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 #1 in NAC , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 24.5% mindshare in the category. SAP is ranked #12 in IAM , with an average rating of 9.5, and holds a 2.7% 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 143 Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) reviews

17,586 Views
11,255 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

SAP Identity Management

Read 14 SAP Identity Management reviews

1,827 Views
1,334 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

SAP Identity Management

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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 Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC).

To learn more, read our detailed Network Access Control (NAC) Report (Updated: August 2025).

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Network Access Control (NAC)

August 2025

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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

6.7

Number of Reviews

143

Ranking in other categories

Network Access Control (NAC) (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)

SAP Identity Management

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

User Provisioning Software (6th), Identity Management (IM) (12th)

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 24.5%, down 30.0% compared to last year.
SAP Identity Management, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Management (IM), holds 2.7% mindshare, down 2.8% since last year.

Network Access Control (NAC) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)	24.5%
Aruba ClearPass	23.9%
Fortinet FortiNAC	18.0%
Other	33.599999999999994%

Network Access Control (NAC)

Identity Management (IM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SAP Identity Management	2.7%
SailPoint Identity Security Cloud	19.1%
Microsoft Entra ID	12.2%
Other	66.0%

Identity Management (IM)

Featured Reviews

SunilkumarNaganuri

Service Line Manager (Service Operations Expert) - Network Access Control at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Enhanced device administration hindered by complex deployment and security limitations

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. This will give them a roadmap for software-defined access (SDA) use cases and network segmentation. Threat detection capabilities are very weak. Additionally, the product is vulnerable and has many bugs.

Read full review

Kiril Petkov

CEO at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

Stable, especially if you're an experienced user and is suitable for managing access rights for accounts, process sharing, and file sharing, but it isn't straightforward to use or maintain

I'm not so happy about the features provided by SAP Identity Management, but I'm not sure where the problem lies, if it's a product issue, an issue with its deployment, or both. I find SAP Identity Management complicated to use. Maintaining it is also complex. The solution is integrated with only two core systems, so it's not compatible with all applications in terms of providing single sign-on, which makes no sense to me, so this is another area for improvement in SAP Identity Management. Still, the issue could be with the supplier my company is working with, as that supplier provides consultancy and deployment services. It's a popular, experienced, and well-ranked supplier in the local market. However, it's still not guaranteed that the business requirements have been understood correctly and that the deployment was done properly. What I'd like to see in SAP Identity Management in its next release is a more innovative way to use it for handling all access rights rather than having to use different products.

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

"The solution enables us to do everything from one interface."

"Visitors can be granted access to the wifi network using their cellphones, notebooks or tablets in a very easy way. The ease of accessibility that anyone can have to the network is very quick and is a big improvement in our network."

"The solution offers automation and real-time visibility, which aids in monitoring and troubleshooting issues with endpoints."

"In terms of scalability, you need to factor in your licenses. With a virtual platform, the scalability is more than sufficient. We have over one thousand users."

"For my use cases, the in-depth troubleshooting into why a client can't connect or why they failed, is very valuable. I can go back to someone and say, 'Hey, it's not my network. It's their certificates or user error,' or something else."

"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."

"Easy to use and provides good support"

"Member Access Control and the ability to integrate all Cisco wireless, Cisco networking, switches, routers, and firewalls."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pros

"What's most valuable in SAP Identity Management is that it's easily an out-of-the-box solution for connectivity with SAP applications. We do not have to do any customizations, and this makes the solution very compatible with most SAP applications. SAP Identity Management is also very user-friendly."

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

"The setup process is straightforward."

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

"It provides basic automatic user administration and role provisioning to save time."

"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 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."

More SAP Identity Management pros

Cons

"I believe that Cisco can improve the way its policies are built because it's a little complex."

"Cisco ISE requires a lot of time-consuming administration."

"It would be ideal if Cisco could provide some short training videos or documentation to customers to help them understand how to use the product."

"I would like the product to include support for OSVS version three."

"The initial setup was a little bit complex. It's not that simple because it requires a lot of prerequisites for the solution to get a hold on."

"I would rate this solution a 7.5 out of ten. To make it a ten they should have more people on tech support. They need to invest more in the product. It's a good product. They should just work on tech support. More support for the customer. It's not that easy to get somebody to understand this product. I have had some issues with tech before for the solution. One of them brought the solution down due to some of his activity. They need to hugely invest in their tech support."

"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."

"The opinion of my coworkers, and it's mine as well, is that the user interface could use some tender loving care. It seems counterintuitive sometimes. If you go to the logs, it's hard to figure out which one you need to look at."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) cons

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

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

"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."

"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."

"For SAP support in Brazil, everything is in English, which poses a difficulty for many customers."

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

"Research and marketing need to be improved."

"It needs to have the SSO for the HANA modules that SAP is releasing."

More SAP Identity Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's damn expensive and the licensing is terrible... If you have perpetual licenses on 2.7 and you upgrade to 3, you are forced to go with Essentials. That is one of the issues that I'm seeing with my clients now."

"The pricing is good. The last time we purchased four new appliances the price was doable for any organization of our size."

"Cisco ISE is not inexpensive, but the solution is well-built and worth the expense."

"It's an expensive solution when compared to other vendors."

"It has a fair price. It is better than it was before."

"If you consider money only, Cisco ISE is not a cheap solution."

"Cisco is expensive, but it's the cost for all the functions and value it brings. Functions like internet solutions, integrations, security, and many more features are important, but it's expensive for some clients."

"It is fairly expensive and that's part of why we have implemented it in the type of 'hack' that we did, to service multiple clients."

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

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

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	43
Midsize Enterprise	31
Large Enterprise	90

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?

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 wo...

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 23% of the time

Fortinet FortiNAC vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 22% of the time

Forescout Platform vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 9% of the time

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

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Competitors

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 33% of the time

Saviynt vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 8% of the time

EmpowerID vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 7% of the time

Symantec Identity Governance and Administration vs SAP Identity Management

Compared 7% of the time

More SAP Identity Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

September 2025

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) report

Download Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Identity Management

August 2025

Download SAP Identity Management product report

Also Known As

Cisco ISE

SAP NetWeaver Identity Management, NetWeaver Identity Management

Overview

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) offers comprehensive network access control and visibility, supporting features like 802.1X authentication, profiling, and posturing. It integrates with Microsoft and other Cisco products, facilitating robust security policies across distributed networks.

Cisco Identity Services Engine is a key player in network access control, offering centralized management and a user-friendly interface. It supports zero trust principles and provides strong authentication for wired and wireless networks. ISE's capabilities include granular security policies, enhanced device posturing, and seamless integration, bolstering security infrastructure. Users benefit from its dual authentication through EAP, simplifying access management across networks.

What are the key features of Cisco ISE?

802.1X Authentication: Supports network security for authorized device access.
Profiling: Identifies devices for accurate policy enforcement.
Posturing: Evaluates device compliance for access decisions.
TACACS: Streamlines network device authentication and authorization.
Guest Access: Provides secure access to visitors.
Microsoft Compatibility: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft environments.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Security Enhancement: Offers strong network security policies.
Operational Efficiency: Centralized management improves operational aspects.
Improved Compliance: Ensures adherence to industry standards.
Scalability: Supports growing network demands effectively.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and education, Cisco ISE is pivotal for securing wired and wireless networks, implementing BYOD policies, and managing user access. Organizations leverage ISE for effective authentication and authorization, while maintaining compliance with industry security standards.

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)

Buyer's Guide

Network Access Control (NAC)

August 2025

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