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Forescout Platform vs Portnox vs Tenable Security Center 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
7.3
Portnox CORE improved network visibility, security, and efficiency, reducing costs and enhancing decision-making through detailed analytics and automated features.
Sentiment score
7.5
Tenable Security Center optimizes resources, enhances security, and reduces costs with improved compliance, visibility, and efficient management.
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.
Through the use of Tenable Security Center, my clients achieve more efficient patching and gain visibility and understanding of security operations, leading to improved resilience and infrastructure insight.
 

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
7.3
Portnox customer service is highly rated for responsiveness and efficiency, with room for improvement in local services and communication.
Sentiment score
7.3
Tenable Security Center's support is generally effective with praised premium service, though initial and international support need improvement.
I was seeing weird things, and they were able to explain things to me and help me quickly find a resolution.
They respond very immediately and provide detailed, amazing support.
They resolved issues quickly and provided clear explanations.
Longer response times and less thorough assistance.
 

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
7.5
Portnox is scalable and flexible, supporting growth efficiently, though larger setups may require more resources, rated seven to ten.
Sentiment score
8.2
Tenable Security Center is praised for its high scalability, easily managing numerous assets and users while supporting future growth.
Scalability can be costly since a physical box needs to be installed for every site.
I can scale it extensively with the use of agents, allowing scanning in restrictive environments and loosely connected devices.
Scalability is a bit limited with Tenable Security Center.
 

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
7.6
Portnox offers reliable uptime, though CORE users report issues with vendor support and configuration, while Clear performs smoothly.
Sentiment score
8.0
Tenable Security Center is stable, reliable, efficiently supported, handles large scans well, with minimal technical issues reported.
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.
The stability of the solution is outstanding.
 

Room For Improvement

Forescout Platform struggles with usability, integration, false positives, high costs, needing improved analytics, support, scalability, and simplified licensing.
Portnox can improve with better GUI, integration, scalability, support, licensing, false positives, documentation, and Wi-Fi and AI analytics.
Tenable Security Center struggles with customization, integration, performance, and support, needing improved UI, assessment, and management capabilities.
The console is a fat client, and a web interface would be preferable.
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.
When I'm doing filtering at times, it doesn't filter the items properly.
They don't have much support during Asia Pacific hours.
It's important for Tenable to catch up on testing capabilities that are present in solutions like Qualys.
Translating reports into European languages is especially relevant in Central Eastern Europe, where clients often require reports in local languages.
The reports and plugins for reports and scans could benefit from enhancements.
 

Setup Cost

Forescout Platform is costly but offers flexible licensing and comprehensive features, competing well with Cisco ISE.
Portnox offers scalable, competitive pricing based on ports, with annual fees, appreciated value, but no perpetual license option.
Tenable Security Center offers comprehensive but expensive asset-based pricing, with complexity impacting setup and licensing, especially for smaller enterprises.
Installing a physical box on each site can be expensive.
If you compare Portnox with all other well-known standard products, it is the cheapest.
The pricing is a bit high, possibly due to the cloud features and running instances across regions like the US, Asia, and Europe.
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.
Tenable Security Center is quite expensive, particularly for the CEE region, causing us to lose cases due to its pricing.
The product is somewhat pricey, reflecting its valuable features and status as a high-quality solution in the vulnerability management market.
The cost of Tenable Security Center is reasonable for our company.
 

Valuable Features

Forescout Platform offers excellent device visibility, network control, and integration, praised for agentless operation, flexibility, and real-time alerts.
Portnox provides scalable, agentless network visibility with intuitive dashboards and automated security integration, enhancing efficiency and endpoint compliance.
Tenable Security Center excels in vulnerability scanning, customizable policies, and integrations, with user-friendly UI and predictive prioritization.
One of the most valuable features of Forescout Platform is its automation, particularly the ability to automate remediation of rogue devices on the network.
Our IT support team can easily manage daily tasks without being network administrators.
Additionally, it has a great detection and alert tool that is easy to filter and identify any rogue agents or rogue endpoints in our network.
It provides very granular details of the device connected to each port.
The most effective feature of Tenable Security Center for detecting vulnerabilities is its capability for critical mapping.
The most valuable features of Tenable Security Center for my clients are Vulnerability Priority Rating (VPR) and Asset Criticality Scoring.
Tenable Security Center provides an overall score of vulnerabilities, comparing an organization with others in the same industry.
 

Mindshare comparison

Network Access Control (NAC)
Network Access Control (NAC)
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
 

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.
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.
OndrejKOVAC - PeerSpot reviewer
Empower clients with risk-based vulnerability management through continuous workflow and valuable insights
Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into European languages. This is especially relevant in Central Eastern Europe, where clients often require reports in local languages. Additionally, the licensing model could be more flexible for managed security providers, similar to a pay-as-you-go model.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Educational Organization
10%
 

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 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...
What do you like most about Tenable SC?
The tool's dashboard and reporting capabilities match our company's needs since we are able to modify the basic view ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable SC?
Tenable Security Center is quite expensive, particularly for the CEE region, causing us to lose cases due to its pric...
What needs improvement with Tenable SC?
Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into Europea...
 

Also Known As

Forescout Platform, CounterACT for Endpoint Compliance, ForeScout CounterACT
Access Layers Portnox, Portnox CLEAR
Tenable.sc, Tenable Unified Security, Tenable SecurityCenter
 

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
Data Realty, Royal London, Wales Millennium Centre, McLaren Construction Group, EL AL Israeli Airlines, 
IBM, Sempra Energy, Microsoft, Apple, Adidas, Union Pacific
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.