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HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager vs. pfSense

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AThe HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager provides role- and device-based network access control for employees, contractors and guests across multi-vendor wired, wireless and VPN infrastructures.N/A

    pfSense

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ApfSense is a firewall and load management product available through the open source pfSense Community Edition, as well as a the licensed edition, pfSense Plus (formerly known as pfSense Enterprise). The solution provides combined firewall, VPN, and router functionality, and can be deployed through the cloud (AWS or Azure), or on-premises with a Netgate appliance. It as scalable capacities, with functionality for SMBs. As a firewall, pfSense offers Stateful packet inspection, concurrent…

    $179

    per appliance

    Pricing
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    SG-1100
    $179
    per appliance
    SG-2100
    $229
    per appliance
    SG-3100
    $399
    per appliance
    SG-5100
    $699
    per appliance
    XG-7100-DT
    $899
    per appliance
    XG-7100-1U
    $999
    per appliance
    XG-1537
    $1,949
    per appliance
    XG-1541
    $2,649
    per appliance
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Considered Both Products
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    No answer on this topic
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    11 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager and pfSense
    Feature
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy Manager
    -
    Ratings
    pfSense
    8.9
    17 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.714 Ratings
    Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.714 Ratings
    Content Inspection00 Ratings9.316 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls00 Ratings8.717 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings7.913 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console00 Ratings9.516 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging00 Ratings8.417 Ratings
    VPN00 Ratings9.117 Ratings
    High Availability00 Ratings9.416 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection00 Ratings10.015 Ratings
    Proxy Server00 Ratings8.415 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (11 ratings)
    9.3
    (30 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.8
    (5 ratings)
    9.7
    (8 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Policy ManagerpfSense
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Aruba ClearPass is suited well for large enterprise networks with many connecting buildings and branches. Aruba ClearPass protects your endpoints from unauthorized or unknown devices accessing your network. You can apply policies that prevent devices from meeting the required policies in ClearPass. ClearPass will allow only authorized access for devices that are using the policies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    I believe PFSense is well suited for both home lab environments as well as up to small to mid-size business environments on a tight budget. However, I would implore that anything in production requires the use of the authorized hardware that PFSense sells to receive support. However, in my experience, PFSense is a solid set-and-forget firewall solution.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • You can use ClearPass authenticate using wired and wireless network devices. This is helpful that you don't have to have multiple systems to accomplish this.
    • Because devices can have different purposes Clearpass can configure groups that will specify what access they have. You can use parameters such as vendor or mac address so clearpass know what group to push them to.
    • It is very easy to view device logs. This is really helpful to troubleshoot auth issues. Once you find the device Clearpass provides more than enough info to know what the issue is and to fix it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    • Easy to use. Good user interface design! Easy to understand and easy to set up.
    • Lower hardware requirement. 3 years ago, we used an old PC to run it. Now, we have changed to a router device with Celeron CPU and 8GB RAM. It runs smoothly with a 1000G commercial broadband.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • Going to the end of the page to edit the rules and save them later causes problems.
    • An AND operation can be performed within a rule, but an OR operation cannot. therefore having to write too many rules
    • The license structure seems very complex at first.
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    • I did kind of mention a Con in the Pro section with OpenVPN.
    • When I create a config for an employee other employees are able to login to that config.
    • I could be doing something wrong when I am making it - I am not afraid to admit that as I am pretty new to all of this, but it seems like it builds a key and I would think the key would be unique in some way to each employee, but I could be wrong.
    • I actually do not have a lot of Con's for this software - I did not get to set this up on our work network so I am not sure of any downfalls when installing.
    • I installed this on my personal machine in a Hyper-V environment to get a feel for it before I started working on it at work and it seemed pretty smooth. I didn't run into any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    It's a great product, does what we expect from it however it's not easy to set up. You'll likely need an integrator to assist
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Though Aruba ClearPass offers a lot of insight and features, it is not the easiest to navigate. A lot of other systems can be figured out as you go, but Aruba ClearPass often requires a lot of research in order to set something up correctly. It's not always easy to find what you're looking for. Once you learn the basics, it becomes a lot more manageable, but it's definitely worth investing in some sort of training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    The pfSense UI is easy to navigate and pretty go look at. It is much better than some high dollar firewalls that just throw menus you you. The pfSense UI is quick and responsive and makes sense 99% of the time. Changes are committed quickly and the hardware rarely requires a reboot. It just runs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    We have it as a cluster
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    It’s very responsive
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    This product has consistently provided the results needed from it and when issues arose, Aruba TAC was able to provide support effectively. In the previous question, I stated that Aruba Wireless is used as well. With those systems in place with ClearPass troubleshooting becomes much easier. I am sure other issues may arise if calling support while using another vendor for wireless such as Cisco, Juniper, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    pfSense+ basic provides "As Available" email support. pfSense+ Pro offers 24 hr turn around email support. pfSense+ Enterprise offers 24/7 phone support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    From my experience, ClearPass has been the best NAC server of all I've seen. Even though configuration is somewhat hard and it's hard to get training, once you learn how to configure it it works very well. The policies are very granular and scalable and the interface is a well-done web GUI that does not need any extra plugins installed, as some of Cisco's product require. There are many more options than with FortiNAC, and many more integration options. Also, troubleshooting and logging is good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    Meraki has a unified management login for all devices, which is nice. It also has decent content filtering, both areas where pfSense is weaker. Where pfSense far ouclasses Meraki is in the ease of use and the other width of features. These include features such as better VPN interoperability, non-subscription based pricing, auditability, not relying on the infrastructure of a third party, more transparency of what's actually going on, easier to deploy replacements if hardware fails. Additionally, the NAT management for pfSense seems to be a bit better, as you can NAT between any network segment and not just the LAN segments out the WAN interfaces.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    It’s very reliable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Got the job done
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • ClearPass has streamlined everything so we don't have to have as many people managing our device auth systems.
    • Our Security team loves that ClearPass can deny unauthorized users and devices from the network. This alone has probably saved us a lot of money and headaches.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
    • pfSense can be installed on commodity hardware with no licensing fees. With a simple less than 10 minute restore time, on most hardware, it's an extremely inexpensive way to achieve the same results that some of the more expensive vendors provide.
    • The easy to use interface has allowed configuration management to be preformed by lower level technicians with quick and easy training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots