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Cisco Umbrella pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco

4.4 out of 5

125 reviews
97% willing to recommend

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Pros & Cons summary

Cisco Umbrella provides robust DNS layer security, securing internet traffic and enhancing protection for remote work. Its easy deployment and integration with other Cisco solutions simplify management and support hybrid work models. However, pricing is high, and users face configuration complexities and slow support response times. Frequent licensing changes and challenging third-party integrations further complicate its use. Despite these challenges, it offers valuable threat intelligence and improved security posture.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Umbrella provides robust DNS layer security, offering protection against malicious websites and securing internet traffic effectively.

Deployment of Cisco Umbrella is straightforward and quick, requiring minimal time and resources to set up, making it ideal for fast onboarding.

Cisco Umbrella ensures enhanced security for remote work environments, safeguarding users regardless of their location and supporting hybrid work models.

Integration with other Cisco solutions and the ease of administration through a single management pane significantly reduce operational efforts.

Cisco Umbrella delivers comprehensive threat intelligence, improving organizational security posture and offering peace of mind against emerging threats.

CONS

Pricing is high and could be more competitive.

There are complexities in configuration and challenges in deployment.

Support response times are often slow and needs improvement.

Licensing changes frequently and needs clearer communication.

Integration with third-party applications is complicated.

Cisco Umbrella Pros review quotes

Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Feb 7, 2026

Cisco Umbrella is specifically designed for DNS protection, with features including a user-friendly console and the easiest installation, and it offers very prominent threat feeding from different Talos sources, securing multiple platforms while helping protect from malware and unsafe sites and mitigating DNS attacks to ensure secure browsing for end users.

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BB

Bryan Bettencourt

Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

Jun 9, 2025

The biggest return on investment when using Cisco Umbrella for me is the ease of use of the fact that we've deployed this with our Cisco VPN Secure Client, so every computer has the Umbrella module in it.

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CTO at PROA

Jun 11, 2025

With the Experience Insights feature of Cisco Secure Access, we've seen impacts on the management of user connectivity by allowing us to deliver safe connectivity.

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Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.

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NicholasCarroll

Network Engineer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 9, 2025

Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.

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SS

Sr. Technical Executive at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Sep 16, 2025

Cisco Umbrella is the first layer of security that protects me while surfing the net, identifying untrusted websites to prevent access.

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MD

SVP IT at AS IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Oct 6, 2026

Cisco Umbrella has positively impacted my organization by providing a good security solution, especially as we are a consulting company that faces threats of attackers attempting man-in-the-middle scenarios while my users are connecting to public Wi-Fi networks.

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reviewer2015976

D GM (Information Technology) at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

May 28, 2026

Cisco Umbrella has definitely helped improve some aspects of our security posture, contributing to overall organizational security posture management.

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Cisco Presales Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Jun 11, 2025

I would describe the experience deploying Cisco Umbrella overall as super easy. It was awesome. It was lovely to deploy it.

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AC

Senior Network Engineer at Boys Town

Jun 11, 2025

The features of Cisco Umbrella benefit my company by allowing us to do protective DNS instead of URL filtering, which lets us avoid having to backhaul traffic and run it through a firewall in a data center.

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RM

Security Analyst at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 11, 2025

The customer service and technical support of Cisco Umbrella are great.

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Cisco Umbrella Cons review quotes

Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Feb 7, 2026

The major issue is that sometimes when you install the client, it shows you protected and displays that it is live with the backend servers and everything; however, in reality, it was not getting any feed from the main client and is just sending your traffic to open DNS, which sometimes causes an issue because the protection you have implemented can be breached by users.

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BB

Bryan Bettencourt

Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

Jun 9, 2025

We've noticed some issues with the SWG where, when I'm connected, it thinks I'm in Miami, Florida instead of Savannah, Georgia.

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CTO at PROA

Jun 11, 2025

Cisco Umbrella could be improved by making the policies more granular, as in some cases, it's difficult to find the correct link to open a specific site securely.

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Free Report: Cisco Umbrella Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.

916,956 professionals have used our research since 2012.

NicholasCarroll

Network Engineer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 9, 2025

From my perspective, I would Cisco Umbrella to give more exposure to my sales engineers. I know I can call them whenever I have an issue, however, more frequent meetings would be awesome.

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SS

Sr. Technical Executive at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Sep 16, 2025

Customization for basic users can be complex, as it is targeted toward only technical users.

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MD

SVP IT at AS IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Oct 6, 2026

Cisco Umbrella has everything required, but I believe the dashboards and management could be simplified, and stronger integration with SIEM, identity providers, or other security products would be an added advantage.

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reviewer2015976

D GM (Information Technology) at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

May 28, 2026

The biggest frustration I have encountered with Cisco Umbrella is that people can exit the Cisco Umbrella roaming client to bypass security, and some technically savvy individuals might know how to bypass it by modifying the hosts file to exclude Cisco Umbrella.

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Cisco Presales Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Jun 11, 2025

It's somewhat pricey for us, however, it's an awesome solution.

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AC

Senior Network Engineer at Boys Town

Jun 11, 2025

Hopefully, it works with the Canvas and starts feeding results into the AI canvas. That would be excellent.

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RM

Security Analyst at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 11, 2025

Instead of creating a TAC case, it would be better if we could just call in and they could answer us immediately.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 122)

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