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Portnox vs Sophos Network Access Control comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Portnox
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (7th), Passwordless Authentication (1st)
Sophos Network Access Control
Ranking in Network Access Control (NAC)
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Access Control (NAC) category, the mindshare of Portnox is 7.6%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Network Access Control is 3.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Access Control (NAC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Portnox7.6%
Sophos Network Access Control3.1%
Other89.3%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

Maurice Mwaura - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at Applied Principles Limited
Unified access control has improved compliance visibility and simplified passwordless access
There is work to be done when it comes to making the solution more seamless. For example, when a user is denied access, they would need a way to maybe self-resolve themselves, perhaps a way to generate a ticket on their own, something around resolutions. When it comes to users using the product, that is where good products are differentiated from products that are a bit of a challenge. Portnox has much to do in terms of their reporting. The generated reports need improvement. Things that other tools would say are normal are usually not present. For example, there is a page called NAS devices or NAS network that is able to show the switches that have been managed. Currently, there is no way of generating an easy report or an easy way of just generating something to tell the customer what they have been able to achieve so far. This is not done yet and is still very manual. I think there is work to be done there. More integrations around the various products being used would be beneficial. So far I have not encountered any major challenge. Where there was a challenge, I think support came in and helped us resolve. In fact, most of the challenges are not with the product; they are with the customer environment. I think that is just to update their documentation where they have come across a new vendor for easier integrations in the future.
HirenPatel2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at rspl
Have faced delays in support despite strong multi-layer policy configuration
I have observed some disadvantages as we have experienced one particular problem. We were facing an issue of synchronization of the endpoint with our firewall with help on a cloud for heartbeat syncing. However, it was not syncing as per our requirement. The user has to connect our firewall with the help of VPN. We were supposed to assume a solution on a cloud, which has good synchronization on a cloud with Sophos Central. It will sync with our firewall as well with the help of Sophos Central. Endpoint and firewall synchronization is not as smooth as we are expecting from Sophos Network Access Control. We have to connect with VPN. We are expecting that if we have already installed an endpoint on our system and it is connected to the internet, then it must be synchronized on a cloud with Sophos Central. Through Sophos Central, it must connect with our firewall. If the endpoint is configured on Sophos Central and the firewall is also configured in Sophos Central, then there should be no need to connect to VPN.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support is top-notch and great."
"Portnox provides excellent security by following Zero Trust security principles."
"Portnox helped to free up staff time and resources for other IT security priorities and IT work."
"The Portnox dashboard is very easy to use, and the UI is simple."
"The product is a valuable solution within zero-trust architecture, enhancing network security and visibility."
"The cloud-based feature is very nice."
"It's a stable product."
"Portnox is a highly effective tool that will significantly lower your incident resolution times, so be prepared to push through a slight learning curve at the beginning."
"Sophos' technical support is great, very fast and responsive, and they always know how to fix the problem."
"I am very satisfied with this solution overall. All of the features that we use have been working successfully."
"The most valuable features of Sophos Network Access Control are the quick response times to threats and reliable security."
"Sophos Network Access Control has many valuable features: for access controls, MAC binding is available, the authentication page is useful, and continuous device assessments have a positive impact on our network security management."
"The product has the capabilities to satisfy all kinds of needs that a company may have, and you can find the right solution without spending a lot of money."
"The return on our investment was huge, mostly due to the time saved in managing thousands of physical endpoints."
"There is really good visibility for the appliance."
"The solution offers very good visibility."
 

Cons

"I believe there are some difficulties with the removal of devices that could be improved."
"While Portnox is solid, there is definitely room for improvement, particularly with the user interface."
"There is room for improvement regarding Portnox's pricing strategies."
"The solution did have some stability issues, however, all I had to do was restart it."
"During my daily use, I noticed that if you have many devices being managed by a particular server, any device being managed by that server takes quite a bit of time to respond."
"Their filtering system tends to lag quite a bit, so when I'm doing filtering at times, it doesn't filter the items properly."
"In Portnox, the area that has room for improvement is that older data is not fetching correctly."
"In terms of operational efficiency, things are more complicated now. It takes more time to get devices on the network, but we increased security quite a bit."
"The difficult thing was finding the metrics."
"The solution could increase the integration with other platforms or other systems. This would be very useful."
"It would be good if Sophos Network Access Control had better integration with other devices."
"Sophos Network Access Control requires a lot of resources to work, which is an area for improvement. Pricing could also be improved because it's costly."
"I'd like to see them include direct integration with Active Directory."
"One area in which the product could be improved is the user interface. While functional, it can be somewhat cluttered and unintuitive, especially for new users."
"Sophos Network Access Control could be improved by having an ASIC chip similar to FortiNAC, as this would provide better processing for big organizations."
"There is room for improvement in pricing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is a bit high, possibly due to the cloud features and running instances across regions like the US, Asia, and Europe."
"We pay for port licensing and support on a yearly basis, and it's not cheap."
"The solution is very expensive and I would rate it 10 out of 10."
"It is not bad. It is a bit on the high side, but considering the cloud features and how much it costs to run the instance in the cloud, it is not unreasonable. We do have RADIUS servers for the US, Asia, and Europe."
"Pricing is quite reasonable."
"The cost of Portnox Clear is reasonable."
"The tool is more expensive than Fortinet."
"The licensing module should be reviewed to count the number of devices instead of port numbers of total switches. There is a case for this where not all ports for a switch are used by devices. Unused ports are calculated in the license, then the customer pays for license for those unused ports."
"I rate the price of Sophos Network Access Control a five out of ten."
"Sophos Network Access Control is costly but has a similar price range as CrowdStrike and Check Point. The product can get more market share if Sophos can play around with Sophos Network Access Control pricing and improve it."
"It is quite expensive."
"Sophos Network Access Control is very cheap compared to other solutions like Cisco, Barracuda, and Palo Alto."
"Sophos Network Access Control is an expensive solution."
"It provides a moderate pricing option for all of its features and benefits."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Portnox Clear?
We did not purchase it directly. We gained access through our higher authorities, so I do not have substantial knowledge about where they obtained it. As I understand it, they acquired it from Port...
What needs improvement with Portnox Clear?
One area for improvement in Portnox is the initial setup complexity and documentation for custom policy creation. Navigating the cloud console can feel clunky when configuring specific posture rule...
What is your primary use case for Portnox Clear?
I mainly use Portnox to instantly isolate a compromised or non-compliant endpoint from the rest of the network the moment a threat or vulnerability is detected. Portnox's main use case is for authe...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Network Access Control?
The pricing of Sophos Network Access Control is good, but it is somewhat high.
What needs improvement with Sophos Network Access Control?
In my opinion, one feature that should be added is the ability to trace emails from individuals who change their IP address or send misbehaving emails from alternative networks. If someone sends a ...
What is your primary use case for Sophos Network Access Control?
Sophos Network Access Control serves primary use cases for both networking purposes and security purposes.
 

Also Known As

Access Layers Portnox, Portnox CLEAR
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sallie Mae, Roku, Vuori, Legal Zoom, Anaplan, Aecon, H.I.G. Capital, McLaren Construction Group, PFCU, UK Mortgage Lending Limited, CCC Intelligent Solutions
Rushmoor Borough Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Portnox vs. Sophos Network Access Control and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,344 professionals have used our research since 2012.