Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs SAP Identity Management comparison

The compared Cisco and SAP solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #2 in NAC , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 21.7% mindshare in the category. SAP is ranked #14 in IAM , with an average rating of 9.5, and holds a 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

Read 145 Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) reviews

15,137 Views
9,839 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

SAP Identity Management

Read 14 SAP Identity Management reviews

1,806 Views
1,373 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

SAP Identity Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and SAP Identity Management based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC).

To learn more, read our detailed Network Access Control (NAC) Report (Updated: January 2026).

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Network Access Control (NAC)

January 2026

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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...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

145

Ranking in other categories

Network Access Control (NAC) (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th)

SAP Identity Management

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

User Provisioning Software (7th), Identity Management (IM) (14th)

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and SAP Identity Management aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is designed for Network Access Control (NAC) and holds a mindshare of 21.7%, down 27.9% compared to last year.
SAP Identity Management, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Management (IM), holds 2.2% mindshare, down 2.3% since last year.

Network Access Control (NAC) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)	21.7%
Aruba ClearPass	21.2%
Fortinet FortiNAC	15.5%
Other	41.6%

Network Access Control (NAC)

Identity Management (IM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SAP Identity Management	2.2%
SailPoint Identity Security Cloud	13.7%
Microsoft Entra ID	8.9%
Other	75.2%

Identity Management (IM)

Featured Reviews

NicolasFigaro

Network and Technology Information Manager at Akkodis

Has improved authentication management and simplified visitor network access

The log capacity in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced because today natively on the ISE can only have a look at the logs from the day before. You cannot search into the oldest logs; you have to use another tool for that. This can be blocking if you don't have any log consolidation solution. To do a search for an issue or something that happened two days ago, you cannot search directly in there. The capacity of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced. Something between one week and one month for the log capacity would be nice.

Read full review

Fabiano Marques

Sales Executive at Minsait

Identity management enhances connectivity and productivity with streamlined access and robust security, offering time-saving processes and facilitating seamless integration with other BI tools

One area that could be improved with SAP Identity Management, other than support, is user engagement from an implementation perspective. It would be beneficial for SAP to extend their events and workshops that are currently performed for partners to their final customers, as many customers want to know what's new and what else they can do without solely depending on the partners. For SAP support in Brazil, everything is in English, which poses a difficulty for many customers. The support could be improved for the specific needs in Brazil, as many customers have difficulty accessing the support center due to the language barrier. This feedback is specific to Brazil, though it's unclear if SAP receives similar feedback from other countries. It could certainly be enhanced with Portuguese documents, among other improvements.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It is scalable because we use a network load balancer at the front of the PSN. It can be extended as we want to multiply. It's scalable to our environment. We have around 8,000 users and we are planning to expand it."

"The return on investment we have seen is related to time in terms of troubleshooting. The logs, such as the security logs, inform us of the issues that people have had. ISE has been very instrumental in helping isolate those issues. We've seen a lot of cost savings because we don't have to pay an IT person to waste time doing something that should be instantaneous."

"When you push out the policy, it is able to populate the entire network at one time."

"For guests we give them limited access to the internet when they come in so that access has been useful. Previously, we just used to give them the APN key which they would leave with. Now, we give them credentials to use that are for a limited period of time."

"The access policies, and all of the policies in Cisco ISE, are important to us."

"I like that Cisco ISE is easy to use."

"It offers automatic profiling of phones and computers, enabling administrators to identify and categorize devices seamlessly."

"There is good integration with third-party systems like antivirus patch management, MDM."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pros

"The most valuable feature is the user experience for managing information."

"The tool's most valuable features are its access control and approval of access requests. The self-service password reset feature is efficient. Role management capabilities streamline user access by assigning and revoking roles."

"What I like about SAP Identity Management is that it's stable for experienced users and suitable for access management, not just for SAP accounts, but for Active Directory, including file sharing and process sharing."

"The setup process is straightforward."

"What I found most valuable in SAP Identity Management is process automation. The solution also gives transparency about what is happening and why which I find beneficial. Another feature I found valuable in SAP Identity Management is integration. It has very good integration."

"The most valuable features of SAP Identity Management are business roles and automated user provisioning."

"Some processes that they used to perform in two to three days now take one to two hours, which has been really beneficial for them regarding the time saved."

"Rather than implement a basic SSO, this solution assisted us with setting up two-factor authentication."

More SAP Identity Management pros

Cons

"The UI is not as intuitive as some other products, even products inside of Cisco's wheelhouse."

"ISE is a little clunky. The front-end feels like it is from the 1980s."

"The product is expensive. It would also be a good add-on to have some machine learning."

"The log capacity in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced because today natively on the ISE can only have a look at the logs from the day before."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"I'm frustrated by the resource consumption and how many resources it needs to run. It takes a lot of RAM. It takes a lot of space and a lot of IO power. It's frustrating to do upgrades because it takes a long time."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) cons

"Research and marketing need to be improved."

