We performed a comparison between Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) vs Fortinet FortiAuthenticator based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiAuthenticator has an edge in this comparison because it received higher marks in the ease of deployment and pricing categories, and users are more impressed with its features.
"Being able to authenticate wired users through 802.1X is valuable as it enhances our security."
"It's easy to change and add policies."
"The most valuable thing in ISE is the adoption of EAP deep that came in [version] 2.7, so we can do authentication based on user and machine certificates in one authentication."
"It does a good job of establishing trust for each access request, no matter the source. It's also very effective at helping with the distributed network and at securing access."
"The most valuable feature is 801.1x and another very good feature is the TACACS."
"Cisco offers automation, visibility, and control as well as third party integration capabilities."
"It offers automatic profiling of phones and computers, enabling administrators to identify and categorize devices seamlessly."
"Profiling is one of the most valuable features. We have a lot of different devices between cameras, access points, and laptops that get plugged in."
"It integrates very tightly with the rest of the Fortinet ecosystem."
"The logs have great detail that make it easier to evaluate and control the security environment."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy. It is also easy to deploy."
"Valuable features include the robust SSO features, when you have more complicated authentication within an organization. We can mix AD, Radius, Portal, SSO Portals (Google, etc.), and build our own environment. It is very flexible."
"We have a perpetual license for 2FA."
"FortiAuthenticator is really good software that integrates very well with Fortinet products."
"This is a scalable product."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"Cisco ISE integration with Cisco ACI is something that can be done in a less complex way. And the simplification in that area may help us do better."
"They should improve the upgrades. It's not easy to upgrade the solution."
"If you have someone taking care of it, it can be quite easy to manage the solution. Otherwise, if you don't look after it and take care of it day-to-day, then it will become more complex to run."
"Sometimes some of Cisco ISE's graphical interfaces could be a little bit smoother. However, with the different versions, the product is getting better and better."
"The knocks I have against the product are the number of bugs that we encounter, constantly, and the amount of upgrading that we have to do."
"The installation is not straightforward, it took us approximately one month."
"I'd like to see the logging be a bit more robust in terms of what it has baked in. If I want to do any in-depth searching, I have to export all the logs to an external platform like Elastic or LogRhythm and then parse through them myself. It would be nice if I could find what I want, when I want it, on the platform itself."
"Cisco ISE's performance could be better, faster, and more robust."
"Fortinet FortiAuthenticator's initial setup process could be easier."
"FortiAuthenticator's interface could be better."
"If you want some other FortiAuthenticator from one site to another site, you should have requirements, but really if you have authentication and directory or another solution, you should change the password of the authenticator between the solution and the directory and other things. So transfer of data and other information should be simpler."
"I would like to see more support from Fortinet with tech support people who have as much expertise on the authenticator as they do on their firewalls."
"Lacks a simplified two-factor authentication process."
"The solution could be more automated. It should be able to let me automate a lot of things so that what normally is done as a matter of manual processes can be handled quicker. Slow integrations can be taken up/out if there was more automation."
"We had issues trying to integrate the keys properly during the initial setup."
"The GUI has some shortcomings and can be made better. The GUI is not great."
More Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is ranked 1st in Network Access Control (NAC) with 138 reviews while Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is ranked 6th in Single Sign-On (SSO) with 52 reviews. Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) writes "Gives us that extra ability to assist the end user and make sure that we are making them happy". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiAuthenticator writes "A reasonably priced solution that can be scaled toward different functionalities and offers flexible SMS messaging". Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is most compared with Aruba ClearPass, Fortinet FortiNAC, Forescout Platform, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security, whereas Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is most compared with Fortinet FortiNAC, Fortinet FortiToken, Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID and CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.
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