Network access control · November 2026 Edition
PacketFence vs Cisco Identity Services Engine
Zero of fourteen models named PacketFence first on the direct prompt; one named Cisco Identity Services Engine. PacketFence was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and Cisco Identity Services Engine by fourteen and PacketFence carries 22 labels and Cisco Identity Services Engine 58, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share20%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate5%52%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#8A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels2258A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, PacketFence 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 PacketFence · Portnox Cloud vs Cisco Identity Services Engine · PacketFence vs Fortinet FortiNAC
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.
PacketFenceFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCisco Identity Services Engine
Direct011 against PacketFence · 7 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Paraphrase006 against Cisco Identity Services Engine
Comparative010
Budget-constrained1105 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, PacketFence and Cisco Identity Services Engine were named in the same answer thirty-nine times, of the 70 answers naming PacketFence and the 173 naming Cisco Identity Services Engine. In those answers Cisco Identity Services Engine took the first choice eight times and PacketFence ten.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where PacketFence and Cisco Identity Services Engine stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | | |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | | ||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | | |||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | ||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
PacketFence Cisco Identity Services Engine first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, PacketFence on the left and Cisco Identity Services Engine on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where PacketFence and Cisco Identity Services Engine stood in it.
Cisco Identity Services Engine first, PacketFence not the choice
1 of 14 modelsPacketFence 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
4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Perplexity SonarPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, Cisco Identity Services Engine
Llama 4 MaverickPortnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess, PacketFence
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
9 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
Gemini 3.5 FlashPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cloudflare Access, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, SecureW2 JoinNow, Twingate
Grok 4.20Portnox Cloud alternatives: Forescout, HPE Aruba ClearPass
Mistral SmallOPSWAT MetaAccess, Portnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC
DeepSeek V4 FlashPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, Fortinet FortiNAC
Qwen 3.7 FlashPortnox CLEAR alternatives: Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
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
PacketFence leads by sixteen points.
PacketFence16%#2 of 11Cisco Identity Services Engine0%#11 of 11Mid-marketThe figures above
PacketFence leads by nineteen points.
PacketFence20%#2 of 10Cisco Identity Services Engine2%#8 of 10Enterprise
The order flips: Cisco Identity Services Engine leads at enterprise.
Cisco Identity Services Engine39%#1 of 7PacketFence3%#– of 7What the models said about PacketFence
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“Self-hosting shifts licensing savings into implementation and support effort” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · soft negative
“Best Overall Open-Source Option: PacketFence ... If you have an in-house IT engineer comfortable with Linux, start with PacketFence.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Tightest budget, technical staff available: PacketFence self-hosted free + optional paid support. Best cost, higher operational effort.” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“The best network access control solution for a company with a limited budget is PacketFence, as it is free to use” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
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 PacketFencePortnox Cloud vs Cisco Identity Services EnginePacketFence vs Fortinet FortiNACPacketFence vs NordLayer NACPacketFence vs HPE Aruba ClearPassPacketFence vs ForescoutPacketFence vs Aruba ClearPassFortinet FortiNAC vs Cisco Identity Services EngineNordLayer NAC vs Cisco Identity Services EngineHPE Aruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services EngineForescout 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.