Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Forcepoint SWG

Forcepoint SWG
Formerly Forcepoint Web Security

Overview

What is Forcepoint SWG?

The Forcepoint ONE Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is one of the three foundational gateways of the Forcepoint ONE all-in-one cloud platform. Forcepoint ONE SWG monitors and controlsany interaction with any website, including blocking access to websites based on category and…

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway has proven to be a valuable tool for organizations in various departments, ensuring secure browsing of the …
Continue reading

Forcepoint Security

10 out of 10
December 10, 2020
Incentivized
It's a good solution and works for us in hybrid as well as central proxy. We are currently using this solution throughout the …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Return to navigation

Product Demos

Mac OS Endpoint Installation | Forcepoint Web Security Cloud

YouTube
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Forcepoint SWG?

The Forcepoint ONE Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is one of the three foundational gateways of the Forcepoint ONE all-in-one cloud platform. Forcepoint ONE SWG monitors and controlsany interaction with any website, including blocking access to websites based on category and risk score, blocking download of malware, blocking upload of sensitive data to personal filesharing accounts, detecting shadow IT, and optionally providingRemote Browser Isolation (RBI) with Content Disarm andReconstruction (CDR).

Forcepoint SWG Features

  • Supported: Shadow IT discovery and risk ranking
  • Supported: Cloud Application Control and full CASB upgrade
  • Supported: Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
  • Supported: Cloud Sandbox

Forcepoint SWG Video

Forcepoint Web Security Cloud Features

Forcepoint SWG Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

The Forcepoint ONE Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is one of the three foundational gateways of the Forcepoint ONE all-in-one cloud platform. Forcepoint ONE SWG monitors and controlsany interaction with any website, including blocking access to websites based on category and risk score, blocking download of malware, blocking upload of sensitive data to personal filesharing accounts, detecting shadow IT, and optionally providingRemote Browser Isolation (RBI) with Content Disarm andReconstruction (CDR).

Zscaler Internet Access and Netskope Public Cloud Security are common alternatives for Forcepoint SWG.

The most common users of Forcepoint SWG are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(137)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway has proven to be a valuable tool for organizations in various departments, ensuring secure browsing of the internet and addressing a range of security concerns. Users have reported that the application effectively blocks malicious threats while allowing users to browse the internet, providing an effective layer of security. This has helped organizations protect their computers and laptops from potential threats, giving IT departments peace of mind.

Additionally, the software has been instrumental in managing productivity, as it enables different departments to access specific categories of websites and allows managers to review internet activity. HR teams have found value in the user site visit data managed by Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway, which has proven helpful in certain cases. Moreover, the ability to quickly generate standard reports from the report catalog has made it easier for organizations to monitor web traffic and measure internet usage.

In public-sector organizations, the software ensures that users and staff are accessing websites aligned with mission goals. Libraries have leveraged its functionality to enable filtering of staff and patron internet usage, meeting requirements for CIPA compliance and qualifying for E-Rate funding.

Customers have also praised Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's scalability and ease of deployment across multiple locations. The granular delegation of administration via active directory has allowed local departments to implement their own rule sets, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.

Overall, customers have found this product to be a reliable solution for securing web traffic, preventing threats, managing productivity, and ensuring compliance with organizational policies.

Helpful and Clear Help Articles: Reviewers have praised the clear and helpful help articles provided by Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway. These articles were found to be a valuable resource in understanding and utilizing the software effectively, with some users mentioning that they served as a comprehensive reference point for various tasks and functionalities. The availability of these detailed and informative articles not only contributed to a smoother learning curve but also helped troubleshoot issues independently, reducing the reliance on customer service support.

Time-saving Feature: Users appreciate the time-saving aspect of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's clear and easily accessible help articles. With these resources readily available, reviewers mentioned being able to find answers to their questions quickly, allowing them to continue working without interruptions. This feature has been particularly useful in minimizing downtime caused by seeking support from customer service or navigating complex user manuals.

Commitment to Customer Satisfaction: The inclusion of clear help articles demonstrates Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway's commitment to customer satisfaction. Reviewers highlighted how this comprehensive resource eliminates unnecessary back-and-forth communication with customer support, as it provides extensive information upfront. By offering detailed guidance through these articles, Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway ensures users have access to reliable self-help options, enhancing overall user experience.

