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Cisco Secure Access vs NetBird 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

Cisco Secure Access
Ranking in ZTNA
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (4th), Firewalls (12th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (2nd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (2nd)
NetBird
Ranking in ZTNA
15th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Secure access has unified zero trust and web protection while AI assistance automates tasks
From a feature perspective, I have not experienced any issues, drawbacks, or shortcomings. However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high. My clients usually prefer cheaper options if possible. Mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access. Additionally, there is a steep learning curve, as it is very intensive. Someone with significant knowledge can work on it, but a new professional would have to spend considerable time to get accustomed to it. It is hard to find engineers who can work on it. Overall, we get what we pay for, as it is a pretty good feature and service. The pricing of Cisco's products and licensing is higher than competitors. If they could be more reasonable, that would help. The support offered for two years also has higher costs. Overall, the client's IT budget gets affected. It was challenging to learn because, as mentioned, it has a significant learning curve and requires considerable training to become proficient.
BS
System Administrator at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Secure Remote Access and Zero-Trust Connectivity Simplify Global IT Management
Azure/Entra ID Group-Based Access --------------------------------- One feature I would like to see is deeper integration with Microsoft Entra ID groups. Ideally, administrators should be able to map Entra ID groups directly to NetBird access policies so that users who are added to a specific corporate group automatically receive the appropriate NetBird access. This would make user onboarding and offboarding much easier because access could be managed centrally through existing identity-management processes rather than requiring additional manual configuration in NetBird. Direct EDR/XDR/MDR Integration ------------------------------ Another improvement would be more direct integration with security platforms such as CrowdStrike, Microsoft security solutions, XDR, or MDR platforms for self-hosted deployments. Currently, for our self-hosted environment, we can collect NetBird logs through a separate logging or syslog server and then forward them to our security-monitoring platforms. This works, but having a more direct integration with EDR/XDR/MDR platforms would simplify the architecture and reduce the additional infrastructure required for log collection and forwarding. Just-in-Time Access ------------------- I would also like to see a just-in-time (JIT) access capability. For example, we could integrate NetBird with a ticketing or ITSM platform such as Jira or ServiceNow and create a temporary access policy for a specific machine. An administrator could request access to a particular server, receive approval, and then automatically receive access for a defined period—for example, 10 minutes. Once the period expires, the access would automatically be revoked. This would strengthen our zero-trust approach by ensuring that privileged access is provided only when required and for the minimum necessary duration. Self-Hosted High Availability and Backup ---------------------------------------- For organizations running NetBird in a self-hosted environment, enhanced database backup, high availability (HA), and disaster-recovery capabilities would also be valuable. These features would provide additional resilience for organizations that depend heavily on NetBird for production connectivity. Overall ------- There is no major issue with the current product from my perspective. The self-hosted version already provides a strong and flexible foundation. My recommendations are mainly focused on making enterprise integrations and security workflows more seamless. The features I would prioritize are Entra ID group-based access, direct EDR/XDR/MDR integrations, just-in-time access with automatic expiration, and improved HA/backup capabilities for self-hosted deployments. These enhancements would make NetBird even stronger for organizations that are building a mature zero-trust and infrastructure-access strategy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Using the VPN SaaS in Cisco has influenced us greatly because it gives you a seamless transition from your legacy systems to this new system that is available, so the transition has been seamless."
"The main feature of interest to me and the customers is DNS security and Integrated Secure Web Control (ISWC)."
"If you have every solution with Cisco, you can see a very good ROI because you do not need to invest much on staffing for analyzing each and every console separately."
"Cisco Secure Access makes it really easy for our traveling sales guys, as they can have it on their phone, iPad, and laptop, and it is fairly user-friendly for them and also easy to set up on our side."
"I find the zero trust approach helpful and beneficial in securing standard applications, which means you are accessing the applications directly instead of giving privilege to access the network itself."
"Usually when I am raising a case, I am getting proper support from Cisco."
"The return on investment in Cisco Secure Access is significant, providing substantial savings in time, data loss prevention, and management of protection, with time savings reaching up to 30% based on the processing time and retention policy of Cisco Secure Access, which is more than 30% better than others."
"We have a dedicated account team, so we've got all the people we need to engage with if there's an issue."
"Since we started using NetBird in our testing environment, it has become integral to our day-to-day lives."
 

Cons

"Cisco could add new features in the future, such as enhanced automation capabilities."
"My experience with the Experience Insight feature, called DEM, is not good. I find the integration between Cisco Secure Access and ThousandEyes does not work well and does not deliver what it is supposed to."
"If the FTD devices themselves, the Firepower Threat Detection system, those are the firewalls themselves, the individual appliances, weren't so tightly coupled to FMC, I'd probably appreciate them as a product more."
"I am not using the AI assistant feature of Cisco Secure Access much yet. I think it is a little bit limited right now."
"Cisco Secure Access is basically a good product, but nowadays, there are more competitive vendors available in the market with friendlier interfaces and technical features, so people are moving to those solutions instead of preferring Cisco Secure Access."
"Cisco Secure Access may not seamlessly integrate into such settings, although it performs well in a Cisco-based environment."
"We don't have any good tools right now, which is a problem."
"Cisco Secure Access has impacted our help desk ticket volume and end-user experience because sometimes users encounter issues. Since we have many features activated, users sometimes cannot connect or attempt to connect multiple times, which generates service desk tickets."
"I rate it nine out of ten because in the self-hosted network, I do not have any option to integrate EDR or XDR directly from the CrowdStrike console."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For what you get, it's a fair price in comparison to other products."
"The pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Secure Access have been very competitive compared to other platforms. I believe that if Cisco continues to improve costs or offers something similar to a Cisco credit, it would attract more customers."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise41
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Access?
In my experience with the Experience Insights feature or Digital Experience Monitoring of Cisco Secure Access, ThousandEyes is a fine tool, but currently, my experience with our customer is that it...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Access?
We use Cisco SD-WAN in our own company for our own needs, and we are also selling this to our customers while performing operations for customer networks. My personal customer scope is the large en...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Secure Access?
Currently, AI Supply Chain Risk Management is not really an issue for us today. I would rate Cisco Secure Access a seven out of ten overall.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetBird?
My experience with NetBird's pricing and setup has been very positive, particularly because we are using the self-hosted version. We did not purchase NetBird through the AWS Marketplace or another ...
What needs improvement with NetBird?
Azure/Entra ID Group-Based Access --------------------------------- One feature I would like to see is deeper integration with Microsoft Entra ID groups. Ideally, administrators should be able to m...
What is your primary use case for NetBird?
Our main use case for NetBird is to provide secure, lightweight, and high-performance remote connectivity while reducing our dependency on traditional VPN solutions. Previously, we were using tradi...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Google 5. Apple 6. Cisco Systems 7. Oracle 8. Intel 9. HP Inc. 10. Dell Technologies 11. Verizon Communications 12. AT&T 13. Comcast 14. T-Mobile 15. Sprint 16. Vodafone 17. Orange 18. BT Group 19. Deutsche Telekom 20. Telefonica 21. Nokia 22. Ericsson 23. Samsung Electronics 24. Sony 25. Panasonic 26. LG Electronics 27. Siemens 28. General Electric 29. Ford Motor Company 30. General Motors 31. Toyota Motor Corporation 32. Volkswagen Group
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