AlgoSec vs Cisco Defense Orchestrator comparison

AlgoSec and Cisco are both solutions in the Firewall Security Management category. AlgoSec is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9, while Cisco is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.0. AlgoSec holds a 22.7% mindshare in Firewall Security Management, compared to Cisco’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of AlgoSec users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

AlgoSec

Read 183 AlgoSec reviews

9,347 Views
4,113 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Read 15 Cisco Defense Orchestrator reviews

706 Views
234 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AlgoSec

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

AlgoSec and Cisco Defense Orchestrator compete in network security management, with Cisco Defense Orchestrator holding the upper hand due to its robust features and perceived value for the price.

Features: AlgoSec offers comprehensive policy analysis, risk management, and compliance assurance capabilities. Cisco Defense Orchestrator provides powerful automation, multi-vendor support, and streamlined policy change management, making it suitable for complex network environments with better integration and scalability.

Room for Improvement: AlgoSec could benefit from enhancements in automation and scalability to better serve large enterprises. Improving user interface and integration capabilities would also enhance its appeal. Cisco Defense Orchestrator could improve customer support response times, offer more flexible pricing options, and increase compatibility with various network components.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AlgoSec features a flexible deployment model with strong customer support, ideal for smaller networks. Cisco Defense Orchestrator's cloud-based model simplifies deployment for large-scale operations but faces challenges with support response times.

Pricing and ROI: AlgoSec is recognized for its competitive setup cost and cost-effective policy management, delivering a good ROI. Cisco Defense Orchestrator may have higher initial costs but justifies them with significant ROI through enhanced security features and operational efficiencies, especially valuable for large enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed AlgoSec vs. Cisco Defense Orchestrator Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AlgoSec vs. Cisco Defense Orchestrator

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

AlgoSec

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

1st

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

183

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

14th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of AlgoSec is 22.7%, up from 20.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Defense Orchestrator is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewall Security Management

Featured Reviews

Shameerudheen Kp

Manager, MS Operations at NTT Security

Easy to setup with good auto-implementation and good rule reviews

AlgoSec is slow when it is loaded with too many firewalls and policies. A plan to take care of heavy usage is to be considered. Support of all firewalls and policy features to be enabled. AlgoSec should support in identifying most hit rules and re-ordering existing firewall rules - this is a very key to manage firewall CPU. A clustering of AlgoSec can also be considered. A group of AlgoSec servers managing large client bases geographically or datacenter-wise or function-wise. A head reporting unit and child processing units.

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Vivek Balaji

Technical Director - Cyber Security at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

Useful guides, excellent support, integration could improve

Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components. I have been using Cisco Defense Orchestrator for approximately eight months. The Cisco Defense…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I found that for policy optimization it does a great job."

"If you go through that compliance report, it will give you whether your firewall is in compliance or not. It will also give you a recommendation whether you need to change it. The compliance has helped us with customers, e.g., internal audit from the quality team and external auditors."

"AlgoSec has definitely helped to improve the process of auditing all firewall rules and access."

"Traffic Analyzer provided the centralized view for our IT SOC operations to focus mainly on high-risk firewall rules exposing with explicit any rules."

"We see the value of BusinessFlow for organisations involved in digital transformation projects migrating to public/private/hybrid cloud models."

"The features that are most valuable are the interactive topology map and the traffic simulation queries."

"The most valuable feature is the Firewall Analyser, which has a number of fantastic features."

"It assists in provisioning the application rapidly, which increases the organization's revenue."

More AlgoSec pros

"For this product, they are very uncharacteristically interested in resolving whatever issue the customer reports. They're really attentive, and they address whatever we bring up as quickly as they can. That's been a very positive aspect of the product."

"The initial setup was straightforward. We spun up the VM onsite. We generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator. After that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."

"If we have a firewall go down, I can hop into CDO, pull the latest configuration off and apply it. That's really good. It helps save time."

"The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks."

"The bulk changes feature is definitely the most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is that you can push one policy or one rule out to several devices at a time."

"We have quite a few Active Stone by pairs. If they fail over... I'll see that there's a change on it and I'll have a look. The only change on it is that now this one is the standby, it took over the active role. I can go into that firewall and find out what happened... and troubleshoot based on that. That's pretty cool too."

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator pros

Cons

"The only problem I have with AlgoSec is just its level of support, not with the product. Not with the organization or the documentation or anything else, but if I need any additional support, the only problem is the time it takes to get it."

"The interface needs to be more user-friendly for low-profile users so that we can give some kind of access to specific people around the company for self-configuration of specific rules."

"The Firewall Analyzer module can be improved to implement a vulnerability management solution, or they can link Firewall Analyzer with a vulnerability management solution in order to get a better overview of what's going on in our network in terms of vulnerabilities."

"We are using AlgoSec directly against our Cisco Firepower. At first, AlgoSec didn't work with Firepower. It didn't know how to read the logs. So, improvement has been made. Now, the feature that was available on the older generation firewall is available on the current one, but this is a problem which has already been dealt with."

"Needs better technical support and quicker response times."

"There is huge scope for improvement in the level of support, especially around the issue of resolution time. That is the only negative point I find in the solution."

"The license rekeying needed for when you need to change a firewall usually takes a bit of time."

"Default standard support at Level 1 is to answer by upgrading to the latest released version, if you are not using it yet."

More AlgoSec cons

"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."