  1. Poor User Interface: Multiple users have expressed frustration with the confusing and non-user-friendly interface of Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway, making it difficult to navigate and causing difficulties during installation.

  2. Limited Configuration Options: Some users feel that the software lacks flexibility in defining usage, as the options for configuring policies and exceptions are limited compared to other available options in the market.

  3. Slow Support Response Times: Users have reported slower support response times compared to other vendors, with issues taking 3 to 5 days to resolve, indicating a need for more efficient and responsive customer support from Forcepoint.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 75)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use ForcePoint Web Security across the entire organization. It serves the dual role of web filtering and data loss prevention.
  • Allows content filtering.
  • Guards against potential threats.
  • Administrative overhead.
  • Time to resolve issues with support.
ForcePoint would be a much better solution if the product did not encounter so many glitches and if support were able to resolve issues more timely.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We primarily use it as a web filtering tool across the whole organization. We have different policies in place for our different business units. Its primary use is to protect us from malware.
  • Web filtering works well
  • Hybrid client has no issues
  • O365 filtering was different but improving
  • FTP filtering is difficult
Well suited for a PCI environment where you need to limit web access.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Forcepoint Web Security to protect our users and devices while they are on-campus. To extend that protection and simplify management, we are currently in the process of switching to the cloud variant.
  • Powerful
  • Feature rich
  • Complex Management
  • Knowledge Base is hard to search
The cloud variant of Forcepoint Web Security can help you protect your end users and devices from malicious web content no matter where they are in a simplified manner. The on-prem variant can do this as well, but additional environment configuration is required. This product shouldn't replace endpoint protection as it doesn't take USB sticks or local files into account.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are a partner company of Forcepoint and are supporting many clients across globe (mainly web, email and DLP).
  • Forcepoint Category Database is always updated based on content available on the web rather than another competitor.
  • Content scanning engine which provides real time content scanning/categorization is another feature to prevent malicious activity.
  • I worked on versions 7.6, 8.2 and 8.5.3. But in latest version Forcepoint enables most features as default which which was optional in older versions.
Forcepoint Web Security is the perfect option to monitor all inbound traffic and prevent malicious/phishing activity.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Forcepoint Web Security for web filtering only. We use it across our entire organization. This allows us to quickly set up standardized accesses to different levels of employees. With it's real-time monitoring features Forcepoint Web Security also allows us to easily identify sites that are being blocked and which ones are being allowed. Using that information, I can then evaluate user access and adjust it.
  • The real-time monitoring tool allows for quick analysis of users traffic.
  • Exceptions, makes allowing one-off accesses easy and allows for notes.
  • Command-line functionality seems limited and not very user friendly.
  • Online documentation to assist in solving errors quickly isn't easy to find what your looking for or isn't relevant to your problem.
Forcepoint Web Security is well suited for a smaller organization that needs easy management of web URL filtering. It allows IT to quickly discover inadvertently blocked sites and correct. It does appear to have some reporting functionality but as we are not using it, I can't say for sure. I would say that it appears it could use a more robust set of reporting tools.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is used across the entire organization to limit where particular users can go on the web and protect the corporation from malicious websites, and control loss of company data.
Forcepoint is especially critical in worker productivity as reports can be run against users and departments on internet usage. We especially like that the threat database and site categorization is constantly being updated throughout the day.
  • Limit access to sites by category
  • Block malicious content
  • Easier software upgrades
  • Cloud offering for management of content gateway/on premise infrastructure
Forcepoint Web Security is well suited for environments where admins need to control users' access to websites, and to also keep track of loss of data, such as if documents or information containing PII isare being sent out of the company.

