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Cisco Umbrella vs Palo Alto Networks DNS Security comparison

 

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
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
1st
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), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)
Palo Alto Networks DNS Secu...
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
2nd
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 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 23.3%, down from 25.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks DNS Security is 9.4%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella23.3%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security9.4%
Other67.3%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

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.
Partha Dash - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"We run a real lean networking team, and cloud deployments are super easy."
"When it comes to hybrid work it's pretty effective. We've got the agents. We can protect people inside our building and, when they're using their laptops out in the field, they're still protected. It's working well."
"Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process."
"We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far."
"I think recently with many people working from home, Cisco Umbrella has been very useful. For example, we can manage the device and the network when the employee is not working on the local host. Cisco Umbrella is very valuable for this kind of infrastructure."
"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."
"It is user-friendly. It is easy to manage the solution."
"The weekly reportings are great. The investigation is super and the application management is equally great."
"The main feature of the Palo Alto Networks DNS Security protects our network from external attacks, malware, and data theft."
"Palo Alto Networks DNS Security is a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature is DNS filtering."
"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."
"DNS security is required to filter out the DNS traffic, any DNS-based attacks, DNS DDoS attacks, and DNS amplification attacks."
"So, in general, it's very stable because the process to deliver new features and new releases in not so long...I rate the scalability a nine out of ten."
"I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten."
"The solution's most valuable features are data exfiltration and DNS tunneling."
 

Cons

"I'd like to see this solution more closely integrate with other products Cisco has in its portfolio."
"We would like them to add more features to Cisco Umbrella."
"Hopefully, it works with the Canvas and starts feeding results into the AI canvas. That would be excellent."
"We would like to see the enhancements made to the EDR, as we see features that are running endpoint management."
"The price could be better. The price is definitely a bit high, but we have to pay a premium for Cisco products."
"I would like to see integration with SecurNX in the future."
"Some countries don't have a DNS server leading to a domain resolution IP, not at a local level."
"The channel of support needs improvement. It is not under normal Cisco support, and I cannot simply call for support."
"The solution’s scalability could be improved."
"Sometimes, it blocks legitimate traffic for custom applications, requiring manual intervention."
"We would like to have cloud-based management."
"The solution can capture more market if made more cost-competitive than Infoblox or Cisco Umbrella."
"The product should provide email protection."
"If the tool offers improved data security, I think it would be good."
"I have found customer service to be quite problematic. The support is often outsourced, leading to delayed response times."
"The scalability can be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be lower."
"You get what you pay for."
"It was a little bit expensive on a per seat basis, but the company I was running was only a midsize Australian company, and it was a reasonable budget per computer for that system. It started off being a free product, and then Cisco bought it, and it went to a reasonable price. I was using Cisco AMP as well. So, my per computer cost was reasonably high, but for a small company, it was within an acceptable level."
"In the region I'm from, that of EMAR, Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia and Africa, our organizations do not have many liquid cash assets, so the price could be better."
"I think it's worth the money."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing and there are three subscription plans."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the cost."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as two."
"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."
"The solution's pricing is equal to Cisco AMP or Cisco Umbrella."
"It is not an expensive solution."
"There is an annual license for the solution and I am satisfied with the pricing."
"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 product is expensive compared to Fortinet."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
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 Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
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 do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
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.
 

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 2025.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.