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Fortinet FortiNAC vs Impulse Point SafeConnect 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiNAC
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Impulse Point SafeConnect
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiNAC is 12.6%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Impulse Point SafeConnect is 1.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiNAC12.6%
Impulse Point SafeConnect1.7%
Other85.7%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Mohamed Fouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
Network access control has centralized device profiling and automated user isolation
The best features Fortinet FortiNAC offers include great integration with other Fortinet products. We have most of the cybersecurity products from Fortinet, including FortiMail, FortiGate, and FortiManager, among many Fortinet products. The best feature is the integration with these products. Fortinet FortiNAC can also integrate with any switching vendor using SSH to manage switches. This integration capability is very beneficial. The integration with other Fortinet products and managing switches from different vendors has helped my workflow by providing automation that makes it easy to run actions. We execute and trigger actions through Fortinet FortiNAC on FortiGate. We set up trigger actions on FortiGate to be run through Fortinet FortiNAC directly. Whenever an action happens, it is triggered on Fortinet FortiNAC, allowing us to disable and isolate a user if that machine is infected. The automation and response functionality is powerful, and the integration is very good. Fortinet FortiNAC has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to control our network and save time. We manage multiple switches that allow many users, including guest users and corporate users. We have saved time and secured our resources while accomplishing a lot with Fortinet FortiNAC.
CD
Director of Computer Information Services at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Easy to scale, enforces policies well, and has responsive technical support
A lot of campuses use SafeConnect. It gives us good visibility and enforces policies. It helps enforce network security by scanning devices, making sure they have current and valid antivirus solutions with up-to-date antivirus definitions, and steers our end users by enforcing policy groups and steering them to the right access. Technical support is responsive. The stability is pretty good. It is very easy to scale the product.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Fortinet FortiNAC has good user account customization."
"There are quite a number of things that are valuable about this solution, having dealt with Cisco ISE, I realize that FortiNAC is different in a way that gives you granular visibility of the entire network infrastructure related to IOT devices (Who, What, When, Which information)."
"FortiNAC has enhanced our network visibility because FortiNAC monitors MAC addresses and other network devices, like Cisco, Catalyst, or HPE switches."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiNAC is its integration with all other Fortinet solutions."
"The initial setup was easy and straightforward."
"The users say that FortiNAC is configurable and easy to use."
"It’s a unified place where we can manage campus onboarding/BYOD NAC security."
"It gives us good visibility and enforces policies, helps enforce network security by scanning devices, making sure they have current and valid antivirus solutions with up-to-date antivirus definitions, and steers our end users by enforcing policy groups and steering them to the right access."
"It is very easy to scale the product."
 

Cons

"The solution needs to improve its AI capabilities."
"The implementation process needs improvement. Right now, it's somewhat complicated."
"As there is currently not any UK based support – Poor."
"The product could be more user-friendly in terms of GUI."
"Cisco ISE has full integration but FortiNAC doesn't."
"Support requires improvement as it has declined over time."
"The automation in Fortinet FortiNAC could improve."
"The course content could be improved, it's not that simple to work through."
"The solution would be much better if it offered self-service onboarding."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive. However, it is not as expensive as other solutions, such as Cisco ISE."
"The price is fair and reasonable for our clients."
"The price of Fortinet FortiNAC is less than Cisco's solution. However, the price could improve by being reduced."
"It's a subscription-based license, which is based on the usage and number of concurrent users."
"The product pricing is reasonable."
"It's a pricey solution."
"I would rate the price of Fortinet FortiNAC seven out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
"The product cost is moderate."
"For our tier group, for one year, the cost is probably around $10,000 for the license. If you do multi-year, you could get two years, and you could get it for about $8,000 per year. If you do three years, you get it around $7,000 a year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise14
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
How does Cisco ISE compare with Fortinet FortiNAC?
Cisco ISE uses AI endpoint analytics to identify new devices based on their behavior. It will also notify you if someone plugs in with a device that is not allowed and will block it. The user exper...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiNAC?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiNAC is that, as is typical from Fortinet, all their products have a very good licensing model and competitive pricing. I beli...
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Also Known As

FortiNAC, Bradford Networks, Bradford Networks Sentry, Network Sentry Family
SafeConnect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Isavia, Pepperdine University, Medical University of South Carolina, Columbia University Medical Center, Utah Valley University
Aerohive Solution
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: July 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.