Cisco Umbrella vs Forcepoint CASB comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Forcepoint are both solutions in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 9.0, while Forcepoint is ranked #18 with an average rating of 7.0. Cisco holds a 5.9% mindshare in CASB, compared to Forcepoint’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Forcepoint users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

Cisco Umbrella and Forcepoint CASB compete in the cybersecurity domain focusing on DNS protection and cloud security, respectively. Cisco Umbrella has the upper hand in integration and security simplicity, while Forcepoint excels in cloud application control.

Features: Cisco Umbrella offers robust DNS protection and seamless Cisco Talos threat intelligence integration, making it effective against malware. The cloud-based architecture ensures secure access to core applications. Forcepoint CASB emphasizes adaptive security policies, real-time cloud application control, and monitoring for shadow IT detection, providing comprehensive cloud visibility.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Umbrella could enhance granular policy management, third-party integration, and reporting features, including better SIEM integration. Forcepoint CASB faces challenges in user-friendliness and integration, requiring backend improvements and streamlined agent management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Umbrella is praised for flexible deployment across public, private, and hybrid clouds, with generally high-rated customer support despite occasional delays. Forcepoint CASB typically deploys smoothly in public cloud environments and provides excellent support, albeit with similar delay issues.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella is cost-effective for existing Cisco customers but might be expensive for smaller businesses, offering a solid ROI. Forcepoint CASB is moderately priced, providing good value and competitive pricing compared to premium solutions like Zscaler, although smaller enterprises may find it less accessible.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Umbrella vs. Forcepoint CASB Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella vs. Forcepoint CASB

September 2026

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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 November 2026, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of iboss is 4.4%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 5.9%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forcepoint CASB is 1.8%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella	5.9%
iboss	4.4%
Forcepoint CASB	1.8%
Other	87.9%

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula

Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support

The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.

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KamranJameel

Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Secure browsing has protected users from DNS threats and improves malware defense

The major issue is that sometimes when you install the client, it shows you protected and displays that it is live with the backend servers and everything. However, in reality, it was not getting any feed from the main client and is just sending your traffic to open DNS, which sometimes causes an issue because the protection you have implemented can be breached by users. The primary thing that Cisco Umbrella lacked most of the time is their client. Previously, they had a separate Cisco client. Now they have merged everything into the Cisco Secure Endpoint client—one client for everything, for Cisco Endpoint, for Cisco AnyConnect, and for Cisco Umbrella, which they did probably in 2025.

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AlexOgbalu

Director at LiveFromSpace Limited

Improving support responsiveness has remained critical while access monitoring and compliance needs have been fully addressed

We have the enterprise licenses for the scanning of the codes, both at runtime and in development, and we also have access to Veracode's e-learning platform as well as a bundle from Veracode.All that has been mentioned is the main benefits Forcepoint CASB provides to us, and it helps us to meet compliance requirements that are necessary in our industry. It's important for enterprises considering Forcepoint to work with very good system integrators and value-added resellers because a lot of things needed go beyond just getting the licenses. You need someone skilled to do all those configurations, write all the rules, and make sure you achieve a very stable environment. I am giving this review an overall rating of eight.

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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

"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."

"iboss is definitely very good in terms of service."

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent."

"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."

"We chose iboss for both zero trust and proxy (SWG) because their SWG was superior."

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

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

"As I mentioned, the return on investment is significant, as it saved our office locations' bandwidth because when you are working remotely at home, your internet traffic routes directly to iboss and will not go to your office building, saving bandwidth bottlenecks and ensuring that issues with our building internet circuits will not impact your internet connectivity because you are directly going to the iboss data center."

More iboss pros

"Cisco Umbrella provides a cloud management system where we can manage every client from a single workspace in our portal, and the single pane of glass management is user-friendly."

"We've found it to be stable and good for our customers."

"The most valuable aspect is that it is hosted with Cisco and can detect any new anomalies, acting almost like an XDR."

