The feature I find most valuable is the management portal. The one we're currently using is much more simple and with the IOS version 9, there is quite an improvement on the stability and the configuration of the solution itself.
Architect at Devoteam Belgium
The management portal is good but the graphical interface needs to improve
Pros and Cons
- "The feature I find most valuable, is the management portal."
- "The graphical interface is old and needs to improve."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
I think the management of the design of the console or portal needs to improve because when you compare it to other vendors, you find that the graphical interface is old. I do, however, believe that the newer version has an improved graphical interface.
An improvement in the scalability of the solution will also be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working on Cisco SSL VPN for more than ten years on cloud and on premises.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The newer version is much more stable than the versions we used a few years ago.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco IOS SSL VPN
February 2025

Learn what your peers think about Cisco IOS SSL VPN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think the scalability could be improved in the next version but it's fine for now.
How are customer service and support?
The documentation that comes with the program is pretty clear and everything is explained well. So we haven't used the customer service yet.
How was the initial setup?
The difficulty of the initial setup depends on the security or policy configuration one needs to implement. But for us, it was quite straightforward and not difficult at all. We did the installation and deployment ourselves.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others would be that, if they are going in the cloud, they can use other products from the cloud too. In the next version, I would like to see central management, because sometimes you have more than two or three devices. If we can have a solution that can manage all these devices, that will be great. For example, if you need to update one device, you can just do it from one place without having to update all of them separately. On a scale from one to ten, I rate this solution a seven.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

DBA Team Lead | Principal Apps DBA at Experteam
Stable, simple to set up and use
Pros and Cons
- "The product is great because it is easy and simple."
- "Improvements could be made in terms of connectivity for applications."
What is our primary use case?
I use Cisco IOS SSL VPN to securely connect to my corporate network.
What is most valuable?
The product is great because it is easy and simple. It lets me easily connect from home to my company network in a straightforward way.
What needs improvement?
Improvements could be made in terms of connectivity for applications.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco IOS SSL VPN for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is quite good, although there is room for slight improvement. I would rate the stability as an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Ten people are using it at my company.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is straightforward and only takes a few minutes.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate Cisco IOS SSL VPN as an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco IOS SSL VPN
February 2025

