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Cisco Umbrella vs. Cloudflare Access vs. Google Cloud DNS

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Umbrella

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ACisco now offers OpenDNS Umbrella Web Filtering. Cisco acquired OpenDNS in August 2015, and rebranded the product as Cisco Umbrella.N/A

    Cloudflare Access

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ACloudflare Access is a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution that secures internal applications by verifying identity, device posture, and context for every request. It replaces legacy VPNs with a faster, more secure alternative that lives at the network edge.N/A

    Google Cloud DNS

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Cloud DNS is a managed DNS service, featuring a global network of anycast servers and touting reliability, availability, and performance.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco UmbrellaCloudflare AccessGoogle Cloud DNS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco UmbrellaCloudflare AccessGoogle Cloud DNS
    Free Trial
    YesNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Cisco UmbrellaCloudflare AccessGoogle Cloud DNS
    Identity Management
    Comparison of Identity Management features of Cisco Umbrella and Cloudflare Access and Google Cloud DNS
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Cloudflare Access
    10.0
    2 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Google Cloud DNS
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-Factor Authentication00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Endpoint Security
    Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Cisco Umbrella and Cloudflare Access and Google Cloud DNS
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Cloudflare Access
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Google Cloud DNS
    -
    Ratings
    Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence
    Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of Cisco Umbrella and Cloudflare Access and Google Cloud DNS
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Cloudflare Access
    8.8
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Google Cloud DNS
    -
    Ratings
    Network Analytics00 Ratings4.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Threat Recognition00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vulnerability Classification00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated Alerts and Reporting00 Ratings6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Threat Analysis00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence Reporting00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated Threat Identification00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Zero Trust Security
    Comparison of Zero Trust Security features of Cisco Umbrella and Cloudflare Access and Google Cloud DNS
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Cloudflare Access
    9.2
    2 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Google Cloud DNS
    -
    Ratings
    Continuous Verification00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Secure Web Gateways00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network Flow Control00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network Traffic Analysis00 Ratings6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Segmentation Leveraging00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Admin Access Control00 Ratings7.82 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network Data Encryption00 Ratings9.32 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network Topology Mapping00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco UmbrellaCloudflare AccessGoogle Cloud DNS
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon Route 53
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Azure DNS
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Forescout Vistaro Platform
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Amazon Route 53
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco UmbrellaCloudflare AccessGoogle Cloud DNS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (124 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (15 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.5
    (10 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.4
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    8.7
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.9
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.9
    (63 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.5
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.5
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco UmbrellaCloudflare AccessGoogle Cloud DNS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    When a company has a distributed workforce, the produce works very well to unify a set of policies to apply against web bound traffic. Areas we have struggled with is getting value out of our cloud delivered firewall due to requirements to fully use it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    I wanted to securely connect to my servers without getting tracked by malicious attackers, even though I was on public Wi-Fi. Security was my top priority, and I also wanted a setup that was easy and quick to start and provided great network performance. Cloudflare's Zero trust matches my criteria for becoming my first choice.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Google cloud is well suited to access and collaborate on documents where more than 2 people are required to contribute and in instances where feedback from individuals is captured on the document itself. If a team is working on an end of year report for funders, a few key members may need to finalise a report by offering suggestions that can be viewed and resolved by other team members. Housing documents on Google Cloud is the most appropriate platform I have ever used for tasks like these. If minimal collaboration needs engagement from just 2 individuals, it may be easier to simply email the information between each other, rather than using time to create a folder, ensure access control and upload the information to Google Cloud for collaborative input
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • As many companies think—they’re afraid of firewalls, but they want to keep something secure—and what it does best is it simplifies the approach from a cybersecurity perspective, especially from the user perspective. Users spend a lot of time on the web, trying to access sites, clicking links, scanning QR codes, and doing whatever. You can’t really stop them unless you have something in between that can check whether those links lead somewhere safe, or potentially run them in a sandbox if there are threats or specific use cases.
    • So I think one of its strongest points is that it’s very simple, and it’s not expensive compared to if you buy a firewall and licenses from other brands, where you have to configure it and spend engineer work hours or outsource the work. It’s the simplicity, and I think it just works. I had some issues five years ago, four years ago, but now it just works. I’m pretty happy.
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    • Block access to known bad, risky, or unwanted destinations at the DNS or HTTP level.
    • Excellent protection for remote users.
    • Best in class browser isolation techniques.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Interface is user friendly
    • It is safe , Secure and reliable
    • It has lower pricing plans
    • They have good customer support
    • They do have good documentation to have fair ideas on their offerings