Forcepoint Web Security may be less appropriate in very small environments--less than 1,000 users--or where there might not be an admin to maintain the system frequently.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is used across our organization to protect our Internet access.
  • Ease of Use
  • Ease to Manage
  • A bit complicated to setup
  • Too many server pieces to integrate
Forcepoint Web Security works for our organization because it protects our users from malicious websites and allows us to block websites not suitable for our business.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is being utilized in our environment as a proxy and content filter. We use this to filter website categories across the many groups we have in our organization. This includes protocol, file extension, and keyword filters. The software also gives us some solid alert data when employees encounter risks on websites that are not yet categorized.
  • Dynamic threat recognition
  • Diverse ways to deploy the product
  • Reporting was an issue in the past. New report builder features have improved upon this
  • Realtime Monitor works well but can sometimes become non-responsive
Forcepoint Web Security is well suited for diverse environments. It has a load of capabilities. It works well in both inline and explicit proxy situations. There are many authentication methods that give you many deployment options as well. Either used as a traditional Windows server, Linux install or appliance, you can really choose any form you like. The only scenario I can think of where it would not be appropriate would be one where the product was overkill for the organization. I'd say maybe a very small office setting.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint is used across our organization. We have a large pool of users and Forcepoint is being used to filter web content to ensure security over the network.
  • Security from viruses, malware, phishing
  • Data loss prevention
  • N/A
It is very well suited for an organization with a large number of end users. I imagine it works well for small and medium scale organizations as well. For us it is perfect because we are a large organization.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is being used for our whole organization. This helps us protect our company by filtering what websites we allow our employees to access.
  • Web filtering
  • Stability
  • Web filtering
  • SSL decryption
Forcepoint Web Security does a great job filtering websites and an OK job with SSL inspection. I don't think that the SSL inspection issue is necessarily on Forcepoint but more on other websites that are not fans of the SSL inspection certificate that Forcepoint uses.
John Keenan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Forcepoint Web Security to monitor web traffic across the majority of the organization. It allows us to view usage trends, block malicious sites, and track user behavior that may or may not be malicious. We use the agent-based version and its security has been extremely beneficial in a number of areas to improve visibility and investigate.
  • Blocking unwanted websites
  • Presentation of data for reports
  • Product support after implementation
  • Navigation of primary portal
We generally like Forcepoint, but whitelisting of BioMed devices and frequent inexplicable (no actual Forcepoint block page) blockages of traffic prevent the ability to completely understand the security risks presented by each case. We can't tell what the BioMed device is actually doing once it's whitelisted so it could be going to malicious sites but our whitelisting makes it impossible to tell. Some sites appear to be unsuccessful at loading and there's no explanation as to why. They show up as approved in Forcepoint but FP support isn't terribly useful in suggesting other options that could be causing similar results—all they provide is "our product is operating as designed".
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it across the whole org. We use it to protect email.
  • It prevents emails with profanity from going out in and outside the organization which really helps prevent issues and problems between coworkers and looking unprofessional for our members.
  • Obviously, it protects against malicious emails.
  • We are extremely pleased and cannot make any recommendations.
I don't really have any particulars to share.
Ted Jan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is used across our enterprise. We have different policies setup depending on the type of users we have (ie: regulated and unregulated) as well as which BU they belong to. The primary use for us is to block users from going to websites that either the company as a whole or the individual BUs don't deem appropriate.
  • Blocking websites based on different BU requirements.
  • Putting websites into categories depending on content.
  • Forcepoint Web Security can have difficulty in determining the user who is browsing the internet and requires an app be run in order to make that determination. This app can fail and your users can still have issues. Hopefully they can figure out a way to move away from using this app.
  • Forcepoint Web Security has to release a new version every time Chrome is updated. Unfortunately, this can mean that you cannot use the latest version of Chrome until Forcepoint is updated; this can take several days. If there is a zero-day vulnerability, this can lead to your company being exposed until the latest version is ready.
In my organization, we use Forcepoint Web Security primarily to control internet browsing per BU specific requirements as well as across the company as a whole. I think the Forcepoint excels in making sure that the specific browsing policies are enforced. It also does a good job of making sure that users don't stumble across websites that might contain malicious content. There is definitely some room for improvement, but overall it does a good job.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
This is used across our whole organization. It's primary purpose is to restrict access to sites that are deemed not secure, whether that be determined by us or automatically by the product itself.
  • Globally block a site for the whole organization.