"SAP Identity Management can improve risk analysis and authority checks."

"What needs improvement in SAP Identity Management is its compatibility with third-party applications. We'd like to get connectors or plugin settings to make it easier to manage other applications, whether SAP or non SAP applications. As SAP Identity Management is not compatible with non SAP applications, some of the clients are looking for other IDM applications such as SalePoint and Saviynt, so this is an issue we've observed in the solution."

"A lack of startup connectors to different systems, and could have better connectors for SAP IDM."

"The pricing could be better."

"One of the areas for improvement in the solution is its user interface which needs to be up-to-date and fancier, in particular, have better visualization in terms of the tabs and buttons. The user interface of SAP Identity Management should be improved based on the latest trends."

"I have encountered issues with the host authentication feature."

"I find SAP Identity Management complicated to use. Maintaining it is also complex."

More SAP Identity Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The licensing can be confusing, but it is still pretty good."

"Its licensing could be improved. It used to be perpetual, but now they are moving away from that."

"The price for Cisco ISE itself is very low, however, Cisco professional services are quite expensive. Subscription amount is dependent on number of users."

"The solution’s pricing is okay."

"There is a license to use this solution and the price is reasonable."

"Standard licensing gives backup access and very few features, and then there's VM licensing - each VM we use needs to be licensed."

"Pricing and licensing are not my expertise. As far as budgeting is concerned, we run an ELA with Cisco. It's a part of our ELA."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pricing and cost advice

"When evaluating the price of any product, I first look at how it meets my business requirements and if it meets requirements adequately and predictively. Currently, I don't see this from SAP Identity Management, so pricing for it is expensive, in my opinion."

"I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten."

"The licensing cost varies depending on the specific requirements and deployment size."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

15%

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	32
Large Enterprise	91

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

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 ...

See all answers

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, ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about SAP Identity Management?

The tool's most valuable features are its access control and approval of access requests. The self-service password reset feature is efficient. Role management capabilities streamline user access b...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP Identity Management?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP Identity Management?

The use cases for SAP Identity Management include the logistics company, and we also have a beverage company that is using SAP Identity Management. We did not make the migration for them, but we im...

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 25% of the time

Fortinet FortiNAC vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 19% of the time

Forescout Platform vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 7% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 3% of the time

Portnox vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Competitors

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 25% of the time

Symantec Identity Governance and Administration vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 7% of the time

Saviynt vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 7% of the time

EmpowerID vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 6% of the time

More SAP Identity Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

January 2026

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) report

Download Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Identity Management

January 2026

Download SAP Identity Management product report

Also Known As

Cisco ISE

SAP NetWeaver Identity Management, NetWeaver Identity Management

Overview

Cisco Identity Services Engine offers robust authentication, posture profiling, guest and secure access, and dynamic policy management. Known for its seamless integration with Cisco tools and network access control features, it ensures secure device and user authentication across networks.

Cisco Identity Services Engine is renowned for its capabilities in managing authentication, guest access, and policy management through segmentation. Its TrustSec functionality, alongside RADIUS and TACACS+ support, provides enhanced security, further augmented by its ability to operate in diverse environments. Its scalability and integration with Cisco solutions aid in maintaining network visibility and access control. Challenges include the complexity of initial deployments, somewhat cumbersome documentation, and limited integration in multi-vendor environments. While encountering issues in stability and updates, the demand for better analytics and straightforward troubleshooting alongside cost-effective licensing is notable.

What are the key features of Cisco Identity Services Engine?

Authentication: Secures user and device access to networks using robust authentication protocols.
Posture Profiling: Provides in-depth analysis of device compliance with security policies.
Guest Access Management: Allows controlled network access for guest users through streamlined processes.
Dynamic Policy Management: Enables automatic adjustment of security policies based on real-time data.
Segmentation via TrustSec: Enhances security levels by segmenting network traffic based on identity.

What benefits or ROI should users expect from Cisco Identity Services Engine?

Comprehensive Security: Ensures enforceable security policies across network access points.
Enhanced Integration: Facilitates seamless collaboration with existing Cisco infrastructures.
Improved Compliance: Helps meet industry security standards for network access and user rights.
Increased Visibility: Provides detailed insights into network traffic and user activities.
Device Management Efficiency: Streamlines the process of managing diverse devices within a single framework.

Industries implement Cisco Identity Services Engine primarily for network access control, ensuring secure authentication and segmentation in both wired and wireless environments. Supporting policies like bring-your-own-device and compliance standards, ISE manages identity-based access control, especially beneficial for entities that require detailed user rights management and integration within enterprise networks.

Cisco

Reduce risk and centrally manage user access across your enterprise – with SAP Identity Management. The software integrates with your business processes to provide robust data and application security. Keep your operations running smoothly – and boost productivity by providing role-based user access, self-service password reset, approval workflows, and more.

SAP

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

State of Indiana, Automotive Resources International (ARI), Alliander N.V., Chemion Logistik GmbH, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH)

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January 2026

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