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • So we had in the past very general rule sets, very detailed rule sets for security rules. Like you can access this page but not this IP range and so on. So hundreds of specific rules for specific machines and the rule management in Cisco Umbrella is not that granular. So it was not possible to build up these rule sets in Cisco Umbrella, but now we see to access it's much better already. So that's why one reason why we are migrating to CQ access to have better API based possibility to manage these rule sets and synchronize them between different products that we are using and in the cloud. So yeah, we hope that with secure access it's a little bit more granular like with Cisco Umbrella currently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    • Cloudflare still need to improve CASB direction to complete set of SASE tools.
    • More integrations with the third-party agents to check device posture in the Zero Trust framework.
    • More granularity in firewall rules for full replacement of on-premise solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • It is hard for first time user to get used to it.
    • Support is restricted for 3rd party services who uses it
    • Sometimes the support people take more than 24hrs to reply to our queries, But it is not for all issues.
    • Search function could have been made easy to search records
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    First off I never give anything a "10" unless it's perfect. LOL - I grade on the curve. I think OpenDNS/Umbrella is a very good product. I think that fact that Cisco absorbed them is one of the proofs of that. I have used the product back when it was free for companies our size. I have not always appreciated the cost - but in the post pandemic cyber chaos, I believe the cost benefit ratio is still very high. I have honestly not looked at other products because Umbrella continues to work to my satisfaction. I consider Umbrella to be one of the key layers in my cyber security strategy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Better features and easy to manage system with great customer support and overall usability is great as it works for hybrid environment with ease as it is having features for on prem users as wells as cloud users with great customer support and great team of trained engineers to support our opeartions.
    Incentivized
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    Cloudflare
    Within a few hours, new engineers are trained in basic tasks and are quite happy they are able to resolve issues independently. After SSO is configured, onboarding is as simple as signing into m365 via a web browser popup.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    This is exceptionally simple to utilize in the event that you are as of now utilizing Google Cloud Services or you are important for the Google Ecosystem as of now. I accept this is likely the primary goal of Google Cloud DNS, to give a more complete set-up of devices to Google Cloud clients. Consequently, I would rate convenience a 9.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    Cisco umbrella services in the cloud are always available. However, the weakness is the VM installed in the data center that are the first resolvers. If the VMs become unavailable for any reason or the vSphere goes down, then all DNS is affected
    Incentivized
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    Cloudflare
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    our experience with cisco products has always been awesome and same is the case with cisco umbrella .Under umbrella cisco provides flexible and scalable software solution to use across different dept and sites . These softwares are very user friendly ,pages load quickly as these applications are designed for minimum latency and reports are also provided quickely
    Incentivized
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    Cloudflare
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Whilst the support is good once you get through to them, it's email only and the response is slow. This is a issue, because its a core system that needs to work. We have had issues in the past where several of our companies have gone down due to Umbrella and support is nowhere to be seen. It is very difficult to know whether Umbrella is having service issues, since they do not regularly update customers on the status of their services, such as is seen by providers such as Microsoft (status.umbrella.com just seems to show up all of the time, I'm not sure it's even updated)
    Incentivized
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    Cloudflare
    Good chat support from the portal for basic questions and minor issues. The enterprise support line is provided as well.
    Read full review
    Google
    In the event that you are utilizing Google Cloud Platform as your cloud supplier, Google Cloud DNS is unquestionably the DNS supplier to utilize.
    I haven't required help for it yet, notwithstanding, in my experience, Google Support is incredible.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Cisco
    Quite easy to understand training modules prepared by knowledgeable trainers. Training modules have included all the desired features of these softwares and the content delivery is very good from the respective module trainers and it explains in details the features and apart from that further training material support is also provided if needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    At the time we were forced to move from Cloud Web Security to Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Umbrella was far from being a direct replacement. It was frustrating and difficult to migrate due to the lack of functionality. This has since been addressed, however we now have legacy rulesets that were built as bandaids that cannot be removed. Hopefully the migration to Secure Access will address this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Umbrella checked all the boxes for us (at the time) because it supported multiple domains and multiple IPs to protect (we have 20+ offices), and its configuration and policies cover a lot of different options for us. We used another product prior, and it worked well, but it didn't have all the features we needed at the time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloudflare
    Cloudflare was both the most feature-rich and cost-effective of comparisons. Presales engagement understood our challenges and was keen to solve them.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Amazon Route 53 offers almost equal or slightly more features than Google Cloud DNS; we selected Google Cloud DNS because the rest of our projects use Google Cloud Platform.
    Also, since AWS is a bigger service provider, their pricing is also higher; since Google Cloud DNS pricing is better, we went for it.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    Cisco umbrella provides fleaxible and scalable software solutions which are easy deploy across multiple departments and sites wherever needed and this softwares are very easy to use and provides the best interface along with cisco support for other devices apart from cisco infrastructure but still there is scope for improvement on the inclusion of latest features
    Incentivized
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    Cloudflare
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • It's a costly product and we have to admit that, but security breaches are costlier, and they can take more than we can afford so we always had positive mindset over our security purchase and Cisco Umbrella had overall positive impact.
    Incentivized
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    Cloudflare
    • The cost of Cloudflare Zero trust is much lower, hence reducing spending on infrastructure security.
    • The Network performance is improved thanks to Warp protocol.
    • Requires less maintenance and hence saves time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • We use GCP for all our projects so Google Cloud DNS fits perfectly
    • It is proving to scale well so good for us since we are a growing company
    • It is easy to use and doesn't require a separate team to maintain
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots