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Cisco Umbrella vs Netskope vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 enhances security and productivity, reduces costs, and simplifies network management, offering significant ROI and client satisfaction.
Sentiment score
8.4
Netskope offers cost-effective cloud security with significant savings, ease of use, and high returns, outperforming Zscaler financially.
Sentiment score
6.2
Zscaler Internet Access cuts costs by removing legacy systems and reducing security, hardware, and management expenses, enhancing efficiency.
Cisco is a big brand in the networking domain, but in security, they are pushing a lot and improving day by day.
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.
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.
I have seen a return on investment with Netskope as we saved a lot of time by catching all the threats and thoroughly understanding the cases.
The managed service aspect of Zscaler Internet Access has allowed for reduced staffing costs, resulting in a saving of approximately 20-25% compared to prior expenses.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Umbrella provides knowledgeable support, but users desire faster response times despite high satisfaction and effective resources.
Sentiment score
7.1
Netskope's customer service is generally rated good to very good, with mixed feedback on response times and escalation speed.
Sentiment score
6.6
Zscaler Internet Access's support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, though improvements in communication and response times are needed.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
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.
They align the right people at the right time to solve our problems, providing focused support.
Most of the time, being fairly IT-savvy means most issues can be resolved internally, and when a ticket is opened, it's for something really complicated.
The support team is excellent, and I would rate them nine out of ten.
The technical support for Zscaler Internet Access is rated around seven out of ten due to some response time issues and the engagement model.
I find customer support to be quite adequate
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella offers scalable, cloud-based cybersecurity, easily handling thousands of users and sites while adapting to organizational needs.
Sentiment score
7.7
Netskope is adaptable and flexible, excelling in scalability for medium to large organizations with strong infrastructure support.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zscaler Internet Access offers seamless scalability for varying user bases, though some encounter bandwidth and regional data center issues.
Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.
Cisco Umbrella scales really well with the growing needs of my company, bringing the ability to ensure that people are safe and connected.
Cisco Umbrella scales effectively with the growing needs of my company; it's excellent, and I have experienced no issues.
They declare an SLA regarding delays, making it a solid solution.
The solution is easy to scale for our use case and we have approximately 8,500 users working with it.
I find Zscaler Internet Access to be highly scalable, which was one of the reasons for choosing it.
Zscaler Internet Access is scalable and has points of presence across the globe to ensure low latency and reliable connections.
They require close to 200,000 megabits per second, and this bandwidth requirement has posed problems for both Zscaler and Netskope.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is praised for its stability, high uptime, minimal glitches, and seamless performance across platforms with high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.9
Netskope is highly stable and reliable, with minor issues resolved swiftly, maintaining performance and user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zscaler Internet Access is praised for reliability and stability, despite occasional regional performance issues and being expensive.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
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.
The stability and reliability of the Cisco Umbrella platform have been great.
Regarding pricing, Netskope is quite expensive, but when compared with other solutions, it's somehow justified because it has better categorization and more granular features regarding web protection, as it allows control of HTTP methods.
Netskope has proven to be stable, which is reflected in my rating of nine out of ten.
Zscaler Internet Access is stable and capable of building resilient architectures.
Zscaler Internet Access is very stable, and I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improved integrations, security features, customization, licensing flexibility, interface ease, support, pricing, and deployment for Cisco Umbrella.
Users seek enhanced SaaS visibility, integration, features like identity protection, better pricing, support, policy management, and threat detection.
Zscaler Internet Access needs better integration, improved interfaces, pricing, performance, more data centers, and enhanced government site reliability.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
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.
Specifically, the use of AI/ML for anomaly detection and dealing with signatureless advanced threats would be beneficial.
There is a pressing need to expand this to 64,000 sessions.
It is important for the solution to correctly categorize websites as genuine or non-genuine, fitting them into the right category.
The response time and engagement model for technical support could be improved to handle complex outages more efficiently.
In future updates, I would like to see some of the features bundled into the existing product set, perhaps more AI features and a refreshed interface.
Zscaler Internet Access has introduced AI control for tools such as ChatGPT, providing options to restrict to text-only input without file or image uploads through CASB restriction controls.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Umbrella pricing is flexible yet debated, with negotiable discounts and enterprise bundles but mixed views on cost transparency.
Netskope offers competitive pricing with significant value, generally including support, training, and is viable for enterprises seeking robust capabilities.
Zscaler Internet Access is costly but valued for its robust security features, global coverage, and comprehensive capabilities.
We've bundled that with our firewall stuff and our VPN, which brings the price down and adds the ability to grow.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
Netskope is cost-effective compared to similar solutions like Zscaler.
Zscaler Internet Access is recognized as an expensive solution.
Zscaler Internet Access is less expensive than competitors like Palo Alto, offering a premium service justified by security enhancements and cost-effective scalability.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Umbrella offers robust DNS security, easy deployment, and integration, enhancing protection and visibility for hybrid work environments.
Netskope provides comprehensive cloud security with intuitive management, robust threat protection, and efficient real-time monitoring and deployment.
Zscaler Internet Access excels in URL filtering, threat protection, and secure access, noted for scalability and seamless user experience.
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.
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
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.
Netskope is cloud-native, enabling differentiation of tenants in cloud applications, whether they are enterprise or personal, and provides control over shadow IT access.
The threat protection capabilities are beneficial, especially in reducing the load on email traffic by preventing phishing emails and providing malware protection from advanced threats.
Having these functionalities integrated into one dashboard makes Netskope efficient and user-friendly.
It prevents numerous web attacks through its AI/ML incorporated capability which identifies malware, threats, and viruses.
The most valuable feature for me is the ability to see how my network and traffic looks with modules like analytics and insights.
Some of the most valuable features of Zscaler Internet Access include secure web gateways, URL filtering, data loss prevention, anti-malware defense, file extension blocking, and a comprehensive categorization system.
 