Learn what your peers think about Cisco IOS SSL VPN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Network Engineer at Brunnel
An easy to use solution with good configuration capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very easy to work with. This is its most valuable feature. They also did a good job surrounding how you configure the devices."
- "Cisco device management is quite difficult. They should work to simplify this."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use the solution for remote access for my clients.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very easy to work with. This is its most valuable feature. They also did a good job surrounding how you configure the devices.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to solve the issues they have with Java.
Cisco device management is quite difficult. They should work to simplify this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for almost four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, I think it would be nice if Cisco could manage their Java problem. Sometimes it works and sometimes it requires troubleshooting or you need to take the time to update in order to fix the Java issue.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have contacted technical support in the past, but nowadays our company is not allowed to contact Cisco directly because we don't have a contract with them. Intermediary companies can, however. In the past, I have been satisfied with the level of service I've received.
How was the initial setup?
If the person setting up the solution understands the underlying technology, they won't have trouble with the initial setup of the product. It's a bit complex. Besides following the steps of the setup, you have to understand what you are doing, otherwise, you can get lost in the process.
What about the implementation team?
I'm a Cisco engineer, so I was able to implement the solution myself.
What other advice do I have?
I use the on-premises deployment model. I've worked with Cisco products for 15-16 years.
I would rate the solution eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Analyst at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Reliable with useful features and good VPN capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The product is very stable."
- "I have no notes in terms of areas of improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for the VPN for work after COVID.
What is most valuable?
We've been using it since Covid and it has been very stable. The troubleshooting is easy and overall the solution overall is pretty good.
The solution has a variety of useful features.
We have been able to restrict certain types of usage. Users need to meet certain criteria in order to sign in.
It's a very good VPN product.
The product is very stable.
It can easily scale.
What needs improvement?
The product has been stable. I have no notes in terms of areas of improvement.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. I'd rate the reliability ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution. It's easy to expand as needed. It's not a problem at all.
How was the initial setup?
We have three or four people that are able to handle deployment and maintenance tasks.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. We've been very pleased with its capabilities. It's a useful product.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior System Administrator at AB Mauri India Private Limited
Easy to use, scalable, and has great technical support
Pros and Cons
- "It is a product that is very robust and durable."
- "It would be nice if we could use this not just on mobile, but on laptops and desktops as well."
What is most valuable?
The solution is very easy to use.
It is a product that is very robust and durable.
The solution is stable.
The product has been scalable.
Technical support is great.
What needs improvement?
Only its mobile-based application is available right now. We cannot use it, for example, on laptops. That's the only drawback. It would be nice if we could use this not just on mobile, but on laptops and desktops as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for the past six or seven months at this point. It hasn't quite been a year yet.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. You can expand it if you need to.
How are customer service and support?
I've found the technical support to be excellent. they are helpful and responsive. We are very satisfied with the level of attention we receive.
What other advice do I have?
I'm just a customer and an end-user.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been pretty happy with its capabilities.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
ITC Administrator at a non-profit with 11-50 employees
Stable solution that provides secure access to your network and applications
Pros and Cons
- "A reliable and stable solution for remote network access."
- "The pricing is a stumbling block to scaling our utilization of Cisco products and we would prefer to use more of them."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco SSL VPN mostly as a secure way to access our business applications remotely.
How has it helped my organization?
It provides a solution for our secure remote access.
What is most valuable?
Usability is the most important feature for me. The stability is really good and it is very important to usability. I think this product is number one for stability. At the end of the day, the speed depends on stability. Once the solution is stable that means the speed is also okay. But really it matters the base connection.
What needs improvement?
I am mostly satisfied with the product. The biggest issue and the reason we do not make more use of it is the pricing. If Cisco can provide us discounts like Microsoft we could make better use of the product. There are other organizations providing discounts to non-profits. They realize the need, and they are creating programs. Microsoft has discount programs for non-profits. With Amazon, we have joined a special program where they are providing us services at a discount for non-profit. Cisco is quite expensive in comparison. So we decide to use what makes the most sense for our model. We see that there are these offers and we decide to use Amazon for some purposes.
So if Cisco did have a similar program — a non-profit program — it would be great for the utilization of other products as well. We don't have a big budget like enterprise businesses and we budget more like a small business does. But at the moment, for Cisco, we pay the same price that everybody else pays. If they had programs for non-profits, more non-profits would join the program and make use of their services.
We would like to expand to use many other products from Cisco as well. We need them. But we're not able to choose them because of the pricing. We want to use the Cisco products because they service the enterprise level and we would like to have Cisco firewalls, switches, and everything. Unfortunately, the pricing is making us get out from incorporating Cisco products.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the product a little over four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
As for stability, it is one of the best features of the product. A stable connection is the reason we use the product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have roughly fifty users who are using it at the moment. Initially, we started with only a small number of users. So the usage of the product has been pretty scalable. At the moment we are not planning to scale our usage of Cisco products more, but that need depends on the business growth and the number of staff who need access. Things may change.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not really used Cisco's technical support because local support is good enough for us. After it is set up and stable then it doesn't really need much maintenance or attention.
For us, in using the local support the wait is sometimes quite a long time. But it's okay for us.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Fortinet as well and that product is stable as well. It is another solid, stable solution. They provide similar stability, features, and functionality. There are some other products we still use for other things because of Cisco's lack of discount programs for non-profit organizations.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for the VPN straightforward. It is user-friendly and easy for someone to set up.
What about the implementation team?
We didn't require any assistance for the setup or implementation. We did it ourselves. It was really quite simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is a bit expensive compared to some other products. If they could lower the prices, it would be great.
What other advice do I have?
Cisco does have really good products and good services but pricing is not allowing us to take advantage of their enterprise solutions.
On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I think Cisco SSL VPN is an 8.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Project Manager at a security firm with 11-50 employees
Facilitates remote access and working from home, but the token software will no longer be supported
Pros and Cons
- "It's a stable solution."
- "The system needs to be upgraded to replace the Token Authentication software, which will no longer be supported."
What is our primary use case?
We are solution providers. We provide remote access solutions, internet access, and Voice over IP for our customers, as well as IT operational support.
We use this solution to access their on-premises server from outside locations for situations such as working from home.
What needs improvement?
The system needs to be upgraded to replace the Token Authentication software, which will no longer be supported.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Cisco IOS SSL VPN for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe that this solution is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Some of the solutions that our customers are using are Microsoft 365, Cisco VPN Access, and Cisco AnyConnect with the physical USB Token to input the password.
The Token support will expire soon. Currently, we are researching similar solutions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are always researching new products to provide to our clients.
What other advice do I have?
I can't say that I would recommend this solution at this time because the support for the Token software is expiring soon and Cisco IOS SSL VPN would have to be upgraded to another solution similar to Token.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Security Specialist at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Very easy to install and you don't need a username or password
Pros and Cons
- "The setup and installation was easy."
- "The servers should be more user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use this solution as browser and I like that you don't need a username or password to browse.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes browsers are not able to support a certain file, so that is something that can improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four years on premise.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable if you have a stable internet connection.
How was the initial setup?
The setup and installation was easy. We had the help of a Cisco integrator, because one needs support from the system team to access your server and your VPN. So you basically have to know all the information about the server if you want to have access.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of the solution is reasonable - G Grade.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale of one to ten, I give this solution an eight. In the next version I would like to see easier installation that allows a default to open un-trusted servers. The servers should be more user-friendly too.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco IOS SSL VPN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
Popular Comparisons
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)
Ivanti Connect Secure
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Citrix Gateway
Zyxel VPN Client
Sangfor SSL VPN
SonicWall SMA
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco IOS SSL VPN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- I'm comparing Array AG Series SSL VPNs and Cisco SSL VPN. What's are the pros/cons?
- What firewall to choose to support 500-1000 concurrent SSL VPN users?
- What's right for me? Fortinet or Citrix?
- What is the difference between "data protection in transit" vs "data protection at rest"?
- What are the best practices to prevent a Brute Force attack via remote access?
- When evaluating SSL VPN, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- What is the best appliance for SSL VPN and a fat client?
- What tools do you use to make a remote work more efficient?
- Which offers a better VPN: Meraki or Azure?