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

Steelhead vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 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
4.8
Steelhead optimized WAN usage, saving £50,000 in costs, improving bandwidth efficiency, and enhancing user experience without extra investments.
Sentiment score
4.2
Users experienced improved performance and satisfaction with faster transfers, although cost and financial impacts vary and remain indistinct.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Steelhead's customer service is efficient and knowledgeable, but local support and handling complex issues need improvement.
Sentiment score
6.4
Versa SASE technical support is helpful and knowledgeable, but operational support needs improvement compared to competitors like Cisco.
Steelhead's support is generally good for typical issues yet can be time-consuming during complex problem-solving across teams, particularly for Active Directory integration.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
I have no issues with technical support from Riverbed.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Riverbed's customer service and technical support would be rated an eight.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
I work with a partner, not directly with the OEM, which makes getting technical support on call very challenging.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
I would rate Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform's technical support around eight out of ten.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Feedback on Steelhead scaling varies, with easy deployment praised, but licensing and bandwidth limitations noted by some users.
Sentiment score
7.2
Versa SASE Platform efficiently scales for organizations of all sizes, offering easy deployment and flexibility for diverse requirements.
If a customer has 1 GB traffic, they will only be able to utilize 600 MB of traffic with Steelhead.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
The scalability from a performance point of view is good, but from a commercial perspective, it is low.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Steelhead offers reliable network optimization with stability, smooth upgrades, and effective technical support for seamless traffic flow and high availability.
Sentiment score
7.3
Versa Unified SASE Platform is generally stable, excelling with basic setups but facing challenges in complex deployments.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
For instance, even if there is a power failure, Riverbed still works.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Steelhead helps significantly with large data transfers.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
 

Room For Improvement

Steelhead users desire improved traffic handling, integration, scalability, security features, intuitive setup, and comprehensive monitoring amid cost concerns.
Versa SASE needs improvements in interface simplicity, security, stability, mobile support, and performance with better user support and cost efficiency.
Steelhead is very expensive, and the vendor should work on handling Oracle type of traffic better.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
It could still be useful in places with satellite communications, such as the south of Chile, or in the mining industry.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
There should be more technical materials and certifications available to improve awareness and skills in the industry.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform could possibly be improved if they can integrate it with their own SD-WAN.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
They could promote Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform more because when we talk of SASE, it's Prisma that comes to the customer's mind, and if they can position it in a more aggressive manner, it will certainly help them.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Setup Cost

Steelhead is costly but valued for performance and support, with complex licensing and varied pricing by usage.
Versa SASE Platform offers competitive and negotiable pricing, cost-effective subscriptions, and is favorable for long-term use against major competitors.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
The solution is very expensive, costing above one crore Indian rupees for our setup, which spans around twenty five branches.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
As a reseller, I see their pricing as competitive.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
Pricing for Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is competitive.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Valuable Features

Steelhead enhances WAN efficiency with data compression, TCP optimization, and caching, benefiting performance, bandwidth, and cloud migration cost savings.
The Versa Unified SASE Platform offers robust security, scalability, and flexibility, optimizing network performance and integration with third-party vendors.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
My actual traffic is around 2 GB, but I purchased a link from the ISP for only around 700 to 800 MB. All the prices that need to be paid monthly to the ISP are saved, which is a significant saving for my company after using Riverbed.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
SD-WAN has further enhanced the aspect of security on the open internet link, which has helped my customers in protecting sensitive data.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
The most valuable features of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) are application prioritization, advanced routing features, and network gateway firewall capabilities.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform's features most valuable from the security perspective, wherein customers don't need to have multiple security devices, so one device can take care of SD-WAN capabilities as well as security features.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Categories and Ranking

Steelhead
Ranking in WAN Edge
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (2nd)
Versa Unified Secure Access...
Ranking in WAN Edge
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (10th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the WAN Edge category, the mindshare of Steelhead is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is 6.3%, up from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
WAN Edge Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Steelhead1.6%
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform6.3%
Other92.1%
WAN Edge
 

Featured Reviews

Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Reduces operational costs through bandwidth optimization but struggles with high traffic licensing and complex deployments
The logs in Steelhead are fantastic. There is a deep level of logs such as top 10 docker and top 50 docker. I can check from the top 50 docker which type of application is optimizing well and which type of traffic is not optimized. Steelhead provides logs and percentage levels, which is good. I can see any type of log report, report security, different types of report availability, but it is not customizable. Overall, this is a good feature. Steelhead provides real-time optimization with graphs and tables on real-time optimization, informing us packet by packet including port, source IP, destination IP, and destination port number. This reporting and real-time monitoring is fantastic, although I faced a problem in Oracle. Steelhead mainly saves the money that needs to be paid to ISPs. My actual traffic is around 2 GB, but I purchased a link from the ISP for only around 700 to 800 MB. All the prices that need to be paid monthly to the ISP are saved, which is a significant saving for my company after using Riverbed.
AS
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
Has improved network performance and strengthened data protection with flexible multi-tenancy support
The most valuable feature I find in Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is multi-tenancy. This is part of the feature list when discussing its Zero Trust Network Access. It has benefited my customer's network performance. The underlay network has become very independent in the sense that we no longer need to position MPLS services. On the internet itself, we are able to give the best features as far as SD-WAN is concerned. Even in MPLS, it was end-to-end encryption itself, but SD-WAN has further enhanced the aspect of security on the open internet link, which has helped my customers in protecting sensitive data. The flexibility and application optimization is one feature which my customers have benefited from the most.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which WAN Edge solutions are best for your needs.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitoring solutions were ExtraHop first, Riverbed SteelCenter second. Their negotiated c...
What do you like most about Riverbed Steelhead?
One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize our workflow, improving performance for end-users.
What is your primary use case for Riverbed Steelhead?
I am currently working with Riverbed for replication between PR to DR for synchronization purposes, and for WAN optimization between replication from one data center to another data center. The mai...
What needs improvement with Versa Titan?
So far, none of my customers have delved into much detail about Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform's threat intelligence capabilities because it's more of a focus on manufactu...
What is your primary use case for Versa Titan?
I'm in sales, so I'm a seller for Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform. I usually recommend Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform for manufacturing and small ...
 

Also Known As

RIverbed Steelhead
Versa FlexVNF, FlexVNF, Versa Titan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
CenturyLink, RCN Business, Colt Technology Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Steelhead vs. Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.