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Aruba ClearPass 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

Aruba ClearPass
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Impulse Point SafeConnect
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Aruba ClearPass is 23.9%, down from 25.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Impulse Point SafeConnect is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Aruba ClearPass23.9%
Impulse Point SafeConnect0.5%
Other75.6%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Abdelhamid Saber - PeerSpot reviewer
Secures the network with flexible controls and excellent support
We use Aruba ClearPass as a network access control solution. It prevents unauthorized access and allows access for users in the internal environment, performing checks and onboarding We use ClearPass to secure our environment. Before ClearPass, our environment wasn't as secure. The most…
CD
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 visibility and security features are most valuable. We get a clear view. It is a very secure product for educational institutions."
"What I like most about Aruba ClearPass is its access tracker that serves as its monitoring feature. The access tracker is really helpful when you want to troubleshoot authentication failures."
"You have a good return on investment with Aruba, which is the best overall solution compared to competitors like Cisco, Forescout, and others."
"Gives us network access control, visibility, scalability, security, and control in what is becoming an uncontrollable, inundated BYOD and IoT world."
"The web dashboard and the policy manager are very intuitive and very easy for the engineers to use."
"Aruba ClearPass is a very user-friendly solution compared to Cisco ISE."
"The most valuable features of Aruba ClearPass are the authentication mechanisms and the integration with Active Directory(AD)."
"Aruba ClearPass is feature-rich and fairly straightforward to implement."
"It is very easy to scale the product."
 

Cons

"Aruba ClearPass needs significant improvement in being user-friendly. The configuration and overall use are not easily understandable."
"In the future, I would like to see plugins for AI and machine learning."
"ClearPass from Aruba is easier to understand compared to Cisco, which has more features yet is more complicated."
"It would be good if ClearPass made it a SaaS solution."
"Aruba ClearPass could improve the complexity of the initial usage. It takes some time to be good at it. It's not simple to build and connect the rules to the network you want to deploy them on."
"Instructions on adding layouts are not as clear as they could be.​"
"If you look at the tool's deployment phase from a fine-tuning perspective, I feel it was very complex."
"Aruba ClearPass has a complex pricing scheme, so that's an area for improvement. The process for setting up Aruba ClearPass also needs improvement. It could be easier."
"The solution would be much better if it offered self-service onboarding."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is too expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"Aruba ClearPass has permanent licenses. You purchase it one time and this license is yours. You don't need to refresh it for five years, et cetera. They have a couple of licenses for enabled features with not only one license."
"​Cost is important. I switched because Aruba's costs were well below Cisco's."
"The product is very costly."
"You can get Aruba ClearPass either where you purchase it outright or you can be subscription-based. The cost will vary according to what is selected, but it's licensed per device. For example, for a hundred users or a hundred device license, it would cost approximately $2,000."
"The price of Aruba ClearPass is expensive. However, Cisco ISE was as expensive when we were comparing."
"We pay an annual licensing fee for Aruba and there are no additional costs."
"I can say that the package or licensing model offered for the solution is a permanent one."
"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
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise32
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Aruba Clearpass or Cisco ISE?
Aruba ClearPass is a Network Access Control tool that gives secure network access to multiple device types. You can adapt the policies to VPN access, wired, or wireless access. You can securely ...
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...
What do you like most about Aruba ClearPass?
If you are looking at the base installation, then it was a very straightforward process, which I would rate an eight or nine out of ten.
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Also Known As

Avenda eTIPS
SafeConnect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Consulate Health Care, Los Angeles Unified School District, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), San Diego State University, KFC, ACTS Retirement-Life Communities
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