ContentProtect vs. Lightspeed Filter vs. Securly Filter

If you are looking for something relatively inexpensive to lock down specific computers, it would be a useful tool. If the computers themselves aren't too locked down, implementation and management shouldn't be too difficult.

Incentivized

Lightspeed web filtering using the Chromebook Relay agent is amazing and does a great job for a cloud filtering solution. The reports that are available are great and can be customized and retains data for 90 days. Reports are easily shared with staff and/or parents for transparency and disciplinary reasons. The agent for Lightspeed (Relay) does not work well with OSX and works okay in Windows, but doesn't allow you to access local IP addresses in the web browser. There needs to be a way to bypass filtering for local network access. This can make it unusable in some cases.

Incentivized

As I stated earlier, if you have iPads in a 1 to 1 usage, [Securly Filter] is your best filter. Students cannot break it or mess with any settings on a device that has an MDM setup.

Incentivized

• The client is relatively light weight and doesn't impact other applications.
• The client isn't easily bypassed, so the user's are kept under restrictions.
• The configuration is relatively simple and easy to deploy.

Incentivized

• Reduces bandwidth consumption.
• Improves network performance.
• It is compatible with a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• It can be implemented in both wired and wireless networks.
• It can be installed in minutes and you can configure its settings with a few clicks.
• Learning environments work.

Incentivized

• Blocks objectionable content
• Customized profile management by OU.
• Logging

Incentivized

• Our primary policy is a restricted list, so that does as advertised. We had one location that had blocks based on categories (adult, illegal, etc). We continually had issues with sites getting completely blocked due to unrelated content. For example, Yahoo had a beer ad on the page, alcohol was blocked, so Yahoo became blocked for the period of time that ad was displayed. We had this happen multiple times and eventually switched to a different solution at that location.
• I've had issues with their cloud portal not working. I don't have to edit our configuration often, but on numerous occasions, i was unable to get the configuration page to load after login, sometimes for days. The platform just wasn't stable when I needed it to be.
• We run many of our remote rooms as frozen (after logoff they reset to the image). This works fine most times, but when content protect needs a configuration change pushed down, someone needs to go 'thaw' the computers, download the updated configuration, and re-'freeze' the computer. It would be nice if that information was just dynamic from the cloud and didn't need to be pulled down.
• The categorization used for policies is very limited and not flexible or easily customizable.
• I could never get the usage reporting to work.

Incentivized

• It sometimes takes longer than expected for new filtering rules to apply.
• Sometimes a site is blocked due to sub-sites or links, but it does not easily identify the source of the block if it is buried in the site.
• They have several reports included, but it would be nice to create custom reports.

Incentivized

• Delegated management is sometimes difficult to get working, requiring undocumented changes.
• Pricing has gone up for Chrome devices.
• Syncing is a manual process.

Incentivized

Love, Love, Love this product!!

Incentivized

It is unreliable and does not function as it is supposed to do so. As previously mentioned, there is a glitch when creating a block list.

I don't like giving a 10 since everyone always has room for improvement, and while Securly is doing an awesome job, there is still room for improvement across the board.

Incentivized

At the time ContentProtect was selected, Forcepoint (Websense at the time) didn't have an inexpensive or cloud type product. The same can be said with Cisco, at that time. Recently, we have reevaluated and are going to be transitioning to Forcepoint's mobile client and removing ContentProtect from our environment. The cost is actually now less and we will be able to get both more dynamic control and also give us more detailed reporting on the traffic from clients.

Incentivized

We were already a [Lightspeed] customer so the transition was seamless to Relay. Their support and team at [Lightspeed] are top-notch. We have been with Lightspeed for over 20 years and have evaluated on occasions other options and [ended] up back with [Lightspeed] each time. Their price point, ease of use, great team of engineers, and overall customer focus keep them on top in my eyes.

Incentivized

Securly Filter integration with Google Workspace for education makes it an ideal pairing for K-12 institutions. It has a friendlier portal and more intuitive UI, particularly when retrieving activity logs. The policy customization is also far easier and responsive. That being said, it does not provide a full-fledged firewall like Untangle NG (nor many of the other useful features from NG, such as simple-to-deploy VPN).

Incentivized

• It was a relatively inexpensive and simple solution when we needed one relatively quickly, which is a positive. The inexpensive price has kept it in the environment.
• The lack of reliable reporting has lead to the need for an alternate monitoring solution in a few cases. Network level reporting was used, which is a separate expense, configuration.
• Time has been lost waiting on the portal and then troubleshooting support tickets when sites that shouldn't have been blocked have been blocked. It has resulted in changes for locations that needed dynamic category filtering as opposed to a finite list.
• The blocking of sites based on add traffic or sub-sites (rather than just blocking that content like other solutions) has resulted in downtime during classes when those sites were listed in the lesson plan and had previously worked.

Incentivized

• Very costly per year
• Does a great job with 1:1 filtering on Chromebooks
• Safety Check checks student for possible self harm and alerts staff

Incentivized

• Securly has reduced our workload managing filters.
• Securly makes it quick to respond to user audit requests.
• Securly is quick to set up.

Incentivized