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Cisco Web Security Appliance vs Trend Micro Web Security [EOL] comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 26, 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

iboss
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (6th), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
Cisco Web Security Appliance
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (20th)
Trend Micro Web Security [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support
The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.
Vusa Ndlovu - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Solution Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Advanced protection features offer robust security while integration process presents challenges
With the WebAssign integration, it is not easy when I am integrating policies within the company, especially with NAND and wireless policies. The challenge arises when traffic is blocked from either wireless or wired connections. Although implementing it as a standalone is quicker, integrating BYOD with Cisco I and FTB can be tiring. Once it is done correctly, the functionality and reports become valuable, although the implementation part can still be challenging.
Vladimir Alexandrov - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Chorus
Consistent web protection has prevented incidents and supports flexible hybrid security models
I would rate Trend Micro Web Security a nine, but not because I have some issues in mind. I have only seen a bit better product. I was also a McAfee partner some time ago, when there was still McAfee. Some features definitely in McAfee were better than what I see in Trend Micro. I cannot tell what Trend Micro could learn from web security products of their competitors because this product has not existed for at least eight years now for McAfee, and I have no experience with other competitors. But relative to my experience and expertise, I should rate it a ten, but still I am a bit cautious because other products also have great features and these features are not covered 100% by Trend Micro. I cannot tell what additional features I would like to see in the next release, but when I see such a feature, it is very compelling. When you get into a new car and this car has something new and great, adaptive suspension, whatever, you just feel a nice feeling and you want this car. That is how I feel. I have not complained that something is missing from Trend Micro product, but I have seen in specific examples some great ideas in competition.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would say iboss is a very good product; its scalability is very good, and it's seamless for the user."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."
"This product is solid, fairly easy to use, and reliable."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"The product is stable."
"The most valuable features is of the solution is that it is user-friendly and we get good web security from it."
"This solution helps our customers with the challenges their clients face attempting to connect to their network or app."
"It's most valuable feature is its convenience."
"It's very scalable; if you buy one bundle with 100 users, you can install unlimited appliances to scale horizontally and have ten appliances that can log share communications."
"Cisco Web Security Appliance has very good security benefits for any company and is easy to integrate."
"Cisco Web Security Appliance is user-friendly and easy to manage. It protects your environment while accessing the internet."
"It's a scalable product."
"The security of Trend Micro Web Security is good."
"I feel that it is a user-friendly product that provides quick response to users."
"Trend Micro Web Security is a great product; it is compatible with anything on the market in my opinion, very competitive and very flexible, and for at least 20 years it has always been top of the line."
"Trend Micro has a centralized mechanism where we can control and monitor all system protections. It includes detecting any wireless problems, which will be displayed on our portal. We plan to investigate the issues with those systems internally."
"Trend Micro Web Security is used for web filtering and protects the environment from web threats and malicious sites."
"The EDR feature is very good; it's one of the better features of security and can protect a large percentage of the company."
"Trend Micro effectively supports our remote workforce by securing our web servers from external threats, particularly browser security."
"We find the advanced license for the DLP to be particularly useful with this product."
 

Cons

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."
"I appreciate that iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard, allowing us to quickly investigate incidents and monitor policy violations without switching between multiple tools, improving operational efficiency; however, the dashboard customization and reporting could be more flexible."
"The endpoint-type solution is an area that needs some improvement."
"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."
"Its pricing could be better."
"Technical support needs to be improved because they take a very long time and there is no communication or notification."
"They need a better graphical interface, and they need a better ISE mechanism."
"The solution is not very compatible with other products."
"It's so expensive. It's $10,000 per year."
"The solution could improve the graphical user interface. It is not up to the regular standard of what we would expect from Cisco. Additionally, they need to improve the categorization when blocking in the settings. The CLI could have a better view than the graphical user interface but I did not investigate further."
"If a user wants to use it for other devices like mobile or smartphones, this product isn't so reliable."
"The solution needs to be more user-friendly and easier to navigate."
"Setting up Cisco Web Security Appliance is highly complex and it takes about a week. We have to connect it to the Active Directory and configure all the policies for end users. It takes a long time to configure rules for our company data like port forwarding and separating the public and local components."
"I would rate the technical support by Trend Micro a three. The response time is poor."
"I would like to see better scalability and better performance."
"There are multiple ways Web Security could improve, such as usability and web access to several programming modes."
"They could improve the platform's ability to control normal traffic and prevent attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting."
"The price of Trend Micro Web Security is the only area of concern where improvements are required. From an improvement perspective, the product should be made available to users at a cheaper rate."
"What could help Trend Micro Web Security in terms of improvement is the addition of a DDoS protection feature. It also needs to be more comprehensive to meet the needs of large-sized companies."
"This solution has a lot of restrictions on what non-administrator users can do, including generating comparative code. We would like to see this changed as the product is developed."
"The interface could be improved; we need it to be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."
"This is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is too high."
"The solution's cost depends on how many users you purchase. It was maybe $3 or $5 per user, which is a bit expensive."
"The solution has a standard license."
"There is a subscription-based license needed to use this solution."
"Regarding Cisco price-wise, it is always on a bit on the higher side."
"I rate the product price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"I know from the manager that the price is too high and that other solutions offer the same features for less."
"I rate the product price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"It is pricey. Trend Micro has been in the field for 30 years, so you have to pay a premium amount for that."
"There's annual and monthly options for the license. When you're on the managed services option, it's monthly. They're also setting up an option via AWS where there will be a monthly option via the AWS shopfront."
"The license is yearly and user based."
"I don't remember the exact pricing, but I think that it is approximately $10.00 per user."
"We pay for the license on an annual basis."
"We have found this product to be very cost effective. The endpoint product costs roughly $20, and when purchasing the endpoint product, there are multiple other features included."
"I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Performing Arts
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
I think iboss could be improved by making reporting and dashboard customization more flexible, and simplifying troubl...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
I use iboss as a cloud-based secure web gateway to provide secure internet access, web filtering, and protect remote ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
My experience with iboss's pricing structure, setup cost, and licensing model has been positive, straightforward, and...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Web Security Appliance?
Comparing with other products, Cisco has more functionality, but pricing is a challenge. Cisco is not a product for s...
What needs improvement with Cisco Web Security Appliance?
With the WebAssign integration, it is not easy when I am integrating policies within the company, especially with NAN...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Web Security Appliance?
The user interface that I usually provide for the web app includes malware protection, URL filtering, data loss preve...
Do you recommend Trend Micro Web Security?
I would recommend Trend Micro Web Security to organizations looking for an end-to-end security solution. Trend Micro ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Trend Micro Web Security?
It is pricey. Trend Micro has been in the field for 30 years, so you have to pay a premium amount for that. SentinelO...
What needs improvement with Trend Micro Web Security?
I would rate Trend Micro Web Security a nine, but not because I have some issues in mind. I have only seen a bit bett...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
Cisco WSA, Cisco Web Security
Virus Wall, VirusWall, Trend Micro VirusWall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Caixa Seguradora
Landwirtschaftskammer Nordrhein-Westfalen, Mosaic Medical, Okinawa Prefectural Education Center, RAK Investment Authority
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Zscaler and others in Secure Web Gateways (SWG). Updated: August 2026.
911,473 professionals have used our research since 2012.