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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs One Identity Manager 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco Identity Services Engine enhances security and efficiency, providing cost savings and IT consolidation, making it vital for network management.
Sentiment score
6.9
One Identity Manager boosts productivity, reduces costs, and enhances security by automating user provisioning and access management.
Direct comparisons with Forescout reveal up to 30% to 40% difference in cost savings.
Without it, we would need thousands of additional people.
If you do not see it as purely an Identity Management tool but as a possibility to automate processes in the company, it provides a huge amount of value.
One Identity Manager saved us approximately thirty to forty percent in terms of time, money, and resources compared to our pre-deployment setup.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.9
Cisco Identity Services Engine customer service is praised for commitment, but technical support feedback varies due to delays and complexities.
Sentiment score
6.6
One Identity Manager's customer service is inconsistent, with varying technical support responsiveness and the importance of partner involvement emphasized.
I rate the technical support as one out of ten.
Sometimes it's challenging to identify which support team is responsible for certain issues, which is a significant concern.
If you have outages or critical production problems, you can count on the manufacturer to help resolve the situation.
They should focus on bringing in technically skilled individuals who understand the tools and technologies involved.
If I raised a request while they were active, I received responses within an hour.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco ISE excels in scalable environments, efficiently supporting deployments with flexibility for thousands of endpoints across various sizes.
Sentiment score
7.2
One Identity Manager excels in scalability but faces challenges with large datasets and customization for extensive setups.
Factors like architecture, business nature, and legal limitations such as GDPR affect it.
We could handle about 1,00,000 records for different users.
I would rate its scalability as strong since we have not experienced any significant challenges.
This includes designing and implementing IAM solutions for legacy systems, cloud migrations, and multifactor authentications.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco ISE is reliable with high user satisfaction, though some report stability issues, especially during upgrades and high capacity.
Sentiment score
7.3
One Identity Manager is stable when correctly configured, but stability varies with infrastructure and proper maintenance is crucial.
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.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
Specifically affecting the test and development environments, not the production environment.
One Identity Manager has improved in terms of performance and added functionality.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco ISE struggles with setup complexity, non-intuitive UI, integration challenges, upgrade issues, and demands for better features.
One Identity Manager requires improved performance, user interface, integration, documentation, streamlined processes, and enhanced database management for better functionality.
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.
This lack of 24-hour support is problematic from a testing and development standpoint.
It is crucial for them to expand their support team to match their product's success.
In terms of providing a single platform for enterprise-level administration and governance of users, data, and privileged accounts, One Identity is not yet there.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco ISE offers strong features with complex, expensive pricing, but discounts through partnerships can help alleviate costs.
One Identity Manager offers competitive pricing with savings for large enterprises, but may be costly for smaller businesses.
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.
On-premises might incur higher costs.
We have a good enterprise license agreement, and we are very happy with what we get for the price we pay for it.
On-premises, it is cheap.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco ISE provides comprehensive access control, seamless integration, and enhanced security with intuitive management for versatile network operations.
One Identity Manager offers flexibility, automation, and integration, enhancing efficiency while providing dynamic application provisioning and user-friendly interface.
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 solution is integrated with other Cisco devices and can offer automation for an organization, making deployments more dynamic and providing real-time visibility.
It ensures high security through multiple approval processes, preventing unauthorized access and enhancing compliance by providing time-based access for privileged accounts with proper audit trails.
It continuously monitors user behavior in real-time, triggering automated responses, and manages secure access for both on-premises and cloud applications using protocols such as SAML.
Once you have some experience, it demonstrates best practices and guides you on the correct way to use the tool.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
143
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
One Identity Manager
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
123
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (1st), Identity Management (IM) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and One Identity Manager aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is designed for Network Access Control (NAC) and holds a mindshare of 24.5%, down 30.0% compared to last year.
One Identity Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Management (IM), holds 5.7% mindshare, down 7.1% since last year.
Network Access Control (NAC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)24.5%
Aruba ClearPass23.9%
Fortinet FortiNAC18.0%
Other33.599999999999994%
Network Access Control (NAC)
Identity Management (IM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
One Identity Manager5.7%
SailPoint Identity Security Cloud19.1%
Microsoft Entra ID12.2%
Other63.0%
Identity Management (IM)
 

Featured Reviews

SunilkumarNaganuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced device administration hindered by complex deployment and security limitations
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) needs to improve the profiling preauthentication. They are very poor in asset classification and should focus on improving the preauthentication profiling, especially for NAC use cases. This will give them a roadmap for software-defined access (SDA) use cases and network segmentation. Threat detection capabilities are very weak. Additionally, the product is vulnerable and has many bugs.
Charles Essien - PeerSpot reviewer
Makes identity management more robust with the new portal, but needs faster processing and better support
For basic tasks, it's acceptable, but when there are complexities and building on those complexities, it becomes slow because One Identity Manager doesn't do parallel processing; it processes in series and in batches. That's a drawback because with a heavy database and many processes, it becomes slow, which isn't ideal for user experience. There are many areas in One Identity Manager that have room for improvement. I don't prefer that One Identity Manager uses series processing where everything is in a queue; it has to process in order, which means there are too many layers involved in processing a single piece of information. If they could simplify that and make processing faster, it would be perfect. The database queue process doesn't make sense, and it's annoying waiting for processes to finish before another starts. Also, when upgrading, they should be more considerate; with the transition from One Identity Manager 7.0 to 8.2, many functions were phased out, requiring extensive upgrading of numerous scripts. I find it pretty difficult to customize the solution because you really need to be an expert. If you have about one year of experience, you can't do much with One Identity Manager. You need many years of experience to customize solutions effectively.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise90
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise81
 

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 are the main differences between Cisco ISE and Forescout Platform?
OK, so Cisco ISE uses 802.1X to secure switchports against unauthorized access. The drawback of this is that ISE cannot secure the port if a device does not support 802.1x. Cameras, badge readers, ...
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 do you like most about One Identity Manager?
The One Identity birthright process has helped generate user accounts more accurately and quickly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Manager?
The pricing for One Identity Manager is competitive in our region, so there is no issue with the license pricing. However, aside from the license for the StarLink apps, the cost is justified.
What needs improvement with One Identity Manager?
The ease of use of One Identity Manager could improve as the web portal is not the most user-friendly, and there are many places where the settings exist which can make it fuzzy and difficult to fi...
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
Quest One Identity Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, BC Hydro, Beachbody, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Cisco IT, Derby City Council, Global Banking Customer, Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha, Houston Methodist, Linz AG, London Hydro, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Molina Healthcare, MST Systems, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Reykjavik University, Wildau University
Texas A&M, Sky Media, BHF Bank, Swiss Post, Union Investment, Wayne State University. More at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: August 2025.
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