy to implement, use, and manage, and I recommend it."
"Web protection, URL filtering, and application filtering are the most valuable features of Sophos Network Access Control."
"There is really good visibility for the appliance."
"The pricing is very reasonable and you can negotiate on the price."
"I found all Sophos Network Access Control features valuable, but IP blocking is the most useful."
"The return on our investment was huge, mostly due to the time saved in managing thousands of physical endpoints."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"Sophos Network Access Control has many valuable features: for access controls, MAC binding is available, the authentication page is useful, and continuous device assessments have a positive impact on our network security management."
 

Cons

"The initial setup was quite complex because of the lack of detailed documentation."
"It would be good if ClearPass made it a SaaS solution."
"The user interface should be improved. The logs and how the logging mechanism works can also use an upgrade."
"The pricing policy could be more flexible."
"Every deployment of ClearPass I have run into a bug or a feature that is not as user friendly as it could be."
"The GUI of Aruba ClearPass could improve, it is not user-friendly."
"I felt we did not get a return on investment."
"The monitoring of Aruba ClearPass needs improvement. For example, they have monitoring for TECHx and you can find out what the administrator did. However, if Aruba ClearPass is managing GUI devices, you do not know what the administrator is doing."
"The solution can improve the for applying policies. They can be complex depending don't the group they are applied to."
"The difficult thing was finding the metrics."
"I would like to be able to fully customize the reports."
"I would like more details on the incoming connection, like what is the download speed and how it fluctuates. If Sophos can give that information, it would be really good."
"What needs to be improved on is the fact that Sophos consumes a lot of processor resources and, once it starts scanning, the RAM utilization is very high."
"The interface on the cloud could be a bit better - just to give more performance on it."
"In Indonesia, there are a lot of false positives. For example, many websites from our government and local industries are blocked by the IPS."
"An area that could be improved is the information about licensing, which is fairly confusing at present."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Aruba ClearPass is expensive. However, Cisco ISE was as expensive when we were comparing."
"I can say that the package or licensing model offered for the solution is a permanent one."
"In terms of your fixed cost, it is much less than a lot of other solutions in the market. The initial cost is very high."
"It is affordable. In Lebanon, companies are small, and they do not have a big budget. They cannot invest a lot of money, and Aruba ClearPass is quite affordable for them."
"I can't give the exact cost of Aruba ClearPass because that's handled by the purchasing team, but it's on the cheaper side, and on a scale of one to five, I'm rating the cost a four. Initially, the pricing for the solution is expensive in terms of deployment, but in the long term, for example, after more than five to ten years, the operational cost incurred by the company is quite affordable because you don't have to renew the license. It's a one-time purchase. My company only uses the standard license for Aruba ClearPass."
"​Cost is important. I switched because Aruba's costs were well below Cisco's."
"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
"The price of Aruba ClearPass is expensive. When you want to build redundant systems it can be seen as necessary, so the enterprise will manage all of those costs."
"It is quite expensive."
"Sophos Network Access Control is costly but has a similar price range as CrowdStrike and Check Point. The product can get more market share if Sophos can play around with Sophos Network Access Control pricing and improve it."
"Sophos Network Access Control is very cheap compared to other solutions like Cisco, Barracuda, and Palo Alto."
"It provides a moderate pricing option for all of its features and benefits."
"Sophos Network Access Control is an expensive solution."
"I rate the price of Sophos Network Access Control a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba ClearPass?
Compared to Cisco and others, the pricing is reasonable. Licensing costs are case-specific and have been manageable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Network Access Control?
The pricing of Sophos Network Access Control is good, but it is somewhat high.
What needs improvement with Sophos Network Access Control?
In my opinion, one feature that should be added is the ability to trace emails from individuals who change their IP address or send misbehaving emails from alternative networks. If someone sends a ...
What is your primary use case for Sophos Network Access Control?
Sophos Network Access Control serves primary use cases for both networking purposes and security purposes.
 

Also Known As

Avenda eTIPS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Consulate Health Care, Los Angeles Unified School District, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), San Diego State University, KFC, ACTS Retirement-Life Communities
Rushmoor Borough Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba ClearPass vs. Sophos Network Access Control and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.