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Fortinet FortiNAC vs macmon Network Access Control comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 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

Fortinet FortiNAC
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
macmon Network Access Control
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiNAC is 11.9%, down from 17.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of macmon Network Access Control is 2.6%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiNAC11.9%
macmon Network Access Control2.6%
Other85.5%
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.
SA
Wireless Network Engineer at Forvia
The product is stable and easily connects with clients, but it is not scalable and does not provide deeper troubleshooting
There is no information on the protocol where the clients stop to authenticate. There are some policies, but I don't know whether the device stopped on the authentication or authorization levels. I don't know whether it is getting the right certificate. I have to work on assumptions. If I want to go to the history to see what happened to a client the previous day or two days ago, it will be very hard because the server is used by multiple devices. For every device and user, macmon creates a file into the RADIUS appliance for deep troubleshooting. To troubleshoot, it creates a bunch of files. If I want to check what happened in the history, I have to check all the files. In some cases, there are 100 files. It is impossible for me to go to each file to see where it happens. It will be good to find the file my client authenticated based on the MAC address. Otherwise, the product must have one file for a specific date. I don't have any problem in terms of dates because it's normal. However, having hundreds of files per day is very hard to troubleshoot. The solution must allow users to filter files based on dates. It must provide deeper troubleshooting and reduced log. Also, the RADIUS logs are very huge.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a very good solution and one thing I have noted is its simplicity and the ease of the set-up process."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiNAC are user device management and there are plenty of policies."
"All the features of Fortinet FortiNAC are valuable."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiNAC are access control, automation, artificial intelligence, analysis, and security, and it is a unified solution. You can combine a lot of features within the solution."
"It is a brilliant solution."
"The most valuable aspect of Fortinet FortiNAC is the control it offers."
"The solution is good at giving a deep dive into each product. It tells you, for example, what is connected to the network. It gives us good reporting tools."
"The best feature of Fortinet FortiNAC is the capability that validates that only authorized devices are allowed to access our network."
"We use it with our Cisco switches so we can see which switch it is actually connected to."
"When we started with macmon we had immediate success, we could see our network and see the devices and could easily go online."
"The API is a great way to get information from other tools."
"The ease of connecting with the client is valuable for me."
 

Cons

"The admin UI is not that good; it could be better matched and more friendly to use and it cannot work as a RADIUS server."
"They need to change or upgrade the technology in the product."
"Fortinet FortiNAC's device compatibility could be improved, particularly for VoIP devices."
"Classifications and visibility need to be improved a lot. They have to start work on being agentless. Agentless means they need to have strong integration with Windows."
"When you compare the solution to other NAC solutions like ISE and Portnox, you realize that it is not able to work as a single sign-on device."
"The GUI in Fortinet FortiNAC could improve."
"The stability is relatively poor, as it has taken us roughly 12 months to get the network access control to be functional."
"The technical support could improve; the response time is quite slow."
"The single sign-on process can be improved and the interface should be made more user-friendly."
"The solution must allow users to filter files based on dates."
"The service macmon offers is already great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is fair and reasonable for our clients."
"It's a pricey solution."
"I would rate the price of Fortinet FortiNAC seven out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
"The price of Fortinet FortiNAC is less than Cisco's solution. However, the price could improve by being reduced."
"The product itself is inexpensive, but the licensing is expensive."
"It's a subscription-based license, which is based on the usage and number of concurrent users."
"For the projects that we do the Fortinet FortiNAC is affordable."
"The solution is expensive. However, it is not as expensive as other solutions, such as Cisco ISE."
"The solution is not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise13
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
macmon NAC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Isavia, Pepperdine University, Medical University of South Carolina, Columbia University Medical Center, Utah Valley University
More than 1,500 installations in all over Europe in all industries: Stepchange, Volkswagen, Vivantes Healthcare, MBDA Weapons, APS engineering, Alfred Ritter GmbH (Ritter Sport), Haßberg-Kliniken, 1. FSV Mainz 05 eV., Siempelkamp, AEB etc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiNAC vs. macmon Network Access Control and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.