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Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software vs. Cisco AnyConnect

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the core OS for the ASA suite. It provides firewall functionality, as well as integration with context-specific Cisco security modules. It is scaled for enterprise-level traffic and connections.N/A

    Cisco AnyConnect

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco offers an SSL VPN solution via AnyConnect.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Our Palo Altos and Cisco ASAs are pretty comparable. They both seem to work well when used in an HA pair. They can both do IP/Port based ACLs. But the Palos also have APP-ID which helps to make sure that the traffic passing through your firewall is the type of traffic …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Cisco has been in the networking industry for what seems like an eternity. That being said they take what they do and the products they make very seriously. Cisco products are created with the customer in mind, and they are made to be somewhat easy to configure, to the point …
    Incentivized
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco AnyConnect
    AnyConnect is a mature VPN client solution without any problems, meeting our requirements easily. Local and international support is very good. You can find a Cisco expert or engineer very easy. We have several good
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco AnyConnect
    Almost every Cisco product I've used has amazing abilities. Like everything in this world, nothing is perfect, but there is constant growth and improvement on abilities, and that resonates with my drive to always provide the very best for the business and end-user alike. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco AnyConnect
    Palo Alto and Fortinet are good manufacturers but more than 5 years ago when the project was tendered, Cisco ASA was better for the cost, benefit, and approval apart from the fact that we have Cisco ISE, Cisco DUO and all those tools converge quite well when you have the …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco AnyConnect
    Personally I think AnyConnect is the best VPN client in the market for PCs and mobile devices. It's globally used by many contractors/consultants, so there is no need to train them. The huge community gives a lot of ready scenarios and helps with finding an issue and fixing it. …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    87%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    42 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    80 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    92 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    61 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    41 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    66 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco AnyConnect
    Feature
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    8.9
    50 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Cisco AnyConnect
    -
    Ratings
    Identification Technologies7.932 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visualization Tools7.931 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection8.433 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls8.446 Ratings00 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP8.448 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console9.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging8.949 Ratings00 Ratings
    VPN10.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    High Availability9.649 Ratings00 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection10.046 Ratings00 Ratings
    Proxy Server9.032 Ratings00 Ratings
    Virtual Private Network
    Comparison of Virtual Private Network features of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco AnyConnect
    Feature
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    -
    Ratings
    Cisco AnyConnect
    9.2
    29 Ratings
    3% above category average
    AES 256-bit Encryption00 Ratings9.429 Ratings
    Kill Switch00 Ratings9.122 Ratings
    Multi-Platform Support00 Ratings8.828 Ratings
    Split Tunneling00 Ratings9.126 Ratings
    IP Address Masking00 Ratings9.426 Ratings
    No-Logs Policy00 Ratings9.122 Ratings
    Multiple Server Locations00 Ratings9.123 Ratings
    Automatic Wi-Fi Protection00 Ratings9.524 Ratings
    Simultaneous Connections00 Ratings9.424 Ratings
    Customer Support Services00 Ratings9.025 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (88 ratings)
    9.3
    (118 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.1
    (4 ratings)
    9.8
    (12 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (97 ratings)
    Availability
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    9.9
    (9 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (8 ratings)
    8.9
    (95 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.5
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco AnyConnect
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Cisco ASA's are great for internal network connected access between a firewall and the central management server. And, for complex networks where high security requirements with overly strict compliance are necessary. For networks with limited connectivity to the core or for poor network connectivity these are not the best solution. There are other more stand-alone firewall's that do this better. These firewall's are a little more complex to set up to start with so significant knowledge of these devices is required to set them up and ensure they are best practice installed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Providing secure remote access with a robust VPN, creating an encrypted tunnel so employees can safely access internal company resources like file servers and private apps from anywhere. It also allows enforcing device compliance: depending on policies, checks whether a device has an active antivirus and the latest OS updates before allowing it to connect. When there is not much need for remote access, the cost is too high.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • ASA is our VPN concentrator. The client and server are very stable and very easy to use
    • ASA also offers Intrusion Prevention, to an extent. This is also very useful for an improved security posture for a small company
    • ASA allowed us to scale very quickly. We could onboard clients, partners, and consultants and give them a great onboarding experience as well
    • Administrative costs with ASA are low. It's very easy to administer.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • All Cisco AnyConnect data transfer processes are secure to enhance security.
    • It can connect multiple terminals across various sites directly.
    • Centralized management of the workstations connected to the network became easier than ever for managers with multiple locations in the organization's workforce.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • The ASDM software is at times a nightmare to install because of different java versions[.]
    • [The firewall] could do with a power button, just to be able to do a hard reboot when needed[.]
