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BlueCat Edge vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

BlueCat Edge
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Umbrella
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of BlueCat Edge is 3.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 24.7%, down from 29.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

LeandroFreitas - PeerSpot reviewer
We see the benefits immediately, it can identify DNS threats, and is flexible
The most impressive feature of BlueCat Edge is its versatility combined with robust security. It acts as a central platform that intelligently routes traffic to the correct resolver while simultaneously enforcing security policies. This includes the ability to blacklist malicious domains or redirect traffic, providing a significant security advantage. In my experience, I've successfully migrated nearly 100,000 internal IP addresses across 14 global data centers using BlueCat Edge, handling a substantial amount of traffic with ease. The interface is user-friendly, and what I find most helpful is the ability to quickly view logs. These logs contain all the queries from internal clients and the corresponding responses from the DNS service, making troubleshooting DNS traffic significantly easier. In the past 24 hours, we've seen 86,000 unique IP addresses using the service, though this number likely fluctuates seasonally. Overall, it's the best solution I've found for troubleshooting DNS traffic. The unparalleled visibility offered by BlueCat Edge is arguably the most critical benefit we receive.
Rohan Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Protects endpoints wherever they are, always pushing people to the right locations to avoid malicious intent
The most valuable thing is how easy it is to deploy. We did it with 9,000 users at my last job, and it took a week to get to all the endpoints. Doing that without having to physically touch all those endpoints was very simple. The single pane of glass management makes it very easy to manage your rollout. We get a lot of "single panes of glass" and, eventually, you need a pane of panes of glass. But it's always good to have a clear and graphical view, and Umbrella's is nice and easy to read. Definitely, of the panes of glass that we do have, it's one of the easiest to use. The single pane of glass is good to group users together and separate people out. Some people need different types of security. Some people are more vulnerable. Some have more highly valuable assets, like C-suite people. It's really good to be able to have end-users defined inside of that. You don't have to jump around. You don't have to figure out who's who. It's all done through one pane of glass. What most people don't realize is that it's running in the background, which is a really nice aspect when it comes to security. Often, when you deploy a security tool, it takes up CPU performance. Everything slows to a grind. But Umbrella is so simple and easy and it doesn't affect the end-user experience. It's the best of all worlds. It's nice when people realize that they're being protected when they go to the wrong site. I think people are happy that they're protected, but it's nice that they rarely notice it. It's generally easy to maintain network connectivity, but with Umbrella, the nice part is that whichever connectivity you're on, you're always secure. With Umbrella, as long as you're online, you're going to be protected.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IP Address Management (IPAM) is the most valuable."
"BlueCat has increased security efficiency tremendously within the first month of deployment."
"The unparalleled visibility offered by BlueCat Edge is arguably the most critical benefit we receive."
"It allows us to easily monitor our subnets and routers."
"The namespace and access control features are notable."
"We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having."
"Edge has reduced the complexity and has been more reliable."
"What I found most valuable is the ability to put it in place and integrate it very quickly. It allows us to create routing rule sets to route DNS traffic where it needs to go most efficiently in our environment."
"The most valuable feature is the website protection capabilities because it prevents end-users from entering bad sites that potentially have malware or could be used for phishing."
"It analyzes the domain security helps us implement the securest policy."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the Web Filtering and the APT."
"We use Cisco Umbrella for DNS filtering and as a secure gateway."
"The single-pane-of-glass management is very important. We have a very small team. We can't spend a lot of time going from product to product to product to either investigate or set up policy. We need to have one place that we can go to and set everything up."
"The most valuable features are the dashboard, visibility, and reporting capabilities. Our customers can see how much Umbrella is protecting their organization. If you don't know what you've got, you can't protect it. With Umbrella, you get the visibility and see the protection that it's providing. We can get PDF reports on a weekly basis of any malware activities and any denial of service or command-and-control-type activities."
"Cisco is a very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page. We can monitor the entire network."
"I was able to implement it myself. It was really easy to install. You could install it on a server locally if you want to. If you have the biggest site, you would do that, but for my site, it was just directing all the traffic out through the Cisco Umbrella DNS. It was really handy. When the owners of the company went overseas, I knew that they would be secure because even if they were not on the company network, they would still go through the Cisco Umbrella servers. It was a complete solution for protecting the company with outgoing data."
 

