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Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway vs iboss comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

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
5.3
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway provides significant ROI, enhancing security while reducing hardware and staffing needs for organizations.
Sentiment score
5.4
iboss improved bandwidth and security for remote work, but per-device fees and Mac agent delays prompted vendor alternatives.
With iboss, whenever you turn on your laptop, the iboss agent automatically connects to the iboss cloud, enforcing all security policies. So with respect to the security side, it strengthens measures.
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I have seen some cost effectiveness from iboss; it has reduced certain support requirements, making it a more hands-off solution.
Managing Director
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's support varies in responsiveness and expertise, with premium options offering quicker service but higher costs.
Sentiment score
7.8
Iboss customer service receives mixed reviews, with praise for responsiveness and criticism for communication and resolution delays.
There are instances where both the response time and technical support quality need improvement.
They are very fast, responsive, and knowledgeable.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
The quality of the support is fantastic.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
We had promising discussions about resolving these issues, but no real action followed.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is scalable and flexible but may require adjustments for optimal performance in larger implementations.
Sentiment score
7.3
Iboss exhibits reliable scalability with easy resource expansion, accommodating high demand smoothly while maintaining performance and flexibility.
They are also able to meet on-demand requirements based on your contract with them, and can easily provide adequate resources and scalability.
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
If I start seeing sluggishness or anything like that, I just reach out to my rep, and they connect with their dev team, typically resolving it the same day.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is stable with high ratings, minor latency, and occasional outages affecting stability perceptions.
Sentiment score
7.5
iboss is highly stable with 99% uptime, minor deployment challenges, and receives strong performance ratings of 7-9 out of 10.
It's been pretty solid; I've never had an outage with them, and if I ever had, it's only been once out of the seven years.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
We've experienced zero downtime.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device despite our ClearPass sending information to the iboss box.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway requires improvements in authentication, malware filtering, feature integration, support, and new technology adoption.
iboss struggles with Mac support, integration issues, performance limitations, and needs improvements in security features and user configurations.
They need to enhance their CASB solutions since currently, the cloud index support is low compared to competitors.
The setup process is complex.
PS & Technical Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
We also had a problem with a transition when we upgraded from one appliance of theirs to another, but their engineer lost a good deal of our data.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc.
 

Setup Cost

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is competitively priced, yet some find it less affordable than alternatives due to feature costs.
Iboss offers competitive and transparent pricing, often cheaper than Broadcom and Check Point, despite annual cost increases.
It's really expensive.
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It offers the same features you would get from a vendor that charges 250,000 British pounds for a fraction of the price.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
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.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern.
Managing Director
 

Valuable Features

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway provides robust security with easy setup, customization, and centralized management for secure web access and monitoring.
iboss provides advanced security features, seamless cloud management, and scalability with user-friendly integration and robust threat protection capabilities.
As organizations move away from legacy applications and data centers, the SASE architecture and ZTNA-based operations become essential.
If you have the complete Forcepoint solution, it can integrate with other Forcepoint products, such as DLP solution and email gateway.
PS & Technical Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The solution's mental health function can detect if someone needs help.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
It's given us a lot more visibility into our computer assets that may be infected with viruses and also shows us people who have unusually large uploads or might be engaging in high-risk activities, such as searches or going to sites not categorized by their web crawler.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
iboss was the best solution for us because, no matter what domain you were in, everything is under a single pane of glass, which is exactly what we wanted.
Managing Director
 

Categories and Ranking

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
8th
Ranking in Internet Security
4th
Ranking in Web Content Filtering
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
iboss
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
5th
Ranking in Internet Security
3rd
Ranking in Web Content Filtering
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (8th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is 3.0%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of iboss is 2.8%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
iboss2.8%
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway3.0%
Other94.2%
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1047669 - PeerSpot reviewer
PS & Technical Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Has faced usability challenges while managing integrated components
We are working with web gateway and full endpoint security. URL filter is a notable feature. While it is not specifically related to Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway alone, if you have the complete Forcepoint solution, it can integrate with other Forcepoint products, such as DLP solution and email gateway. The URL filter of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is good for web gateway. Clients and consumers do not prefer it because the interface is not good. When using FSM with DLP, web gateway, and email gateway, upgrades cannot be performed simultaneously since Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway might need an upgrade while email gateway does not, despite having the same manager controlling them. Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway works well with banking and small companies. Email gateway is less needed as everything is moving to the cloud.
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.
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892,383 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway?
I would rate pricing for Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway a two out of ten. It's really expensive.
What needs improvement with Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway?
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is not endpoint security. If we have a chance to change, we would change it because it is not user-friendly. The setup process is complex. You need to install FSM, whi...
What is your primary use case for Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway?
We have no big project, but we are trying to sell it in the market here. We are working with Forcepoint because there is no vendor working with this technology. If we have another vendor working wi...
What needs improvement with iboss?
iboss can increase security in cyberspace. I have heard they are doing DDoS filtering, but I am not certain if they are implementing it correctly. These kinds of features would definitely help thei...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
I use iboss for corporate VPN and all the corporate VRF, with basically all user traffic proxying to the internet.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alternatives available, but they do not perform as well. Since iboss is cloud-based,...
 

Also Known As

Forcepoint SWG, Websense Web Security, Forcepoint TRITON
iBoss Cloud Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Adventist Health, Alphawest, Amadori, Anoka County, Compartamos Banco, Davies Turner, EverBank, iGATE, Karlstad Municipality, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Scavolini, Smurfit Kappa, Toyota
More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.
Find out what your peers are saying about Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway vs. iboss and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,383 professionals have used our research since 2012.