"I haven't needed to reboot the servers for years due to their excellent stability."

"Cisco Umbrella has improved our organization in the sense that we have more users working from home because of the pandemic."

"This is a very good solution and my clients are impressed with it."

"With many of our customer's end-users on the road, it was easy for their machines to get infected or to lose information, and after we installed this product, these issues were drastically reduced and the number of infections dropped month over month."

"DNS protection, domain blocking, SIP component, and the Cisco Umbrella roaming client are the valuable features of Cisco Umbrella."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

"It gives you value for your investment."

"I like that the layout and configuration are easy compared to other solutions on the market."

"As it is based on AWS, it is not a problem."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its management ease."

"Macro integration is a good feature."

"Forcepoint CASB ensures that access to cloud applications is properly vetted and monitored, helping us unify access across the board regardless of device or location, while advanced notifications and behavior analytics make it easy to detect unknown connections or baseline changes."

"The product offers several advantageous features including real-time control and monitoring capabilities, helping identify and manage various activities including shadow IT activities."

"Generally, most of our customers are happy with it though."

More Forcepoint CASB pros

Cons

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"The easiest device I have set up was the Barracuda line of products."

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

"I would like to see simpler dashboards, more detailed reporting, and faster performance in iboss."

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

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

"It is stable, but due to growth, it can sometimes be less stable than wanted."

"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."

More iboss cons

"Data reporting is something I would like to see improved."

"It could be more secure. It would be better if they provided a transferring proxy as an add-on and more integration."

"Its on-prem rollout is quite challenging. It needs better coordination with the Internet Service Provider. It is a cloud-based solution, and any endpoint that connects to it has to go through all the gateway ISPs, but some of the ISPs block HTTPS-based DNS. That's where the challenge occurs with Umbrella."

"It would be good if the more complex versions of Umbrella are simplified so that we can offer them in a more standardized way. We, as a telco, do not operate the same as a traditional integration partner would, who can sell all its services. We try to have a standardized approach as much as we can so that we can sell the solution with as many services added to it as possible. If you look at the structure of businesses in Switzerland, 95% of them have 10 persons or less, and they do not have a security specialist. Therefore, the higher the automated and standardized features, the better it is for them."

"If you wish to inspect all the traffic and it's integrated with Cisco AnyConnect, all the traffic basically goes through Cisco AnyConnect, which is not a good idea. That means you need to have more internet capacity as a data sampler, so in the case of a split tunnel, we cannot inspect the traffic that is being migrated through the local internet. I'm not sure whether there is a possibility wherein Cisco Umbrella can also inspect the traffic that is outside the AnyConnect tunnel."

"I would like for them to continue building on IPS and IDS functionalities."

"The product can be pretty expensive."

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

More Cisco Umbrella cons

"They should work on the possibility of consolidating all of the products with the group of agents."

"There are various modules to secure a public cloud, such as Cloud Security Posture Management. You might have seen these features available if you've reviewed solutions like Zscaler or Netskope. A full-fledged CASB should be manageable. However, the tool does not seem to offer complete public cloud visibility. While it provides some cloud visibility and can manage API traffic for Web 2.0, it lacks a specific module for securing public cloud environments."

"The deployment and initial setup can be quite difficult to install."

"Forcepoint technical support in general could improve in this area."

"I'd like to see different ways to authenticate users, perhaps different types of authentication."

"Integration is an area of the solution that needs to be improved."

"If I was to sell a CASB product brand new to somebody, I would sell them Netskope. I wouldn't sell them Forcepoint."

"We are not happy with the solution."

More Forcepoint CASB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"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 probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"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."

"Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing and there are three subscription plans."

