Cisco Umbrella vs EfficientIP DNS Firewall comparison

Cisco and EfficientIP are both solutions in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category. Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.2, while EfficientIP is ranked #16. Cisco holds a 20.6% mindshare in DS, compared to EfficientIP’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of EfficientIP users who would recommend it.

Cisco Umbrella

Read 122 Cisco Umbrella reviews

20,240 Views
4,250 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

EfficientIP DNS Firewall

Read 1 EfficientIP DNS Firewall review

294 Views
294 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Umbrella

EfficientIP DNS Firewall

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

Cisco Umbrella and EfficientIP DNS Firewall are both contenders in the DNS security solutions category. Although Cisco Umbrella has the upper hand in support and pricing satisfaction, EfficientIP is favored for its integration capabilities, making it an attractive investment despite higher costs.

Features: Cisco Umbrella offers robust threat intelligence, seamless cloud integration, and malware prevention. EfficientIP DNS Firewall provides smart DDI, adaptive response strategies, and integrated IP management, enhancing network security with dynamic threat detection.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Umbrella's cloud-based deployment is straightforward, requiring minimal on-site setup and offering comprehensive remote support. EfficientIP DNS Firewall requires more detailed installation and configuration but provides deep technical support and specialized guidance.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella offers a competitive pricing model with rapid ROI due to lower setup costs and quick deployment. EfficientIP DNS Firewall incurs higher initial costs but offers favorable ROI through enhanced DNS and IP management features.

To learn more, read our detailed Domain Name System (DNS) Security Report (Updated: October 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

October 2025

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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

Cisco Umbrella

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

122

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)

EfficientIP DNS Firewall

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 20.6%, down from 25.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of EfficientIP DNS Firewall is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella	20.6%
EfficientIP DNS Firewall	1.7%
Other	77.7%

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

Featured Reviews

Emilio Montoya

CTO at PROA

Ensures internet navigation safety and boosts productivity

The features of Cisco Umbrella I prefer most are DNS protection and traffic redirect. With Cisco Talos's threat intelligence, we reduce the impact of malware traffic in our network, and we currently see the behavior of equipment and choose the correct sites. Cisco Talos has helped us reduce the impact of malware traffic. We can see the behavior and choose the correct sites. We're currently testing secure access with Umbrella in order to secure access to core applications. It's a product that the user doesn't even know is there, even though it is protecting them. It's not hard on the equipment. And, for us, it centralizes everything, which improves productivity. With the Experience Insights feature of Cisco Secure Access, we've seen impacts on the management of user connectivity by allowing us to deliver safe connectivity. We are testing the Secure Access product with Cisco Umbrella to improve our connectivity with our users in order to secure access to the corporate applications. Cisco Umbrella is in the cloud, which is nice.

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reviewer1080873

Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Easy to set up and use, and has a helpful network device inventory function

The vendor needs to do more to promote this product in certain regions, helping it to gain market share in territories where it is not widely adopted. The problem with this vendor is that they are too focused on revenue and sales numbers. If a partner is not able to generate the revenue that they're expecting, they put them on hold until they can generate interest and traction in their region for the products. It comes down to the management's mindset. They have a good product but they don't have much patience for a territory that is slow to adopt.

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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

"The most valuable feature is that it secures our network against blacklisted or malicious websites."

"Any time someone went off the network, the AnyConnect client had the Umbrella agent built in, and it would realize when their computer connected that they were not on the corporate network. It would monitor and they would have pretty close to the same rules that they had to follow when they were in the office, regarding what kind of website browsing they could do."

"It analyzes the domain security helps us implement the securest policy."

"Cisco is a very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page. We can monitor the entire network."

"We can have a full overview and a quick overview of all the DNS requests. For us, it's quite important."

"Umbrella enables customers to be secure. We are happy with this and this is the most important benefit for customers."

"Cisco Talos threat intelligence significantly influences my company's ability to act against emerging threats, giving us the chance to patch our side or take precautions when zero-day vulnerabilities emerge."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to block users from reaching places that they should not even try to reach has been a boon."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

"This product has an inventory function to help maintain a list of the equipment, which is quite good."

Cons

"Some countries don't have a DNS server leading to a domain resolution IP, not at a local level."

"The pricing could be improved."

"For us, as an MSP, the initial licensing changes were a roadblock, and they still could be a lot clearer. Specifically, it's an honor-based licensing system. We'd like it to be more specific to our traffic or our users so that we can make sure that the customer is paying for all their licensing."

