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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Ranking in Cisco Security Portfolio
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
141
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (1st)
Cisco Secure Client (includ...
Ranking in Cisco Security Portfolio
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (4th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (4th), ZTNA as a Service (8th)
 

Featured Reviews

Bill Masci - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps across a distributed network, giving you a central way of authenticating everybody
A lot of people tell you the hardware requirements for ISE are pretty substantial. If you're running a virtual environment, you're going to be dedicating quite a bit of resources to an ISE VM. That is something that could be worked on. The upgrade process is not very simple. It's pretty time-consuming. If you follow it step by step you're probably going to have a good time, but there are still a lot of things that could be a lot more user-friendly from an administrator's perspective. [They could be] easing a lot of the issues that people have. Instead of just saying the best practice is to migrate to new nodes [what would be helpful] would be to make that upgrade process easier. The UI is a lot nicer in 3.0. It's pretty slow, but for the most part, it's easy to find what you're looking for, especially things like RADIUS live logs, TACACS live logs. From a troubleshooting perspective, it's really nice finding stuff. For setting up policies, from that perspective, it could be a little bit better looking.
VinaySingh - PeerSpot reviewer
Connect securely from any location with reliable and easy multifactor authentication
Whenever I am away from the office, I use Cisco Secure Client to connect to the office network, accessing the secure network to place calls to our secure servers that are built on-premise. It is used across our domain, including telecom and app networks, primarily for IT connectivity across the…

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."
"They have recently made a lot of improvements. My clients don't have much to complain about."
"The solution is integrated with other Cisco devices and can offer automation for an organization, making deployments more dynamic and providing real-time visibility."
"The TACACS and RADIUS have been the most valuable features so far."
"The most important feature for us is visibility in terms of user connections. It's the ability to see what devices are online for a particular user that helps a lot with our troubleshooting."
"We have seen ROI. It has done its job. It has protected us when we needed it to."
"We found all the features of the product to be valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the policy sets."
"This solution is stable. There have been no technical issues."
"It's a very scalable solution. We are using the maximum licensing they offer, and it's very affordable given the value."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"The most valuable feature is AnyConnect's reliability."
"The tool is user-friendly, robust and easy to use in any environment."
"It is stable. We haven't had issues so far."
"You don't have to think about it very much. It just works."
"The solution provides secure and easy access to corporate network resources."
 

Cons

"Some of ISE's features need to be more agile. For example, we couldn't integrate our data because Cisco needs your data to be in its own format."
"The licensing scheme is complex and could use enhancement to provide more options."
"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."
"If Cisco could grant more control, the features could be more focused on network and security administration, reducing the need for integration with other components."
"We do tend to run into a lot of issues with ISE when it comes to bugs."
"The upgrades could be better. Every time we try to do an upgrade, we have problems. It's a pain."
"On the network services devices, when you click on filter, the filter comes up. However, when I type in a search and I want to click on something it defaults back to the main page. I keep having an issue with that, and I'm not doing anything wrong."
"I don't see as many customers as I should adopting the onboarding feature. I think Cisco should make that process a lot easier and less intrusive on the end users' devices."
"The deployment of the agent software for the final customer could be simpler and more helpful."
"Sometimes when you disconnect or switch from one wireless network to another, it's necessary to re-login."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client can be improved by having better speed and reliability. However, the speed and reliability are already really good."
"In terms of areas for improvement in Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, from my point of view, the solution works well and right now I don't see the need to improve it. Probably a better user interface could be created for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, but its core is VPN creation, and that works well, though I'm not a VPN specialist, and I'm not an expert on how to create a VPN, how the VPN gateway works, how it's implemented, and what's the architecture behind it. A two-factor authentication feature was recently added to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. In the past, you only needed to log in with your username and password, but now, there's a token, and the user interface for that token isn't that good. That's another area for improvement. Cisco should also make the two-factor authentication better in the solution. What I'd like added to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client in its next release is a better two-factor authentication, in particular, the validity of the code being shorter because sometimes when I get the code and I add it to the client, it's invalid, though I'm unsure if it's centrally set up that way or if its a characteristic of the product. Making the interface of the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client more user-friendly is also what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution."
"I think that the addition of single sign-on functionality would be helpful."
"More frequent updates would be ideal."
"Behavior analytics and other newer technologies should be integrated into the solution."
"The GUI needs to be upgraded."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is a bit on the high side."
"That's where things got a bit more complicated. Previously, it was a one-time purchase and we just had to renew support. These days, there's a subscription model, which is supposed to be easier and cheaper as well, but it's more pricey"
"There are three levels of pricing: basic, plus, and apex. Basic satisfied our needs."
"It would be beneficial to have a single license that included all of the features."
"It has a fair price. It is better than it was before."
"Cybersecurity resilience has been very important to our organization and has been a big factor. We've had issues in the past, but one of the things I like about ISE is its logging features. Security wise or information wise, it really has been a powerful tool."
"If you go directly with Cisco for the implementation it's very, very expensive."
"The licensing can be confusing, but it is still pretty good."
"My company has a three-year or a four-year license. In scenarios attached to a solution where the product may be reaching an end-of-support or end-of-life phase, Cisco provides OS support in such environments."
"One thing I've noticed is the price in comparison to other VPNs."
"The initial cost is the ASA and other items, but after that, it is relatively inexpensive."
"I would rate the pricing for the license of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client around four to five out of ten. It's not the cheapest option, but it's also not overly expensive."
"It costs around 80,000 Indian rupees for a hundred licenses, so approximately $1,020 USD."
"The price is okay."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"Sometimes there is a problem with the number of licenses for the end-user. The number of concurrent users is limited due to a valid license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
49%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
The tool is user-friendly, robust and easy to use in any environment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
Cisco Secure Client is a reasonable solution in terms of cost. I wouldn't be aware of the specific pricing details, as my sales team would handle that.
What needs improvement with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
Creating a profile for the users might be good. Additionally, if user authentication has already been done on a device, such as a Microsoft Indian portal, maybe there could be connectivity directly...
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
 

Learn More

 

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
MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
825,609 professionals have used our research since 2012.