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Check Point Harmony Browse vs Symantec 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)
5th
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 (8th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
Check Point Harmony Browse
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
8th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Browsers (3rd)
Symantec Secure Web Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
28th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.2%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony Browse is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Secure Web Gateway is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
iboss2.2%
Check Point Harmony Browse0.7%
Symantec Secure Web Gateway1.1%
Other96.0%
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
AndreiBo - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time threat intelligence enhances security and user confidence
At this point, I do not have any suggestions for improvements to Check Point Harmony Browse because I haven't encountered anything that would need changing. If a solution is installed correctly, it usually won't fail. It's hard to suggest new features for Check Point Harmony Browse because it's a sub-component of a larger Harmony Endpoint Security solution, which is handled separately under specific situations, and while it has many options, it already scans and delivers files efficiently. Regarding the scanning of large files in Check Point Harmony Browse, the process typically involves sending the file to Check Point cloud for scanning and returning the clean file to the user, which is inherently complex and I do not see how it could be optimized to be faster.
Malik Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Has an easy deployment process, but the data center's capability to manage the traffic could be better
We use Symantec Secure Web Gateway to apply URL policies for cloud security, data protection, and SSL The product is easy to deploy. It has a faster implementation process compared to other products. The platform’s data center is not capable of managing most of the traffic. We have been using…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."
"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."
"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"
"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."
"This solution has multiple protections that are generally very simple to configure and work quickly with little intrusiveness for the user."
"The downloaded protection as it scans and emulates the files on a browser level is great."
"It analyzes and verifies in detail how secure or insecure a file, document, or object is that is being downloaded."
"Among its most important features is the integration of its analytics."
"Since using Check Point Harmony Browse, we have noticed a significant drop in security incidents, approximately 30 to 40% fewer phishing and malware cases, which has saved our IT team a lot of time on incident response and helped avoid costly downtime."
"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 is easy to implement and has great security potential to avoid vulnerabilities through internet browsing."
"Check Point Harmony Browse helps with securing managed and unmanaged devices by functioning as a lightweight browser that validates the user on the basis of device posture when first authenticated, allowing access to secure internet applications or internal applications regardless of whether the device is corporate or a personal BYOD device."
"It is a stable solution."
"It is quite scalable. If a user needs to do more deployments, they can just add them."
"I find the product to be very straightforward."
"It is easy to manage. The graphical user interface is quite easy to navigate, and we don't have any difficulty in using it. It is a good solution."
"Typically, Symantec is more or less like any other platform that performs proxy functions."
"In terms of most valuable features, I like the ICAP capability and URL filtering the most."
"The most valuable features are the website blocking capability and SSL interception."
"It offers an easy initial setup."
 

Cons

"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."
"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."
"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."
"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."
"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"The ease of handling should be improved, as it is currently intrusive and some users don't like it."
"The initial policy setup can feel a bit complex, particularly when trying to customize controls for different user groups."
"I believe that more granular customization, improved user feedback, expanded integration, and performance optimization would improve Check Point Harmony Browse."
"By default, on Harmony Browse there is no URL group which is commonly blocked worldwide."
"The documentation of the most current applications is sometimes not so clear, and it is difficult to understand."
"Support must be faster in solving problems."
"The pricing for Check Point Harmony Browse can be a bit pricey sometimes, depending on the project."
"A slight reduction in the cost subscription model can prove to be a game changer."
"There's a need for increased firewall functionality and capabilities. I'm not seeing a competitive Symantec cloud product. Specifically, functionalities with security as filtering from the cloud. I am aware that there is a product, a proxy in the cloud but I have compared it with other vendors and I don't find it that powerful. I think the worst thing that we're experiencing is very poor and inadequate technical support. It seems to me that tech support engineers aren't qualified to fulfill their job duties."
"I find that the technical support is mediocre, at least for the Middle East. I frequently face challenges when contacting OpenStack through the distribution channel."
"It's not user-friendly, and we end up making too many phone calls to get things fixed."
"The major challenge is their support. The support from Broadcom is quite poor. It takes forever for them to get back to you, and when they get back to you, they ask you for so much information, which makes it more difficult. That's the only problem I have with Broadcom. This is one of the reasons why we are switching to another solution. Another reason for switching is that we have a plan to adopt solutions in the cloud so that we can offload the administration efforts to the vendor. In future releases, they can improve its reporting and the process for rules creation. They can also improve Broadcom on things such as security information and event management so that from my same platform, I can carry out functions and probably block websites. Such a feature would be nice. Currently, Broadcom is integrated with McAfee to block access to certain sites automatically. It would be nice if they can expand their integration to IBM Resilient Security Orchestration and Automation Response."
"The platform’s data center is not capable of managing most of the traffic."
"The interface could be made more user-friendly."
"AI-driven security could be helpful, yet how effective it will be remains unclear."
"Difficult and time-consuming to deploy and update."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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 expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"The price is not very expensive for our organisation, but for others, it might be a little expensive."
"The product has a reasonable pricing."
"Symantec Secure Web Gateway is less expensive than one of its competitors."
"Pricing and licensing is stunted and licensing is expensive. We have many customers who are now thinking about other solutions due to the cost."
"There is an additional charge for advanced security features."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
30%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Security Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Browse?
I believe that more granular customization, improved user feedback, expanded integration, and performance optimizatio...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Harmony Browse?
The primary use case for Check Point Harmony Browse in our organization is to enhance web security by protecting user...
What do you like most about Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
It has a faster implementation process compared to other products.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
I believe that pricing is on par with peers. Symantec and other vendors offer discounts when cutting a deal with a cu...
What needs improvement with Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
AI-driven security could be helpful, yet how effective it will be remains unclear. I plan to evaluate whatever new fe...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
Symantec Complete Website Security
 

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 Check Point Harmony Browse vs. Symantec Secure Web Gateway and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.