PacketFence vs Cisco ISE
Zero of fourteen models named PacketFence first on the direct prompt; zero named Cisco ISE. PacketFence was named by eight of the fourteen models and Cisco ISE by thirteen and PacketFence carries 10 labels and Cisco ISE 35, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
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
PacketFenceFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCisco ISE
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, PacketFence and Cisco ISE were named in the same answer fifteen times, of the 37 answers naming PacketFence and the 104 naming Cisco ISE. In those answers Cisco ISE took the first choice zero times and PacketFence seven.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | |||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | |||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | |||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | |||
| 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 ISE first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, PacketFence on the left and Cisco ISE on the right.The direct prompt
Neither was the first choice, one was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
12 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.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
PacketFence16%#2 of 9Cisco ISE0%#9 of 9PacketFence15%#2 of 10Cisco ISE2%#5 of 10Cisco ISE20%#2 of 7PacketFence0%#– of 7What the models said about PacketFence
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“a well-configured open-source PacketFence or a modern zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solution beats any legacy appliance” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · first choice
“PacketFence offers the best value as it provides enterprise-grade NAC features completely free” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend starting with PacketFence (self-hosted) if you have some technical expertise” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Cisco ISE
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 Cisco ISE unless you're already deeply committed to Cisco and have the operational maturity to manage its complexity.” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · hard negative
“What to Avoid - Cisco ISE and Aruba ClearPass – While excellent solutions, they are typically expensive and complex” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Cisco/Aruba/Forescout – these are enterprise-priced” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“Cisco ISE is the enterprise standard for organizations that want policy depth, identity‑based segmentation, and tight Cisco ecosystem integration.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
“Best low-budget enterprise option: Cisco ISE Essentials if you already use Cisco gear or want a mainstream enterprise NAC.” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
“Choose Cisco ISE if you're deeply invested in Cisco and need the most feature-rich enterprise solution” Kimi K2 · comparative prompt · first choice
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.