Cons

"BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement."
"The main improvement for BlueCat Edge's security configuration would be more granular control."
"I would like to see improvements in threat detection and the ability to add categorization for blocking queries, such as those related to adult entertainment."
"I have concerns about several aspects of BlueCat's site management."
"Its price is on the higher side."
"A more graphical user interface would be a benefit."
"One pain point concerning DNS Edge is the inability to see per Edge endpoint, what devices are querying against it. They do have the capability for you to look at that data, but the data is roughly 24 to 48 hours old. I am looking for real-time data, and I cannot get that per Edge endpoint."
"BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement."
"Its reliability and the response time of the support team can be better."
"I would like to see more integration between Cisco Umbrella and Cisco DNA Center."
"It could be more secure. It would be better if they provided a transferring proxy as an add-on and more integration."
"The design of the screens could be improved. Sometimes you're trying to look for information, for what you think is critical that should be on that first screen of the dashboard so that you can quickly take screenshots to have people help out, but you have to hop between screens to find little pieces of evidence."
"The price could be better. The price is definitely a bit high, but we have to pay a premium for Cisco products."
"If I want to see which users access a website, I need an Active Directory registered on Umbrella's cloud."
"Cisco Umbrella should introduce an on-premises device."
"Missing a real data leakage prevention solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"One of the nice benefits of getting DNS Edge is that you buy the subscription, and you are allowed to deploy as many Edge endpoints as you need. You do not need a separate license for each one. If you deploy 20 of them, you will not be billed for that many. It is one subscription. You can deploy as many as you need and consume as much as you need. The cost comes in based on the number of IPs that you are consuming and running through DNS Edge. We have that pretty much locked in for what we need for internal purposes. Being able to save money on deploying Edge endpoints has saved us drastically from deploying other BlueCat products in lieu of that."
"I'm doing a costing and licensing comparison between the BlueCat DNS Integrity and Micetro by Men&Mice. BlueCat has given me a range instead of a specific price. They gave me a range of ten thousand to two hundred thousand USD. That was a bit too wide for the cost comparison. Based on what I'm seeing, they are definitely on the higher side and very expensive."
"We find the current pricing model more reasonable compared to the previous per-IP pricing."
"The licensing model for BlueCat Edge seems very good, although I can't confirm if it's specific to our contract."
"You get what you pay for if you break the solution up into tiers."
"The price could be lower."
"There is a subscription cost."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the cost."
"Cisco is expensive. For example, we are looking at Nexus Dashboard, and it's costing about 250,000 euros. I ask, "What do I get from it?" I'm still not convinced that we have to spend on it, so pricing is a problem."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"In terms of licensing, we're not able to be extremely clear with the customer because it's based on their reporting. It's not based on the actual traffic. If they say they have 50 users but they have 80, we'll just buy for 50 users. That's something where we'd like to have more flexibility."
"Pricing depends on the automation requirements of the organization."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BlueCat Edge?
We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BlueCat Edge?
The pricing for BlueCat Edge is not horrific. While it's not as inexpensive as I would like, we are subscription-based and have unlimited implementation.
What needs improvement with BlueCat Edge?
I would like to see improvements in threat detection and the ability to add categorization for blocking queries, such as those related to adult entertainment. Also, some features to filter out vali...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
 

Also Known As

BlueCat DNS Edge
OpenDNS
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Swisslos, Cologne Bonn Airport, TYROLIT
Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim
Find out what your peers are saying about BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
817,354 professionals have used our research since 2012.