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Cisco Umbrella vs Palo Alto Networks DNS Security comparison

 

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
123
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), 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 April 2026, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 18.7%, down from 25.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks DNS Security is 8.1%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella18.7%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security8.1%
Other73.2%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

BB
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Ensures comprehensive protection with seamless threat logging and efficient policy management
My favorite feature of Cisco Umbrella is probably just the DNS and the fact that when a security threat happens, all of that gets logged in their Umbrella portal, and it's very easy to find who's been accessing the site and how many people have accessed it, so that we can go to them and make sure they're not compromised. The features of Cisco Umbrella benefit my company by providing less time to search for things through logs, to look for what we need. It's just one place to go, and we just search for it, and we find it really fast. The fact that there's a virtual database that has all that information is great on our portal.
Andres Briceño - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Coordinator at Pronaca
Comprehensive security protects networks effectively while support excels
The main feature of the Palo Alto Networks DNS Security protects our network from external attacks, malware, and data theft. I use the DNS Security's real-time threat intelligence, as it's a feature that works in real-time in the firewalls. Because we configured this real-time help feature in our firewalls, this feature works during internal navigation to the internet. If we have a virus or malware in our network, the firewall detects this threat and protects our network. DNS Security protects us against threats, malware, and malicious domains or malicious navigation to the internet. The threat analytics has helped us because it works together with the SOC analytics and the platform manager, so this has affected our approach to zero-day vulnerabilities and threat updates. The reporting and analytics tools help provide insights into trends and threat vectors. We configured a dashboard where we can see all threat preventions and DNS Securities. If the SOC analytics detect threats or anomalies in the dashboard, we work quickly to prevent these threats.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of this solution are the Web Filtering and the APT."
"We've found it to be stable and good for our customers."
"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 Umbrella's integration with other solutions has been a great feature in terms of ease of administration. Administration and troubleshooting are faster. The single pane of glass is great as well. Another great feature of Cisco Umbrella is remote browser isolation. With this feature, you open a virtual browser, and it's seamless to the user. If the user ends up going to a bad website that's passed a policy and something bad tries to download, it will not download into the machine because it is a virtual window somewhere in the cloud. You are protected by this feature."
"I have found the malware protection feature valuable. It is helpful and deliverable and is able to protect my entire organization from getting compromised. It also prevents us from visiting any malicious sites which are not visible to the users."
"We can have a full overview and a quick overview of all the DNS requests. For us, it's quite important."
"It has the ability to quickly block new threats."
"I would describe the experience deploying Cisco Umbrella overall as super easy. It was awesome. It was lovely to deploy it."
"The product is easy to install."
"The most valuable features of DNS Security include its ability to protect against command and control traffic, anonymizers, newly registered domains, and DNS tunneling."
"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."
"When comparing other cloud-based DNS security solutions to this one I have found the main beneficial feature in this solution we do not need to change our architecture."
"The main feature of the Palo Alto Networks DNS Security protects our network from external attacks, malware, and data theft."
"The stability is excellent and the product is very mature."
"The solution's most valuable features are data exfiltration and DNS tunneling."
 

Cons

"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 API is very Cisco orientated, which is absolutely fine if you're using Cisco Firepower and SecureX kind of products, but if you want to integrate with third parties, it is a bit tricky. There are some key API connectors for the more prevalent SIEM tools. I would really like to see in Cisco Umbrella the ability to create customized reports and then assign the rights to view these reports to people within a group. I should be able to create a customized report, which is viewable by anybody who has the rights. I should be able to create groups within Cisco Umbrella, and then assign reports to groups and have those reports split out automatically only to those groups. I can kind of do it by restricting my email list, but it is a half-complete way of doing it."
"The solution is costly. It doesn't come cheap. The licensing also comes with additional costs for extra services (such as sandboxing feature, L3/L4 firewall, etc...)."
"If we're trying to deploy it to a Mac through Meraki, it's impossible. The method of deployment for a Mac, and the features available in Meraki, are not compatible at all."
"The detection of wireless attacks or targeted attacks reports many false rates. This is an area that needs some improvement."
"It is a value for money product for sure. However, it does not have that kind of awareness plus brand within the customer, as they are influenced more by brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet."
"Perhaps an option to be able to block only specific users would be a way to improve the free version of OpenDNS."
"It has happened in the past that Cisco Umbrella has denied us access to secure websites."
"Palo Alto should explore agentless approaches to integrate DNS Security more easily and efficiently."
"I have found customer service to be quite problematic. The support is often outsourced, leading to delayed response times."
"We would like to have cloud-based management."
"The product should provide email protection."
"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."
"Pricing is one of the areas of concern in Palo Alto Networks DNS Security since it is an expensive product. I feel that the product's pricing is an area that could be improved."
"The product is not as stable as other solutions, such as Cisco Umbrella, Infoblox, and EfficientIP."
"We would like to have cloud-based management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We did a good negotiation, and at the moment, its price is fine."
"The licensing and pricing structure of Cisco Umbrella is in line with standard systems on the market, and we have no specific requirements in this area. Overall, we have found it to be an acceptable pricing model for our organization."
"We were using the free version, and we implemented the paid version about two months ago. I'm paying a fair price, but everything is negotiable with Cisco. One of the benefits that I got by having Cisco Umbrella is the licensing of the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client."
"Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."
"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."
"​The pricing is fair."
"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."
"There are three models for licensing with different feature sets."
"There aren't many vendors offering DNS security solutions, but generally, Palo Alto subscriptions tend to be more expensive than other security vendors."
"There is an annual license for the solution and I am satisfied with the pricing."
"It is not an expensive solution."
"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."
"The solution's pricing is equal to Cisco AMP or Cisco Umbrella."
"The product is expensive. My company makes payments on a quarterly basis towards the solution's costs."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as two."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?
The pricing for Cisco Umbrella is fair compared to other platforms out there for DNS security. We acquired it as a bundle with other Cisco purchases.
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: March 2026.
886,426 professionals have used our research since 2012.