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Check Point Harmony Browse vs Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

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
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (11th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)
Check Point Harmony Browse
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Browsers (4th)
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony Browse is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is 4.6%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless
One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured
Nasseer Qureshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Securing web browsing activities with effective threat prevention
There is room for improvement in Check Point Harmony Browse. While it is effective, the management portal could use some refinement. For instance, we would like to see more advanced filtering options and clearer reporting for policy violations. Although reporting exists, it sometimes isn't granular enough to quickly identify user-level activity. Another area of improvement is extension compatibility since it currently works best with Chrome and Edge, but having wider browser support for Firefox and Safari would be beneficial for mixed environments. I would also appreciate more flexible customization of policies, especially for different departments with varying needs, allowing for more granular rule-based policies directly from the dashboard. When we receive alerts, sometimes they turn out to be false positives. For example, we encountered a false positive recently and sought to fine-tune our policies to reduce these occurrences, but we didn't have options for that level of fine-tuning. I would like to see improvements in alert tuning that would help reduce unnecessary notifications, especially for low-risk events. Overall, it's a strong out-of-the-box solution, but a few enhancements would refine the experience and make it easier to scale.
AhmedHawana - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient user access control enhances productivity and browsing experience
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is mainly used to prevent employees from accessing certain sites and allow others to access specific websites. Based on Forcepoint's insights, we block some sites for classification purposes. It efficiently categorizes which sites should not be accessed during work hours. Additionally, Forcepoint does not affect traffic flow, ensuring a smooth browsing experience.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."
"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."
"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."
"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."
"We chose iboss for both zero trust and proxy (SWG) because their SWG was superior."
"This tool installs a very small agent in browsers. It does not cause performance problems on the host computer, which makes it less annoying for users."
"The product enforces the privacy of the users, which is good."
"It has content filtering, which has helped us a lot in being able to apply the necessary filtering policies where we can allow or block websites."
"It provides end-to-end encryption for the communication between the user's device and the remote browser, which helps to protect against eavesdropping and other forms of man-in-the-middle attacks."
"Check Point Harmony Browse has greatly impacted our organization positively."
"This solution has multiple protections that are generally very simple to configure and work quickly with little intrusiveness for the user."
"Among its most important features is the integration of its analytics."
"The initial setup process for Check Point Harmony Browse was really smooth; that was the main advantage."
"The tool's most valuable features are content filtering and URL filtering."
"For the most part, the solution, when set up correctly, works fine."
"In terms of functionality, Forcepoint is the best web proxy available."
"The most valuable feature of Forcepoint Web Security is creating the easy to install further policies that are deployed through the Forcepoint security manual at some stage. Just drag and drop and the policies are there."
"In terms of performance, Forcepoint stands out because it is more scalable than any other solution. It can extend to different types of boxes and integrate well with other platforms and vendors. And it doesn't need to have the same kind of box or throughput to have high availability."
"The Forcepoint client software can be downloaded on a user's machine so that it can filter the sites from home or the office. That's one of the biggest features. We can use it for filtering our laptops for our users at any place."
"The most valuable feature for me in Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is URL filtering, though all other features of the product are okay as well."
"The solution’s administration is easy."
 

Cons

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."
"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."
"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."
"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."
"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"By default, on Harmony Browse there is no URL group which is commonly blocked worldwide."
"The URL filtering database should be improved."
"Something that is worth mentioning is the need for support in Spanish and better representation for teams in the Latin American area, where there is a growing demand for these IT services and new technologies."
"The only thing they should add or improve is the reporting series."
"The solution needs greater automation to reduce the need for manual configuration and management."
"Having local support everywhere in the world would be helpful."
"There is always scope for improvement for Check Point Harmony Browse, particularly in the user interface and adding the IOC checklist or feature modifications."
"It seems to us that the performance in some opportunities of Check Point Infinity and the administration web portal is slow."
"The automation lifecycle, integration, and export functionality could all be improved."
"The initial setup can be complex."
"Improve detailed guidelines to deploy the transparent proxy to Firefox users."
"We have had latency issues."
"In the on-premises version, I don't like the deployment and structuring of the device."
"The documentation is almost too much, it could be laid out in an easier to understand."
"It takes 20 to 30 minutes for policy replication."
"Ease of use could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"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."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"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."
"The product has a reasonable pricing."
"The price is not very expensive for our organisation, but for others, it might be a little expensive."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The price of this product should be reduced to make it more competitive."
"The solution is priced a little high compare to similar solutions."
"Compared to the other products in the market, Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway can be a cost-effective tool."
"Overall, I am not aware of the option to pay for one time use of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway."
"The pricing depends upon the number of users."
"The cost for Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is lower than that for Zscaler and Netskope. It could be around $4 per user annually."
"The pricing on Forcepoint Web Security is fair. Fair pricing at current market rates, if you are comparing with the competition."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
31%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Security Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?
Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.
What needs improvement with iboss?
For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Browse?
There is always scope for improvement for Check Point Harmony Browse, particularly in the user interface and adding t...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Harmony Browse?
We are working in a SOC environment as an MSSP ( /categories/managed-security-services-providers-mssp ) SOC. Our clie...
What do you like most about Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway?
The product's user management is an area where my company does not face any challenges.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway?
The price for Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is normal, rated around five to six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway?
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway ( /products/forcepoint-secure-web-gateway-reviews ) could be improved by offering a Saa...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
Forcepoint SWG, Websense Web Security, Forcepoint TRITON
 

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
Adventist Health, Alphawest, Amadori, Anoka County, Compartamos Banco, Davies Turner, EverBank, iGATE, Karlstad Municipality, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Scavolini, Smurfit Kappa, Toyota
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony Browse vs. Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.