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Cisco Umbrella vs McAfee Web Protection [EOL] comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

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
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
125
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 (3rd)
McAfee Web Protection [EOL]
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

KamranJameel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
VivekGupta7 - PeerSpot reviewer
DGM at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Secure, reasonably priced, and performs well
We used cloud services for testing purposes. We used Amazon cloud services. Depending on the solution, there are a variety of options. There are several options such as Endpoint, WAF, NAC, and SIEM are currently available. A variety of solutions are implemented. It was a third-party implementation by Inspira. McAfee also provides an endpoint solution. McAfee's DLP is also present. Previously, we had used Trend Micro and Symantec. There is a method we had to upgrade our systems, a solution was required, and it had to match the three, four solutions from one company that were going to be cheaper, and there is a bidding process, whoever comes first, based on quality and cost, wins the competition. The requirements were speed, quality, and cost. Because Symantec was about to be renewed, our renewal would be more expensive.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco Umbrella allows us to see threats in real time."
"As far as the IT infrastructure team goes, we're all happy with the product; it definitely takes a lot of load off of our plate and it's been functioning very efficiently and effectively, doing everything we need it to do."
"The weekly reportings are great. The investigation is super and the application management is equally great."
"It makes it really easy to accomplish content filtering. We don't have to do a lot of customization. You just click the box for the content category and it's up to date."
"I have found the malware protection feature valuable; it is helpful and deliverable and is able to protect my entire organization from getting compromised, and it also prevents us from visiting any malicious sites which are not visible to the users."
"Umbrella is the best product available as of now."
"The Secure Internet Gateway benefits my company because now our whole traffic goes to the Umbrella Cloud and it gets checked there, so nothing malicious is coming into our network."
"My overall rating for Cisco Umbrella is ten out of ten."
"One of the best things we've found is when you are at home, all the rules that we applied here in our facility or our office go to the cloud, the same rules apply to anyone who works at home, and we block the ability to go to any site that is found on the blacklist, which has improved a lot lately because now we have almost zero PC compromise."
"McAfee may be easier to deploy and handle."
"McAfee Web Protection has been around for many years and the solution holds its ground as a product providing good accessibility and handling any overload very well."
"I receive a monthly report and I've never had a problem so I presume that it's doing its job well."
"Provides good accessibility and handles any overload very well."
"McAfee Web Protection is a good solution and its mature security environment has helped our organization."
"It is functional. It has reduced risk and downtime while also ensuring regulatory compliance, which is critical."
"It has dependable anti-malware and intrusion prevention features all-in-one package."
 

Cons

"There are cheaper solutions in the market."
"Basically, it is not fully mature, which means it's not yet ready to replace the WSA, however, over a period of time, it could to a certain extent."
"The detection of wireless attacks or targeted attacks reports many false rates. This is an area that needs some improvement."
"All in all, I can not recommend OpenDNS as a one-size-fits-all solution for security and compliance, especially for larger organisations."
"I would like to see DLP integration in the next release of this solution."
"It should have a real-time malware classification engine. It should check the malware on the website."
"The price could be better. The price is definitely a bit high, but we have to pay a premium for Cisco products."
"If the virtual appliances could also gather traffic bandwidth reports, that would be great."
"There is a real need to make sure all the updates and improvements are in order to keep the security at top performance to continue defeating threats that come daily."
"Add McAfee Client Proxy agents for mobiles to Web SaaS instead of the consumer based mobile security platform."
"McAfee Web Protection can improve the information provided for hybrid installations in the console. Additionally, having cloud protection would be good."
"The solution should be more proactive in regards to sending you updates."
"Endpoints are lightweight agents, eating too much of the host resources."
"The technical support is good, but it's always "I'll call you back", especially when there are no threats."
"The manufacturerers should have more transparancy about exactly what is getting filtered when you use the product and why."
"The True Key version for mobile phones should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You get what you pay for."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"I am not sure, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think it's $1.00 or so per device/month."
"The pricing was marvelous."
"You get what you pay for if you break the solution up into tiers."
"The price could be lower."
"We have a security Enterprise Agreement with Cisco, so the pricing is good."
"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."
"$150 Canadian per year."
"The pricing is cheaper than some of the other options that are available."
"In McAfee Web Protection you have the ability to install any appliance you want with the same license. If you need an appliance on-premise, you can install it with the same license because the license is for users, not for appliances. If you need one more, you can install it and you don't have problems with the license or need to change your environment."
"It is not very expensive. It costs 100 Canadian Dollars per year per license. I buy one-year or two-year protection. The license covers my PC, laptops, and telephone. The cost is per user but for multiple devices. It has just the standard licensing fees. There are some options for extended protection. For example, if I wanted to have a VPN, there will be an extra cost. So, there are upgradable features, but I'm very happy with what it is giving me with the basic plan. It gives me the basic privacy protection that I need."
"The license number would be approximately $35,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
11%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise51
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
 

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 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 bit high. However, the services provided are much better, leading to a good retu...
Do you recommend McAfee Web Protection?
I highly recommend McAfee Web Protection. In my opinion, it is a comprehensive web protection platform with a great firewall. I find that it is a lot less bulky than competing solutions on the mark...
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
McAfee Web Gateway, McAfee SaaS Web Protection
 

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
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