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Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs Google Cloud VPN comparison

 

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

Cisco IOS SSL VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (4th)
Google Cloud VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Cisco IOS SSL VPN is 2.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud VPN is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco IOS SSL VPN2.7%
Google Cloud VPN1.1%
Other96.2%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

VM
student at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cost efficiency and ease of setup define network management while potential improvements in complexity handling are noted
Optimizing and configuring for network segmentation is the biggest thing for helping with segmenting traffic management. Configuring QoS on Linksys is pretty easy, especially compared to Cisco QoS, which I am certified in, as it helps ensure that the bandwidth for voice or other applications doesn't bleed over into the data links. In the past, Linksys has been pretty good at network protection, segmenting off that protection for unauthorized access or cyber threats. Cost savings and ease of use are the benefits I've seen from Linksys. It's a little bit less complex to set up and configure compared to Cisco switching. I utilized the VLAN support feature in the Linksys switches. A lot of the networks I have were broken up by VLAN, and I definitely configured them for different VLANs. The best feature of Linksys in my opinion is cost, as they tend to be more cost-effective compared to larger switches or Cisco switches.
Prashast Tripathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Customizes networks with flexible configurations and high reliability
Google Cloud VPN offers a lot of flexibility to customize, supporting dual track IPv4 and IPv6, and v6-only configurations. It supports dynamic routing, and the SLA is a key factor with a 99.999% reliability. The Cloud VPN tunnel supports up to 250,000 packets per second for both ingress and egress traffic.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very stable."
"The setup and installation was easy."
"The solution is pretty fast."
"It is very simple to use, and it allows me to get into the university's network from my home, which is very useful for me."
"The customer service and support are the best. When it comes to support, Cisco is the best vendor ever."
"Cisco IOS SSL VPN is stable, and once we connect, we don't face any issues and can do our work."
"It's a very stable solution and I'd say it works perfectly."
"IOS is user-friendly and simple. You connect to a particular VPN, and that's it. You become seamless after that."
"The most valuable feature of the product is its compatibility with almost every network."
"Any time we had an issue with connecting the OpenVPN to a user, we just to them on the group's VPN and connected our VPN."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud VPN are its speed, connectivity, and reliability."
"Google Cloud VPN is a reliable and easy-to-use solution."
"Google Cloud VPN offers a lot of flexibility to customize, supporting dual track IPv4 and IPv6, and v6-only configurations."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud VPN are its speed, connectivity, and reliability."
 

Cons

"Cisco device management is quite difficult. They should work to simplify this."
"Cisco IOS SSL VPN doesn't support the configuration of multiple VPNs."
"Cisco ASA system doesn't provide interface with radius based user mapping, other than the standard schema of users and groups."
"Unfortunately, the pricing is making us get out from incorporating Cisco products."
"The product's RPA tools need enhancement for simplified business process automation."
"I would like for it to have support for the Dutch language. I typically use English in 99% of our communications but for some people, it matters."
"I think the management of the design of the console or portal needs to improve because when you compare it to other vendors, you find that the graphical interface is old."
"The performance could be improved."
"The customer service and support from Google are not top-notch yet are available. I would rate them around 7.5 to eight out of ten."
"The logging needs improvement."
"The customer service and support from Google are not top-notch yet are available."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement. Additionally, cost-efficiency enhancements or service integrations could add further value."
"The price for Google solutions could be cheaper. In general, I would rate it a seven."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It stands as the priciest solution available in the market."
"Price flexibility could be improved in comparison to other vendors."
"The product costs less."
"My company makes payments on a quarterly basis to the vendor to cover the licensing costs attached to the product. Cisco IOS SSL VPN is an expensive product. There are no additional costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the product."
"It is an expensive product."
"The solution is reasonably priced, and we have around 50% to 60% discounts from Cisco."
"The licensing cost of the solution is on a yearly basis, and it is expensive compared to other solutions in the market."
"The licensing fee is expensive."
"The product pricing is high."
"It's not super cheap, but it's also not unrealistically priced."
"It is fairly priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise25
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco IOS SSL VPN?
I have not found any areas that could be improved so far. I am not sure how Cisco IOS SSL VPN can continue their improvements for the future, but I think it is a great product. To stay on top, they...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud VPN?
The price for Google solutions could be cheaper. In general, I would rate it a seven.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud VPN?
The troubleshooting guides need to be updated. We see errors but there's no proper documentation for resolving them. If Google can improve their resources on common problems and solutions, it would...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud VPN?
We set a VPC boundary for all our storage with Google Cloud VPN. For all our compute, everything goes into those VPC boundaries.
 

Also Known As

Cisco SSL VPN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MST Systems
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. Google Cloud VPN and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.