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Index › IT › Network and edge › NAC › HPE Aruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services Engine
Network access control · November 2026 Edition

HPE Aruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services Engine

Zero of fourteen models named HPE Aruba ClearPass first on the direct prompt; one named Cisco Identity Services Engine. HPE Aruba ClearPass was named by ten of the fourteen models and Cisco Identity Services Engine by fourteen and HPE Aruba ClearPass carries 17 labels and Cisco Identity Services Engine 58, so the shares are not directly comparable.

HPE Aruba ClearPass

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

Cisco Identity Services Engine

criticized challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

First-choice share2%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate0%52%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#5#8A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels1758A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, HPE Aruba ClearPass reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Portnox Cloud was named alongside these two in eleven of the fourteen direct answers. Portnox Cloud vs HPE Aruba ClearPass · Portnox Cloud vs Cisco Identity Services Engine · PacketFence vs HPE Aruba ClearPass

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the network access control page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
HPE Aruba ClearPassFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCisco Identity Services Engine
Direct017 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Paraphrase106 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Comparative110
Budget-constrained005 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Scale-constrained004 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Negative008 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, HPE Aruba ClearPass and Cisco Identity Services Engine were named in the same answer fifty-two times, of the 53 answers naming HPE Aruba ClearPass and the 173 naming Cisco Identity Services Engine. In those answers Cisco Identity Services Engine took the first choice sixteen times and HPE Aruba ClearPass four.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where HPE Aruba ClearPass and Cisco Identity Services Engine stood in it.
ModelDirectHAParaphraseHAComparativeHABudget-constrainedHAScale-constrainedHANegativeHA
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 miniHA
Gemini 3.5 FlashHAHA
Perplexity SonarHAHA
Grok 4.20HAHAHA
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 FlashHA
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 FlashHAHA
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5HAHA
GPT-6 LunaHAHA
Muse Glimmer 30BHA
HA HPE Aruba ClearPass Cisco Identity Services EngineHA first choiceHA named as an alternativeHA argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, HPE Aruba ClearPass on the left and Cisco Identity Services Engine on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where HPE Aruba ClearPass and Cisco Identity Services Engine stood in it.

Cisco Identity Services Engine first, HPE Aruba ClearPass not the choice

1 of 14 modelsHPE Aruba ClearPass was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
GPT-5.4 miniCisco Identity Services Engine alternatives: Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager, Cisco Access Manager, Forescout, InfoExpress EasyNAC, Portnox Cloud

Neither was the first choice, one was named

6 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Gemini 3.5 FlashPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cloudflare Access, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, SecureW2 JoinNow, Twingate
Perplexity SonarPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, Cisco Identity Services Engine
Grok 4.20Portnox Cloud alternatives: Forescout, HPE Aruba ClearPass
Qwen 3.7 FlashPortnox CLEAR alternatives: Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
GPT-6 LunaPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cisco Identity Services Engine, FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
Muse Glimmer 30BPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cisco Identity Services Engine, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, OPSWAT MetaAccess, macmon NAC

Neither was named

7 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Fortinet FortiNAC alternatives: Microsoft Entra, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Mistral SmallOPSWAT MetaAccess, Portnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC
DeepSeek V4 FlashPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, Fortinet FortiNAC
Llama 4 MaverickPortnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess, PacketFence
Kimi K2Portnox CLEAR alternatives: Aruba ClearPass
GLM 4.7 FlashXPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, FortiNAC, NordLayer NAC
MiniMax M2.5Portnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Level: the same share of first choices.
HPE Aruba ClearPass0%#– of 11
Cisco Identity Services Engine0%#11 of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Level: the same share of first choices.
HPE Aruba ClearPass2%#5 of 10
Cisco Identity Services Engine2%#8 of 10
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Cisco Identity Services Engine leads by twenty-six points.
Cisco Identity Services Engine39%#1 of 7
HPE Aruba ClearPass13%#3 of 7
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about HPE Aruba ClearPass

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“I'd usually recommend HPE Aruba ClearPass as the default NAC choice” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“For large enterprises: Start with Cisco ISE or Aruba ClearPass” Grok 4.20 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Best for Complex Environments (Incumbents) Recommendation: Cisco ISE or HPE Aruba ClearPass” Qwen 3.7 Flash · paraphrase prompt · alternative

What the models said about Cisco Identity Services Engine

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Avoid solutions like Cisco ISE unless you have dedicated security engineering resources to maintain policy rule sets.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · hard negative
“Many AI models and experts recommend avoiding it unless you are already deeply invested in Cisco's ecosystem” Mistral Small · negative prompt · hard negative
“Unpatched instances of ISE or ClearPass with known 2026 authentication / RCE CVEs” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · hard negative
“the most searched / mindshare leader... It remains the enterprise standard and is the default for large enterprises already running Cisco infrastructure” Muse Glimmer 30B · comparative prompt · first choice
“The market leader and industry standard for large enterprises. It offers the most granular control and features in the world.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Choose Cisco ISE if you are a Cisco shop needing the deepest policy control and TrustSec segmentation.” Kimi K2 · comparative prompt · first choice
Also compared
Portnox Cloud vs HPE Aruba ClearPassPortnox Cloud vs Cisco Identity Services EnginePacketFence vs HPE Aruba ClearPassPacketFence vs Cisco Identity Services EngineFortinet FortiNAC vs HPE Aruba ClearPassFortinet FortiNAC vs Cisco Identity Services EngineNordLayer NAC vs HPE Aruba ClearPassNordLayer NAC vs Cisco Identity Services EngineHPE Aruba ClearPass vs ForescoutHPE Aruba ClearPass vs Aruba ClearPassForescout vs Cisco Identity Services EngineAruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services EngineAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full NAC standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.