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Check Point Harmony Browse vs McAfee Web Gateway Cloud Service comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Browsers (4th)
McAfee Web Gateway Cloud Se...
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
32nd
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 McAfee Web Gateway Cloud Service is 0.6%, down from 0.8% 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.
MF
A scalable and user-friendly tool that provides an easy-to-configure user interface
The solution is used for granular filtering. For example, an organization can use the solution to allow users to access Facebook but stop them from playing games The user interface is easy to configure. We don't have to configure a database manually. It’s already present in the product. We just…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"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."
"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."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"The installation process is simple. Once initiated, the process is quite straightforward and seamless, making it easy to complete."
"Its potential features of Threat Detection and Threat Emulation have helped businesses to browse securely hassle-free without any tension."
"This solution has multiple protections that are generally very simple to configure and work quickly with little intrusiveness for the user."
"Check Point's technical support is very impressive."
"It analyzes and verifies in detail how secure or insecure a file, document, or object is that is being downloaded."
"The software is easy to install and deploy across any business environment and it is becoming a game changer for us."
"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."
"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."
"The user interface is easy to configure."
 

Cons

"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"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."
"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."
"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"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."
"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."
"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."
"A slight reduction in the cost subscription model can prove to be a game changer."
"Check Point Harmony Browse can be improved by reducing false positive reports."
"Support must be faster in solving problems."
"By default, on Harmony Browse there is no URL group which is commonly blocked worldwide."
"There is always scope for improvement for Check Point Harmony Browse, particularly in the user interface and adding the IOC checklist or feature modifications."
"security solution for users Devices and Access" What is our primary use case? The application is good as its lightweight and its functions are really similar to a browser extension. It offers real-time protection for internet users by addressing active concerns. Moreover, it incorporates a reputation feature to ensure swift access to websites within a second. The effectiveness of Harmony Browse’s capabilities is really an advantage. What is most valuable? The installation process is simple. Once initiated, the process is quite straightforward and seamless, making it easy to complete. What needs improvement? Regarding the Harmony Browse, I call it "Kuna" which is accurate. The quantum product serves as my primary focus due to its project cost, and I aim to introduce support in this area. This is because firewall implementation holds significant importance for organizations. I want to improve more on the quantum losses. There's a concept I'd like to include in Harmony Browse, known as automatic catching. This mechanism comes into play when an individual closes their browser while possessing sensitive information, like monetary data. To counteract potential risks, we employ a browser cache-clearing process to minimize the cache's accumulation. This action ensures that malicious entities can't exploit the cached data for attacks. To enhance this further, there's potential for the implementation of a self-cleaning technology. For instance, when a user exits the browser, an automatic action could be initiated to clear the browser cache, serving as an additional layer of security. This can be helpful if added."
"They should focus on new areas of product. In the last year, they have not released any updates with improvements or extra options."
"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 product should provide more integrations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"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."
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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
32%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Security Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 needs improvement with McAfee Web Gateway Cloud Service?
The product should provide more integrations. It will benefit the customers as they can use more solutions.
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
No data available
 

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.
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Zscaler, Fortinet and others in Secure Web Gateways (SWG). Updated: May 2025.
856,278 professionals have used our research since 2012.