  • Restrict social media access to specific groups across the organization.
  • The user access logs contain a lot of useless information. I understand this is very hard to tackle as I've seen this across any product that logs web activity.
  • I would like to see more customization options of website block pages.
While we had some challenges implementing, once it was in place it's been largely a "set it and forget it" product. As an understaffed organization that is quite valuable. One challenge we constantly run into is issues with collaborative sites (Webex, Educational streams, etc). Unblocking those is a constant struggle.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Forcepoint across the enterprise. Its web filtering protects the company from several problems. Malicious websites, phishing links, viruses, encryption attacks, illegal and or immoral web activity, unproductive browsing, and wasteful use of bandwidth. Several phishing links and encryption attacks have been thwarted by Forcepoint, and our Security team was alerted to the danger.
  • Blocking immoral/Illegal activities and browsing.
  • Blocking Phishing Links.
  • Some applications have an issue with Forcepoint in the middle of the transaction. While there are ways to resolve this, it could be made easier to troubleshoot.
  • The Hybrid client can be problematic, preventing all web access in some cases.
Forcepoint works very well onsite; we've had great protection for our onsite users.
When Users are traveling, we do get protection from the hybrid client, but it has caused several issues preventing all web access in certain scenarios, While there are a couple of ways to implement the hybrid client, none work perfectly.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Web Security to control access by users to the internet. It is employed across the company with various policies and restrictions in place. It helps reduce the attack surface of the company by allowing us to restrict access to troublesome categories, sure, but also by a customized URL blacklist/whitelist where applicable. It also helps to reduce the potential for litigation thanks to the blocking of various content, protocols, file downloads, etc.
  • Easy deployment.
  • An easy to use interface.
  • The SIEM connector still isn't available, but should be.
  • User image searches aren't as easy to follow, in the case of policy enforcement and whatnot.
This product is useful when you have to control access to various categories, websites, or restrict various users while allowing others. It is very scalable.
This product is not as useful in more open environments where the web is generally considered 'open' by the staff, or in closed, very secure environments where the internet isn't available.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Whole organization. We filter staff and patron internet usage.
  • Blocks internet porn.
  • Blocks anti-government sites.
  • Interface could be easier to use for new users.
  • Most commonly used features could have quick add features.
In an organization of my size, it's good that you don't have to manage it often. But with a lot of turn over it is not as user-friendly as some other systems.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are a non-profit that works with the local unemployment agency to assist the public with filing unemployment for their benefits. We also offer services, if they are eligible, for the opportunity for them to get retrained for a different job industry. This program allows us to make sure that users and staff are not going anywhere on the internet that does not align with our mission goals. Currently, this package is used agency-wide between all 6 of our locations and filters about 550 computers.
  • This package is one of the few that offers a category, quota time, that allows us to limit certain categories and or websites for staff that would normally be blocked for customers and may not be something that is needed in their day to day job duties. We allow staff one hour a day, broken down into six 10 min increments, to visit sites for shopping, travel arrangement and other areas that are more of a personal need than a business need.
  • Forcepoint has a wide selection of categories that can be enabled, quota timed or restricted at a top-level or you can go more granular and drill down to subcategories to allow for only partial access.
  • It would be nice if the endpoint would allow admin users to temporarily bypass the restrictions. There are times when a user or group of users may only need to temporarily need access to websites and this feature would be nice instead of the admin having to unblock the website for the specified time period just to have to go back in and restrict it again.
  • Some of the reporting options that allowed us to see minute by minute activity on a user would be nice to have back. We had it on the server-based version we were running but when we switched to cloud we have not been able to find it.
I feel that this is one of the better options out there that offers more flexibility than some of their competitors. This solution can be used if you are looking to offer a singular filtration for all systems or it can be configured to offer a variety of filtering options depending upon groups and user's rights and needs. I am not sure of a scenario where this would be less appropriate.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is being used company-wide for its web filtering gateway and security protection. It provides security protection and blocking against malicious and non-productive websites while enhancing network performance. It addresses social engineering, high bandwidth consumption, and third-party application download and installation.
  • Blocking malicious websites.
  • Manageable rules and policies.
  • Difficulty troubleshooting from alerts.
  • Poor search capabilities in reports.
I have used Bluecoat prior to Forcepoint Web Security. Bluecoat has a very easily manageable console and rich features. But it costs many times over Forcepoint. Forcepoint is suitable for a medium-size company with its reasonable cost and software application without the requirement of a hardware appliance. It provides a dependable gateway security web protection against social engineering websites.
December 20, 2019

