Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon Route 53 vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.6
Amazon Route 53 offers significant ROI through downtime prevention, cost and time savings, security improvements, and enhanced integration.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Umbrella improves security, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness with cloud access, integrating seamlessly and reducing operational costs and malware.
The main factors are time-saving and security, even if the cost is slightly higher.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Cisco is a big brand in the networking domain, but in security, they are pushing a lot and improving day by day.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using the solution is that it makes it a lot easier to delegate some of the tasks that were traditionally used, such as building policies on the firewalls and doing it through Cisco Umbrella.
Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
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.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Amazon Route 53 support is highly rated, effective with premium accounts; basic plans face potential delays in response times.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Umbrella excels in support efficiency, but purchasing and real-time support integration need improvement despite good documentation.
Amazon services are very stable, and there are few problems.
Cloud Specialist at TCL Tech
Amazon's customer support is very good with a quick response time.
AWS Cloud Architect at WHY Global Services
They provide a normal developer level of support, and within twenty-four hours for non-critical issues, which is acceptable for us.
Technical Owner at Harman International
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
If I don't need to go to support all the time, that means the product is working fine, so I'm very happy with them.
Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon Route 53 is praised for scalability, seamless integration, quick deployment, and effective auto-scaling despite higher costs.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella is scalable, supporting seamless user growth and integration, making it ideal for organizations of any size.
We haven't faced any scalability issues, thanks to its integration with AWS services.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The scalability is maintained by AKS, and Route 53's scalability part is primarily involved with load balancing.
Software Engineer - Backend at InfinID • FullTime
Amazon Route 53 is scalable as I use automation with YML files to handle scalability needs, and it works well.
.Net Developer at Freelance
Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.
Network Engineer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cisco Umbrella scales really well with the growing needs of my company, bringing the ability to ensure that people are safe and connected.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Cisco Umbrella scales effectively with the growing needs of my company; it's excellent, and I have experienced no issues.
Senior Network Engineer at Boys Town
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon Route 53 is praised for its stability, boasting 99.99% uptime, reliable performance, and effective scalability and security features.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is highly reliable, offering consistent performance and high uptime with minor glitches easily resolved.
We use auto-scaling groups to manage load.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The solution is stable.
Technical Owner at Harman International
I have not experienced any outages or downtime.
Software Engineer - Backend at InfinID • FullTime
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Cisco Umbrella Secure Access is pretty stable in my mind, and we have not seen many glitches that would have interrupted services at customer locations.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
The stability and reliability of the Cisco Umbrella platform have been great.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Route 53 needs better concurrency, integration, security, user interfaces, pricing transparency, and enhanced routing policies for improved user experience.
Cisco Umbrella struggles with integration, customization, user interface, and performance, needing improved documentation, security features, and deployment processes.
There could be improvements in the configuration process, particularly in the options provided during setup, such as subdomain configurations and certificate management.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
They need to ensure that the threats reported on are actual threats.
Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
There is room for improvement in restricting access through one website from S3 buckets.
Technical Owner at Harman International
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
I have to write an email to Umbrella support to get assistance, unlike the other products where I can call the Cisco technical assistance center and get an engineer.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Route 53 offers scalable, usage-based pricing; enterprises find it reasonable, yet some users seek clearer cost estimation.
Enterprise buyers appreciate Cisco Umbrella's security but have mixed opinions on its pricing, citing flexibility and potential cost issues.
Route 53 is more expensive.
Cloud Specialist at TCL Tech
The pricing of Route 53 is slightly higher compared to other services, however, it is justified by its high availability and reliability.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We've bundled that with our firewall stuff and our VPN, which brings the price down and adds the ability to grow.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
Network Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Route 53 simplifies DNS management with scalability, integration, and reliability, enhancing internet exposure for applications with robust security.
Cisco Umbrella features robust security, seamless deployment, granular control, enhancing hybrid work protection and compliance with ease of use.
I find Amazon Route 53 valuable for its ability to manage DNS records and efficiently route traffic with features like failover routing and geolocation routing.
.Net Developer at Freelance
They do not alert on non-actionable items, making their alerts reliable and focused on concerns that matter.
Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Amazon Route 53 is beneficial for managing traffic and domain names, offering features like latency-based routing and multi-deployment options.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The DNS layer security provided by Cisco Umbrella is very effective for our security posture, offering us vast improvements in visibility over DNS queries and potential threats.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
Network Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The best possible thing is that it is very easy to deploy, easy to configure, and very fast to get onboarded with a customer because this is a cloud-based service.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Route 53
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Managed DNS (2nd)
Cisco Umbrella
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Amazon Route 53 and Cisco Umbrella aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Amazon Route 53 is designed for Managed DNS and holds a mindshare of 10.1%, up 7.1% compared to last year.
Cisco Umbrella, on the other hand, focuses on Domain Name System (DNS) Security, holds 21.6% mindshare, down 25.4% since last year.
Managed DNS Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon Route 5310.1%
Cloudflare31.5%
Quad930.0%
Other28.400000000000006%
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella21.6%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection12.4%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security7.5%
Other58.5%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

NV
Technical Lead - Cloud at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Security and monitoring features enhance website protection and DNS management effortlessly
For Amazon Route 53, improvements I see include the need for a DNS firewall and a domain-based SSL checker security feature. DNS security is the most important part for me. I feel that whenever you host any kind of website, the first and most important thing is to protect it with a valid SSL. The secure socket layer is essential for the HTTPS green lock in the browser. If I forget to deploy SSL on a website and if my domain hosting is under Amazon Route 53, there should be a mechanism that Amazon Route 53 protects the insecure website using SSL, a thing that the end user does not know whether the SSL certificate comes from the domain, meaning from Amazon Route 53 or from the website.
Emilio Montoya - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at PROA
Ensures internet navigation safety and boosts productivity
The features of Cisco Umbrella I prefer most are DNS protection and traffic redirect. With Cisco Talos's threat intelligence, we reduce the impact of malware traffic in our network, and we currently see the behavior of equipment and choose the correct sites. Cisco Talos has helped us reduce the impact of malware traffic. We can see the behavior and choose the correct sites. We're currently testing secure access with Umbrella in order to secure access to core applications. It's a product that the user doesn't even know is there, even though it is protecting them. It's not hard on the equipment. And, for us, it centralizes everything, which improves productivity. 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. We are testing the Secure Access product with Cisco Umbrella to improve our connectivity with our users in order to secure access to the corporate applications. Cisco Umbrella is in the cloud, which is nice.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed DNS solutions are best for your needs.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise51
 

Questions from the Community

Azure DNS or Amazon Route 53?
Azure DNS is a hosting service of DNS domains. It has excellent operating time and performance, resulting in fast resolution. We like the ability to view everything in the Azure portal - this makes...
What do you like most about Amazon Route 53?
The most valuable features of the solution are the DNS, routing, and traffic features.
What needs improvement with Amazon Route 53?
I do not see any areas for improvement with Amazon Route 53 at the moment.
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
 

Also Known As

Route 53
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlueCat and others in Managed DNS. Updated: November 2025.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.