    • It would be nice to manage the firewall via the web on port 443[.]
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • Cisco AnyConnect can use the system resources as long as the program is being run.
    • Account activation may be very difficult when connecting from areas requiring captive portal login, if certain settings are not allowed.
    • By default, it is possible to request the user to authenticate again at specific intervals.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    To be honest there has been now great products out in the market compared to Cisco ASA. I beleieve Cisco has to do a lot of improvement in this area. The other defeiniete factors is the cost when it comes to renewals which is always a premium on Cisco products
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    It is perhaps the second most functional tool we have, it will definitely be renewed every year. Our network is stable, which ensures that there is less for our technicians to troubleshoot, which frees them up to ensure other parts of the company are maintained. This keeps our costs low and our downtime at a minimum.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    It is very useful tool for companies having hybrid work culture. It will allow their employees to work seamlessly from home, office, other branches. This tool will increase your productivity as it will facilitates your employees to access corporate applications 24x7. Overall it is easy to use, deploy and integrate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    I generally have not noticed the outages, however since it's a machine it can malfunction, we need to implement the firewall infrastructure in such a way that it is highly available with device failure, region failure etc. Else any solution will be having the issues if they are not build with resiliency.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    I have been using Cisco AnyConnect for past two years and thus I can say very firmly that I have never seen the outage from the Cisco AnyConnect services either It is VPN, System Scans or the Network Connectivity. Talking about the errors likewise major errors I have faced throughout my period of use.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    Absolutely no speed issues, and I see no evidence of slowdowns across any of the multiple platforms I use daily. It's operation is completely invisible most of the time, except where there is a loss of connection due to server issues or a loss of power. Everything loads quickly and accurately.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    The support is usually very good and gets back to you very quickly. However I had some instances of when two engineers will give me wildly different answers to what I thought was a simple question. Overall however I do rate the support highly and they are generally always very good.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    I don't know but nobody provides proper support for us as end user. They should have people to check whether end user is facing issues or not. Cisco AnyConnect having very high charges and still there is no proper support! Many requests and many tickets have opened, but the working speed is very low for the support team! They should have it to optimize.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    It was quite a good one, how ever requires an expertise to deploy hence the SMB segment would be finding it difficult to implement this product. The one good reason is that there are lot of ASA certified engineers in compared to the other certified engineers. Hence this resembles positively on the deployment as you have quite a lot of experienced engineer on your deployment
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Our Managed Services vendor helped us with the implementation. When we initially setup our AnyConnect using MFA for remote connectivity, the setup was easy and straight forward and worked just fine. After a year, we decided to change to an "always on" feature and use machine and user based security certificates instead of MFA. We had to open a ticket with Cisco support and have their assistance getting this feature to work. Turned out they had a small bug in the code for that version of AnyConnect and it has since been corrected. We have had no issues with the upgrades since that time. The deployment of the software to the user machines was done with SCCM and was straight forward. The user machine upgrades are easy - when the user machine connects and sees a new version available, it upgrades itself! What could be easier?
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We were using [pfSense] before in our environment but we regularly facing difficulties over it due to software bugs & downtime. After implementing Cisco ASA, it resolved our availability issue & provides us a reliable solution with the best security features & easy to understand GUI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Cisco is one of our core partners besides Microsoft and SAP. And so yes, we are utilizing very many projects from Cisco. I would mention the whole networking equipment, the routing equipment, the wireless LAN, and also when it comes to infrastructure to compute infrastructure, we are utilizing Cisco servers within our converged infrastructure Flex spot. So we have been running a flex bot from Cisco, NetApp, and VMware for 12 years, and we are still very satisfied with the product. We are looking forward to upgrading to the newest blades and fabric interconnect to continue this journey.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    Cisco AnyConnect has been a speedy, reliable, and efficient tool for the creation of your own VPN whatever location that you've brought your laptop. Customer support is consistently top-notch, coming up with quick fixes to whatever difficulties are thrown your way. I would not hesitate to reccommend Cisco AnyConnect to any business that needs connected employees throught the world.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Most network engineers have worked with ASA, so there is no need for re-training when adding or turning over staff
    • Current configs from older devices plug in easily, and are operational on larger devices if an upgrade is required
    • Many support options available
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • We are able to seamlessly work on multiple clients daily, and it allows us to quickly handle more projects at the same time.
    • Cisco AnyConnect has allowed our own company's coworkers to remotely connect back to the corporate network, easily assisting work schedules and processes, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being forced to work remotely, meant our processes still happened quickly and efficiently, by being able to leverage and use Cisco AnyConnect VPN.
    • Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have worked 100% remotely for a few years now. This was always due to the reliable connectivity and ease of use with Cisco AnyConnect VPN. I live 2+ hours from our nearest corporate office, and even further from some of my client locations, and I have always been able to connect to any of my multiple Cisco AnyConnect VPN connections, within seconds.
    Incentivized
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