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Aruba ESP vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Aruba ESP
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (32nd)
Cisco Umbrella
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
121
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

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Aruba ESP is designed for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and holds a mindshare of 0.4%, up 0.1% compared to last year.
Cisco Umbrella, on the other hand, focuses on Domain Name System (DNS) Security, holds 21.2% mindshare, down 26.7% since last year.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Prashant-Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
A single place where users can manage everything and have integrations with a lot of other vendors
There is no limit on the scalability of Aruba ESP. You can connect any number of devices as much as you want. It's a cloud-based solution, and Aruba ESP is hosting all the solutions in that environment, so we don't find any challenges. Around 40 customers are using Aruba ESP.
Emilio Montoya - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Aruba ESP is a single place where you manage everything, and you have integrations with a lot of other vendors together on the same platform."
"It enables us to go granular in the customization of blocking some categories on the DNS."
"The most valuable feature for us is the DNS-based protection."
"Meraki features and cloud-based functionality are advanced and easy to manage centrally."
"The feature that we find most valuable is to be able to filter out those web requests that you don't want."
"Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process."
"There is much differentiation within the licensing so if anyone wants DNS security from the DNS security log, we are there already, and if anyone wants to go to a secure internet gateway, that is also available. We can get the integrated cloud DLP license keys. That is a good benefit with Cisco Umbrella. You can get a complete solution in a single licensing."
"I would describe the experience deploying Cisco Umbrella overall as super easy. It was awesome. It was lovely to deploy it."
"It is user-friendly. It is easy to manage the solution."
 

Cons

"Aruba ESP should include more integrations with third-party vendors."
"The only thing I can think of is that I'd like to see a little more flexibility in policy creation. The way that policy is currently structured is like a "first hit succeeds" kind of policy. It would be nice if it were more hierarchical."
"The rule-making process for blocking sites or for blocking characteristics can use some simplification."
"I am unsure if Cisco Umbrella offers a Windows option for running the server."
"We need to work on integration as it is very complex."
"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."
"This solution does not give us full, 360-degree protection."
"The firewall capabilities could be better. Cisco is starting to introduce some layer 7 capabilities now, but there's still some room to grow. They should continue with the development of Umbrella so that it is a full-blown cloud-managed firewall solution."
"We would like to see the enhancements made to the EDR, as we see features that are running endpoint management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Users need to pay a yearly license for three, five, seven, or ten years based on their requirements."
"Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."
"There are no hidden costs with Umbrella. Everything is included in the package."
"Licensing with Cisco can be a little complex, but I think it's comparable with that of other similar products. It's always hard to put a price on security, but the price is fair for the value it provides."
"The licensing and pricing structure of Cisco Umbrella is in line with standard systems on the market, and we have no specific requirements in this area. Overall, we have found it to be an acceptable pricing model for our organization."
"The product is pricey compared to Cisco Firepower."
"We were using the free version, and we implemented the paid version about two months ago. I'm paying a fair price, but everything is negotiable with Cisco. One of the benefits that I got by having Cisco Umbrella is the licensing of the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client."
"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."
"Cisco is expensive. For example, we are looking at Nexus Dashboard, and it's costing about 250,000 euros. I ask, "What do I get from it?" I'm still not convinced that we have to spend on it, so pricing is a problem."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba ESP?
Aruba ESP is a single place where you manage everything, and you have integrations with a lot of other vendors together on the same platform.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba ESP?
Users need to pay a yearly license for three, five, seven, or ten years based on their requirements. They can take their license accordingly. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten ...
What needs improvement with Aruba ESP?
Aruba ESP should include more integrations with third-party vendors. Currently, we have a good number of vendors integrated with the solution. However, many other vendors are still available in the...
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

No data available
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Netskope and others in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). Updated: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.