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Aruba ESP vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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

iboss
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (8th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
Aruba ESP
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (28th)
Cisco Umbrella
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
123
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

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba ESP1.0%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks10.4%
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform8.9%
Other79.7%
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella18.1%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security8.7%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection8.4%
Other64.8%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support
The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.
SatishKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Manager at Savex Technologies Pvt Ltd
Has improved remote connectivity with secure segmentation for traveling users
The scenario has totally changed after COVID. Earlier, people used to work from office culture, but now it has shifted to work from anywhere. Devices are not fixed either. Previously it was fixed asset, but now people are using smartphones, IoT devices, laptops, and other devices, connecting from anywhere. Segmenting network traffic is very difficult and complicated because putting a firewall across devices is very difficult and nearly impossible. EdgeConnect, which includes endpoint protection or SSE, is very agent-based. POPs are nearly reachable across the globe, so users can access services globally whenever they want to reach the data center or access the internet. It creates segregation, and after segregation, it comes with security functionality including CASB, web, anti-malware, and antivirus functionality. It protects the endpoint whenever connecting with unsecured networks. The first level post-check of security parameters matches all functionalities. Their segregation part allows us to define parameters through ZTNA functionality, Zero Trust Network Access where we can define postures, whether devices relate to corporate network or personal use, if antivirus is running, if OS is updated, and many more things. Based upon that, it helps customers protect the complete infrastructure, whether connecting with office network, unsecured network, or remote office.
BB
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Ensures comprehensive protection with seamless threat logging and efficient policy management
My favorite feature of Cisco Umbrella is probably just the DNS and the fact that when a security threat happens, all of that gets logged in their Umbrella portal, and it's very easy to find who's been accessing the site and how many people have accessed it, so that we can go to them and make sure they're not compromised. The features of Cisco Umbrella benefit my company by providing less time to search for things through logs, to look for what we need. It's just one place to go, and we just search for it, and we find it really fast. The fact that there's a virtual database that has all that information is great on our portal.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"I would say iboss is a very good product; its scalability is very good, and it's seamless for the user."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"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 provides a single umbrella for the complete network infrastructure, which is a very key differentiator from other products."
"DNS protection, domain blocking, SIP component, and the Cisco Umbrella roaming client are the valuable features of Cisco Umbrella."
"This is a very good solution and my clients are impressed with it."
"In general, it increases the security level, helps us prevent threats from being accessed, and increases the visibility into internet-bound traffic, so overall it increases the internet security of the organization."
"Cisco is a very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page. We can monitor the entire network."
"I have found the malware protection feature valuable. It is helpful and deliverable and is able to protect my entire organization from getting compromised. It also prevents us from visiting any malicious sites which are not visible to the users."
"Application performance has greatly improved and there are less operational issues. Productivity has been going up because we have less operational issues. Also, we have happy customers."
"It has improved our organization from a security posture perspective, and we feel more confident now knowing that we can block phishing attempts or any type of malware that is DNS-related, which is a very nice feature that provides peace of mind."
"The feature that we find most valuable is to be able to filter out those web requests that you don't want."
 

Cons

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices; it is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents, and that is where in 2025 we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform."
"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."
"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers."
"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"Segmenting network traffic is very difficult and complicated because putting a firewall across devices is very difficult and nearly impossible."
"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."
"I would like to see integration with SecurNX in the future."
"There are a couple of interface issues."
"Actually, we recently switched over to Zscaler because it has more features and it's more scalable than Cisco Umbrella."
"Cisco Umbrella can be improved in terms of limited coverage and wind vulnerability. The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users."
"The solution could be faster as the process is very slow."
"It should have a real-time malware classification engine. It should check the malware on the website."
"In my experience with Umbrella support, sometimes the response times take a bit more time than we would like; sometimes, if you go through email, it can take quite a while to get a response."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"Users need to pay a yearly license for three, five, seven, or ten years based on their requirements."
"The price could be lower."
"Cisco Umbrella is not a cheap product. However, it's not a matter of the cost; it's more a matter of the value of security. It is easy to measure this value when you have a security incident. I think the price is a good trade-off for a product that can help you avoid security threats."
"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."
"Its price for us is quite expensive because it's a subscription, and we just use it for the DNS log. So, for us, it's quite expensive."
"We did a good negotiation, and at the moment, its price is fine."
"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."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"We have a security Enterprise Agreement with Cisco, so the pricing is good."
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893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
No data available
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Non Profit
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise8
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise51
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent ...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
We used iBoss mainly for Internet Access by having an Agent on Windows laptops Primarily because when we try to use i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
I am not involved in pricing, but as per the information I have, during that time, the Blue Coat proxies we were usin...
What needs improvement with Aruba ESP?
The scenario has totally changed after COVID. Earlier, people used to work from office culture, but now it has shifte...
What is your primary use case for Aruba ESP?
I am working for the SASE portfolio as a product manager, so I cannot give any comment on other products. If there ar...
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. Zs...
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-nat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?
The pricing for Cisco Umbrella is fair compared to other platforms out there for DNS security. We acquired it as a bu...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.
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 Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, Cato Networks and others in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). Updated: May 2026.
893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.