Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs Okta Platform comparison

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs. Okta Platform

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.4%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is 3.5%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Okta Platform is 4.4%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

ZTNA as a Service Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Okta Platform	4.4%
iboss	2.4%
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)	3.5%
Other	89.7%

ZTNA as a Service

Featured Reviews

reviewer2701851

Managing Director

Enhances web security with a single pane of glass and flexible deployment

I don't see any need for improvement; one of the really good things about iboss as a company is that they listen to customer feedback. I have suggested enhancements, and they are responsive, making changes for the better, and they do a lot of testing. To improve iboss, although we haven't used it, we considered the VPN solution that comes with the highest tier licensing, which includes DLP and various other add-ons. We prefer using another product which automatically logs you back onto your network when turning on your PC. With iboss, the connection is manual, which doesn't meet our needs. Additionally, sizing can be tricky because, although the initial recommendations may seem adequate, actual usage may require more gateways than anticipated.

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AJAY SARPAL

Manager - Projects at airtel

Offers work-from-anywhere flexibility but navigates occasional proxy confusion

The analytics I downloaded from your site as a free download did not carry the information that was actually required. I was looking at the market segmentation and market share, along with some USPs which differentiated them from each other. The free download had two issues: many things were repetitive, and it was designed to not release any relevant information. Only headers were present, so I was not able to determine whether the final report would be worthwhile. I have not worked with enterprise tools that I could share feedback on for website publication. I see benefits from using Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect). However, I would not recommend it because future adoptions will be towards Zscaler, as SSC is a better model than VPN. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution a 7.

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Sravanakumar Nidamanooru

Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees

Automated lifecycle management has cut onboarding times and now drives secure, clean access

Although I am a fan of Okta Platform overall, there are areas where it could improve security outcomes and reduce admin friction. My top improvement areas include the system log and analytics upgrade, which are great for point troubleshooting, but trending and root cause analysis across large tenants still require exporting to SIEM. Verbose queries and long-range retention costs can add up. Additionally, while certificate rotations are better than most, the process is still manual for busy portfolios, especially concerning multi-SP SAML certificate rotations and app metadata drift. Two more buckets of potential improvements for Okta Platform involve user experience and security. There is the issue of push fatigue and prompt sprawl, where users receive multiple prompts across different apps and sessions. I arrived at the rating of eight because the core controls are strong and reliable, but a few operational UX and UI gaps prevent it from being rated higher. The reasons for not giving it a nine or ten include ongoing issues concerning safety and change safety, the complexity of group rules and mappings, and the lack of robustness in policy management. Additionally, there remains a need for more manual involvement than necessary, especially for large portfolios and dual certificate rotation, along with proactive SP data metadata validation.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This product is solid, fairly easy to use, and reliable."

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."

"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."

"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."

"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"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."

"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."

More iboss pros

"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client provides a secure way for users to access our systems remotely."

"The solution is very easy to use and set up."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The dashboard and interface are fine."

"It is reliable and easy to configure, and the Cisco Firewall can last for many years."

"On Cisco's side, the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) story is quite valuable."

"What I like most about Cisco AnyConnect VPN is its reliability and stability."

"Advanced malware protection helps us to prevent any virus from contaminating computers. We also have DLP for prevention. And AnyConnect has a feature that lets us do some sandboxing to evaluate files that arrive from the outside. So before opening them, we can check them with the sandbox."

More Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) pros

"We find the solution to be stable."

"The tool provides a single place of contact for managing users. We only need to manage users in Okta Workforce Identity, eliminating the need to duplicate efforts across different systems. For example, if a user needs to be decommissioned, we don't have to go through all the systems and cloud services; we delete the user in one place. This process is automated with our HR system for both organizations, simplifying user lifecycle management."

"A solution that's easy to use, stable, and reliable."

"Okta Platform authentication is essential because it minimizes the hassle of signing into multiple applications while maintaining security."

"The product is easy to use."

"They have good push authentications."

