BlueCat Edge vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

BlueCat and Cisco are both solutions in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category. BlueCat is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.2. BlueCat holds a 2.7% mindshare in DS, compared to Cisco’s 22.4% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of BlueCat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

BlueCat Edge

Read 6 BlueCat Edge reviews

1,049 Views
1,049 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Umbrella

Read 122 Cisco Umbrella reviews

19,212 Views
5,764 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BlueCat Edge

Cisco Umbrella

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Cisco Umbrella and BlueCat Edge both compete in the DNS management and security landscape. While Cisco Umbrella leads with its advanced DNS-based security features, BlueCat Edge focuses on DNS traffic efficiency and management, giving Umbrella the edge in threat prevention and control.

Features: Cisco Umbrella provides DNS-based security, web content filtering, and malware protection. It stops threats at the DNS level and offers command and control blocking. BlueCat Edge delivers a central DNS management platform with efficient traffic routing and policy enforcement but lacks some advanced security features without additional customization.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Umbrella could enhance its integration with SIEM products, enrich its malware engine, and improve policy customization. BlueCat Edge would benefit from advanced threat detection and categorization features to compete better in security, and offer selective data export capabilities for improved performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Umbrella supports a broad range of deployment models including public, private, and hybrid clouds, offering flexible implementation options. Its customer service is highly rated. BlueCat Edge supports hybrid and public cloud deployments and receives positive feedback for technical support, although it sometimes lacks a personal touch in interactions.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella's pricing is on the higher side, justified by comprehensive security offerings and reduced hardware costs, providing flexible subscriptions for organizations of various sizes. BlueCat Edge has a high price point with a one-license-fits-all approach, achieving ROI through efficient DNS management and operational efficiencies. Umbrella's extensive security features justify its higher cost, while BlueCat Edge is valued for optimal DNS traffic handling.

To learn more, read our detailed BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

December 2025

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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

BlueCat Edge

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Umbrella

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

1st

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), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of BlueCat Edge is 2.7%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 22.4%, down from 25.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella	22.4%
BlueCat Edge	2.7%
Other	74.9%

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

Featured Reviews

reviewer2340669

Enterprise Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Invaluable at detecting DNS threats, improving performance, and reducing operational expenses

I have concerns about several aspects of BlueCat's site management. Firstly, the cleanup process doesn't seem thorough enough, leaving behind residual data. Secondly, the logging duration has been significantly reduced. When I started using Edge, I had access to 3-6 months of historical data, but now this window has shrunk to just two weeks. I understand that the platform processes over one and a half billion queries per week, which necessitates data management. However, I believe access to longer-term logs would be beneficial for our analysis. The current two-week window limits our ability to identify trends and track historical events effectively. BlueCat Edge has a limitation of 10,000 records for exports. While I understand the need to export all data, it would be more efficient if I could selectively export the data I need. Currently, there is only one export mechanism that provides all 10,000 records. I would prefer the ability to select specific values and export more records at once, as I don't require all the data available.

Read full review

Emilio Montoya

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The unparalleled visibility offered by BlueCat Edge is arguably the most critical benefit we receive."

"It allows us to easily monitor our subnets and routers."

"What I found most valuable is the ability to put it in place and integrate it very quickly. It allows us to create routing rule sets to route DNS traffic where it needs to go most efficiently in our environment."

"IP Address Management (IPAM) is the most valuable."

"Edge has reduced the complexity and has been more reliable."

"We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having."

"We immediately block impersonating users from accessing services over Cisco Umbrella-controlled devices."

"It has the ability to quickly block new threats."

"The primary advantage of Cisco Umbrella is its ability to safeguard our users no matter where they are working from - whether it's in the office or remotely, as per the new work model that has emerged globally. This integrated security solution has simplified our lives by combining all the necessary security measures in one product. Additionally, deploying the product is all it takes to protect all our users."

"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."

"One of the most important features is the security posture check which Umbrella offers when a user accesses any website. That is one of the most unique features that it offers."

"For us and for customers, it's the ease of integration with Meraki. It's just a couple of clicks. That allows us to deploy very fast, and it doesn't change the way a customer uses his service. It's just more secure."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security."

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

More Cisco Umbrella pros

Cons

"A more graphical user interface would be a benefit."

"The main improvement for BlueCat Edge's security configuration would be more granular control."

"I have concerns about several aspects of BlueCat's site management."

"Its price is on the higher side."

"I would like to see improvements in threat detection and the ability to add categorization for blocking queries, such as those related to adult entertainment."

"One pain point concerning DNS Edge is the inability to see per Edge endpoint, what devices are querying against it. They do have the capability for you to look at that data, but the data is roughly 24 to 48 hours old. I am looking for real-time data, and I cannot get that per Edge endpoint."

"There are a couple of interface issues. I know that they say that there are feature enhancements that are noted. For example, we've got the Cisco Meraki security appliances, and there, we geofence our company to where we're allowed to send and receive traffic. So, in our case, by default, we only allow traffic to six different countries, which allows us to effectively prevent traffic for the majority of bad players in the world, but they don't give you an easy way to do that in Cisco Umbrella. With Cisco Meraki, I can specify or pick the countries. I can say that I want to only allow traffic from these six countries, and I'm done. With Cisco Umbrella, I have to rely on the fact that they're going to prevent traffic to other countries. They're going to decide if it's good or bad."

"The pricing could always be a little bit better."