"When talking about Cisco solutions in general there pricing model is horrible. For example, you can sell a Meraki-based solution, but if the customer starts shopping around, someone is going to have access to the pricing at a level that you cannot compete because they do not have uniform pricing. Not everybody gets fair pricing. Unless you are one of the real major corporations selling the solution your ability to compete is impossible. Cisco will acknowledge the situation and assure you next time it will be in your favor but it never becomes favorable for you. Cisco is not very good in this regard. However, Umbrella is good."

"We were using the free version, and we implemented the paid version about two months ago. I'm paying a fair price, but everything is negotiable with Cisco. One of the benefits that I got by having Cisco Umbrella is the licensing of the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client."

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

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"There is a one-time cost of approximately $800 USD per user, and then a yearly support fee of about $50 per user."

"There is a subscription cost."

"I think it's worth the money."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

"The solution is not that expensive compared to Zscaler. Netskope is between Forcepoint CASB and Zscaler in terms of cost. Forcepoint CASB would be the first choice because it negotiates well and offers a perpetual license, though it may seem subscription-based. I rate its pricing a six out of ten."

"The pricing really depends on the size of the customer's business because it is price-relevant to the environment."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	51
Midsize Enterprise	31
Large Enterprise	51

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

iboss could be improved by making the dashboard more user-friendly, providing more detailed real-time alerts, and imp...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

iboss is primarily used for cloud security, helping to protect users when they access websites and cloud applications...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

The pricing and licensing for iboss were reasonable for the security features. The setup costs were manageable, thoug...

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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. Zs...

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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-nat...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing reveals that the pricing is acceptable, but it is marginally a ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Forcepoint CASB?

I would put the pricing of Forcepoint CASB at a five, closer to a four. I don't think it's very expensive, but it's a...

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What needs improvement with Forcepoint CASB?

From a functionality perspective, I don't have any recommendations, but in terms of support, the speed of support is ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Forcepoint CASB?

Forcepoint CASB ensures that access to cloud applications is properly vetted and monitored. We have a lot of remote a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

FortiSASE vs iboss

Compared 5% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 5% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 23% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point Web Gateway vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs Forcepoint CASB

Compared 22% of the time

Netskope vs Forcepoint CASB

Compared 13% of the time

Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker vs Forcepoint CASB

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Forcepoint CASB

Compared 8% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Forcepoint CASB

Compared 3% of the time

More Forcepoint CASB Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2026

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

October 2026

Download Cisco Umbrella product report

Buyer's Guide

Forcepoint CASB

October 2026

Download Forcepoint CASB product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

OpenDNS

Imperva Skyfence

Overview

iboss is the Zero Trust SASE platform that gives organizations complete visibility and governance over their AI, data, and applications through one unified platform, one console, one policy engine, and one data lake.

Your endpoints may already stop malware. Your data and application activity can still be invisible. iboss decrypts and understands every connection, then turns that signal into answers security leaders can act on.

The platform leads with three capabilities in this order: AI Security and Visibility, Data Security and Visibility, and App Visibility and Control. Zero Trust Network Access, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN sit underneath as the access fabric that carries those three. Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

- AI Security and Visibility: conversation capture, shadow-AI discovery, AI DLP, and agent governance across Claude, Co-Work, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, and emerging services.

- Data Security and Visibility: full SSL/TLS decryption, deep content inspection, MIP label compliance, and one-click compliance reporting.

- App Visibility and Control: signatureless CASB, dual risk scoring, in-app controls, and SSPM for major SaaS.

- Containerized Zero Trust SASE: dedicated containers, isolated SSL keys, one console, one policy engine, one data lake.

- Access fabric: ZTNA, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN under the same platform.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

- Complete visibility over AI, data, and applications from one platform instead of separate point tools.

- Encrypted traffic is inspected by default so data decisions use content and context together.

- Shadow SaaS and new web tools appear as they are used, with enforceable controls in one console.

- Native data sovereignty through dedicated containers, in-region inspection, and per-customer SSL key custody.

