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Forescout Platform vs Fortinet FortiNAC vs Portnox 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
6.7
Forescout Platform is valued for enhancing security, automating remediation, saving costs, and improving network reliability and privacy.
Sentiment score
6.9
Fortinet FortiNAC boosts security, reduces costs and configuration time, offering financial benefits and substantial ROI with minimal post-sale support.
Sentiment score
7.3
Portnox CORE improved network visibility, security, and efficiency, reducing costs and enhancing decision-making through detailed analytics and automated features.
If you were moving from a traditional on-premise NAC that was 100% managed by the IT department, there would be great savings in going to a cloud-based NAC with Portnox.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Forescout Platform's customer service is responsive and helpful, but varies in response time, knowledge, and consistency.
Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiNAC support is responsive and helpful but criticized for slow responses, knowledge gaps, and lacking UK-based support.
Sentiment score
7.3
Portnox customer service is highly rated for responsiveness and efficiency, with room for improvement in local services and communication.
They provide sessions to help with various questions.
They could do more to improve, not because of the product itself but because of the support they provide.
They resolved issues quickly and provided clear explanations.
They respond very immediately and provide detailed, amazing support.
I was seeing weird things, and they were able to explain things to me and help me quickly find a resolution.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Forescout Platform scales efficiently with seamless appliance additions, despite potential cost concerns, proving reliable in large deployments.
Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiNAC is generally scalable, flexible, suitable for enterprises, but user experiences vary due to licensing and integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
Portnox is scalable and flexible, supporting growth efficiently, though larger setups may require more resources, rated seven to ten.
Scalability can be costly since a physical box needs to be installed for every site.
The pricing model makes it challenging as the cost is substantial due to the per-node licensing model.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Forescout Platform is praised for its stability and reliability, with minor issues that do not overshadow its performance.
Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiNAC's stability receives mixed reviews, with praises for improvements but concerns about initial issues and support challenges.
Sentiment score
7.6
Portnox offers reliable uptime, though CORE users report issues with vendor support and configuration, while Clear performs smoothly.
I would rate its stability as 9.5 out of ten.
The product itself is available and its uptime is 100%.
In the four years that I used Portnox, if it crashed or the server crashed, that would not have been more than once.
 

Room For Improvement

Forescout Platform struggles with usability, integration, false positives, high costs, needing improved analytics, support, scalability, and simplified licensing.
Fortinet FortiNAC faces issues with integration, user interface, training, support, and network visibility, while being costly.
Portnox can improve with better GUI, integration, scalability, support, licensing, false positives, documentation, and Wi-Fi and AI analytics.
The console is a fat client, and a web interface would be preferable.
Improvement in the interface design would make FortiNAC a better solution.
The graphical user interface (GUI) of Fortinet FortiNAC is very poor compared to competitors like Forcepoint and Cisco ISE.
Ideally, we should be able to search for any MAC address in the database, regardless of its authentication status, to see all its associated groups and potential conflicts.
They don't have much support during Asia Pacific hours.
When I'm doing filtering at times, it doesn't filter the items properly.
 

Setup Cost

Forescout Platform is costly but offers flexible licensing and comprehensive features, competing well with Cisco ISE.
Fortinet FortiNAC offers competitive pricing with flexible licensing, good value, and affordability, especially in larger deployments.
Portnox offers scalable, competitive pricing based on ports, with annual fees, appreciated value, but no perpetual license option.
Installing a physical box on each site can be expensive.
Fortinet FortiNAC is relatively cheap compared to other solutions.
The pricing is a bit high, possibly due to the cloud features and running instances across regions like the US, Asia, and Europe.
If you compare Portnox with all other well-known standard products, it is the cheapest.
It is a bit on the high side, but considering the cloud features and how much it costs to run the instance in the cloud, it is not unreasonable.
 

Valuable Features

Forescout Platform offers excellent device visibility, network control, and integration, praised for agentless operation, flexibility, and real-time alerts.
Fortinet FortiNAC provides strong security with device visibility, seamless integration, user management, compliance checks, and effective reporting tools.
Portnox provides scalable, agentless network visibility with intuitive dashboards and automated security integration, enhancing efficiency and endpoint compliance.
The platform enables automated policy enforcement, allowing us to simulate and test policies before enforcement, streamlining our security operations.
I appreciate the feature where it can connect with different vendor equipment, regardless of the network devices from other vendors.
The main advantage of Fortinet FortiNAC is its integration with the entire Fortinet product portfolio.
It's notable how Portnox has improved operational efficiency.
It provides very granular details of the device connected to each port.
We use Meraki for our switching, making it simple to point all our networks and offices to Portnox.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Forescout Platform is 12.6%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiNAC is 18.8%, up from 16.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Portnox is 3.6%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Odai Halawani - PeerSpot reviewer
It's an easy and effective solution, especially for device profiling without agents
Forescout Platform's most valuable aspect is its excellent device profiling for devices without agents, which is crucial for our work due to challenges with agent-based devices. Its isolation and blocking actions are particularly effective for network security. The device compliance feature helps us ensure device compliance through immediate actions like updating antivirus software. We have already integrated Forescout with antivirus and vulnerability assessment tools, allowing it to monitor vulnerability scores and automatically isolate devices if critical vulnerabilities are detected.
Boaz Katabazi - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless device discovery with integration and discovery capabilities
FortiNAC is very good in terms of device discovery and integration. I appreciate the feature where it can connect with different vendor equipment, regardless of the network devices from other vendors. That's something I appreciate about it, particularly in terms of adaptability. Despite the complexity of its interface, its discovery capabilities are commendable.
Scott Kerr - PeerSpot reviewer
It is seamless and integrates well with our Azure setup
We use devices like PLCs and controllers, and when we receive a request to allow one on the network, we bypass typical authentication, associate it with a group account, and push it to a firewalled VLAN. However, problems arise when the same MAC address is requested for a different project. Our current system only finds authenticated MAC addresses, making it difficult to troubleshoot when the same device is used for multiple purposes. Ideally, we should be able to search for any MAC address in the database, regardless of its authentication status, to see all its associated groups and potential conflicts.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
Forescout is a very powerful NAC product that does not rely on port level configuration. It can detect and block unau...
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
I would rate the Forescout Device and Visibility Control Platform at a six out of ten.
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
I recommend doing a compression demo. If people use it, they will buy it. So they have to see the product in place. T...
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 ...
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 some...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiNAC?
The support responds to our queries within two to four hours.
What do you like most about Portnox CORE?
It's easy to manage and troubleshoot thanks to the lightweight components.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Portnox CORE?
It's not cheap. It's not expensive. It's in the middle, so I'll probably give it a seven out of ten, where one is che...
What needs improvement with Portnox CORE?
We have been having some issues with it. That's why we're considering migrating to Portnox Clear due to some limitati...
 

Also Known As

Forescout Platform, CounterACT for Endpoint Compliance, ForeScout CounterACT
FortiNAC, Bradford Networks, Bradford Networks Sentry, Network Sentry Family
Access Layers Portnox, Portnox CLEAR
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NHS Sussex, SAP, SEGA, Vistaprint, Miami Children's Hospital, Pioneer Investments, New York Law School, OmnicomGroup, Meritrust
Isavia, Pepperdine University, Medical University of South Carolina, Columbia University Medical Center, Utah Valley University
Data Realty, Royal London, Wales Millennium Centre, McLaren Construction Group, EL AL Israeli Airlines, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: April 2025.
851,451 professionals have used our research since 2012.