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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

    Zscaler Internet Access

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AZscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA) is a secure web gateway (SWG), delivering cloud native cyberthreat protection and zero trust access to the internet and SaaS apps.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Umbrella
    Cisco Umbrella compares very well against all of these solutions. Cisco Umbrella's ease of use, powerful security controls, and integrations with other products within the Cisco ecosystem made it a great choice.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Umbrella
    Mainly the price!
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Umbrella
    Auto SIG Tunnels is a feature that helps in provisioning tunnels automatically using Cisco Umbrella APIs and so this is one win for choosing Cisco Umbrella over others. With Cisco SD-WAN viptela, the Cisco Umbrella stacks up well because its the same vendor so less …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Umbrella
    Zscaler
    Incentivized
    Zscaler
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) gives us better and full visibility to websites, URL, requests etc that we didn't get with Cisco Umbrella. We could block things by domain name, but seeing subdirectories and subdomains for that, we didn't have that ability. It's probably there, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Initially when we researched Cisco Umbrella we felt that Zscaler came out ahead. Umbrella has made huge improvements since then that we are planning to evaluate again.
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Zscaler Internet Access enables easy deployment of web access controls
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    While all offered robust security, Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) stood out for three key reasons:

    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Supports zero trust access and real time SSL inspection offers better visibility into encrypted threats.
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Zscaler Internet Access has significantly more configuration and capability in the platform, and can scale much better with large organizations. It is also much more affordable for our environment and gives us greater flexibility to grow into the Zscaler Platform.
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    I think Zscaler Internet Access is miles ahead
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    It is a mature product with several features and provides more stability to the users. Also, it solves different issues that required from different vendors n the past. On the other hand, the Zscaler team has provided good support to understand the tool which has giving us a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Our organization chose Zscaler Internet Access because I feel better protected by this Zscaler Internet Access product
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Costing was important part to choose Zscaler Internet Access.
    Incentivized
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    We evaluated Zscaler Internet Access as more attractive on financial side than competitors we evaluated and easier to setup and to use. The interaction with vendor and its partners was also top-notch.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    91 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    284 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    88 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    245 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    92 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    284 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    77 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    207 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    84 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    227 Answers
    TrustRadius Insights
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Highlights

    TrustRadius
    Research Team Insight
    Published

    Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are broad-spectrum internet security solutions. Zscaler Internet Access unifies multiple security functions, such as web filters, firewalls, and file sandboxing into a single cloud-based product. Cisco Umbrella used to be limited to DNS-level inspection but has recently expanded its feature set to be similar to Zscaler. 

    On TrustRadius, both products are used heavily by enterprise-level organizations, likely due to the attractiveness of single-product security solutions for large businesses with complex security needs. 

    Features

    Although both Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access provide similar levels of protection, they each have a few standout benefits.

    Administrators using Zscaler Internet Access appreciate that the platform is relatively simple to implement and keep updated. Its cloud-based abstraction also allows users to do away with complicated local security configurations. End-users generally report minimal delays to web access. The product’s SSO capability helps keep users safe without having to log in to the service repeatedly.

    Cisco Umbrella’s users appreciate that the service is lightweight, easy to implement, and comes with useful policy configurations out-of-the-box. It provides detailed statistics to help administrators understand user behavior and threat patterns, and adjust their policy appropriately. Cisco Umbrella’s DNS-level filtering is fast and responsive; users report it acts almost invisibly. It also integrates well with other web security products, especially those offered by Cisco.

    Limitations

    Both solutions provide web security and filtering for their customers, but each also has limitations to consider before purchasing.

    Many users find Cisco Umbrella’s statistics and reporting feature to be dense and difficult to parse. Some users wish for quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to create policy rules (e.g. blacklisting a website) directly from reports. Although the service can integrate with MS Active Directory, many administrators found the integration process difficult, a problem that was compounded by a lack of sufficient training and FAQ material.

    On the other hand, reviewers on TrustRadius report that Zscaler Internet Access can be frustrating to work with in general. Administrators often comment on the poor user design when trying to use the management dashboard. The web blocking options may be too inflexible for some companies. This requires administrators to abandon the platform’s category and behavior-based blacklist capability and resort purely to whitelisting approved websites. Although Zscaler Internet Access provides detailed logging, the tools to filter those logs can be troublesome to use. The report generation options also don’t provide enough customization options for some users.

    Pricing

    Both Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access use a tiered, subscription-based pricing structure and do not disclose pricing information on their website. Quotes are available from the vendor upon request. 

    Cisco Umbrella’s feature set changes significantly between its three tiers. The DNS Security Essentials tier offers primarily DNS-based filtering and security. The DNS Security Advantage tier adds features like SSL decryption and threat intelligence tools. The Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Essentials tier adds the complete set of security features, including file sandboxing, cloud access security broker (CASB), and firewall capabilities. Complete pricing information is available via a quote from Cisco. 

    Zscaler Internet Access also offers three tiered plans. The Professional Edition offers security features such as web filtering, malware protection, and file sandboxing. The Business Edition adds features like SSL inspection, bandwidth control, and cloud data loss prevention. The Transformation Edition adds extra sandboxing features, more firewall options, and CASB functionality. Complete pricing information is available via a quote from Zscaler.

