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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) offers a network-based approach for adaptable, trusted access everywhere, based on context. It gives the user intelligent, integrated protection through intent-based policy and compliance solutions.N/A

    ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    ADAudit Plus offers real-time monitoring, user and entity behaviour analytics, and change audit reports that helps users keep AD and IT infrastructure secure and compliant. Track all changes to Windows AD objects including users, groups, computers, GPOs, and OUs. Achieve hybrid AD monitoring with a single, correlated view of all the activities happening across both on-premises AD and Azure AD. Monitor every user's logon and logoff activity, including…

    $595

    per year based on 2 Domain Controllers

    Pricing
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Standard
    $595
    per year Both licensed based on number of Domain Controllers, Azure AD tenants, file servers, Windows member servers, and Workstations.
    Professional
    $945
    per year Both licensed based on number of Domain Controllers, Azure AD tenants, file servers, Windows member servers, and Workstations.
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details—ADAudit Plus is licensed based on number of Domain Controllers (not per-user). Add-ons are available for Windows File Servers, NAS File Servers, Azure AD tenants, Windows Servers, Workstations, AD Backup and Recovery, and File Analysis. For more than 20 domain controllers, ManageEngine directs customers to contact sales for a personalized quote. Pricing is dependent on the number of domain controllers and starts at $595/year for the Standard edition, and $945/year for the Professional edition.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    64 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    128 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    63 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    142 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    64 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    99 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    59 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    115 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    61 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    FireMon
    Score7.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Cisco IOS Security
    Score9.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (146 ratings)
    9.4
    (65 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (6 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (7 ratings)
    8.1
    (57 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.2
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Well suited... I've used it for both wired and wireless access, and it's perfect for that. In addition to enforcing security on the port, you can also lock down east-west traffic. When you get to the point where you're configuring secure group tags and things like that, you can keep people from getting to places they shouldn't. Basically, you could turn your entire network into a firewall if you wanted to. You can secure access based on the identity of any given user through role-based authentication. For example, if you have salespeople and you don't want them accessing your financial or PCI environment, they authenticate as a salesperson and you can completely stop them from getting to any of that. That's really important, especially for us. Our payment card infrastructure servers are heavily locked down. Granted, in our situation, we firewall all that off anyway, but you still don't want some random individual to be able to even attempt that sort of thing. That's what it's really good for. I'm trying to think of a weakness. I don't know. We don't really struggle with it. There's nothing that I use it for where I wish it were better, at least not that I can think of offhand. I'm sure there are things, I just can't think of anything off the top of my head.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I would recommend ADAuditPlus (and/or Log360) to any org that is trying to achieve PCI DSS Compliance and is struggling with some of the monitoring and reporting aspects, provided that the org is prepared to spend a little time and effort in truly understanding the requirements and is prepared to document requirements and match them to the ADAuditPlus product features.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • manageable scaled administrative access to network devices as needed
    • Great use as a radius server which allows proper authentication and authorization into the network
    • Multiple conditions that can be utilized to grant users access based on their role in the organization
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • ManageEngine ADAudit Plus changes for user and group management can be looked up in builtin reports
    • You can build your own reports based on almost every logic you can think of
    • You have the ability to create alerts based on logic and filters and sendout custom alerts to email, SMS or other means.
    • First you need to understand the basics of the software, after that the software itself is very helpfull in configuring specific items.
    • I really love the support that ManageEngine is giving the customer, for all questions I use the chat on their website. This is for me the best remote support I ever saw, and I saw a lot in my 20 years of experience in IT.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • Trustsec needs more documentation and configuration best practice examples
    • The licensing model can be difficult to explain and understand for customers
    • Difficult to get an accurate benchmark to know exactly how many Cisco Identity Services Engine nodes and the size of the deployment should be
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • It's based on Java engine that is slow -- reports are often difficult to build (we are going to upgrade the machine it's running on to see if this is the issue)
    • Keeping this software up to date is a pain; there should be a better "update" function
    • The naming and navigation are terrible -- it's never clear which feature you're looking for and where it's hidden in the menus
    • Adding machines is not as easy as it should be; occasionally there are IP conflicts that are nearly impossible to resolve