"One of the most beneficial features of the solution is the user provisioning and the de-provisioning feature."

"I am able to authenticate my users on cloud and SaaS applications such as Workday through Okta workflows."

More Okta Platform pros

Cons

"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."

"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"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."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

More iboss cons

"If they could simplify connections via other machines, like Linux or Mac OS X, it would be helpful."

"The setup is a bit difficult to handle on the server-side."

"Even when your internet speed is good, once you connect to the VPN the speed gets automatically reduced, which is worrisome."

"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could improve by making a feature to set it apart from other competitors."

"The support could be more proactive in their recommendations. I noticed that the Cisco support agents tend to leave customers to do what they need to do in many ways, and you can choose how you want to do it. However, it would be great if they could proactively be involved in best practices and let other customers know how most people are doing it."

"There are situations where the connection drops, and you may not even be aware of it until you try to do something critical."

"The solution should not rely on tokens from the mobile application for logins."

"If user authentication has already been done on a device, maybe there could be connectivity directly without needing to log in each time I access the service."

More Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) cons

"We faced some challenges during the Okta Identity Workforce deployment. Integrating with AWS and other cloud services posed some limitations with federated options. For instance, features like automatic user addition from AWS to the tool were missing, requiring manual intervention. The API is limited compared to the manual configuration possible through the UI."

"A couple of improvements with the lifecycle management that will help companies that don't have an HRIS system to help manage contractors and contingent workers would be to add ways to disable their accounts once a certain time point is designated."

"I would like to see the provisioning simplified."

"The solution lacks an on-premises deployment model so it can't offer a hybrid solution. It would be ideal if clients had options that weren't just cloud-based."

"We had an issue with the Okta Workforce Identity dashboard once in 2023 when we had an outage, but it recovered in a few minutes."

"We still had to write several internal programs/scripts to complete the user-provisioning process. Okta does not have the ability to provision mailbox accounts for on-premise Exchange or in a hybrid O365 environment. The Group Push function from Okta to AD did not work reliably in our environment."

"We experienced some technical glitches that need to be resolved."

"UD attribute mapping, Okta group rules, and dynamic usage could use improvement. It also needs more in-depth functionality and features to integrate with RADIUS solutions."

More Okta Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"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."

"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 not a free solution and the user needs to buy license."

"We are in the North African region, and Cisco products are expensive for us. On a scale from one to ten with one being very affordable and ten being expensive, I'd rate the price at eight."

"The licensing costs are reasonable."

"We pay for an annual subscription. Additionally to the subscription, we thought in order to connect this solution to the Active Directory we had to purchase a Cisco ACS, Access Control System. It turns out we did not actually need it."

"The initial cost is the ASA and other items, but after that, it is relatively inexpensive."

"I would rate the pricing for the license of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client around four to five out of ten. It's not the cheapest option, but it's also not overly expensive."

"The solution is reasonably priced and costs $600 for a five-year license in our scenario."

"The solution is based on an annual licensing model and is expensive."

More Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) pricing and cost advice

"It is costly for large companies."

"The licensing model is fine for general service usage. However, the charges for API features and API tokens can be quite high."

"The price of this product could be lower."

"Though I don't know about the licensing model of the product, I wouldn't be surprised if Okta offers a per user license subscription model."

"Okta's pricing is right where it needs to be and right in the middle of the market."

"The product has a user-based license model."

"The price of Okta Workforce Identity is reasonable."

"Pricing might be high, but it comes down when the number of people using the product goes up."

More Okta Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	46

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	50

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 do you like most about Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?

The tool is user-friendly, robust and easy to use in any environment.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is somewhat expensive compared to others such as Fortinet or Palo Alto, wh...

What needs improvement with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) can be made better, as the product for me has not changed in the last year...

What do you like most about Okta Workforce Identity?

Okta has introduced the Universal Directory. It has custom attribute capability and user permissions to read/write on...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Okta Workforce Identity?

Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however, I don't have access to the commercial aspect.

What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?

Currently, in Okta Workforce Identity we get the two-digit authentication code. Instead of getting the two-digit auth...

