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Cisco Umbrella vs Prisma SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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
7.4
Cisco Umbrella enhances security and productivity, reduces costs, and simplifies network management, offering significant ROI and client satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.6
Prisma SD-WAN reduces costs by 50%, enhances stability, and offers automation, security, and cost benefits with quick returns.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Umbrella provides knowledgeable support, but users desire faster response times despite high satisfaction and effective resources.
Sentiment score
6.7
Prisma SD-WAN's service is praised for technical proficiency and responsiveness, despite some post-Palo Alto inconsistencies and delays.
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 respond promptly and are good at finding issues.
Since we are at a premium level, customer service is rated at eight or 8.9 out of ten.
The support service is responsive.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Umbrella offers scalable, cloud-based cybersecurity, easily handling thousands of users and sites while adapting to organizational needs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Prisma SD-WAN efficiently supports scalable complex networks, praised for ease of deployment and site addition despite documentation concerns.
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.
Everything is managed by the service provider, Palo Alto Networks, allowing me to manage my infrastructure without overheads or extra costs to adapt the management infrastructure to the actual needs of the field.
I rate it a ten out of ten since we can easily scale by just paying for additional licenses as needed.
Scalability is a significant concern for us due to the poor documentation that limits our ability to understand and utilize their system effectively.
 

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
7.8
Prisma SD-WAN is noted for high stability and reliability, with improved performance and rare downtime, despite complex setup.
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.
Stability is high, I rate it 9.8 out of ten.
Prisma SD-WAN is an absolutely stable solution.
Our engineers make the system appear stable through effective management.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improved integrations, security features, customization, licensing flexibility, interface ease, support, pricing, and deployment for Cisco Umbrella.
Prisma SD-WAN needs better usability, technical support, integration, and competitively priced features, with improvements in security and automation.
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.
Scalability is a significant concern for us due to the poor documentation that limits our ability to understand and utilize their system effectively.
If there were an option to extend management to other firewalls, users could perform staggered migrations.
It would be beneficial if the solution integrated the SD-WAN features of Prisma SD-WAN with the security features of Palo Alto's next-generation firewalls.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Umbrella pricing is flexible yet debated, with negotiable discounts and enterprise bundles but mixed views on cost transparency.
Prisma SD-WAN offers premium pricing but valued functionality and integration, ideal for medium to large enterprises, with package discounts.
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.
The solution is not cost-effective for smaller environments and is more suitable for medium to large companies.
The price for Prisma is a bit high.
The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Umbrella offers robust DNS security, easy deployment, and integration, enhancing protection and visibility for hybrid work environments.
Prisma SD-WAN enhances network resilience with seamless integration, intelligent routing, centralized management, and optimal connectivity across multiple sites.
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.
By reducing the need for expensive internet connections, Prisma SD-WAN allows customers to achieve cost savings.
Prisma is a mature platform in terms of security.
The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass, especially since we have Palo Alto firewalls.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Umbrella
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
121
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 (2nd)
Prisma SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (7th), WAN Edge (7th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Umbrella is designed for Domain Name System (DNS) Security and holds a mindshare of 21.2%, down 26.7% compared to last year.
Prisma SD-WAN, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions, holds 5.9% mindshare, up 4.2% since last year.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

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.
Engineerinfosec67 - PeerSpot reviewer
Centralized management streamlines global network traffic control
Prisma SD-WAN requires a more seamless integration with other Palo Alto solutions, like Prisma Access. Although there has been improvement, further steps can be taken. Additionally, it would be beneficial if the solution integrated the SD-WAN features of Prisma SD-WAN with the security features of Palo Alto's next-generation firewalls, as they currently do not align.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions are best for your needs.
865,670 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about Prisma SD-WAN?
The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma SD-WAN?
The costs seem crazy to me since I'm relatively new to the pricing world of enterprise security solutions, but compared to other companies for similar offerings, it is comparable.
What needs improvement with Prisma SD-WAN?
I used to have notes about areas that could be improved. It is widely known that Palo Alto is quite expensive. The licensing model is pretty expensive, which would be the only downside to Palo Alto...
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
CloudGenix
 

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
Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. Prisma SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
865,670 professionals have used our research since 2012.