Mindshare comparison

Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella20.6%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection19.3%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security11.5%
Other48.599999999999994%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Netskope15.0%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks17.8%
Cato SASE Cloud Platform10.7%
Other56.5%
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zscaler Internet Access14.2%
Cisco Umbrella16.9%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks10.8%
Other58.1%
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

Emilio Montoya - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Benjamin Naranjo - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides secure remote access and web navigation protection with highly customizable features
The most helpful features in Netskope are the data loss prevention module, the anti-malware module, and the integration that it has with Information Rights Management from Microsoft. It has better categorization and more granular features regarding web protection, as it allows me to control HTTP methods. I can publish WhatsApp web for my users as read-only, for example. Other providers cannot; they are only on and off, and do not have the granularity for a website to be read-only. That comes with a downside, which is that they need to regularly update their controls to support those features in those websites.
Mohan Janarthanan - PeerSpot reviewer
User access management and threat prevention are enhanced with user-friendly controls
The best features Zscaler Internet Access offers include application control, tenant segregation, and PoP center regions which have low availability zones. The internet access is very successful and bandwidth speed is excellent. It also has application-based control, URL-based control, and SSL inspection capabilities, which are very useful. Additionally, the in-depth CASB segregation is very beneficial to us. One unique feature I found helpful is the tenant level restrictions, which we use to only access our organization's tenant level mail IDs, drives, and specific tenant level access while restricting public access. Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted our organization as we have noticed substantial outputs and income. It has improved our security environment control and endpoint protection. It prevents numerous web attacks through its AI/ML incorporated capability which identifies malware, threats, and viruses. It has a toggle button to enable features entirely at the tenant level for all users onboarded into Zscaler Internet Access, resulting in much better outcomes.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
5%
 

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 Business15
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise39
 

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. Zs...
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...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
Which is better, Zscaler internet access or Netsckope CASB?
We researched Netskope but ultimately chose Zscaler. Netskope is a cloud access security broker that helps identify ...
What do you like most about Netskope CASB?
The product's analytics part is pretty fine.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Internet Access?
Zscaler Internet Access is less expensive than competitors like Palo Alto, offering a premium service justified by se...
What needs improvement with Zscaler Internet Access?
Improvement in Zscaler Internet Access has not presented huge challenges. The issues we face are minimal and manageab...
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
Netskope CASB
ZIA
 

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
NetApp, Genomic Health, Caterpillar, Apollo, Pandora, Continental Resources, Fractal, infinera, Tesla
Ulster-Greene ARC, BanRegio, HDFC, Ralcorp Holdings Inc., British American Tobacco, Med America Billing Services Inc., Lanco Group, Aquafil, Telefonica, Swisscom, Brigade Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Infoblox and others in Domain Name System (DNS) Security. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.