Cisco Umbrella vs Fortinet FortiCASB comparison

Cisco and Fortinet are both solutions in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 9.2, while Fortinet is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.0. Cisco holds a 10.2% mindshare in CASB, compared to Fortinet’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

Cisco Umbrella and Fortinet FortiCASB compete in the cybersecurity market offering cloud security solutions. Cisco Umbrella may have the upper hand in pricing and user support, while Fortinet FortiCASB's comprehensive features justify its higher cost.

Features: Cisco Umbrella provides DNS-layer security, threat intelligence, and competitive pricing. Fortinet FortiCASB delivers advanced data protection, integrates seamlessly with Fortinet products, and offers comprehensive security features suitable for data protection requirements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Umbrella is known for its straightforward deployment and reliable customer support. Fortinet FortiCASB may require more time for deployment but offers comprehensive customer service options that cater to user needs.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella offers competitive pricing and a high return on investment due to its efficient setup and operational reliability. Fortinet FortiCASB involves a higher initial setup cost, reflecting its extensive capabilities, achieving substantial ROI through enhanced data protection and seamless Fortinet integration.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Report (Updated: October 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.3%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 10.2%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiCASB is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella	10.2%
iboss	2.3%
Fortinet FortiCASB	0.5%
Other	87.0%

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

Read full review

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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Vijayakumar Yohannan

Delivery Head - NOC Operations at UST Global

Seamlessly customize security features but need improved deployment speed

I find Fortinet FortiCASB easily customizable. It allows me to leverage features that cover almost eighty percent of use cases required by my clients. The compliance management feature supports GDPR and HIPAA compliance, effectively meeting those use cases. The hybrid model of Fortinet offers seamless deployment on cloud or hybrid best suited for customers, making it adaptable in various scenarios.

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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

"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."

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

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

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

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."

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

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

More iboss pros

"Web proxy adds an effective layer for security."

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

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Cisco's support is better nowadays."

"What we like most is security and how easy it is to integrate with other appliances."

"By using Cisco Umbrella, you are sure of inspecting all the traffic. Whenever the user machine is connected to your network, it is inspected. That's the best thing. It means you are sure that nothing is being exported or imported without your choice. That is the best feature."

"We run a real lean networking team, and cloud deployments are super easy."

"A single pane of glass saves time... This does have a lot of options available for us to see who's doing what, what trends, what errors. We can set up our alerting through it as well. It is definitely a great dashboard."

"We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

"I find Fortinet FortiCASB easily customizable."

Cons

"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."

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

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."

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

"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."

"Its pricing could be better."

More iboss cons

"The rule-making process for blocking sites or for blocking characteristics can use some simplification."

"The integration with Cisco could be better."

"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."

"Its price could be better."

"I'd like to see improvement in its overall integration with all the other platforms. There's some integration between Umbrella and Meraki, but an overall Cisco problem is that there are so many different tools, and finding easy, seamless ways of connecting everything together is always a challenge."

"The solution could be faster as the process is very slow."

"Cisco Umbrella can be improved in terms of limited coverage and wind vulnerability. The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users."

"The product can be pretty expensive."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

"The turnaround time to deploy Fortinet FortiCASB could be improved. The learning curve for deploying, configuring use cases, and rules can be better."

"The turnaround time to deploy Fortinet FortiCASB could be improved."

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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"The price of Cisco Umbrella is a little higher than similar solutions, like Gateway."

"Cisco Umbrella is not a cheap product. However, it's not a matter of the cost; it's more a matter of the value of security. It is easy to measure this value when you have a security incident. I think the price is a good trade-off for a product that can help you avoid security threats."

"There are three models for licensing with different feature sets."

"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."

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

"Our licensing fees are 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 was marvelous."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	5

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

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

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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...

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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...

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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 do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?

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

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiCASB?

The price point could be better, and improvements are desired in staying on top of evolving threats while keeping cos...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiCASB?

The turnaround time to deploy Fortinet FortiCASB could be improved. The learning curve for deploying, configuring use...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiCASB?

My primary use case for Fortinet FortiCASB is threat management and managing external threats. I predominantly use it...

See all answers

Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

More iboss Competitors

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 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

FortiSASE vs Fortinet FortiCASB

Compared 42% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Fortinet FortiCASB

Compared 35% of the time

Netskope vs Fortinet FortiCASB

Compared 23% of the time

More Fortinet FortiCASB Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2025

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Cisco Umbrella

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

October 2025

Download Fortinet FortiCASB product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

OpenDNS

FortiCASB

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 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

Fortinet FortiCASB is a comprehensive cloud security solution offered by Fortinet, a leading cybersecurity company. FortiCASB is designed to provide organizations with visibility, control, and security for their cloud-based applications and services. It helps organizations secure their cloud environments, detect threats, enforce policies, and ensure compliance.

Fortinet FortiCASB Features:

Cloud Application Visibility

FortiCASB offers visibility into cloud applications and services being used within an organization's network. It helps identify shadow IT and provides insights into the cloud usage patterns, facilitating effective management and control.

Data Protection and Compliance

FortiCASB enables organizations to protect sensitive data in the cloud by enforcing data loss prevention (DLP) policies and encryption. It helps identify and control data sharing, detect anomalies, and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.

Threat Detection and Response

FortiCASB incorporates advanced threat detection capabilities to identify and mitigate cloud-specific threats. It employs machine learning algorithms and behavioral analytics to detect anomalous activities, account compromises, malware, and other cloud-based threats.

Access Controls and Identity Management

FortiCASB enables organizations to enforce granular access controls for cloud applications, ensuring that users have appropriate permissions and follow secure authentication practices. It integrates with identity management systems and supports features such as single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Compliance Monitoring and Reporting

FortiCASB helps organizations monitor and maintain compliance with industry regulations and standards. It provides pre-defined compliance templates, automated policy enforcement, and detailed reporting capabilities to demonstrate adherence to data privacy and security requirements.

Shadow IT Discovery and Control

FortiCASB helps organizations discover and gain visibility into unauthorized or risky cloud applications used within their network. It enables IT teams to assess risks, enforce policies, and take appropriate actions to manage and control cloud usage effectively.

Cloud Security Assessments

FortiCASB conducts security assessments of cloud applications and services to evaluate their security posture and identify vulnerabilities. It provides insights into potential risks and assists organizations in making informed decisions about the adoption of specific cloud services.

Fortinet

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.

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

Rollins

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October 2025

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