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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Sophos 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

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
144
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (4th)
Sophos Network Access Control
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is 18.5%, down from 24.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Network Access Control is 3.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)18.5%
Sophos Network Access Control3.1%
Other78.4%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

SunilkumarNaganuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Line Manager (Service Operations Expert) - Network Access Control at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
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.
PS
System Administrator And Network Engineer at Vidyashilp University
Access control has strengthened security and central console management streamlines device oversight
In my opinion, one feature that should be added is the ability to trace emails from individuals who change their IP address or send misbehaving emails from alternative networks. If someone sends a misbehaving email from the network but is not connected to our network and uses a personal network instead, it becomes difficult to trace and identify which network the email is coming from. An inventory system should also be added in the future. Some antivirus solutions have inventory systems that provide all system details. Since we install the Sophos client on client machines, we could obtain details about which software is being used and what the configuration of the machines is. This information would be valuable, as some information was missing when I was using the product previously.

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 feature is the visibility element, the ability for customers to be able to see what devices are actually on their network. Without a solution like ISE, they would have no idea what devices are connected to their network. It offers them the ability to authenticate devices via mobile."
"It's scalable."
"The way the ISE works is you can get into defining. Let's say, in my case, I've got a Windows laptop and I've got an Apple product and those have unique identifiers, unique back addresses. It would say that this in my profile so I could get to those apps with either device, 24/seven. That's how granular the ISE or these NAC Solutions can get."
"Using this solution gives us the ability to allow proper access to the network."
"The solution is very reliable."
"The feature that I most like is that it can notify me whenever someone plugs in their device, which is not allowed. I get notifications for new laptop devices. I think the user interface looks good compared to previous versions."
"The product has many useful features, enhances compliance and security posture, and provides client provisions and profiling as well as guest access, features not available in other solutions."
"Cisco offers automation, visibility, and control as well as third party integration capabilities."
"We have had interactions with the technical support team through the Xnet platform. It's good."
"Sophos Network Access Control has a useful interface, and I like its dashboard, which is very useful for us to check everything."
"The scalability of the system and the performance of the system and the solution's most valuable features."
"Sophos Network Access Control saves our clients time and money."
"The wifi control is fantastic and makes it very easy to administer."
"The return on our investment was huge, mostly due to the time saved in managing thousands of physical endpoints."
"The user interface makes it easy to configure and use."
"Sophos has helped us to save time and money and to better manage web activities. It has also helped us to reduce misuse of the network and restrict hacking attempts."
 

Cons

"Deploying to a machine, as opposed to a dedicated appliance, can be a bit difficult."
"Third-party integration is important, as well as the continuous adaptation feature which is the AIOps. It would be helpful to include the AIOps."
"Setup wasn't easy, especially if you haven’t worked with it intensively."
"The stability of the solution needs to be improved. It's not ideal. It's lacking overall."
"The web interface needs improvement. The new web interface that they have is not as easy to manage and we find it to be very slow."
"The installation is not straightforward, it took us approximately one month."
"The interface is a little bit complex."
"I would rate this solution a 7.5 out of ten. To make it a ten they should have more people on tech support. They need to invest more in the product. It's a good product. They should just work on tech support. More support for the customer. It's not that easy to get somebody to understand this product. I have had some issues with tech before for the solution. One of them brought the solution down due to some of his activity. They need to hugely invest in their tech support."
"Endpoint and firewall synchronization is not as smooth as we are expecting from Sophos Network Access Control."
"Users are not controlled by role-based access; it's basically device-based control. The definition of role-based control is a little vague here because on the cloud level, it regulates access rather than tasks."
"I would like more details on the incoming connection, like what is the download speed and how it fluctuates. If Sophos can give that information, it would be really good."
"Sophos Network Access Control requires a lot of resources to work, which is an area for improvement. Pricing could also be improved because it's costly."
"The user interface, in terms of managing the product, could be better."
"The difficult thing was finding the metrics."
"The interface on the cloud could be a bit better - just to give more performance on it."
"What needs to be improved on is the fact that Sophos consumes a lot of processor resources and, once it starts scanning, the RAM utilization is very high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is fairly expensive and that's part of why we have implemented it in the type of 'hack' that we did, to service multiple clients."
"Cisco is expensive, but it's the cost for all the functions and value it brings. Functions like internet solutions, integrations, security, and many more features are important, but it's expensive for some clients."
"Cisco is moving towards a subscription service, which would mean additional costs."
"Over the years, licensing has been confusing and complicated because there are so many different licenses for each different product and each different iteration of the product."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, one being cheap and ten being expensive."
"It's damn expensive and the licensing is terrible... If you have perpetual licenses on 2.7 and you upgrade to 3, you are forced to go with Essentials. That is one of the issues that I'm seeing with my clients now."
"It would be beneficial to have a single license that included all of the features."
"Cisco has actually transitioned to a lot of subscription models, fees, and licenses."
"I rate the price of Sophos Network Access Control a five out of ten."
"Sophos Network Access Control is costly but has a similar price range as CrowdStrike and Check Point. The product can get more market share if Sophos can play around with Sophos Network Access Control pricing and improve it."
"It is quite expensive."
"Sophos Network Access Control is an expensive solution."
"Sophos Network Access Control is very cheap compared to other solutions like Cisco, Barracuda, and Palo Alto."
"It provides a moderate pricing option for all of its features and benefits."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise91
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Network Access Control?
The pricing of Sophos Network Access Control is good, but it is somewhat high.
What needs improvement with Sophos Network Access Control?
In my opinion, one feature that should be added is the ability to trace emails from individuals who change their IP address or send misbehaving emails from alternative networks. If someone sends a ...
What is your primary use case for Sophos Network Access Control?
Sophos Network Access Control serves primary use cases for both networking purposes and security purposes.
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
No data available
 

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
Rushmoor Borough Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Sophos Network Access Control and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
919,088 professionals have used our research since 2012.