What users are saying about
Cisco Umbrella
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Top Rated
138 Ratings
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Based on 138 reviews and ratings
52 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.3 out of 100
Based on 52 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cisco Umbrella is rated higher in 1 area: Usability
- F5 BIG-IP is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Support Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
Cisco Umbrella
84%
69 Ratings

8.8
BIG-IP
88%
13 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
Cisco Umbrella
100%
3 Ratings

BIG-IP
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability
9.4
Cisco Umbrella
94%
4 Ratings

9.0
BIG-IP
90%
1 Rating
Support Rating
7.3
Cisco Umbrella
73%
67 Ratings

7.7
BIG-IP
77%
7 Ratings
Implementation Rating
9.0
Cisco Umbrella
90%
2 Ratings

BIG-IP
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco Umbrella
Cisco Umbrella provides another layer of protection on top of firewalls and antivirus. Cisco Umbrella makes whitelisting, blacklisting, and categorical web filtering easier through the use of a single admin portal. Updates to these lists are populated almost instantly to all of your local and remote devices. Cisco Umbrella may be overkill for smaller businesses that do not have a distributed workforce.
Information Technology Team Lead
West Star Aviation, LLCAviation & Aerospace, 501-1000 employees
BIG-IP
The product provides a very successful solution for both VPN and Load Balancing, especially for medium and large-sized companies. It can be preferred in small-sized companies, but due to the price and licensing model, I think this would be an unnecessary expense. This product is very successful especially if you have more than 2 servers on the Internet, DMZ side and you are going to balance the load between them. On the local side, if you are managing a large database, this solution of F5 is truly unrivaled.
Network & Security Technical Architect
Vakıf KatılımFinancial Services, 1001-5000 employees
Pros
Cisco Umbrella
- Cisco Umbrella protects our devices and users from malicious sites of all kinds.
- Cisco Umbrella allows us to add additional web site types we may want to block for specific users.
- Cisco Umbrella keeps the list of sites blocked current by utilizing data from their entire security platform.
Network Administrator
Plainfield Community SchoolsEducation Management, 501-1000 employees
BIG-IP
- Easy connection: you can connect to your corporate network with two clicks.
- IP restriction: F5 has a list of possible insecure IP numbers, if someone tries to connect using one of these numbers, F5 BIG-IP won't connect.
- Always on feature: Very handy feature, if you install always on, you won't need to click connect.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employeesCons
Cisco Umbrella
- Keeping up to date on known malicious sites and blocking those is difficult for all vendors, but this could always be improved upon.
- A more detailed descriptions of what is included the Security Categories would be useful. Generic descriptions are provided. For example, state lottery sites could be detailed in the description of the Gambling category.
IT Security Manager
Reynolds, Smith and Hills (RS&H)Design, 1001-5000 employees
BIG-IP
- The appliance had power supply problems, replaced 2 over the 5 years, $3000 each
- The appliance as a hardware device had no support 2 years after we bought them, moved to virtual
- Requires F5 knowledge, their terminology and way of doing things needs training

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Hospital & Health Care Company, 51-200 employeesPricing Details
Cisco Umbrella
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—BIG-IP
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cisco Umbrella
Cisco Umbrella 10.0
Based on 3 answers
It is a great product. It is easy to manage and is affordable. We are a Cisco shop, so it is easily integrated with our other security suite of products to include Threat Response and SecureX.
IT Security Manager
Reynolds, Smith and Hills (RS&H)Design, 1001-5000 employees
BIG-IP
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco Umbrella
Cisco Umbrella 9.4
Based on 4 answers
The product was easy to install and get running. To maintain the product is also a simple matter of maintaining lists of wanted and unwanted domains or URLs. The basic and advanced security features all do what they are intended to do with no known erroneous outcomes
IT Security Manager
Reynolds, Smith and Hills (RS&H)Design, 1001-5000 employees
BIG-IP
BIG-IP 9.0
Based on 1 answer
Great customization and easy to use help reference menus
Senior Network Security Engineer
InsightInformation Technology and Services, 5001-10,000 employees
Support Rating
Cisco Umbrella
Cisco Umbrella 7.3
Based on 67 answers
Our network team mostly works with Cisco support but from what I understand, they were pretty helpful because we're an enterprise company. We use a few other Cisco products, so we do get a pretty good response from Cisco customer support. I'm not a fan of Cisco's SSO because we can't put it behind Okta but that's beyond the scope of this.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 1001-5000 employeesBIG-IP
BIG-IP 7.7
Based on 7 answers
On the occasions when we've had to engage f5 support, they have been great. They have always resolved our issues quickly and been easy to work with and professional. The reason I give them a 10 out of 10, however, is because when we've had issues that have crossed over between the f5 BIG-IP, our Cisco switches, and our Microsoft IIS server the f5 support representatives have been extremely knowledgeable about every product and device involved and have been able to troubleshoot end-to-end without having to engage other vendors.
Network Engineer
Kentucky Administrative Office of the CourtsGovernment Administration, 1001-5000 employees
Implementation Rating
Cisco Umbrella
Cisco Umbrella 9.0
Based on 2 answers
Overall, the implementation was smooth with little issues. Testing some of the advanced features and ensuring they did not impact our user population was the greatest challenge
IT Security Manager
Reynolds, Smith and Hills (RS&H)Design, 1001-5000 employees
BIG-IP
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Umbrella
We used a product before this called iPrism by EdgeWave and also briefly tried Barracuda Web Security in the cloud. We were having such a large influx of service desk calls about proxy-based layer 7 web filters that we wanted to step back and pick something more at the DNS level, to protect our employees but not hover over their social media use, etc. Cisco will also employ a layer 7 proxy if a site is suspicious, which does require us to push a certificate out should we want that feature. For most policies we have it enabled.
IT Infrastructure Supervisor
Sight and Sound TheatresEntertainment, 201-500 employees
BIG-IP
I can't recall the name of the previous software we used for remote intranet access, but it was much less reliable. F5 BIG-IP is consistent and easy to use--the authentication process happens quickly and reliably via my cell phone's facial recognition feature which is convenient and secure. No need to carry a key fob or enter a verification code. The previous software required email codes be sent and entered to verify access.

Verified User
Professional in Human Resources
Internet Company, 10,001+ employeesReturn on Investment
Cisco Umbrella
- On the positive side, the product does help block known bad sites, resulting in less time that technicians spend cleaning infections.
- On the negative side, the problem that causes Windows to incorrectly report no Internet access has taken a lot of time for many technicians.
- Reporting features for individual clients help us more efficiently provide browsing reports when needed.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employeesBIG-IP
- Load balancing is a requirement in most serious web environments, and this allows us to keep sites up and running in the event of partial server outages.
- Keeping sites extra secured with the advanced security and routing features is a plus.

Verified User
Technician in Information Technology
Entertainment Company, 51-200 employees