Use the Forcepoint

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is used by my company to manage employee access to acceptable websites, reduce time spent on frivolous sites, and to manage some of the features that we want to permit within social media sites. It is also a defense-in-depth layer for malicious attacks that call out to the Internet to download scripts. We have also used it in security investigations for threat hunting, to search for unusual website access, as well as finding other outliers, like users hitting a certain site thousands of times over.
  • Good dashboard overview
  • Targeted policies on users, IPs, subnets
  • Sometimes requires a logoff/logon to validate website access
  • Occasional service restarts needed as a troubleshooting measure
Great enterprise tool, uses existing directories for user, group, and IP-based custom permissions against common site category groupings for policies. The exceptions allow date expiration, which helps keep exceptions limited instead of going into perpetuity. It uses Microsoft technologies, which helps make it manageable within the skillsets of SQL and Windows administrators.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used by the entire company for offsite Internet access.
  • Trouble tickets are responded to quickly and by knowledgeable staff
  • Requests to re-categorize URLs are responded to quickly.
  • Report formatting is bad. You have to choose PDF, which can result in 100+ pages/files, or you can choose Excel, for which the columns don't line up and are hard to filter.
  • The different types of filtering (SSL bypass, Authentication bypass, Tunnel, Unfiltered Destination, etc.) are located in too many different places; having to go between our main console and content gateways and find the right categories is tedious.
Good for high-level Internet filtering, because it is URL-only-based, but not very granular as far as functionality (i.e., distinguishing between file uploads and downloads for online storage sites). Also, Forcepoint Web Security is not able to handle Office 365 traffic efficiently (the recommendation is to completely bypass all 100+ Office 365 sites completely, leaving us with no visibility.)
December 14, 2019

Forcepoint review

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The whole organization uses it. We use it to restrict access to certain website categories. Managers also review internet activity.
  • Reporting
  • Managing rules
  • Cannot restrict https sites.
Overall, it is a good product and runs without much intervention after the initial setup and configuration. If you intend to block https sites, this product is not for you.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have used Forcepoint (starting with Websense and Triton) for numerous years for URL filtering and web security across the organization to control and protect URL/Internet access across the organization. This product has met our needs. We are currently migrating to the cloud and investigating DLP.
  • Internet Filtering and Protection
  • Web Security Protection
  • Reporting ease of use
  • Development of stronger documentation to assist in reporting
Forcepoint is well suited for the specific tasks that it performs, e.g. web and content filtering as well as web security. We are evaluating the other aspects of the Forcepoint toolsets to see how they enhance our portfolio. It is appropriate for all of our current scenarios.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Forcepoint Web Security is primarily used to block malicious websites. We have also set it to block sites that consume large amounts of bandwidth. It is used across the whole organization.
  • Blocking malicious websites.
  • Great support.
  • Very high learning curve to administer.
  • Reporting functionality is terrible (version 8.1).
Forcepoint Web Security is well suited for medium-sized organizations that have dedicated network administrators to address issues as they arise (blocked websites, programs that do not work, etc.).
December 10, 2019

Highly Recommended

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My organization uses Forcepoint Web Security across the whole organization. It is used as content filtering to block malicious traffics, investigation on users when we received an alert on a user when the site they visit was malicious and tried to contact the command and control server somewhere on the web.
  • Content filtering.
  • Block malicious web traffic.
  • I would like to see a summary report on user activities.
  • A lot of times we have to comb through the logs to figure out the actual site user visited.
Forcepoint Web Security does a very good job of filtering traffic and blocked malicious websites. We are able to investigate alarms from our SIEM to see the actual sites that a user visited that made a call out to command and control the server and act accordingly. Forcepoint Web Security also has the capability to whitelist or blacklist websites as well.
Return to navigation