The 5 Best NAC Solutions for Entra ID and Intune Shops in 2026, Ranked

As Zero Trust networks become a critical part of any secure organization, Network access control (NAC) becomes a requirement for everyone. But it is no longer the early 2000s, if you are using Entra ID, you can’t just throw in an NPS and call it a day (in fact, NPS cannot authenticate your cloud-only accounts for hybrid environment thats have some cloud only devices). If you run Entra ID and Intune, that world is completely gone. Instead, you have an identity engine (Entra ID) and a posture engine (Intune compliance), and you need a cloud NAC to enforce access requirements to your network. Since Microsoft does not offer a RADIUS or NAC service we are going to rank the best alternatives for you to use in the cloud.

A trap that a lot of organizations fall into is buying a six-figure appliance-based NAC that duplicates what Intune already does and still needs workarounds to authenticate a cloud-only user. Here is how to avoid it.

What Does NAC Mean for an Entra ID and Intune Shop?

Classic network access control does four jobs: visibility, authentication, posture, and enforcement. In a Microsoft environment, two of those are already covered:

• Posture is Intune compliance. Encryption, OS version, Defender for Endpoint risk, firewall, all of it already rolls up into a single compliant or non-compliant state per device.
• Identity is Entra ID. Users, groups, and whether the account is enabled.
• Authentication and enforcement is the gap. Something has to sit between your access points and switches and Entra ID, verify the device, ask Intune whether it is still compliant, and put it on the right VLAN, or none at all.

That means for most Entra ID and Intune organizations, “NAC” comes down to four things: cloud RADIUS, certificates for EAP-TLS, a real-time Entra ID and Intune check on every authentication, and dynamic VLAN assignment. Anything beyond that, such as agent-based posture, agentless OT profiling, or TACACS+, is a real need for some organizations, but you should buy it on purpose and not because it came in the bundle.

One clarification before we start: NAC controls who gets on the network. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) controls who reaches which application. They complement each other, and this post is about the first one.

What to Look For in a NAC Solution for Entra ID and Intune

Every product on this list can answer a RADIUS request. Here is what we scored on, weighted for organizations that run on Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Intune:

• Real-time Intune compliance at authentication time. A certificate only proves the device was trusted when the certificate was issued. A real NAC asks Intune, on every connection, whether the device is still compliant, and asks Entra ID whether the user is still enabled and in the right group. Bonus points for using Microsoft’s current Compliance Retrieval service, since the legacy Intune NAC partner service was deprecated in 2024.
• Native Entra ID, including cloud-only users. No AD sync, no LDAP bridge, no second directory to keep in sync just to get Wi-Fi working.
• Certificates without a second vendor. EAP-TLS is the right way to authenticate users and devices, and that requires a PKI. A NAC that includes one saves you a contract and a portal. We also gave credit for accepting certificates from a PKI you already have.
• Dynamic VLANs based on Entra ID groups. Finance, engineering, contractors, and IoT should not share a broadcast domain.
• Wired 802.1X and MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB). The printers, cameras, and badge readers that cannot do certificates still need to be isolated, ideally on their own VLAN.
• BYOD without forcing MDM. Contractors, students, and personal phones need a way on that does not involve enrolling a personal device in Intune.
• No appliances to patch. “Cloud-managed” VMs that you still size, upgrade, and back up are not the same as SaaS.
• Hardware agnostic. Your NAC should not decide which switches you buy next.
• Resilience and data residency. Multi-region failover, RadSec, a local proxy for when the internet is down, and hosting where your data needs to live, including, Australia only, EU only, USA only, and Azure GCC High for CMMC.
• Pricing you can estimate without a sales call.

What are The Best NAC Solutions for Entra ID and Intune? The Top 7 Compared

Here is how the 7 solutions stack up at a glance. The detailed breakdown of each one follows the table. As you can see by our table, for this ranking we prioritize in following order:

1. Bang per buck which solution gets you the most features for the least amount of money.
2. Ease of deployment and management lets be honest, nobody gets up in the morning and says “I can’t wait to check on my RADIUS setup” so bonus points were given for the easy to setup solutions, and as an engineer, if you don’t have to talk to sales to get a trial, is a massive win on my book.
3. Microsoft Integration Microsoft tools are already hard enough to manage, we want something that just plugs in no weird connectors or on-prem resources talking to your LDAP servers.
4. BYOD Device Support In 2026, you can’t have a network authentication solution without allowing for BYOD support, if you do, your users will not be happy about not being able to watch YouTube on their lunch break.

Rank	Solution	Deployment	Real-Time Intune Compliance	Cloud-Only Entra ID Users	Built-in PKI	BYOD Without MDM	Hardware Agnostic	Pricing	Best For
1	Keytos Shield	SaaS	Yes, on every authentication	Yes, certificates and passwords	Yes, included at no extra cost	Yes, Keytos Connect	Yes	Published, per user	Entra ID and Intune shops that want NAC without appliances
2	EZRADIUS	SaaS or dedicated	Yes, on every authentication	Yes, certificates and passwords	Pairs with EZCA, or bring your own CA	Yes, Keytos Connect	Yes	Published, per active identity	Teams with an existing PKI or needing dedicated infrastructure
3	HPE Aruba Central NAC / ClearPass	SaaS (Central) or appliance (ClearPass)	Yes	Yes	Yes	ClearPass Onboard	ClearPass yes, Central NAC best with Aruba	Quote-based	Existing Aruba customers
4	Portnox Cloud	SaaS	Yes	Yes	Yes, add-on	Agent-based	Yes	Per device	Full cloud NAC with agent posture and TACACS+
5	SecureW2	SaaS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, JoinNow	Yes	Quote-based	Large PKI programs and higher education
6	Cisco ISE	VM or appliance	Yes, via Compliance Retrieval API	EAP-TLS yes, passwords via ROPC	No	Yes, with Premier features	Best with Cisco	Essentials / Advantage / Premier tiers via quote	Large Cisco environments with a dedicated NAC team
7	Juniper Mist Access Assurance	SaaS	Yes	Yes	No, bring your own	No	Best with Mist hardware	Subscription, via quote	Organizations already on Mist

The 7 Best NAC Solutions for Entra ID and Intune, Ranked

1. Keytos Shield: The Best NAC for Entra ID and Intune Without the Appliances

Best for: Entra ID and Intune organizations of any size that want certificate-based network access control, a cloud PKI, and BYOD onboarding in one subscription, with nothing to install.

The hard part of NAC in a Microsoft shop has never been the policy engine. It is getting a certificate onto every laptop, phone, and tablet so they can use EAP-TLS, and then making sure a device that falls out of compliance gets kicked off the network. Keytos Shield does both. It is a single SaaS platform that bundles a cloud PKI, cloud RADIUS, and BYOD onboarding, and it connects to your Entra ID tenant and Intune in under 10 minutes.

Here is why it takes first place:

• Intune is your posture engine, and Shield enforces it. On every authentication, Shield checks that the user is still enabled in Entra ID, still in the right groups, and that the device is still compliant in Intune. Disable a user or let a laptop fall out of compliance and it is off the network on its next connection, not when its certificate expires. No NAC agent, no duplicate posture policies.
• The PKI is included, not upsold. Every Shield subscription comes with a multi-tier, HSM-backed cloud PKI at no extra cost, with unlimited SCEP certificates for Intune, Jamf Pro, and other MDMs. Have an existing AD CS environment? Shield can chain to it.
• Segmentation by Entra ID group. Assign VLANs based on Entra ID group membership, and use MAB to quarantine the printers and IoT devices that cannot do certificates.
• Wi-Fi, wired, and VPN. Anything that speaks 802.1X or RADIUS, from any vendor, over classic RADIUS or RadSec.
• BYOD without MDM. The free Keytos Connect app for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS lets users sign in with their work account, get a certificate, and connect over EAP-TLS, without enrolling their personal device in Intune.
• Nothing to patch. Shield runs on the same core infrastructure as EZCA and EZRADIUS, which serves over 1,300 organizations across 20+ regions, with a local RADIUS proxy for sites that cannot go down when the internet does.
• Sovereign and government clouds. Dedicated instances in Europe, Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and the US, and Keytos is the only cloud PKI and cloud RADIUS provider available natively in Azure GCC High and it is at the same price as the commercial offering.
• Not only a NAC Keytos Shield comes in as the most cost effective solution in this list, and is not only a NAC, the basic plan also includes passwordless onboarding for Entra CBA and Passkey authentication, and the premium plan has S/MIME certificate management coming soon.
• Month to Month Pricing you can see. Shield starts at $1.50 per user per month and drops to $0.15 per user at scale, with no per-device, per-certificate, or per-authentication charges. It is available through the Azure Marketplace, so spend can count toward your MACC commitment.

Where it falls short: Shield is not a traditional NAC suite. It does not install an agent for posture checks beyond what Intune reports, it does not do agentless profiling of OT networks, and it does not offer TACACS+ for network device administration. It is also built specifically for Entra ID, so if your identity provider is Okta or Google Workspace, look elsewhere.

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2. EZRADIUS: The Best NAC for Teams That Already Have a PKI

Best for: organizations that already issue certificates and want to keep their CA, or that need dedicated infrastructure and enterprise SLAs.

EZRADIUS is the cloud RADIUS service Shield is built on, offered as a standalone platform. It applies the same real-time Entra ID and Intune checks, the same dynamic VLAN assignment, and the same protocol support, but you point it at whatever certificate authority you already trust: EZCA, Microsoft Cloud PKI, AD CS, or SCEPman.

• Dedicated infrastructure when you need it. The Dedicated tier gives you your own infrastructure in a region of your choice, and the Enterprise tier adds multi-region dedicated hosting with up to a 99.99% SLA and one-hour 24/7 support.
• Every protocol your network actually uses. EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS with Entra ID passwords, and legacy PEAP, MS-CHAPv2, PAP, and MAB for the devices that will outlive us all.
• Pay for what authenticates. No base fee on the Basic tier, starting at $1 per active identity per month and dropping to $0.10 at scale. SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified.
• Perfect for Organizations with Existing PKI If you already have your own PKI either on premises or included in E5, EZRADIUS gives you great Network Access management for a very affordable price. Where it falls short: It is RADIUS only, so if you do not have a CA you will add EZCA or, more simply, choose Shield. Like Shield, it is Entra ID only.

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3. HPE Aruba Networking Central NAC and ClearPass: Best for Existing Aruba Customers

Best for: organizations standardized on Aruba access points and switches.

HPE has two NAC options here. ClearPass is the long-standing enterprise NAC, known for strong multi-vendor support, a mature guest module, and the Onboard BYOD workflow. Central NAC is the cloud-native option inside Aruba Central. Per HPE’s documentation, it pulls Intune compliance state into policy, uses Entra ID for user lookups, and issues certificates to Intune devices from a per-tenant PKI.

Where it falls short: ClearPass is an appliance (physical or virtual) that you size, patch, cluster, and license, which is exactly the infrastructure most cloud-first teams are trying to get rid of. Central NAC solves that, but it is at its best on Aruba hardware. Both are quote-based and usually bought through a partner.

4. Portnox Cloud: The Most Complete Cloud-Native NAC Suite

Best for: organizations that want a full NAC feature set (agent-based posture, risk scoring, and TACACS+) delivered as SaaS.

Portnox is the closest thing on this list to a traditional NAC suite without the appliances. Beyond cloud RADIUS, it offers device risk scoring, its own posture agent, TACACS+ for network device administration, and ZTNA, and it integrates with Entra ID and Intune. If your security team needs posture checks that go beyond Intune compliance, or you need TACACS+ and do not want to keep running ISE for it, Portnox is a serious option.

Where it falls short: Pricing is per device, and third-party reviews list monthly minimums and per-device add-ons such as the certificate authority. Once you count every laptop, phone, and tablet, the bill grows fast. Its agent also overlaps heavily with what Intune and Defender for Endpoint already collect, so many Microsoft shops end up paying for posture twice.

5. SecureW2: The Certificate Specialist

Best for: large organizations with dedicated PKI teams, and higher education.

SecureW2 pairs a managed PKI and cloud RADIUS with a policy engine that can look up Intune device and Entra ID user attributes at authentication time. Its JoinNow onboarding client is great for getting unmanaged devices onto EAP-TLS, which is why it is popular in universities with thousands of student devices. It also supports Okta and Google Workspace if you are not purely Microsoft.

Where it falls short: Pricing is quote-based, and the platform has a lot of knobs that make more sense for a university IT department than a lean IT team that wants to be done in an afternoon.

6. Cisco ISE: The Enterprise Incumbent

Best for: large Cisco environments with a dedicated NAC team and a long-term investment in TrustSec.

Credit where it is due: Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) has the deepest policy engine in the market. Device profiling, TrustSec segmentation, posture, guest, BYOD, and TACACS+ are all there, and it integrates with Intune through Microsoft’s Compliance Retrieval API. If you already have ISE engineers on staff and a Cisco-heavy network, it can do almost anything.

Where it falls short: ISE is VMs or appliances that you deploy, size, patch, and upgrade, licensed across Essentials, Advantage, and Premier tiers, and most deployments involve months of professional services. Cloud-only Entra ID support has improved with ISE 3.2’s REST ID integration for EAP-TLS, but password-based authentication relies on ROPC, which breaks when MFA or a password change is required and cannot evaluate Intune compliance because ISE never learns the device ID. Older ISE releases also had to be patched before Microsoft retired the legacy Intune NAC service, or Intune devices showed up as unregistered. In short, you end up running on-premises infrastructure to secure a cloud-first identity stack.

7. Juniper Mist Access Assurance: Best if You Already Run Mist

Best for: organizations whose access points and switches are already Juniper Mist.

Mist Access Assurance is a cloud-native NAC built into the Mist dashboard. According to Juniper’s documentation, it reads Intune compliance state and can move non-compliant devices into a quarantine VLAN or role, and it looks up Entra ID group membership and account status for policy decisions. If you are already a Mist customer, turning it on is far easier than standing up a separate NAC, and its AI-driven troubleshooting is genuinely good.

Where it falls short: It is designed around Mist hardware, and third-party gear is a second-class experience. There is no included PKI for issuing certificates to your Intune devices, so you still need a separate CA. Juniper is now part of HPE, which also owns Aruba, and HPE has said it will continue developing both the Mist and Aruba Central platforms. Even so, if you are choosing a NAC for the next five years, watch how that roadmap develops.

Do You Need Full NAC or Just Cloud RADIUS With Intune Compliance?

This is the question most vendors would rather you did not ask. Here is the honest answer for an Entra ID and Intune organization:

What You Need	Do You Need a Full NAC Suite?
Block non-compliant or lost laptops from the network	No. Cloud RADIUS with real-time Intune compliance does this.
Kick a terminated employee off the network immediately	No. A real-time Entra ID account and group check does this.
Segment users by department or role	No. Dynamic VLANs from Entra ID groups do this.
Isolate printers and IoT devices	No. MAB plus a dedicated VLAN covers most environments.
Onboard personal devices without MDM	No. A BYOD onboarding app like Keytos Connect does this.
Agentless discovery and profiling of thousands of OT or medical devices	Yes. Look at Forescout or ISE.
TACACS+ for switch and router administration	Yes. Look at Portnox or ISE.
Posture checks Intune cannot express	Maybe. Check first whether a custom compliance policy covers it.

For most Microsoft shops, the first five rows cover the actual requirement, and buying an agent-based NAC suite means paying for posture twice. It also means maintaining two sets of compliance policies that will drift apart.

Whatever you choose, make sure it is built around certificates. Credential Guard broke MS-CHAPv2 in Windows 11, so any NAC design that relies on PEAP is on borrowed time. And be skeptical of vendors pitching MFA prompts for Wi-Fi through RADIUS. It sounds more secure and usually is not.

How to Choose the Best NAC Solution for Entra ID and Intune

If you skipped straight to this section, here is the short version:

• You run Entra ID and Intune and want NAC without appliances or a separate PKI: Keytos Shield.
• You run Entra ID and Intune and already have a CA, or need dedicated infrastructure: EZRADIUS.
• You need agent-based posture or TACACS+ as SaaS: Portnox or CISCO ISE.
• Your network is already Mist or Aruba: Mist Access Assurance or Aruba Central NAC, and add a cloud PKI for certificates.
• You are deeply invested in Cisco and have a team to run ISE: keep ISE, and make sure it is on a release that uses the Compliance Retrieval API.
• You run large OT or medical networks: add Forescout for visibility alongside your NAC.

If you are replacing NPS as part of this project, our guide to moving NPS to the cloud walks through the cutover step by step, and our ranking of the best cloud RADIUS providers goes deeper on the RADIUS side.

NAC for Entra ID and Intune FAQs

What is the best NAC solution for Entra ID and Intune in 2026?

For organizations that use Entra ID and Intune, Keytos Shield is the best NAC solution in 2026. It checks Entra ID user status, group membership, and Intune compliance on every authentication, includes a cloud PKI at no extra cost, onboards BYOD devices without MDM, and runs as SaaS with published per-user pricing. If you already have a PKI, EZRADIUS is the best standalone option.

Does Microsoft offer a NAC solution?

No. Intune can share device enrollment and compliance state with third-party NAC partners through its Compliance Retrieval service, but Microsoft does not offer a RADIUS server or anything that enforces access at the switch or access point. The only first-party option is NPS, which runs on Windows Server and cannot authenticate cloud-only Entra ID devices.

How does a NAC check Intune compliance?

The NAC identifies the device, usually by its Intune device ID embedded in the certificate the device presents during EAP-TLS, and then asks Intune for that device’s enrollment and compliance state before deciding whether to allow it and which VLAN to assign. Microsoft retired the legacy Intune NAC partner service in 2024, so make sure your vendor uses the current Compliance Retrieval API.

Do I need a NAC agent if I already use Intune?

For most organizations, no. Intune compliance policies, combined with Defender for Endpoint risk, already cover encryption, OS version, firewall, and threat state. A NAC that enforces Intune compliance at authentication time gives you the same outcome without a second agent and a second set of policies.

What is the difference between NAC and ZTNA?

NAC decides whether a device can join the network and which segment it lands on. ZTNA decides whether a user can reach a specific application, regardless of which network they are on. A mature zero-trust architecture uses both.

Can NAC handle printers and IoT devices that cannot use certificates?

Yes. Use MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB) to identify those devices and assign them to an isolated VLAN with only the access they need. MAC addresses can be spoofed, so treat MAB as segmentation, not authentication.

How much does a NAC solution cost?

It depends on the model. Keytos Shield starts at $1.50 per user per month with PKI, RADIUS, and BYOD included, and EZRADIUS starts at $1 per active identity per month. Portnox prices per device, and SecureW2, Juniper, HPE Aruba, and Cisco are generally quote-based. Appliance-based NAC also carries hardware or VM costs, support contracts, and the staff time to run it.

Pick a NAC Built Around Your Identity Platform

In an Entra ID and Intune organization, Intune already decides whether a device is healthy and Entra ID already decides whether a user should have access. Your NAC’s job is to enforce those decisions every time a device connects, without another rack of appliances or another agent to babysit. For most Microsoft shops, that is Keytos Shield, or EZRADIUS if you already have a CA you want to keep.

You can start a free Keytos Shield trial and have your first SSID enforcing Intune compliance in minutes, or schedule a FREE call with one of our identity experts to talk through your network, your NPS migration, and whether you actually need a full NAC suite.

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