    Features
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Identity Management
    Comparison of Identity Management features of Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    5.0
    2 Ratings
    55% below category average
    Multi-Factor Authentication00 Ratings5.02 Ratings
    Endpoint Security
    Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    10.0
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence
    Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    8.5
    216 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Network Analytics00 Ratings8.7217 Ratings
    Threat Recognition00 Ratings8.3214 Ratings
    Vulnerability Classification00 Ratings8.5191 Ratings
    Automated Alerts and Reporting00 Ratings8.2205 Ratings
    Threat Analysis00 Ratings8.8203 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence Reporting00 Ratings8.5199 Ratings
    Automated Threat Identification00 Ratings8.5192 Ratings
    Zero Trust Security
    Comparison of Zero Trust Security features of Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Umbrella
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    8.9
    262 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Continuous Verification00 Ratings8.7245 Ratings
    Secure Web Gateways00 Ratings9.0236 Ratings
    Network Flow Control00 Ratings8.1217 Ratings
    Network Traffic Analysis00 Ratings8.8219 Ratings
    Segmentation Leveraging00 Ratings8.6194 Ratings
    Admin Access Control00 Ratings9.1230 Ratings
    Network Data Encryption00 Ratings8.8207 Ratings
    Network Topology Mapping00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Forescout Vistaro Platform
    Score6.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (124 ratings)
    9.0
    (295 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (15 ratings)
    8.4
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    7.5
    (10 ratings)
    8.8
    (279 ratings)
    Availability
    8.7
    (11 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.9
    (63 ratings)
    7.1
    (10 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.5
    (11 ratings)
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.5
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    8.4
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco UmbrellaZscaler Internet Access
    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
    Zscaler
    I feel the product is very good to set up basic standards and go beyond that in many aspects. However, due to being sometimes too simple, it limits the ability to do some other complex changes. Having the ability to do both would be ideal for some, if not all, of the products within Zscaler Internet Access. A simple setup to have it stand-up, and more advanced settings for those more experienced.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Zscaler
    • Provides a secure VPN connection point for endpoint connectivity.
    • Provides the VPN connectivity in a fast and reliable connection state.
    • Very dependable, once connected the connection stays up and there's no fuss.
    • Very good at letting you know when you are not authenticated.
    • Very easy to authenticate and regain access when your session times out.
    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
    Zscaler
    • ZS CLI support to turn off ZIA and ZDX service specifically on mac.
    • Better visibility into failed posture devices, including a timeline and the reason the posture failed (This is about the Zscaler mobile portal: Enrolled devices --> Failed posture devices).
    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
    Zscaler
    While Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) delivers critical value in cloud security and RBI compliance, I rate renewal likelihood 7/10 due to evolving needs versus platform limitations. Below is my rationale:
    Key Gaps:
    1. Advanced Threat Costs:
    ZIA’s add-ons (e.g., Advanced DLP, Sandboxing) incur 35%+ cost premiums – straining budgets as transaction volumes (UPI/iMobile) grow 50% YoY.
    2. API Banking Scalability:
    ZIA’s API rate limits throttle real-time policy sync during UPI peaks (10K+ TPS), forcing workarounds for finacle integrations.
    3. RBI Future-Proofing:
    Limited native support for upcoming digital rupee (CBDC) security rules requires custom development, increasing compliance overhead.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    Getting started was pretty straightforward. We can tell the product is way more robust than we are using it. It started as a replacement for previous DNS-blocking content filtering, but we're exploring how this will add value with an upcoming DLP redesign and with traffic optimization at some of our remote sites with severe bandwidth limits.
    Incentivized
    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
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    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
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    There are often performance issues reported
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    Zscaler's ZIA support is quick and knowledgable. They respond within 1-2 hours of you submitting your ticket. They are very thorough and are typically ready to jump on a live troubleshooting session. Our ZIA platform and how we use is it unique so at times tickets can be open for weeks but we alway get quality support compared to other unrelated product support in our enterprise
    Incentivized
    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
    Zscaler
    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
    Zscaler
    good the engineer give excellent support and eplanation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Zscaler
    The overall user community and scope of supportability outweighed the others on our short list. Netskope was a close second, but the risk, though small, was greater than that of bringing Zscaler aboard. We were looking for a mature, well-supported, highly functional, and fine-grained solution that met all our user and information security requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    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
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    • I would say it has a very good ROI, as whenever someone can't access something, they submit a ticket to our network engineer, and within minutes, the site is safely added to ZIA with best-practice configurations. After seeing a little of the UI from the Zenith event, it seems very user-friendly to control these policies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Zscaler Internet Access Screenshots

    Screenshot of an overview of Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), a cloud native security service edge (SSE) solution that builds on a decade of secure web gateway leadership. Offered as a scalable SaaS platform through Zscaler's security cloud, it replaces legacy network security solutions, preventing advanced attacks and data loss with a comprehensive zero trust approach. ZIA is integrated into the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ to provide superior defense-in-depth, secure connectivity, end user experience, and administrative visibility and control.