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    We are so very reliant on Cisco Identity Services Engine at this point that finding another solution would be a big hassle for us.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    It works great for everything we need and use. Any issues in the software are pretty easy to resolve with tech support. And they are very responsive to resolving issues. Even ones where a fix/patch are required. At present, the software does everything we need it to for compliance, audit, and account review.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    For us the solution is very easily useable on its own. Perhaps that has to do because we started using ISE in the 1.2 days and have seen it grow during the years. Policy creation, etc. is all very visible and thus easy to use. Deployment of multiple nodes is also incredibly easy and flexible. You can easily add or remove nodes as you wish.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    ADAudit with its cloud and on prem install option allows any organization to get in on AD report management. Whether you need to report internally only for for external audit controls its a great tool with flexibility to handle most any user or group report capability. Since this also includes m365 integration it enables IT pros to administer usage, license, cost control and permission access to most anything in Microsoft's portfolio. Its a great tool all around for AD integrated access needs.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    We do have to occasionally reboot the servers when they get low on memory, but we're also a few versions behind. Availability has generally been pretty good though with no major outages in the time that we've had it implemented.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    uptime good
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    yes it does. depending on where you coming from. Logs are pretty busy same as report. it also depending on devices count and design.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Integration/overlap between products could be improved
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Cisco support is second to none, both in terms of how you access support but also the knowledge of the individual support teams. If you focus on one technology and provide "manufacturer support" then you can rest assured that you are accessing Cisco's top individuals. I feel like this is a USP for Cisco support.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I'd give their support a 10 if it weren't for the fact that sometimes, the support team (I believe they are overseas) can take a little bit to respond, but not too long. I may submit a ticket in the morning and won't hear about it until later in the afternoon. However, my tickets were not "urgent," so that may have been the reason for the delay. Other than that, support is great, and the ManageEngine account team has visited us in the past. It's always nice to see your product representatives take a white-glove approach like that.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cisco
    Training can only cover certain areas, there are a lot of areas training just can't cover. You have to learn by doing it.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    knowledgable and prompt response
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    I think our system integrators lacks some competencies and this has led to an implementation that is still perfectible. (i.e. dedicating an interface for intra-cluster communication)
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    The remote setup team helped when i needed it and setup weas very straight forward and easy. The advanced setup for an external db and customizations for our latest version AD environment went pretty easy once they found documentation on customization.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    I think all give some visibility of device monitoring and management, but Cisco Identity Services Engine gives a good way to manage more details about the device in a centralized way that gives a wider range of monitoring and control than the other softwares individually. I don't think Cisco Identity Services Engine eliminates the need for these other software as of now, but there is potential for Cisco Identity Services Engine to be able to take over more of these roles.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    In terms of features, ADAudit Plus offers a comprehensive set of features for monitoring and auditing Active Directory, including real-time alerts, detailed reports, and user behavior analytics. The platform also offers support for multiple platforms, including Windows, UNIX, and Linux, as well as integration with other ManageEngine tools.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    Cisco ISE was competitively priced and Cisco was able to leverage some of our existing contracts to help ease the purchase.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Cisco
    It's fully customised and comprehensive. only thing is you need to know what you want. Proper research and planning would save lots of time and effort .
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    updates are effective and system is reliable
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • I don't know about negatives because we haven't seen it right now, but positive impact is one is the roadmap we have. And now since we are going ahead with doing the deployment of Cisco ISE, we see that we are getting closure to, so at the end of the day, we have to make sure that operationally we stay excellent. So that's where operational excellence comes in. Cisco ISE is basically addressing that for us. Right now we are in a situation if there is a WIFI issue or if there is an authentication issue, it gets really difficult to isolate the problem. But with Cisco ISE , this functionality is going to come in. So we believe that it would be a good ROI.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I like the ability to customize reports and provided great visibility to AD and some servers.
    • It helped greatly with customer support issues when we used ADAudit with the hundreds of customer accounts used for SSON to the LOB application server to users over Citrix.
    • It saved time on some issues with accounts and Group Policy changes that affected customer experience.
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

    ManageEngine ADAudit Plus Screenshots

    Screenshot of Active Directory Audit Dashboard
Track all critical AD changes — user modifications, group updates, GPO changes, and logon events — from a single console.Screenshot of User Logon Failures Report
Spot and investigate failed logon attempts across your environment with drill-down reports showing who, when, and from where.Screenshot of Attack Surface Analyzer Dashboard
Detect 25+ AD attack indicators including Kerberoasting, Golden Ticket, and DCSync attacks before they cause damage.Screenshot of Cloud Directory Audit Dashboard
Monitor sign-ins, role changes, and config modifications across Microsoft Entra ID with correlated on-premises and cloud visibility.Screenshot of Kerberoasting Attack Detection Report
Surface suspicious service ticket requests and identify compromised service accounts before attackers escalate privileges.Screenshot of Real-Time Alert Dashboard
Centralize and prioritize security alerts across your environment with configurable real-time email and SMS notifications.