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GoodAccess vs Symantec Secure Web Gateway comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

iboss
Sponsored
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (6th), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
GoodAccess
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
22nd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (20th), ZTNA (14th)
Symantec Secure Web Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
27th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 3.2%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GoodAccess is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Secure Web Gateway is 1.5%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
iboss3.2%
GoodAccess1.0%
Symantec Secure Web Gateway1.5%
Other94.3%
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

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.
reviewer2893848 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber and IT Support at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
Centralized access control has strengthened secure remote work and simplified admin oversight
GoodAccess acts as our virtual private network host, as well as part of my endpoint security, network profiling, and dashboard integrations in my daily work. GoodAccess has made ease and use a staple part of the profile that I have. As an administrator with the rights, the gateways and the connection history, as well as data packets and traffic encrypted details, really support my efforts to maintain a secure network. The best features GoodAccess offers include multiple and various concise gateways that are maintained by an excellent team, and it seems to me that I have almost no reduction or latency in operations from servers to endpoints to mobile use. Gateway management, which is part of the package that was purchased, certainly stands out for me as it is easy and convenient to hit West Coast, East Coast, and multiple global hotspots for our entire dev team. Additionally, the low latency really makes a difference in push and pull for data packets, large transfers, and a lot of our video teleconferencing. GoodAccess has positively impacted my organization through the price point, the ease of use, the service and account management team, as well as some of the supplemental training opportunities and the long list of available files and referenceable traffic data, which really helps me maintain a secure network.
KK
Principal Consultant at CSaaS
Monitors traffic effectively but struggles with integration challenges
I find that the technical support is mediocre, at least for the Middle East. I frequently face challenges when contacting OpenStack through the distribution channel. It should be more straightforward. I notice that customers work with partners, not directly with Symantec, relying on local company integrators for support. Symantec becomes the level two or level three support, which requires navigating through a supply chain that is quite extensive.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As I mentioned, the return on investment is significant, as it saved our office locations' bandwidth because when you are working remotely at home, your internet traffic routes directly to iboss and will not go to your office building, saving bandwidth bottlenecks and ensuring that issues with our building internet circuits will not impact your internet connectivity because you are directly going to the iboss data center."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"
"The students were always protected, and the content filtering worked very well, seeming to work better than other products we had tried previously."
"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."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"My advice to others looking into using GoodAccess is that simplicity of use and ease of administrative metrics make it a top-notch opportunity for any SOC team or administrative role to employ this tool for all of their downstream customers."
"The solution's robustness has meant that our team, regardless of where they're located, feels as though they're working right from the office, having secure and quick access to all essential tools."
"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the static IP and speed."
"The dashboard is pretty sleek and complete."
"We love the simple interface and speed and reliability of the system."
"Their user interface is intuitive as it is easy to navigate."
"GoodAccess was the only hosted VPN solution we found for a reasonable cost that allowed us to establish a site-to-site VPN network for hundreds of locations across the country."
"The solution has easy-to-use administration and offers an easy implementation."
"I find the product to be very straightforward."
"Typically, Symantec is more or less like any other platform that performs proxy functions."
"The most valuable features are the website blocking capability and SSL interception."
"We've tried other endpoint security solutions but this tool seems to be the best when specifically comparing the endpoint security features."
"It is easy to manage. The graphical user interface is quite easy to navigate, and we don't have any difficulty in using it. It is a good solution."
"In terms of stability, it's fine, as we have never had downtime because availability is AWS' responsibility since it is hosted on their servers, so availability is not an issue."
"Scalability is not really any major issue, it is quite scalable and if we need to do more deployments, we just add them."
"The most valuable feature is the endpoint security."
 

Cons

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."
"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."
"The endpoint-type solution is an area that needs some improvement."
"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."
"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."
"The easiest device I have set up was the Barracuda line of products."
"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"This past year, I did not like having to purchase an upgrade to a plan with a minimum number of seats to get the features we needed. We do not use all of the seats."
"The interface information could show more information about how threats have occurred. Right now, it only shows basic threat information."
"The product could improve by extending its chat support beyond 8-5 CET, Monday to Friday, to a 24/7 service for better accessibility and immediate assistance."
"There could be a better view of which type of communication is going through the system."
"Currently, the pricing structure is functional yet could benefit from more refined scalability calculations."
"For small organizations, it works great. However, the larger the organization, the more scalable the pricing model, the better, since gateways can be very expensive if an organization needs multiple gateways."
"They need to provide a more comprehensive app that shows more data that appears on the GoodAccess site."
"Enhancing the user interface and experience could make it more intuitive for all users."
"The interface could be made more user-friendly."
"I find that the technical support is mediocre, at least for the Middle East. I frequently face challenges when contacting OpenStack through the distribution channel."
"It's not user-friendly, and we end up making too many phone calls to get things fixed."
"The platform’s data center is not capable of managing most of the traffic."
"The major challenge is their support; the support from Broadcom is quite poor, it takes forever for them to get back to you, and when they get back to you, they ask you for so much information, which makes it more difficult."
"The major challenge is their support. The support from Broadcom is quite poor. It takes forever for them to get back to you, and when they get back to you, they ask you for so much information, which makes it more difficult. That's the only problem I have with Broadcom. This is one of the reasons why we are switching to another solution. Another reason for switching is that we have a plan to adopt solutions in the cloud so that we can offload the administration efforts to the vendor. In future releases, they can improve its reporting and the process for rules creation. They can also improve Broadcom on things such as security information and event management so that from my same platform, I can carry out functions and probably block websites. Such a feature would be nice. Currently, Broadcom is integrated with McAfee to block access to certain sites automatically. It would be nice if they can expand their integration to IBM Resilient Security Orchestration and Automation Response."
"Difficult and time-consuming to deploy and update."
"The Credential ID part where you need to register it: Sometimes, it does not register a device, for some reason."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
Information not available
"Pricing and licensing is stunted and licensing is expensive. We have many customers who are now thinking about other solutions due to the cost."
"There is an additional charge for advanced security features."
"Symantec Secure Web Gateway is less expensive than one of its competitors."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Secure Web Gateways (SWG) solutions are best for your needs.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Healthcare Company
14%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Transportation Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
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 GoodAccess?
I am unsure about whether my organization evaluated other options before choosing GoodAccess. This contract has been ...
What needs improvement with GoodAccess?
GoodAccess has some great standard features. If they decided to bundle a little bit more, they may be able to bring d...
What is your primary use case for GoodAccess?
My main use case for GoodAccess is maintaining the administrator responsibilities for the gateways, connections, endp...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
I believe that pricing is on par with peers. Symantec and other vendors offer discounts when cutting a deal with a cu...
What needs improvement with Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
AI-driven security could be helpful, yet how effective it will be remains unclear. I plan to evaluate whatever new fe...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
I find the product to be very straightforward. I just install it and forget it as it continuously monitors traffic. I...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
Symantec Complete Website Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.
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Find out what your peers are saying about GoodAccess vs. Symantec Secure Web Gateway and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.