Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs WSO2 Identity Server comparison

The compared Cisco and WSO2 solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #1 in NAC , with an average rating of 8.1, and holds a 23.8% mindshare in the category. WSO2 is ranked #13 in CIaA , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of WSO2 users who would recommend it.

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

Read 144 Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) reviews

15,847 Views
10,301 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

WSO2 Identity Server

Read 11 WSO2 Identity Server reviews

843 Views
202 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

WSO2 Identity Server

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and WSO2 Identity Server 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: October 2025).

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Network Access Control (NAC)

October 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

6.5

Number of Reviews

144

Ranking in other categories

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

WSO2 Identity Server

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (13th)

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and WSO2 Identity Server 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 23.8%, down 29.1% compared to last year.
WSO2 Identity Server, on the other hand, focuses on Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM), holds 1.2% mindshare, down 3.3% since last year.

Network Access Control (NAC) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)	23.8%
Aruba ClearPass	22.7%
Fortinet FortiNAC	17.3%
Other	36.2%

Network Access Control (NAC)

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
WSO2 Identity Server	1.2%
Auth0	18.5%
Ping Identity Platform	11.1%
Other	69.2%

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

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.

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Ritesh_Shah

Senior Solution Architect at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Utilizing key management and seamless single sign-on integration for enhanced user profile management

WSO2 Identity Server's key management feature stands out as a particularly impactful feature for enhancing security. Additionally, from a user perspective, the self-user portal and user profile management capabilities are highly valuable. It allows users to manage their profiles, change passwords, and offers a self-care portal type of functionality. The single sign-on capability integrates seamlessly with various platforms, including Google, Facebook, LDAP, and Active Directory, which supports rapid product launches.

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

"TACACS and .1X security are the most valuable features. TACACS acts for user control, so no one can authenticate to our network devices, and .1X is to validate that unauthorized devices are plugged into our network."

"It is a good product for what it does...So, it is one of the most critical systems that we have."

"It is stable and easy to use."

"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."

"The interconnection with the ecosystem and the ability to force rules all over the network are the most important features."

"Not having to trust devices and being able to set those levels of trust and more finely control our network is a benefit."

"Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is very stable."

"For me, the TACACS feature is the most valuable. I have also used Cisco ISE with LDAP, not with Active Directory. That works for me because I prefer LDAP versus Active Directory."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pros

"The solution gets the job done, and we don't have to do the main configuration."

"The product's initial setup phase is easy."

"The single sign-on procedure itself, as well as the ability to connect to external user sources such as Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP servers, are the solution's most valuable features."

"I would rate the solution's stability eight or nine out of ten."

"Some of the valuable features of the solution are the easy integration with processes, such as Single Sign-On. Overall WSO2 is straightforward and does not need customization."

"The product provides easy integration between API manager and IT server components."

"I am completely satisfied with WSO2 Identity Server and would definitely recommend it to other companies."

"Comprehensive ecosystem."

More WSO2 Identity Server pros

Cons

"Cisco ISE is complex. The deployment and design of networks with it is so complex. If it could change it would be better."

"There should be a single button that can be pressed to dismiss all of the alarms at once."

"Its user interface could be better. It's not bad. They've just redesigned the whole user interface. It's not terribly difficult. The drop-down menus are easy to use. However, when you're looking for some things in the user interface, it takes a minute to find where you were prior."

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

"It is a good product, but in order to use all of the functions of the product, you must have a good understanding of the product. You must know how to use and manage it. It is a little bit complicated to configure and manage. It must be simplified to make it easy to manage for end users. In the initial stage, we found ISE complicated for end users. It was not easy to manage it or to write authentication and authorization protocol. They must improve its management and make it easy for end users. The monitoring and reporting capabilities can be improved because end users want to quickly see what is happening in their network. There were some restrictions in working with other vendors. It should also have a better and easy integration with other vendors."

"Adding new devices was a little cumbersome. I haven't done it that many times, but I remember that adding new devices to the authentication piece of it was a little cumbersome. The way I was shown to do it, I thought it was odd because we had to go into the active device, copy the file down, export it, make some changes to it, and then reimport it as opposed to being able to click it and having a template to fill out."

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

"Documentation is probably the worst part of the software."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) cons

"I found the initial setup to be very complex."

"The solution seems to be pretty outdated."

"The high availability architecture has to be improved."

"Sometimes working with the code is difficult because I search for documentation about the code and how to work with the code, which is where I believe they should improve, by providing some documentation on how to work with the code."

"The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The solution could improve its development from a user perspective."

"There needs to be a good support model and easy-to-understand documentation."

"This solution does not have BPM workflows already integrated, we had to integrate the BPM module externally. They do not provide full-featured auditing and certification modules out of the box."

More WSO2 Identity Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Being fully honest, the Cisco licensing model right now is really confusing. We don't know what licenses we have where. We have Smart licensing, but the different levels are way confusing."

"It is difficult to measure security breaches, but since we have not been attacked so far, it has paid for itself over the years."

"According to my sales and account team, the prices we're getting are pretty good."

"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."

"Over the years, licensing has been confusing and complicated because there are so many different licenses for each different product and each different iteration of the product."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"I believe I have paid around $1,000 in licensing fees. The license is annual."

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

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

"WSO2 Identity Server is not an expensive solution."

"I have found the solutions license is priced competitively compared to others."

"At this time we are working with the open-source version."

"We have to take their support, but that is a minimal charge if I'm comparing it to other identity managers."

"I rate the product price an eight out of ten. There is a need to pay more for the extra features provided by the solution."

"They should bring in some good pricing models to host the marketplace."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Transportation Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	31
Large Enterprise	91

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WSO2 Identity Server?

The pricing is currently the same as the API Manager, so it's not surprising. Since we used it primarily for SSO and the self portal, there were no additional pricing concerns.

See all answers

What needs improvement with WSO2 Identity Server?

Currently, all required features are supported. If new use cases for artificial intelligence arise, it could be beneficial to incorporate those. However, for our current projects, WSO2 Identity Ser...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WSO2 Identity Server?

We deployed WSO2 Identity Server to fulfill our single sign-on (SSO) requirements. Whenever we implement the API Manager, instead of using the API Manager's inbuilt key manager, we use WSO2 Identit...

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 22% of the time

Fortinet FortiNAC vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 20% of the time

Forescout Platform vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 8% of the time

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

Compared 4% of the time

Portnox vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Competitors

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs WSO2 Identity Server

Compared 26% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs WSO2 Identity Server

Compared 26% of the time

Ilex Meibo Identity Management vs WSO2 Identity Server

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle Access Manager vs WSO2 Identity Server

Compared 16% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs WSO2 Identity Server

Compared 16% of the time

More WSO2 Identity Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

November 2025

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) report

Download Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) product report

Buyer's Guide

WSO2 Identity Server

October 2025

Download WSO2 Identity Server product report

Also Known As

Cisco ISE

No data available

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

WSO2 Identity Server can be used to simplify identity and access management (IAM) related activities in the enterprise. The product is based on open standards and open source principles. WSO2 Identity Server comes with seamless, easy to use integration capabilities that help connect applications, user stores, directories and identity management systems.

WSO2

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

Nutanix, ELM, AlmavivA, BDigital, StubHub, M-creations, MedVision360

Buyer's Guide

Network Access Control (NAC)

October 2025

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