"When logging into the device, we sort of had problems with it staying in sync. If somebody made a change onsite, it wouldn't do an automatic sync. It would have to wait, as you would have to do a manual sync up."

"They can centralize all products and provide a correlation about an incident and the response. They can also provide an on-premises solution. Currently, Cisco Defense Orchestrator is just for cloud deployments, not for on-premises deployments. Customers have to manage it on the cloud. We are based in Vietnam, and most of the customers here prefer to have on-premises deployments. Customers, especially from banking and government sectors, do not prefer to do anything on the cloud. Some of the small enterprises use the cloud."

"It would be a better product if it incorporated device control for third-party products easily."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."

"It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances."

"The dashboard needs to be more customizable to provide better reporting for our network."

"I've found dozens of bugs over the year we've been using it. The more I use it for different things, the more problems I find... Most of the problems have to do with the user interface. A lot of thought and work has gone into the back-end component to make the product do what it's intended to do, but the way it is presented for use hasn't gotten nearly as much thought to make it smart and bug-free."

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is offered as a subscription and as a perpetual model."

"It is fair."

"The pricing for this solution seems to be reasonable for the functionality."

"Quality has a price."

"Use the entire suite for its best benefits."

"Licensing is very easy to set up. The pricing is relative to how you want to expand and harden your network security."

"The licensing scheme should be done in a simpler way. For example, if we delete a firewall and want to add a new one, then the license doesn't get freed up automatically. You have to request a new license to customer support and install it. If you are testing new implementations, this can be cumbersome."

"Pricing is easy to grasp."

More AlgoSec pricing and cost advice

"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."

"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."

"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."

"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."

"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."

"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

52%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Legal Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AlgoSec?

AlgoSec's ability to integrate with various security and networking solutions enhances its overall value.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlgoSec?

Pricing for AlgoSec is fairly competitive. Rating the pricing on a scale from one being high to ten being low, the price is considered competitive without being specified absolutely.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AlgoSec?

The user interface for AlgoSec has remained unchanged for the last ten years and could benefit from being more interactive and informative. Additionally, a cloud offering as a SaaS would relieve th...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?

Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?

Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?

Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Tufin Orchestration Suite vs AlgoSec

Compared 34% of the time

FireMon Security Manager vs AlgoSec

Compared 26% of the time

Skybox Security Suite vs AlgoSec

Compared 18% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs AlgoSec

Compared 6% of the time

AWS Firewall Manager vs AlgoSec

Compared 1% of the time

More AlgoSec Competitors

Tufin Orchestration Suite vs Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Compared 36% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Compared 36% of the time

More Cisco Defense Orchestrator Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AlgoSec

April 2025

Download AlgoSec product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Defense Orchestrator

April 2025

Download Cisco Defense Orchestrator product report

Also Known As

No data available

CDO

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

AlgoSec

Cisco

Overview

AlgoSec enhances application delivery speed and security by automating connectivity and policy management across hybrid networks.

With 20 years of experience, AlgoSec is trusted by over 2200 organizations for securing critical workloads. Its Horizon platform leverages AI to discover and manage business applications, offering comprehensive visibility into security and compliance issues across hybrid environments. Intelligent change automation improves both agility and security, ensuring conformity to internet security standards and regulatory requirements.

What key features does AlgoSec offer?

Firewall Analyzer: Optimizes firewall rules, managing risk and compliance effectively.
FireFlow: Automates change management processes, reducing manual errors and boosting efficiency.
Traffic Simulation: Assists in troubleshooting by simulating traffic scenarios.
Vendor Compatibility: Works with multi-vendor devices, ideal for complex networks.
Compliance Reporting: Simplifies audits with templates for standards like PCI-DSS and ISO 27001.

What benefits should users consider?

Enhanced Security: Streamlines security policy management, reducing redundant rules.
Operational Efficiency: Automates processes, leading to faster and more accurate changes.
Regulatory Compliance: Provides tools for easy alignment with industry standards.
Centralized Control: Offers centralized management over firewalls and application connectivity.

In complex industries, AlgoSec aids in risk analysis, firewall policy management, and compliance auditing. Organizations optimize firewall rules and automate policy changes, achieving improved security and operational efficiency across multiple vendor environments. AlgoSec's tools are integral to streamlining change management and enhancing security posture in large network structures.

AlgoSec

Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) is a cloud-based management solution designed to ensure streamlined and consistent security policies across the Cisco security portfolio. Specifically tailored to manage all Cisco Secure Firewall form factors (running either ASA or Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) software), CDO offers real-time visibility and troubleshooting capabilities, effectively enhancing overall network security.

CDO addresses the challenges of migration, supporting transitions from on-premises to cloud environments and facilitating the shift from ASA to FTD configurations. As organizations embark on their cloud adoption journey, CDO simplifies provisioning workflows for remote branches, reduces operational expenditures related to inventory management, and offers scalability for multi-cloud deployments.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Maersk, Delta Airlines, Chevron, General Motors, T-Mobile, Chevron, AT&T, BP, Bell Canada, HCA Healthcare, Morgan Stanley, Unilever, Nationwide Insurance Enterprise, US Bank, Microsoft

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut

Buyer's Guide

AlgoSec vs. Cisco Defense Orchestrator

April 2025

Free Report: AlgoSec vs. Cisco Defense Orchestrator

Find out what your peers are saying about AlgoSec vs. Cisco Defense Orchestrator and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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