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Aruba VPN vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

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 VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
34th
Average Rating
5.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Secure Client (includ...
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (12th), Cisco Security Portfolio (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Aruba VPN is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is 5.2%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)5.2%
Aruba VPN0.7%
Other94.1%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Zoltán Nagy - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Infrastructure Manager at Provident Pénzügyi Zrt.
The appliance would crash because of the large number of connections, but its stability was fine
We purchased a relatively small Aruba VPN appliance. Unfortunately, it was not a well-designed VPN appliance product. I think the vendor did not provide us with the best solution. At that time, the world and our company faced the first COVID lockdown, and everybody had to work from home. During this time, the small VPN appliance was overwhelmed by the number of connections, and we experienced many issues. Firstly, it turned out that the firmware was buggy. When around 100 to 300 users tried to connect at the beginning of the day, the appliance would crash, and the users would not be able to connect. We had to escalate the issue to the manufacturer, and they had to release new firmware to resolve the problem, which took around one week. As you can imagine, during the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone had to work from home, and we were struggling to connect to the VPN because of the firmware bug. It took Aruba at least one week to resolve the issue. Another major pain point we faced was with the VPN client. At the time, we were using the Windows 7 operating system on the client machines. Unfortunately, we could not identify the precise circumstances in which the Aruba VPN client could not establish a connection. This was very, very disappointing for us and caused a lot of problems for our department. We had around 500 to 600 users who wanted to connect, and at least 50 to 60 users, or about 10% of the users, were unable to connect each day due to this anomaly. We were not able to identify the root cause of the problem. We collected and provided all the logs that the local support partner requested. Unfortunately, neither the Hungarian local support partner nor the Aruba headquarters could identify the root cause of how and why the Aruba VPN client could not establish a connection. So, it felt like a bad spot. Each day, users were praying to connect over the VPN and to be able to work that day. Aruba VPN sometimes worked, and sometimes it didn't. We were very disappointed and had to switch to a different supplier as soon as possible. We switched to a Cisco product and were very satisfied with the Cisco VPN.
AS
Manager - Projects at airtel
Offers work-from-anywhere flexibility but navigates occasional proxy confusion
The analytics I downloaded from your site as a free download did not carry the information that was actually required. I was looking at the market segmentation and market share, along with some USPs which differentiated them from each other. The free download had two issues: many things were repetitive, and it was designed to not release any relevant information. Only headers were present, so I was not able to determine whether the final report would be worthwhile. I have not worked with enterprise tools that I could share feedback on for website publication. I see benefits from using Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect). However, I would not recommend it because future adoptions will be towards Zscaler, as SSC is a better model than VPN. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution a 7.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I like the most about Aruba VPN is that it's great for companies with diverse network needs."
"Aruba VPN is lighter on machines, and users don't feel any difference in having these items installed on their PCs or laptops."
"Aruba VPN’s stability was okay."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The solution is secure and has a lot of benefits."
"The most useful feature of Cisco Secure Client is the capability for any kind of VPN, facilitating remote connections in the network."
"This is a stable solution."
"This is a secure product that has had zero stability issues since I started using it in 2019."
"The functions in Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) that I have found most valuable are that it is a connection tool that connects and has redundancy, which is a good thing."
"While it's very necessary as a tool, it's very much just set and forget."
"It is easy to scale."
"The solution is easy to deploy and has good NAC integration."
 

Cons

"When around 100 to 300 users tried to connect at the beginning of the day, the appliance would crash, and the users would not be able to connect."
"There is room for improvement from the solution's security point of view."
"It should address issues that are vital to maintaining the company's reputation."
"They could release product updates more frequently."
"Frequency of updates could be reduced."
"More frequent updates would be ideal."
"The product is stable unless there's a fluctuation in connections as the internet can fluctuate anytime; we can lose stuff or the whole connectivity the moment there's a slight microsecond of connectivity, and it tries to reconnect, however, it's not always successful, and that's where the pain is."
"There are times the WiFi connectivity has disruptions and you have disconnections. It doesn't work with two connections. I have two switches back and forth sometimes. It doesn't have a failback scenario feature. However, on the gateway side, it does, but on the user device, it doesn't have that kind of option. It would be nice to have this feature."
"Technical support could be better, especially when it comes to understanding the problems."
"The solution's performance and stability are average."
"Often, there are new versions to install and that can be annoying for our users."
"The hotspots give me connectivity issues occasionally. It could be easier to use if it allowed me to choose the hotspot."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We do not have to purchase a separate license for Aruba VPN; it is included in the ClearPass package."
"Customers need to buy a VPN client license."
"The initial cost is the ASA and other items, but after that, it is relatively inexpensive."
"It is not a free solution and the user needs to buy license."
"One thing I've noticed is the price in comparison to other VPNs."
"Sometimes there is a problem with the number of licenses for the end-user. The number of concurrent users is limited due to a valid license."
"The solution is based on an annual licensing model and is expensive."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"There is a license needed to use this solution. There are different licensing models available, such as a three-year license."
"We pay for an annual subscription. Additionally to the subscription, we thought in order to connect this solution to the Active Directory we had to purchase a Cisco ACS, Access Control System. It turns out we did not actually need it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is somewhat expensive compared to others such as Fortinet or Palo Alto, which provide free VPN when the firewall is purchased. Palo Alto and Fortinet prov...
What needs improvement with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
There are no features that I wish Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) had that it does not currently provide. If I could change one thing about it, I would have no changes to suggest.
What is your primary use case for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
I primarily use Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) for VPN connections and network-related activities. We have Cisco APIs and Cisco VPN that serve as the foundation for our operations. As a...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba VPN vs. Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.