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Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vs Cisco Security Cloud Control comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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 Firewall Manag...
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Cloud Control
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is 3.1%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Security Cloud Control is 4.2%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center3.1%
Cisco Security Cloud Control4.2%
Other92.7%
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

SurajYadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Consultant at NTT DATA
Centralized firewall control has improved visibility and policy management but needs faster UI performance
The best features of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center are the centralized management and strong security visibility. The most useful feature for me is centralized policy management, where I can create and enforce access control policies across multiple firewalls from a single console. It saves a lot of time and ensures consistency. Another key feature is IPS visibility. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center provides detailed intrusion events and signatures, which help in quickly identifying and responding to threats. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has had a positive impact mainly by improving centralized control and visibility across our firewall environment. Earlier, managing multiple firewalls individually was time-consuming and inconsistent. With Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we can manage policies from a single console, which has improved efficiency and reduced configuration errors. It has also enhanced our security posture with better visibility into traffic and IPS events. We are able to detect and respond to threats more quickly, which helps in reducing risk and improving overall incident response time.
FS
Security Engineer at Metrobank
Automation reduces intervention and speeds up threat prevention
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks. Since the system is automated,…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The platform's most valuable feature has been its centralized management capability, which allows us to monitor and control multiple devices from one location."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has been protecting our network; the fact that it's working as mentioned is its main value."
"Malware detection, URL filtering, and antivirus are the most beneficial features for our security management. The platform has three main components: filters, hardware, and antivirus. We use the standard approach for automation and integration. The person in charge of management follows the rules and policies of the equipment and handles operations. However, we haven't set up any notifications, so it's mostly manual."
"The applied policy inside the firewall is good."
"Scalability is not an issue as long as you are able to buy additional licenses. Ten percent of our customers use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and we have large accounts with 50% of their end users behind this firewall."
"The tool helps with internet access protection."
"The solution is quite scalable."
"The solution is useful and powerful."
"If we have a firewall go down, I can hop into CDO, pull the latest configuration off and apply it. That's really good. It helps save time."
"We have quite a few Active Stone by pairs. If they fail over... I'll see that there's a change on it and I'll have a look. The only change on it is that now this one is the standby, it took over the active role. I can go into that firewall and find out what happened... and troubleshoot based on that. That's pretty cool too."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."
"Once it was up and running, I could see value from it straight away, in the first minute."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator is a very great solution to centralizing device management and security."
"The most valuable feature is that you can push one policy or one rule out to several devices at a time."
"The initial setup was straightforward; we spun up the VM onsite, generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator, and after that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."
"Before CDO, we had to spend hours and hours to update ten devices, but now, with one simple click, we select the devices, set them to update on a given day, save different configurations, and it's pretty simple and a great feature for us."
 

Cons

"Due to the lack of enough tutorials available online, I face problems with Cisco."
"The first version had a lot of bugs, but the recent versions have sorted them out."
"Areas for improvement include pricing points and the range of products available at any given time."
"The product could be improved by simplifying its user interface and reducing complexity."
"One area where Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center can be improved is the user interface."
"The product's setup could be easier."
"It takes five to seven minutes to push one policy."
"Cisco Firepower has been effective in solving various problems, but it could be improved by making it simpler and more user-friendly like Fortinet."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up."
"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."
"If I had to say anything negative it's the price point."
"The dashboard needs to be more customizable to provide better reporting for our network."
"They can centralize all products and provide a correlation about an incident and the response. They can also provide an on-premises solution. Currently, Cisco Defense Orchestrator is just for cloud deployments, not for on-premises deployments. Customers have to manage it on the cloud. We are based in Vietnam, and most of the customers here prefer to have on-premises deployments. Customers, especially from banking and government sectors, do not prefer to do anything on the cloud. Some of the small enterprises use the cloud."
"They can also provide an on-premises solution. Currently, Cisco Defense Orchestrator is just for cloud deployments, not for on-premises deployments."
"They need to work on the user interface. It needs to be improved to make it more user-friendly."
"I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is not expensive."
"I rate the tool's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing costs are yearly."
"It could be considered relatively cheaper when compared to some other vendors in the market."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has the best price on the market."
"The price of the solution is expensive. We do not have to pay more than the standard licensing fees."
"I use the free version of the product."
"I rate Secure Firewall Management Center eight out of 10 for pricing."
"My license offers all the protection, like malware protection, VPN protection, IDS, IPS, and endpoint protection."
"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."
"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."
"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."
"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."
"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
My experience with pricing and licensing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is that it is generally on the higher side compared to some alternatives. The initial setup cost can be signific...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
One area where Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center can be improved is the user interface. At times, it can feel complex, especially for new users, and navigation between different sections coul...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center serves as my primary tool for centralized firewall policy management and monitoring security events across multiple devices. On a daily basis, I use it to ma...
What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cisco Defense Orchestrator, CDO
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vs. Cisco Security Cloud Control and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.