Cisco Umbrella vs iboss comparison

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Cisco Umbrella

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

In the network security category, Cisco Umbrella and iboss both provide top-tier solutions tailored to industry needs. Cisco Umbrella, with its extensive DNS-based security, focuses on scalable network protection, while iboss distinguishes itself with a cloud security model and advanced threat protection capabilities. Cisco Umbrella often appears to have the advantage with seamless integration for existing Cisco equipment users and comprehensive connectivity; however, iboss's focus on real-time traffic analysis and competitive pricing renders it attractive for organizations of varying sizes.

Features: Cisco Umbrella offers DNS-based security, deep network and URL filtering, and robust SASE compatibility, ideal for hybrid networks. Its domain investigation tools enhance threat intelligence. Iboss presents a cloud security model with SASE, cloud proxy, and SSL inspection, supplemented by efficient data loss prevention. It excels in real-time traffic analysis and offers Zero Trust Network Access for endpoint protection.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Umbrella needs enhancement in integrated IPS and malware engines, better SIEM reporting integration, and improved local data center presence. Iboss could improve its endpoint security features, provide more seamless third-party integration, and quicken DLP feature development. Both could enhance customer-centric features and extensive integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Umbrella is flexible, deployable in public, private, and hybrid clouds, and praised for integration ease with existing Cisco equipment. Technical support is excellent but could benefit from improved responsiveness. Iboss provides transparent deployment models with standout customer service. Responsive and professional, its straightforward service pricing furthers client satisfaction.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella's pricing is competitive yet complex, offering various plans tailored for diverse organizational needs. ROI is realized through diminished malware incidents and enhanced productivity, despite higher perceived costs. Iboss provides clear, per-user pricing, enticing smaller organizations with strong ROI backed by reduced operational costs and lower price points.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Umbrella vs. iboss Report (Updated: December 2025).

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Cisco Umbrella vs. iboss

December 2025

Helped 879,455 peers since 2012

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 Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

1st

Ranking in Internet Security

1st

Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

122

Ranking in other categories

Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)

iboss

Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

5th

Ranking in Internet Security

3rd

Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Content Filtering (1st), ZTNA as a Service (7th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 15.1%, down from 19.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of iboss is 2.4%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella	15.1%
iboss	2.4%
Other	82.5%

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

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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reviewer2701851

Managing Director

Enhances web security with a single pane of glass and flexible deployment

I don't see any need for improvement; one of the really good things about iboss as a company is that they listen to customer feedback. I have suggested enhancements, and they are responsive, making changes for the better, and they do a lot of testing. To improve iboss, although we haven't used it, we considered the VPN solution that comes with the highest tier licensing, which includes DLP and various other add-ons. We prefer using another product which automatically logs you back onto your network when turning on your PC. With iboss, the connection is manual, which doesn't meet our needs. Additionally, sizing can be tricky because, although the initial recommendations may seem adequate, actual usage may require more gateways than anticipated.

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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

"Improves security through DNS visibility, which can block malware, phishing, C&C, etc."

"They have a wealth of articles in their knowledge base. This has given me the freedom to troubleshoot on my own time. "

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security."

"Stability-wise, it's good. I have never encountered any bugs."

"It blocks malicious DNS queries daily which is very beneficial."

"I also think that the dashboard view is really helpful. Whenever sites get blocked, we get the details and the users who are connecting to them."

"The solution is extremely stable. It has excellent performance."

"It has excellent resilience in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity for my organization is very important because we are a banking organization. We need this security to protect the personal information of our clients. This is very important for our security."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."

"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."

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

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

"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."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."

More iboss pros

Cons

"In the next release, I would like to see the integration of VDI NSX with Cisco Umbrella."

"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."

"Its reliability and the response time of the support team can be better."

"The pricing could always be a little bit better."

"We need to work on integration as it is very complex."

"It would be better if there was a little bit of flexibility for organizations that don't have SD One in their environment. Because of the complexity of the environment, it's not easy to actually turn on the feature of the secure internet gateway for our users. We have not been able to explore that option yet."

"It could be improved by having a local data center and caching, which can provide protection support. I would like to be able to channel my intel and my network traffic to their clouds, and this feature is not available. Advanced protection or any malware file support, which might be required, is not available."

"Overall, I'm quite happy with Cisco products, but there could be one place where you can check what's going on. There could be one place where you get all the information about these products so that you don't need to look around. You get the status, information about what lately happened, and if there was anything on the machine in one single place."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

"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."

"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

"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."

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

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

More iboss cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."

"You can request an evaluation license."

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

"You get what you pay for if you break the solution up into tiers."

"You get what you pay for."

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

"Our licensing fees are on a yearly basis."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Secure Web Gateways (SWG) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

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

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 needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil. While iboss performed well, some competitors offered simpler implementati...

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 old proxies to cloud proxies, and we did POCs with different giants at that time. ...

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 alternatives available, but they do not perform as well. Since iboss is cloud-based,...

Zscaler Internet Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Comparisons

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 10% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% 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

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 11% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 6% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Product Reports

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Cisco Umbrella

January 2026

Download iboss product report

December 2025

Also Known As

OpenDNS

iBoss Cloud Platform

Overview

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

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.

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

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.