"There should be a way to monitor traffic at the user level."

"The solution is very expensive in Brazil."

"If the security issues are taken care of it would be better."

"If a hardware platform were provided for Umbrella, that would definitely improve the market for it... Especially when we are addressing governmental customers, they hesitate to connect to the cloud. That is where we need a hardware platform so that the solution can be used on-premises as well."

"The prices need to go lower. The price of technology is just crazy."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

"The vendor needs to do more to promote this product in certain regions, helping it to gain market share in territories where it is not widely adopted."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price depends on the use case, and it's a bit linear. But it depends on the customer's strategy and how Cisco plans to optimize the costs."

"Our costs were negotiated, and they are okay."

"It was a little bit expensive on a per seat basis, but the company I was running was only a midsize Australian company, and it was a reasonable budget per computer for that system. It started off being a free product, and then Cisco bought it, and it went to a reasonable price. I was using Cisco AMP as well. So, my per computer cost was reasonably high, but for a small company, it was within an acceptable level."

"Licensing with Cisco can be a little complex, but I think it's comparable with that of other similar products. It's always hard to put a price on security, but the price is fair for the value it provides."

"The licensing fee is paid on a yearly basis."

"The licensing and pricing structure of Cisco Umbrella is in line with standard systems on the market, and we have no specific requirements in this area. Overall, we have found it to be an acceptable pricing model for our organization."

"The pricing model is easier compared to some of the other solutions, and it is also competitive."

"In terms of licensing, we're not able to be extremely clear with the customer because it's based on their reporting. It's not based on the actual traffic. If they say they have 50 users but they have 80, we'll just buy for 50 users. That's something where we'd like to have more flexibility."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

"The price of this product is very reasonable, especially considering that a company's reputation is priceless."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

17%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	49
Midsize Enterprise	30
Large Enterprise	51

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?

Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...

See all answers

Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?

Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?

Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.

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Comparisons

Zscaler Internet Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 8% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 7% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

BlueCat Edge vs EfficientIP DNS Firewall

Compared 38% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs EfficientIP DNS Firewall

Compared 23% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs EfficientIP DNS Firewall

Compared 14% of the time

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense vs EfficientIP DNS Firewall

Compared 13% of the time

More EfficientIP DNS Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

October 2025

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Also Known As

OpenDNS

No data available

Overview

Cisco Umbrella delivers rapid DNS security with over 30,000 customers, providing outstanding threat protection and handling more than 600 billion requests daily. It's recognized for high threat efficacy in the SSE domain and integrates elements like SWG, ZTNA, CASB, and more.

Cisco Umbrella is renowned for its effective DNS-layer security against ransomware and phishing. It offers flexible content filtering and integrates seamlessly with existing networks while providing single-pane-of-glass management for centralized monitoring. Its robust threat intelligence and customizable policies are central to its appeal. Users highlight room for improvement in areas like WHOIS data inclusion, malware enhancement, and reporting analytics. Integration with other threat feeds and better client support are requested for more comprehensive coverage.

What are the key features of Cisco Umbrella?

DNS-Layer Security: Blocks malicious domains, preventing ransomware attacks.
Web Content Filtering: Allows users to manage lists for strict content control.
Seamless Integration: Blends with systems like Active Directory and Meraki.
Remote Protection: Keeps remote users safe across different locations.
Single-Pane Management: Facilitates effective monitoring and reporting.

What should users expect in reviews about Cisco Umbrella?

Threat Intelligence: Provides comprehensive malware and attack data.
Customizable Policies: Enables tailored security measures for users.
Integration Options: Works with diverse systems for holistic security.
Ease of Use: Offers a straightforward experience for administrators.
Remote Worker Security: Ensures protection outside traditional networks.

Industries implement Cisco Umbrella primarily for DNS-level security, web filtering, and protecting remote employees. It strengthens cybersecurity frameworks by blocking malware and avoiding access to harmful sites. The tool is widely integrated with Active Directory and Cisco Meraki, providing consistent internet security for employees.

Cisco

DNS Firewall prevents connected devices from becoming infected with malware and blocks their activity by enabling recursive DNS servers to stop or redirect queries from clients that want to access identified malicious domains and/or IPs.

EfficientIP

Sample Customers

Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim

De Montfort University, STMicroelectronics, Leeds Beckett University

Buyer's Guide

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

October 2025

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