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Cisco Umbrella vs Secure Access – DNS Defense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 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)
Secure Access – DNS Defense
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
21st
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (30th)
 

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 Secure Access – DNS Defense is 2.1%, up from 1.1% 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%
Secure Access – DNS Defense2.1%
Other80.9%
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.
reviewer2924313 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Sales Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Modern remote access has replaced legacy VPNs and supports zero trust adoption
The best features Secure Access – DNS Defense offers include the Secure Web Gateway component, which is great. The AI access security controls are very interesting. The setup and the integration with other platforms such as ICE are easier and clearer. There is a variety of features, but I am still a bit skeptical about the DLP capabilities. Secure Access – DNS Defense has given customers visibility that they may not have had previously, as it helps them prevent users from accessing risky sites and makes their remote access less susceptible to bottlenecks. You can also have it fully enabled so that it is always on. It should improve visibility of which sites they are protected from, other configurations, and AI usage. Regarding the AI capabilities of Secure Access – DNS Defense, its governance and security are still new to us. Regarding the AI capabilities of Secure Access – DNS Defense, I have not found any issues with its outputs at the moment, not specifically. It is pretty accurate from what I can currently ascertain, but it is still new to us. From what we can see, it seems pretty accurate.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Stability-wise, it's good. I have never encountered any bugs."
"Umbrella has been a godsend for that."
"The solution is extremely stable. It has excellent performance."
"I would recommend Cisco Umbrella to other interested companies; it's a very flexible and secure application — it's very good."
"For me, it's important that I get a connection to my corporate network in a secure and fast way. This product just runs in the background and doesn't need any attention. For me, as a user, it's perfect."
"The most valuable feature is the website protection capabilities because it prevents end-users from entering bad sites that potentially have malware or could be used for phishing."
"Cisco's Umbrella client product is superb, it worked so well for us and was easy to deploy."
"The agent that gets installed on the endpoints or on people's laptops and devices is a Cisco AnyConnect Umbrella module. It's one of the most impressive things because you are able to protect your users anywhere they are."
"Secure Access – DNS Defense has positively impacted my organization by enabling us to work with customers to modernize their remote access and put them on a path to achieve zero trust capabilities, including zero trust network access for private applications."
 

Cons

"It should have a real-time malware classification engine. It should check the malware on the website. It would be good if it had a real-time malware check for the websites because currently, it just compares the DNS queries of the blacklist. It should also have malware control over file execution and the types of files that the users are allowed to download."
"The solution could be faster as the process is very slow."
"It would be useful if they had a malware protection engine running inside their own VM."
"Client delivery and client updates should be improved. Client delivery was not as easy as expected. Another area for improvement is the integration of escalation procedures for security issues."
"Looking at the full umbrella suite in the light of SASE, Secure Access Service Edge, they are clearly lacking in the inline CASB."
"Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."
"A feature I would appreciate seeing enhanced in Cisco Umbrella would be the ability to add or remove agents that we have, instead of just relying on how long the devices have been connected to the platform."
"I would like to see a graphical representation of the entire network."
"Customer support for Secure Access – DNS Defense is okay. It could have been a bit better, but it is sufficient."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"In my opinion, Cisco Umbrella now has a good price in the basic packages. When it comes to Cisco Umbrella SIG Essentials package and Cisco Umbrella Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Advantage package, it depends on whether the project has a good price or not"
"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."
"Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing and there are three subscription plans."
"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."
"I think it's worth the money."
"Our licensing fees are on a yearly basis."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise51
No data available
 

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...
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Also Known As

OpenDNS
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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
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Infoblox and others in Domain Name System (DNS) Security. Updated: November 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.