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

"If you wish to inspect all the traffic and it's integrated with Cisco AnyConnect, all the traffic basically goes through Cisco AnyConnect, which is not a good idea. That means you need to have more internet capacity as a data sampler, so in the case of a split tunnel, we cannot inspect the traffic that is being migrated through the local internet. I'm not sure whether there is a possibility wherein Cisco Umbrella can also inspect the traffic that is outside the AnyConnect tunnel."

"The design of the screens could be improved. Sometimes you're trying to look for information, for what you think is critical that should be on that first screen of the dashboard so that you can quickly take screenshots to have people help out, but you have to hop between screens to find little pieces of evidence."

"Some countries don't have a DNS server leading to a domain resolution IP, not at a local level."

"The reporting could be improved by way of the information that's displayed. For example, when you pull a report, it shows an internal employee going to many websites, but you can spin that right down by saying a lot of it is being cached."

"With any Cisco product, it's the licensing side of things that needs improvement."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model for BlueCat Edge seems very good, although I can't confirm if it's specific to our contract."

"I'm doing a costing and licensing comparison between the BlueCat DNS Integrity and Micetro by Men&Mice. BlueCat has given me a range instead of a specific price. They gave me a range of ten thousand to two hundred thousand USD. That was a bit too wide for the cost comparison. Based on what I'm seeing, they are definitely on the higher side and very expensive."

"We find the current pricing model more reasonable compared to the previous per-IP pricing."

"One of the nice benefits of getting DNS Edge is that you buy the subscription, and you are allowed to deploy as many Edge endpoints as you need. You do not need a separate license for each one. If you deploy 20 of them, you will not be billed for that many. It is one subscription. You can deploy as many as you need and consume as much as you need. The cost comes in based on the number of IPs that you are consuming and running through DNS Edge. We have that pretty much locked in for what we need for internal purposes. Being able to save money on deploying Edge endpoints has saved us drastically from deploying other BlueCat products in lieu of that."

"There is a subscription cost."

"The pricing is fair."

"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."

"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."

"The product is pricey compared to Cisco Firepower."

"Its value exceeds its pricing."

"You get what you pay for if you break the solution up into tiers."

"Cisco solutions are generally perceived to be rather expensive. We have constant internal discussions as to whether we should offer lower-priced security solutions from some of the competitors."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	49
Midsize Enterprise	30
Large Enterprise	51

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BlueCat Edge?

We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BlueCat Edge?

I'm not aware of the exact pricing and licensing as I was not part of the procurement process. However, there was a significant cost reduction thanks to BlueCat Cloud DNS managing external solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BlueCat Edge?

BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement. They need to focus and deploy such features in the next version itself, which woul...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?

Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.

See all answers

Comparisons

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 17% of the time

EfficientIP DNS Firewall vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 17% of the time

EfficientIP DNS Guardian vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 12% of the time

F5 BIG-IP DNS vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 12% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 10% of the time

More BlueCat Edge Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 10% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 6% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

December 2025

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Also Known As

BlueCat DNS Edge

OpenDNS

Overview

BlueCat Edge is an intelligent DNS resolver and caching layer that leverages existing DNS infrastructure to provide unprecedented visibility and control over DNS traffic. As a first hop DNS resolver, BlueCat Edge intelligently manages DNS forwarding rules and logs all queries to offer intuitive analytics and data governance. By monitoring all queries and IP addresses with BlueCat Edge, enterprises can also leverage BlueCat’s advanced Threat Protection and policy-based network/security features to protect the enterprise against cyber threats, such as domain name generation algorithms and tunneling that lead to data exfiltration or network downtime.

BlueCat

Cisco Umbrella provides fast-deploying DNS-layer security with powerful threat protection capabilities. Trusted by over 30,000 entities, it ranks highly in DNS security and effectively supports secure remote work environments.

Cisco Umbrella offers comprehensive DNS security, web filtering, and ease of use, enhancing network security through robust threat protection and malware prevention. It processes over 600 billion requests daily, making it a leader in its field. The seamless integration with existing infrastructures and cloud-based nature makes it suitable for remote and distributed work environments, ensuring consistent security throughout. Management is streamlined with a single-pane interface that simplifies administration, while in-depth reporting capabilities provide valuable insights for continuous monitoring.

What are the key features of Cisco Umbrella?

DNS Security: Provides leading protection by managing DNS queries and blocking malicious sites.
Web Filtering: Offers granular control over web content to safeguard internet usage.
Ease of Integration: Fits well into existing infrastructures, simplifying deployment and use.
Intuitive Management: Single-pane management streamlines administration and enhances usability.
Cloud-Based Flexibility: Supports secure remote work environments.

What benefits can users expect from using Cisco Umbrella?

Superior Threat Protection: Reduces risk by effectively detecting and preventing cyber threats.
Consistent Security: Provides uniform protection across network environments.
Efficiency and Visibility: Leverages comprehensive reporting for better security insights.
Easy Deployment: Quick and straightforward setup with minimal disruption.

Cisco Umbrella is widely adopted in industries requiring advanced DNS-level security to counteract malware, phishing, and cyber threats. Its ability to monitor and protect remote and roaming employees makes it an attractive option for sectors highly dependent on cloud services. By managing DNS queries and blocking harmful sites, Cisco Umbrella enhances cybersecurity across networks, providing an added layer of protection for businesses worldwide.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Swisslos, Cologne Bonn Airport, TYROLIT

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

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

December 2025

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