Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

GoodAccess vs Symantec Secure Web Gateway comparison

Sponsored
 

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)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (8th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
GoodAccess
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
5th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (8th), ZTNA (5th)
Symantec Secure Web Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
31st
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 August 2025, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GoodAccess is 0.2%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Secure Web Gateway is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless
One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured
Itai Rieur - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable service with good support and little downtime
The best aspects of GoodAccess include: 1. Support system (available 24/7, quick to respond, and highly knowledgeable). GoodAccess offers a very available professional support service - it can be via chat service, email, or phone. The relevant representative was very professional, and responsive questions were answered in a prompt manner. 2. Stable service. Since we rely daily on a VPN to connect with multiple connections, VPN stability is crucial to us. in that sense, GoodAccess never fails. In the two or more years we have been using this service, there have been only one or two downtimes. each for 20 minutes or less. That's impressive.
Malik Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Has an easy deployment process, but the data center's capability to manage the traffic could be better
We use Symantec Secure Web Gateway to apply URL policies for cloud security, data protection, and SSL The product is easy to deploy. It has a faster implementation process compared to other products. The platform’s data center is not capable of managing most of the traffic. We have been using…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."
"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."
"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."
"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."
"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."
"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the static IP and speed."
"No extra hardware is needed, and it is very easy to set up"
"Access control allows us to manage permissions efficiently, ensuring secure and tailored access."
"GoodAccess offers a very available professional support service - it can be via chat service, email, or phone."
"The solution has easy-to-use administration and offers an easy implementation."
"The speed of the connections is excellent. We have two gateways set up, one for the East Coast US and one for West Coast. Both have excellent speed and the GoodAccess team allowed us to test several gateways to determine which worked best for us prior to locking in the gateways."
"We love the simple interface and speed and reliability of the system."
"Static IP Addresses with multiple gateway options per team allow us to set up different teams with different network accesses."
"It is a stable solution."
"It is quite scalable. If a user needs to do more deployments, they can just add them."
"It offers an easy initial setup."
"The most valuable feature is the endpoint security."
"I find the product to be very straightforward."
"In terms of most valuable features, I like the ICAP capability and URL filtering the most."
"The most valuable features are the website blocking capability and SSL interception."
"It's nice to have it in the cloud where we can pull the reporting together for it so we can see what's happening in machines at different locations."
 

Cons

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."
"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."
"Its pricing could be better."
"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."
"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."
"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."
"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."
"Their recent revision in pricing was a jolt. Though any business understands the need for periodic pricing evaluations, a clearer communication strategy and more gradual changes might have been more palatable for long-term clients like us."
"The latest upgrade to the Windows version of the app (unconfirmed on the Mac client) adds some unnecessary stylized animation to the GUI."
"We are having a problem with accessing Microsoft Copilot while connected. GoodAccess is working on the issue, but fixing this will be a help to us. There is nothing else at the moment that we need to have improved for our usage."
"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."
"The interface information could show more information about how threats have occurred. Right now, it only shows basic threat information."
"I've found some bugs."
"It is worth mentioning that we do experience disconnects on rare occasions."
"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."
"The reports could be better."
"The interface could be made more user-friendly."
"AI-driven security could be helpful, yet how effective it will be remains unclear."
"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."
"Depending on the severity of the issue, I think they can be a bit slow - a few days for the low severity cases, but for the severe cases normally they contact you back in a couple of hours."
"Difficult and time-consuming to deploy and update."
"It needs to be easier to set up rules for what sites it should allow or not allow us in certain areas of our computer for programs. It would also be nice really nice to have it give you better information about what it's finding. A lot of the alerts we get are very difficult to understand what it's actually telling you. It's too generic."
"It's not user-friendly, and we end up making too many phone calls to get things fixed."
 

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."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"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."
"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."
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."
"Symantec Secure Web Gateway is less expensive than one of its competitors."
"There is an additional charge for advanced security features."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Secure Web Gateways (SWG) solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
No data available
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...
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 alte...
What do you like most about GoodAccess?
GoodAccess offers a very available professional support service - it can be via chat service, email, or phone.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GoodAccess?
Test multiple providers' solutions for speed and connection before signing up for service. Also, test the help desk r...
What needs improvement with GoodAccess?
We are having a problem with accessing Microsoft Copilot while connected. GoodAccess is working on the issue, but fix...
What do you like most about Symantec Secure Web Gateway?
It has a faster implementation process compared to other products.
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...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
Symantec Complete Website Security
 

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.
Information Not Available
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about GoodAccess vs. Symantec Secure Web Gateway and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.