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

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Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

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OpenVPN Access Server vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)

Compared 6% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)

Compared 5% of the time

Ivanti Connect Secure vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)

Compared 5% of the time

Check Point Remote Access VPN vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)

Compared 5% of the time

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Microsoft Entra ID vs Okta Platform

Compared 9% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Okta Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Auth0 Platform vs Okta Platform

Compared 4% of the time

Saviynt Identity Cloud vs Okta Platform

Compared 3% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs Okta Platform

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

iboss

Download iboss product report

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)

Download Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) product report

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) report

Okta Platform

Download Okta Platform product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client

Okta Customer Identity, Workforce Identity

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) delivers reliable, stable connectivity and seamless integration with Active Directory, ensuring secure remote access through a one-click VPN capability. It's lightweight, user-friendly, and supports major operating systems, enhancing remote work flexibility.

Cisco Secure Client, including AnyConnect, is designed for secure remote connectivity, offering multi-factor authentication, advanced malware protection, and automatic error diagnostics. Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux, it provides an intuitive setup and a clean interface. While it excels in ease of use, issues such as the outdated Linux build and the need for modern UI enhancements persist. Users also face connectivity challenges with frequent updates and high prices, alongside the need for better endpoint security and system integration. Popular for remote work, it facilitates secure access to corporate networks, allowing seamless interactions with resources like emails, documents, and applications.

What key features does Cisco Secure Client offer?

Reliable Connectivity: Provides stable, dependable VPN access with a one-click connection.
Multi-Factor Authentication: Enhances security through additional user verification steps.
Advanced Malware Protection: Safeguards against threats with proactive protection measures.
Automatic Error Diagnostics: Identifies and fixes errors promptly.
Cross-Platform Support: Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux for broad accessibility.

What benefits or ROI can users expect?

Increased Remote Work Efficiency: Facilitates secure, fast access to necessary resources.
Improved Network Security: Provides robust protection against external threats.
Ease of Use: Features simple setup and user-friendly interface for quick deployment.
Enhanced Data Protection: Keeps sensitive information secure through encryption and authentication.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers a good balance of features against pricing, though further improvements could enhance value.

Cisco Secure Client is widely implemented across industries for secure remote connectivity, especially in sectors requiring constant access to servers, data centers, and research labs. It supports remote work by enabling employees in diverse fields to access internal resources efficiently, maintaining productivity and security.

Cisco

Okta Platform provides comprehensive identity and access management, featuring Active Directory Sync, user management, and app auto-provisioning. It ensures security through single sign-on and adaptive multi-factor authentication.

Okta Platform offers advanced integration capabilities, allowing seamless connection with in-house and cloud applications. Security features are robust, incorporating multi-factor authentication and SSO to prevent unauthorized access. Users benefit from its ease of use and the ability to integrate and manage numerous applications effectively. While generally praised, users note areas for improvement, such as high costs and complex setups. Better integrations with on-premises systems and third-party tools are desired along with enhanced error logging and reporting features.

What are Okta's key features?

Active Directory Sync: Simplifies app management by synchronizing user directories.
Single Sign-On: Provides desktop SSO for easier access to multiple apps.
Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication: Offers robust security options for different scenarios.
Universal Directory: Supports flexible identity management and configuration.
Integration Capability: Enables connections with both in-house and SaaS applications.

What benefits do organizations find in Okta?

Enhanced Security: Multi-layered authentication to prevent unauthorized access.
Improved Efficiency: Streamlines user provisioning and app assignments.
Increased Compliance: Ensures secure access management aligning with IT policies.
Seamless Integration: Facilitates connections with various applications enhancing operational workflows.

Companies across industries implement Okta to secure user authentication and streamline onboarding processes. It supports access management for both on-premises and cloud applications, synchronizing directories and facilitating SaaS services. Organizations benefit from reduced credential management complexity and improved IT infrastructure compliance.

Okta

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.

MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService

FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs. Okta Platform