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Azure DNS vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
7.8
Azure DNS offers an 8% ROI with cost efficiency, reduced OpEx, pay-as-you-go pricing, and reliable functionality.
Sentiment score
7.4
Cisco Umbrella boosts ROI by enhancing security, reducing costs, eliminating infrastructure needs, and improving productivity through efficient threat management.
The ROI is always high because Azure DNS setup is essential and does not incur high charges.
Cisco is a big brand in the networking domain, but in security, they are pushing a lot and improving day by day.
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.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Azure DNS support is generally positive, with varying response times and quality based on the support plan and region.
Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Umbrella support is generally efficient and informative, though some users experience occasional delays and integration challenges.
Technical support is minimally required for DNS-related tasks if you have previous experience.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
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.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Azure DNS is praised for its scalability, ease of setup, and reliability, making it ideal for diverse business needs.
Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Umbrella offers scalable, cloud-based security, easily adaptable and deployable, supporting global expansion for organizations of all sizes.
Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.
Cisco Umbrella scales really well with the growing needs of my company, bringing the ability to ensure that people are safe and connected.
Cisco Umbrella is scalable for our company.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Azure DNS is praised for its stability and robust performance, with minor installation challenges noted by fewer users.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is praised for its stability, reliability, and consistent service, with users appreciating minimal outages and bugs.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
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.
The stability and reliability of the Cisco Umbrella platform have been great.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure DNS needs improvements in registration, support, security, scalability, pricing clarity, documentation, integration, performance, and multi-cloud functionality.
Cisco Umbrella users seek enhanced IP whois, malware protection, policy flexibility, integration, simplicity, support, updates, cost reduction, and local presence.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Azure DNS offers cost-effective, usage-based pricing with seamless Azure integration, including free query allowances and charges for extra usage.
Cisco Umbrella pricing is seen as fair by some, costly by others, with flexible plans and potential discounts available.
Azure DNS charges based on the number of zones enabled, offering some free queries monthly, which keeps costs low.
We've bundled that with our firewall stuff and our VPN, which brings the price down and adds the ability to grow.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
 

Valuable Features

Azure DNS provides easy installation, security, integration, robust performance, and flexible domain management with a user-friendly interface.
Cisco Umbrella provides comprehensive cybersecurity with powerful options, user-friendly management, and advanced threat detection for secure connectivity across networks.
Azure DNS provides end-to-end P2P connectivity and enhances security, making it more secure and reliable.
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.
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure DNS
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Managed DNS (4th)
Cisco Umbrella
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Azure DNS and Cisco Umbrella aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Azure DNS is designed for Managed DNS and holds a mindshare of 6.7%, down 9.4% compared to last year.
Cisco Umbrella, on the other hand, focuses on Domain Name System (DNS) Security, holds 21.6% mindshare, down 27.5% since last year.
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Tushar-Patil - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good performance and helps its users with disaster recovery
Azure DNS has improved our company's domain management and resolution reliability since it provides most of the solutions, especially whatever is required in our organization. My experience of integrating Azure DNS into our company's existing cloud services was easy. For the security and privacy aspect, my company mostly relies on Microsoft. I don't have the expertise to comment on whether Azure DNS has influenced our company's operations from a security and privacy perspective. Azure DNS is a really good product when it comes to scalability and performance for our company's workload. Azure DNS has helped my company with the disaster recovery phase. The product uses cloud features, and since my company has separate regions, we have a backup tool or a backup deduplication technology. The implementation of Azure DNS in our environment benefits the entire organization, but four to five people have access to the solution. I rate the overall product a nine to ten out of ten.
Sabbir Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Blocks threats before they reach the user's device
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. Additionally, strong winds can disrupt its functionality, and the opening and closing mechanism can be awkward in tight spaces.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Educational Organization
18%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 Azure DNS?
The tool is easy to manage and use.
What needs improvement with Azure DNS?
I did not see any improvements required. It functions as a standard DNS, which is very important, and it does not need separate improvements.
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

M-Files
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: June 2025.
856,807 professionals have used our research since 2012.