

Fortinet FortiNAC and Cisco Identity Services Engine compete in network access control solutions. Fortinet FortiNAC seems to have the upper hand in terms of user-friendliness and affordability, while Cisco ISE leads in network integration and scalability.
Features: Fortinet FortiNAC offers strong visibility and security capabilities, user friendliness, and seamless integration across various environments. Cisco ISE, known for robust security features, excels in integration with other Cisco products and provides detailed reporting tools, making it ideal for complex network environments.
Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiNAC could enhance integration with third-party devices, improve network visibility, and offer more responsive technical support. Cisco ISE could benefit from a more intuitive user interface, better documentation, and a simpler deployment process to address its steep learning curve and complex pricing model.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiNAC provides flexible deployment options across various environments but needs more responsive customer service and support. Cisco ISE also offers flexible deployment, but its complexity often results in a challenging setup process, although its customer support is generally well-regarded.
Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiNAC is considered more affordable with reasonable maintenance fees, giving a good return on investment through security enhancements. Cisco ISE, while expensive with a complex licensing model, provides strong ROI in large-scale deployments thanks to its extensive feature set, though it may be cost-prohibitive for smaller organizations.
Direct comparisons with Forescout reveal up to 30% to 40% difference in cost savings.
We also save money because we increased security, stopped incidents, and reduced breaches and security breaches.
I rate the technical support as one out of ten.
Cisco support has pretty good teams for support and every time we had good answers and we could somehow solve the issues we had.
TAC support from Cisco is a notable feature; it provides very professional support.
They provide sessions to help with various questions.
They could do more to improve, not because of the product itself but because of the support they provide.
You can run an all-in-one deployment and switch to distributed mode as your company grows, relying on Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) to support your scalability needs.
Factors like architecture, business nature, and legal limitations such as GDPR affect it.
However, you can have some latency issues depending on where your devices are.
The pricing model makes it challenging as the cost is substantial due to the per-node licensing model.
Fortinet FortiNAC's scalability is great.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is considered very reliable and stable.
The stability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is poor for certain use cases, like authentication.
Sometimes when we have upgrades or failovers with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), we had some minor issues.
The whole setup works well with Cisco access points and Cisco switches, but when you have multiple vendors in the environment, such as HP switches or access points like Aruba, you'll find they will not work well with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE).
Pricing can be more expensive compared to other vendors, and there is a significant price gap observed, which doesn't seem justified by some specific features.
They are very poor in asset classification and should focus on improving the preauthentication profiling, especially for NAC use cases.
Improvement in the interface design would make FortiNAC a better solution.
The graphical user interface (GUI) of Fortinet FortiNAC is very poor compared to competitors like Forcepoint and Cisco ISE.
Real-time use cases for implementing Fortinet FortiNAC will be useful for all customers.
Compared to other solutions like HPE ClearPass, Cisco is more costly, and the conversation suggests a possible forty percent price gap compared to competitors.
The license costs can range between $50,000 to $100,000 per year for enterprises.
Cloud solutions are expensive, while on-prem setups with shared environments are cheaper but not effective.
Fortinet FortiNAC is relatively cheap compared to other solutions.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been wonderful from Fortinet FortiNAC.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) offers authentication using RADIUS, enhancing network security by separating and segregating networks.
There is value because it helps us secure the network and prevents certain things from happening which could cause financial loss.
The adaptability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) policy enforcement can fit to the site we have depending on which kind of devices we have on site and then the needs for authentication, granting access and then assigning each device into its correct network for segmentation.
Implementing zero trust with Fortinet FortiNAC has improved security metrics and enhanced security for our infrastructure.
I appreciate the feature where it can connect with different vendor equipment, regardless of the network devices from other vendors.
The main advantage of Fortinet FortiNAC is its integration with the entire Fortinet product portfolio.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) | 21.7% |
| Fortinet FortiNAC | 15.5% |
| Other | 62.8% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 44 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 32 |
| Large Enterprise | 91 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 30 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 13 |
| Large Enterprise | 14 |
Cisco Identity Services Engine offers robust authentication, posture profiling, guest and secure access, and dynamic policy management. Known for its seamless integration with Cisco tools and network access control features, it ensures secure device and user authentication across networks.
Cisco Identity Services Engine is renowned for its capabilities in managing authentication, guest access, and policy management through segmentation. Its TrustSec functionality, alongside RADIUS and TACACS+ support, provides enhanced security, further augmented by its ability to operate in diverse environments. Its scalability and integration with Cisco solutions aid in maintaining network visibility and access control. Challenges include the complexity of initial deployments, somewhat cumbersome documentation, and limited integration in multi-vendor environments. While encountering issues in stability and updates, the demand for better analytics and straightforward troubleshooting alongside cost-effective licensing is notable.
What are the key features of Cisco Identity Services Engine?Industries implement Cisco Identity Services Engine primarily for network access control, ensuring secure authentication and segmentation in both wired and wireless environments. Supporting policies like bring-your-own-device and compliance standards, ISE manages identity-based access control, especially beneficial for entities that require detailed user rights management and integration within enterprise networks.
Fortinet's FortiNAC is a network access control solution that provides visibility, control, and automated response for everything that connects to the network, enhancing the security fabric. FortiNAC protects against Internet of Things (IoT) threats, extends control to third-party devices, and orchestrates automated responses to a variety of networking events.
Using many information and behavior sources, FortiNAC delivers extensive profiling of even headless devices on your network, allowing you to precisely identify what's on your network.
You can change the configurations of switches and wireless equipment from more than 70 vendors to implement micro-segmentation regulations. You can also extend the security fabric's reach in diverse contexts.
With FortiNac, you can respond in seconds to events in your network to stop attacks from spreading. When the relevant behavior is seen, FortiNAC offers a rich and customized set of automation policies that can rapidly trigger configuration changes.
Fortinet FortiNAC Features
Fortinet FortiNAC has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
Fortinet FortiNAC Benefits
There are many benefits to implementing DX Spectrum. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Fortinet FortiNAC stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust network segmentation and its device visibility. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:
A Senior Proposal Manager at a tech services company writes of the solution, “The network segmentation is the most important part of the solution. The integration with the Zero Trust Access solution is a crucial part of segmenting your network.”
Eranjaya K., Security Engineer at Eguardian lanka, notes, “We use Fortinet FortiNAC to receive excellent visibility of our network for traffic and what devices are connected to prevent attacks.” He adds, “I have found Fortinet FortiNAC to be scalable.”
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