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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)
2nd
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 June 2026, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiNAC is 13.7%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Impulse Point SafeConnect is 1.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiNAC13.7%
Impulse Point SafeConnect1.7%
Other84.6%
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 most valuable aspect of this product is its security features. Many customers prefer cheaper devices, but those often lack adequate security measures. It also supports compliance with industry regulations."
"The best feature of Fortinet FortiNAC is the capability that validates that only authorized devices are allowed to access our network."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is having visibility over the IoT devices on the network, as it allows the organization to see all the machines on the network, who is accessing what at which time, and what they are doing."
"The ease of deployment is valuable."
"The tool provides us with a list of devices that tries to connect to our network. It offers us a lot of network visibility."
"The best benefit of Fortinet FortiNAC is the stability and it can work with other vendors."
"The support is excellent when I encounter a problem or need to implement a new product. The support team is always helpful and responsive."
"The device fingerprinting feature allowed for easy creation and enforcement of access policies."
"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 user interface is quite complicated. It requires significant mastery to use effectively."
"Support requires improvement as it has declined over time."
"FortiNAC could improve integration with other vendors."
"It's a pricey solution. I don't know if it's maybe because the local partner overcharges me, but when I was researching other solutions, Cisco ISE is cheaper."
"The reporting can also use improvement."
"One of the biggest issues with Fortinet FortiNAC is that it is not intuitive and has a high learning curve."
"The initial set-up of an AP doubled as a result of using this product."
"The dashboard also needs to improve."
"The solution would be much better if it offered self-service onboarding."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Fortinet FortiNAC is less than Cisco's solution. However, the price could improve by being reduced."
"FortiNAC's price has gone up in the last year. However, compared to other solutions, such as Cisco ISE, it is cheaper."
"The product pricing is reasonable."
"The price of the license required is based on how many users are going to be using the solution. If you want more users you can upgrade your license."
"The pricing is similar to that of other solutions."
"Fortinet FortiNAC is reasonably priced."
"I rate Fortinet FortiNAC's pricing an eight out of ten."
"It's a subscription-based license, which is based on the usage and number of concurrent users."
"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%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
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, Fortinet, Cisco and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.