- Scale proven in published materials: 10M+ users, 100+ countries, 150B+ transactions, 2.5B+ threats blocked.

Economic buyers are CISOs, CIOs, and VPs of Security. Champions include security architects, network and infrastructure leaders, SecOps, and GRC. Primary segments: enterprise and business, financial services, government (including FedRAMP Gov Cloud), healthcare, manufacturing, legal and professional services, retail and hospitality, and MSP/MSSP partners. Education, including K-12, is one vertical among these.

iboss

Cisco Umbrella provides fast-deploying DNS-layer security with powerful threat protection capabilities. Trusted by over 30,000 entities, it ranks highly in DNS security and effectively supports secure remote work environments.

Cisco Umbrella offers comprehensive DNS security, web filtering, and ease of use, enhancing network security through robust threat protection and malware prevention. It processes over 600 billion requests daily, making it a leader in its field. The seamless integration with existing infrastructures and cloud-based nature makes it suitable for remote and distributed work environments, ensuring consistent security throughout. Management is streamlined with a single-pane interface that simplifies administration, while in-depth reporting capabilities provide valuable insights for continuous monitoring.

What are the key features of Cisco Umbrella?

DNS Security: Provides leading protection by managing DNS queries and blocking malicious sites.
Web Filtering: Offers granular control over web content to safeguard internet usage.
Ease of Integration: Fits well into existing infrastructures, simplifying deployment and use.
Intuitive Management: Single-pane management streamlines administration and enhances usability.
Cloud-Based Flexibility: Supports secure remote work environments.

What benefits can users expect from using Cisco Umbrella?

Superior Threat Protection: Reduces risk by effectively detecting and preventing cyber threats.
Consistent Security: Provides uniform protection across network environments.
Efficiency and Visibility: Leverages comprehensive reporting for better security insights.
Easy Deployment: Quick and straightforward setup with minimal disruption.

Cisco Umbrella is widely adopted in industries requiring advanced DNS-level security to counteract malware, phishing, and cyber threats. Its ability to monitor and protect remote and roaming employees makes it an attractive option for sectors highly dependent on cloud services. By managing DNS queries and blocking harmful sites, Cisco Umbrella enhances cybersecurity across networks, providing an added layer of protection for businesses worldwide.

Cisco

Forcepoint CASB offers robust features for integrating with Forcepoint DLP, implementing adaptive security, and ensuring cloud application visibility. Its real-time monitoring and management simplicity are valued. Integration ease with macro and credential IDs, favorable pricing, and a straightforward setup are additional strengths.

Forcepoint CASB supports data protection in cloud environments, empowering organizations to manage and monitor access seamlessly across devices and locations. It provides behavior analytics, advanced notifications, and geo-specific login detections. However, there are integration challenges and backend reliability concerns. Enhancements are needed in system integration and dashboard usability. Authentication options are limited, and there are complexities with multiple agents that affect ease of use.

What features make Forcepoint CASB effective?

Integration with Forcepoint DLP: Ensures seamless data loss prevention capabilities.
Adaptive Security Policies: Tailors security measures to changing threats.
Shadow IT Discovery: Detects unauthorized applications in use.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides immediate insights into application usage.

What ROI benefits should users anticipate?

Scalability: Adaptable to growing security demands.
Favorable Pricing: Cost-effective compared to competitors.
Easy Configuration: Simplifies initial deployment processes.

In industries relying on remote workforces, Forcepoint CASB integrates with tools like Secure Web Gateway to unify and secure access. It is instrumental in providing analytics for connection monitoring and notifications for proactive threat management. Its applications in telecommunications and finance sectors demonstrate the importance of protecting remote environments and controlling access efficiently.

Forcepoint

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.

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

Zions Bank, GE Healthcare, HomeAway, Logitech, Universal, California National Resources Agency and many mor

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella vs. Forcepoint CASB

September 2026

Free Report: Cisco Umbrella vs. Forcepoint CASB

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