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Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway vs VMware NSX comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
5.1
iboss improves ROI with enhanced remote security, saving time and reducing support needs, offering 70-80% efficiency gains.
Sentiment score
5.3
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway provides significant ROI, enhancing security while reducing hardware and staffing needs for organizations.
Sentiment score
6.4
VMware NSX offers long-term financial benefits by reducing overhead and improving security, despite high initial costs and evaluation time.
Centralized security management allows our team to monitor users, manage policies, and investigate security events from one place.
System Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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
Deploying iboss leads to good return on investment, estimated around 70% to 80%.
Manager at Cyvogenix
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Iboss customer service is fast and knowledgeable, though some desire better transparency and 24/7 availability. Scores range high.
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
6.6
VMware NSX support is knowledgeable but experiences vary; some report delays and recent service deterioration due to structural changes.
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
They do not always reply promptly, but they do try and genuinely want to help us.
There are instances where both the response time and technical support quality need improvement.
They were always helpful.
Senior VMware Administrator at Johnson Controls, Inc.
They are quick and understand things easily, so the support is aligned very effectively.
Windows Redhat Linux Vmware & Azure & Cloud & Nutanix Ahv-Vmware & Backup Senior System Administrator at AlDawaa Medical Services
The technical support from VMware NSX deserves a rating of seven out of ten.
Sr . IT Infrastructure Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Iboss scales efficiently, handling heavy traffic and large deployments, with swift resource adjustments and reliable performance for expanding organizations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is scalable and flexible but may require adjustments for optimal performance in larger implementations.
Sentiment score
7.6
VMware NSX is favored for its scalability, supporting extensive deployments across data centers with ease and efficiency.
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
There is a high level of satisfaction with its ability to scale.
Senior IT Strategy Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Iboss is highly stable, with minimal downtime, though occasional issues occur with cloud migration and system performance.
Sentiment score
7.1
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is stable with high ratings, minor latency, and occasional outages affecting stability perceptions.
Sentiment score
8.1
VMware NSX is praised for its high stability and reliability, with most users rating it 8-10 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
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
I give them full marks for presales and support during the pilot phase, as well as support when we actually went live.
Managing Director
The product performs at 99% efficiency without any showstoppers or significant issues.
Windows Redhat Linux Vmware & Azure & Cloud & Nutanix Ahv-Vmware & Backup Senior System Administrator at AlDawaa Medical Services
For stability, I would rate VMware NSX as a nine out of ten.
Services Presales Solutions Architecture - UAE & Gulf at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

iboss needs better integration, scalability, security, and support, with upgrades in performance, automation, dashboards, and access control.
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway requires improvements in authentication, malware filtering, feature integration, support, and new technology adoption.
VMware NSX struggles with high costs, complex configurations, integration issues, and requires improvements in scalability, user-friendliness, and pricing.
iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard.
Manager at Cyvogenix
Better onboarding documents would make the first week easier for new users.
System Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Enhanced policy management, providing smart alerts with root cause context, and improving support with better troubleshooting documents are crucial areas.
Senior Technical Lead at Numeric Technologies
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
The initial configuration and integration within our existing environment were not easy.
Senior IT Strategy Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing for the product is another area for improvement as I'm not satisfied nowadays.
Senior VMware Administrator at Johnson Controls, Inc.
The licensing model is expensive and could be more flexible, especially after Broadcom bought VMware.
Services Presales Solutions Architecture - UAE & Gulf at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Iboss offers competitive, transparent pricing with comprehensive features, fitting security budgets better than pricier competitors like Broadcom and ZScaler.
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway is competitively priced, yet some find it less affordable than alternatives due to feature costs.
VMware NSX pricing is seen as high; costs vary based on features used, licensing choices, and negotiation effectiveness.
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
during that time, the Blue Coat proxies we were using were costly, as Blue Coat was acquired by Symantec, and then Symantec was acquired by Broadcom, which increased costs.
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It's really expensive.
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The cost of VMware NSX is considered high.
Senior IT Strategy Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The complexity is too high in terms of price.
Technical Manager at Allianz Cloud Private Limited
There is room for improvement in terms of pricing.
Senior VMware Administrator at Johnson Controls, Inc.
 

Valuable Features

Iboss enhances security with Secure Web Gateway and Zero Trust Network Access, improving efficiency and supporting remote users.
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway provides robust security with easy setup, customization, and centralized management for secure web access and monitoring.
VMware NSX offers micro-segmentation, scalability, automation, VM-level security, and Zero Trust support for enhanced modern networking.
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
Because of the points of presence, there is no downtime for us. I can move users to different points of presence, so I experience minimal to zero downtime.
Network Security Devops Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
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
Micro-segmentation enhances security and provides more secure data in your data center.
Services Presales Solutions Architecture - UAE & Gulf at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Consistent networking and security policies across different environments have a major and very positive impact on our business operations, allowing us to achieve the security posture we want with compliance and regulations.
Technical Manager at Allianz Cloud Private Limited
I value the ability to dynamically configure our network on the fly using VMware NSX.
Senior IT Strategy Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

iboss
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (10th), Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (4th)
VMware NSX
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (5th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway2.9%
Zscaler Internet Access9.8%
Cisco Umbrella9.5%
Other77.8%
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
Network Virtualization Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware NSX27.3%
Cisco ACI25.0%
Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization9.3%
Other38.400000000000006%
Network Virtualization
 

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.
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.
Mahesh Bhadoriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at Allianz Cloud Private Limited
Micro segmentation has strengthened zero trust security and isolates production from test environments
The advantages of VMware NSX include its micro-segmentation for internal security at the firewall and VM levels, which is very powerful and helps us comply with complete Zero Trust security models. We are able to achieve this and configure network level virtualization with no dependency on VLANs. Micro-segmentation helps improve our security significantly. We are not totally dependent upon our physical upfront firewall, and it makes sense to configure everything using VMware NSX, leading to multiple improvements in our organization. We moved from traditional networking such as VLANs from the firewall and switches to VMware NSX segmentation. We achieve one firewall per VLAN and can stop lateral movement such as ransomware control. The Zero Trust model is the main functionality and architecture it offers, allowing application isolation, such as having a separate production and test environment. Consistent networking and security policies across different environments have a major and very positive impact on our business operations, allowing us to achieve the security posture we want with compliance and regulations.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise70
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
iboss could be improved by making the dashboard more user-friendly, providing more detailed real-time alerts, and imp...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
iboss is primarily used for cloud security, helping to protect users when they access websites and cloud applications...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
The pricing and licensing for iboss were reasonable for the security features. The setup costs were manageable, thoug...
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 ...
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...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network g...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so wh...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware NSX?
When measuring complexity and costs for our organization, we consider some parameters for effectiveness. In terms of ...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
Forcepoint SWG, Websense Web Security, Forcepoint TRITON
VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.
Adventist Health, Alphawest, Amadori, Anoka County, Compartamos Banco, Davies Turner, EverBank, iGATE, Karlstad Municipality, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Scavolini, Smurfit Kappa, Toyota
City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Zscaler and others in Secure Web Gateways (SWG). Updated: October 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.