No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco Umbrella vs Palo Alto Networks DNS Security comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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 Domain Name System (DNS) Security
1st
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) (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
Palo Alto Networks DNS Secu...
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 17.0%, down from 22.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks DNS Security is 11.0%, up from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella17.0%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security11.0%
Other72.0%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

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.
Partha Dash - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Network Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Protects against threats by quickly identifying insider risks and compromised devices
Palo Alto should explore agentless approaches to integrate DNS Security more easily and efficiently. The existing system sometimes presents challenges with backbone routing, impacting productivity. An agentless approach could be more lightweight and user-friendly. Additionally, there is a need for improvement in the pricing model for support and license renewals.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"What we like most is security and how easy it is to integrate with other appliances."
"Stability-wise, it's good. I have never encountered any bugs."
"The documentation is good, and we have been able to resolve any issues ourselves."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to filter malware sites that could infect clients or allow them to download infected files."
"The single-pane-of-glass management is really important. In today's era, administration costs and operational expenses will cost you a lot, and it reduces that as well. You don't need extra resources to manage all your parameter firewalls, looking at every single device to allow resources internal access. By just introducing the single-pane-of-glass management, it has lifted the burden off of management, especially the network management."
"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."
"Its simplicity is most valuable; I can install it and get it up and running, and it can be pervasive across my business within a business day."
"When comparing other cloud-based DNS security solutions to this one I have found the main beneficial feature in this solution to be we do not need to change our architecture."
"DNS security is required to filter out the DNS traffic, any DNS-based attacks, DNS DDoS attacks, and DNS amplification attacks."
"I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten."
"We now have insight into our DNS requests and we can actively see how many thousands of malicious requests have gotten knocked down in the last day or week that we didn't have before. There's more insight for both security and more insight."
"I think it's easy to manage Palo Alto Networks DNS Security compared to other firewalls, and the feature set is really good."
"The support team has good knowledge about the solution."
"This product is used in our organization to prevent all of the potential threats that we expect from the internet, including everything that can reach the end-user from the internet, and it is beneficial for us because we are in the process of migrating everything from on-premises to the cloud."
"The stability is excellent and the product is very mature."
 

Cons

"We have had issues because of functionality that it didn't support at the time, which is why it has not been fully deployed yet."
"We need to work on integration as it is very complex."
"In the next release, I would like to see the integration of VDI NSX with Cisco Umbrella."
"In my experience with Umbrella support, sometimes the response times take a bit more time than we would like... sometimes, if you go through email, it can take quite a while to get a response."
"We would like to see the enhancements made to the EDR, as we see features that are running endpoint management."
"In terms of what can be improved, it should have more integrations with multiple end user OEMs."
"While the way the solution works with the functions is fantastic, updates or the ability to secure the vault while offline for cloud-based services should be addressed."
"There are some situations where we would like to block things for specific user groups. I know that Umbrella does that, but it's not that easy.... when you want a specific task for specific rules and policies for user groups, you have to go three levels down in the menu, and it's hard to find where you do that task."
"The solution’s scalability could be improved."
"The installation is more complex because the solution has another approach to security."
"There should be an on-premise version of this solution."
"The product should provide email protection."
"The number of hotfixes indicates that there are many bugs in the new releases. Comparing a few years earlier, a release contained much fewer hotfixes."
"I'm not really sure what needs improvement. The only hiccup I've really seen is a couple of the DNS requests get flagged as the Sophos traffic instead of DNS traffic, but that's more of their app detection in the DNS Security. I haven't really seen any issues with the DNS security."
"The product is not as stable as other solutions, such as Cisco Umbrella, Infoblox, and EfficientIP."
"If the tool offers improved data security, I think it would be good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price for us is quite expensive because it's a subscription, and we just use it for the DNS log. So, for us, it's quite expensive."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Cisco solutions are generally perceived to be rather expensive. We have constant internal discussions as to whether we should offer lower-priced security solutions from some of the competitors."
"You get what you pay for."
"We have a security Enterprise Agreement with Cisco, so the pricing is good."
"Pricing depends on the automation requirements of the organization."
"There are three models for licensing with different feature sets."
"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 is an annual license for the solution and I am satisfied with the pricing."
"There aren't many vendors offering DNS security solutions, but generally, Palo Alto subscriptions tend to be more expensive than other security vendors."
"The product is expensive. My company makes payments on a quarterly basis towards the solution's costs."
"It is not an expensive solution."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as two."
"Palo Alto Networks DNS Security is an expensive product. I rate the product's pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten points are expensive."
"The solution's pricing is equal to Cisco AMP or Cisco Umbrella."
"The product is expensive compared to Fortinet."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions are best for your needs.
920,336 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Performing Arts
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 Business6
Large Enterprise10
 

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...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks DNS Security?
DNS Security protects us against threats, malware, and malicious domains or malicious navigation to the internet, which is where it can be improved the best. Palo Alto helps us with support, so I d...
What is your primary use case for Palo Alto Networks DNS Security?
I can describe my use cases for Palo Alto Networks DNS Security, which is used for protecting our network. I use this product, Palo Alto Networks DNS Security, with Palo Alto firewalls.
What advice do you have for others considering Palo Alto Networks DNS Security?
I don't have experience with Palo Alto Networks AutoFocus. Regarding the DNS Security, I have firewalls with the DNS Security module in the firewall. DNS Security is something we configure in our f...
 

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. Palo Alto Networks DNS Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,336 professionals have used our research since 2012.