Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Umbrella vs FortiSASE comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Umbrella improves security, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness with cloud access, integrating seamlessly and reducing operational costs and malware.
Sentiment score
3.9
FortiSASE boosts ROI with cost savings, swift deployment, integration ease, and supports hybrid work reducing troubleshooting and training time.
Cisco is a big brand in the networking domain, but in security, they are pushing a lot and improving day by day.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using the solution is that it makes it a lot easier to delegate some of the tasks that were traditionally used, such as building policies on the firewalls and doing it through Cisco Umbrella.
Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco Umbrella for me is the ease of use of the fact that we've deployed this with our Cisco VPN Secure Client, so every computer has the Umbrella module in it.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
With FortiCASB, we manage to save around 50% on our budget compared to other products.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Umbrella excels in support efficiency, but purchasing and real-time support integration need improvement despite good documentation.
Sentiment score
5.7
Customer service is knowledgeable but varied in response time, with improvements noted despite occasional delays and escalation needs.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
If I don't need to go to support all the time, that means the product is working fine, so I'm very happy with them.
Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
If there is a solution in the market, the people supporting it should be technical enough to resolve issues at their first level or second level, or at least at the third level.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
At a high level, they deliver the intended information, but I still need their representatives, particularly sales engineers, to provide detailed explanations, as the documentation may not cover every area that all audiences might be looking for.
Senior Manager at CTC Global Sdn Bhd
The technical support from Fortinet is highly commendable
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella is scalable, supporting seamless user growth and integration, making it ideal for organizations of any size.
Sentiment score
5.0
FortiSASE excels in scalability, supporting many users effortlessly via cloud, though third-party integrations may have limitations.
Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.
Network Engineer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cisco Umbrella scales really well with the growing needs of my company, bringing the ability to ensure that people are safe and connected.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Cisco Umbrella scales effectively with the growing needs of my company; it's excellent, and I have experienced no issues.
Senior Network Engineer at Boys Town
FortiSASE is a very scalable solution because it licenses every user individually.
Co-Founder & General Manager at Beta Integrated Solutions
If the customer is within the Fortinet ecosystem, they are generally good for scalability.
Senior Manager at CTC Global Sdn Bhd
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is highly reliable, offering consistent performance and high uptime with minor glitches easily resolved.
Sentiment score
5.0
FortiSASE stability reviews range from high to low, citing occasional connectivity and speed issues with some improvement noted.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Cisco Umbrella Secure Access is pretty stable in my mind, and we have not seen many glitches that would have interrupted services at customer locations.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
The stability and reliability of the Cisco Umbrella platform have been great.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
They maintain high availability using numerous data centers globally.
IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave
FortiSASE is not stable yet and is in the learning stage.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Umbrella struggles with integration, customization, user interface, and performance, needing improved documentation, security features, and deployment processes.
FortiSASE needs mobile and security improvements, better integration and automation, pricing adjustments, and an upgraded secured browser.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
I have to write an email to Umbrella support to get assistance, unlike the other products where I can call the Cisco technical assistance center and get an engineer.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
If third-party vendors could be integrated and supported, enabling two-way communication, it would greatly enhance the solution compared to competitors such as Netskope and Zscaler.
Senior Manager at CTC Global Sdn Bhd
While connectivity from outside to inside is okay, inside to outside is not.
IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers appreciate Cisco Umbrella's security but have mixed opinions on its pricing, citing flexibility and potential cost issues.
FortiSASE offers varied pricing, with discounts for education, bundled savings, regional setup costs, and benefits for current Fortinet users.
We've bundled that with our firewall stuff and our VPN, which brings the price down and adds the ability to grow.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
Network Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
FortiSASE is an expensive product and the cost is indeed high.
IT Manager at PTECH
The pricing for FortiCASB is competitive and not expensive.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
When combining everything for a full SASE solution, I notice the pricing becomes quite high.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Umbrella features robust security, seamless deployment, granular control, enhancing hybrid work protection and compliance with ease of use.
FortiSASE offers centralized management, AI threat detection, seamless remote work, integration, and competitive pricing with extensive feature support.
The DNS layer security provided by Cisco Umbrella is very effective for our security posture, offering us vast improvements in visibility over DNS queries and potential threats.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
Network Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The best possible thing is that it is very easy to deploy, easy to configure, and very fast to get onboarded with a customer because this is a cloud-based service.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
The important aspects are twofold. One is authorization, and the second is access control.
IT Network, Security Engineer at Zuken Netwave
FortiCASB is user-friendly and integrates well with other Forti-products, providing enhanced management capabilities.
Senior Manager at ITX360 (Pvt) Ltd
In FortiSASE, these features are bundled, and since they are tightly integrated with the firewall, SD-WAN works without additional payment.
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Umbrella
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), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)
FortiSASE
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Umbrella is designed for Domain Name System (DNS) Security and holds a mindshare of 21.6%, down 25.4% compared to last year.
FortiSASE, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), holds 7.4% mindshare, up 6.7% since last year.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella21.6%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection12.4%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security7.5%
Other58.5%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
FortiSASE7.4%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks13.5%
Netskope10.9%
Other68.2%
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
 

Featured Reviews

Emilio Montoya - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
LK
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
Implementation complexity challenges are addressed and bundled solution offers significant ROI
For other solutions such as FortiAnalyzer and FortiSIEM, integration is easy, but it's not straightforward due to license complexity. As FortiSASE is new in the market in India, if you want to use a Delhi data center, you need a separate license, and if you have a different kind of firewall, you cannot transfer your license from one box to another box. FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time. The product appears to have been launched without being tested properly in real market conditions. While testing may have been done in lab environments, real-time scenarios seem to be missing from this solution. The SPA licenses are limited to the box UTM, UTM make and model. If someone has a UTM currently and plans to upgrade or downgrade in the coming year after procuring the SPA license for three years, they cannot transfer those licenses to another box, which is a challenge that needs improvement.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions are best for your needs.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise51
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

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...
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...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
What do you like most about FortiSASE ?
The integration with the company's existing security infrastructure enhanced our security posture since it was a straightforward process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiSASE ?
The pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiSASE are very advantageous if you are already a Fortinet customer. If you have FortiGate, the Fortinet firewall, it will be a very good solution for ...
What needs improvement with FortiSASE ?
Areas of FortiSASE that could be improved or enhanced in future releases are related to being more open to supporting third-party integrations. FortiSASE needs to ensure compatibility with other th...
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. FortiSASE and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.