BlueCat Edge vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

BlueCat and Cisco are both solutions in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category. BlueCat is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.8, while Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. BlueCat holds a 3.5% mindshare in DS, compared to Cisco’s 22.3% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of BlueCat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

BlueCat Edge

Read 7 BlueCat Edge reviews

927 Views
389 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Umbrella

Read 111 Cisco Umbrella reviews

6,009 Views
3,772 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BlueCat Edge

Cisco Umbrella

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Cisco Umbrella and BlueCat Edge both offer advanced DNS and network security solutions aimed at protecting businesses from cyber threats, competing in the network security category. Cisco Umbrella is often favored for its comprehensive security features and reliability, while BlueCat Edge is noted for its flexibility in DNS management.

Features: Cisco Umbrella offers DNS-based threat protection, web content filtering, and cloud-based management, which are praised for their functionality and ease of deployment. It enhances security by blocking malicious sites and gives visibility into user activity, helping improve productivity. BlueCat Edge provides versatile DNS management, detailed logs, and traffic routing capabilities, allowing for a centralized platform that enforces security policies, though it lacks in some advanced areas covered by Cisco.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Umbrella could benefit from enhancing its integration with external threat feeds and improving analytics and reporting capabilities, as users desire better user-level traffic monitoring. BlueCat Edge could enhance its solution with more granular control over security configurations, better threat detection, and extended logging durations for thorough analysis.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Umbrella's cloud-based deployment is noted for ease of integration with existing systems and receives positive technical support feedback, although some users call for faster response times. BlueCat Edge offers flexible deployment options in a hybrid cloud environment and is noted for efficient customer service, though initial deployment guidance could be improved.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella's pricing, while competitive and justified by security features, is considered high by some. Its subscription models are flexible, with positive ROI through threat mitigation. BlueCat Edge is seen as costly, especially with bundled licensing, yet provides value in large environments due to its comprehensive DNS management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

January 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

BlueCat Edge

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

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

7.3

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 February 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of BlueCat Edge is 3.5%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 22.3%, down from 29.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

Featured Reviews

LeandroFreitas

Senior Network Engineer at Cgi Deutschland KG

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.

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Alessandro Braga

Chief Digital Officer at Talent Garden

Has comprehensive reporting and scales easily

The reports and notifications are the most useful part of the platform. As soon as you deploy the security layers, the reporting is very comprehensive. It helps you to have, at a glance, a clear view of what's going on. The integration between Cisco Secure solutions is pretty good. We have been able to deliver the solution in a few days. The integration of Umbrella and Meraki is literally one click away from the customer. One of the reasons why we chose Umbrella was its capability to perform end-to-end detection of malware and web traffic. In the last two years, we have been covered, detection has been faster, and we have been able to contain some potential threats along the way. We use the Umbrella stack from DNS protection to web and content protection. Our workforce is made up of 150 Macs; thus, we use Mac as a client. We have some PCs and integration with the network in our co-working spaces. Utilizing Cisco Secure has helped us save time. Being a nimble organization, we don't have IT staff who are fully dedicated to security. The maintenance is also not very time-consuming. In terms of the amount of time saved, it would be half an FTE a year, given the fact that we are informed and notified when threats arise. In terms of operating expenditures, we have been able to negotiate a better cyber insurance rate with our insurance company due to the fact that we are covered by Umbrella. Another benefit of using Cisco Umbrella is application scanning. We have been able to understand how many other applications we were consuming in the cloud, address them, and save money. Without Cisco Umbrella, we would not have realized that we had so many cloud applications in the company. We have been able to close at least four or five applications that were duplicates of others that we were already using in the company. We have realized approximately 10,000 to 12,000 euros a year of immediate savings in an organization of 150 people, which is quite significant.

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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

"The unparalleled visibility offered by BlueCat Edge is arguably the most critical benefit we receive."

"BlueCat has increased security efficiency tremendously within the first month of deployment."

"Edge has reduced the complexity and has been more reliable."

"IP Address Management (IPAM) is the most valuable."

"We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having."

"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."

"It allows us to easily monitor our subnets and routers."

"The namespace and access control features are notable."

"It has the ability to quickly block new threats."

"Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy."

"I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services."

"I like the DNS layer security."

"Cisco Umbrella offers DNS layer security, a secure web gateway, and cloud access security broker functionality."

"The DNS data exfiltration and the blocking of DNS tunneling are the most effective features for threat prevention in our company."

"One valuable feature is definitely its simplicity in terms of deployment. It is very easy to integrate it into the environment without any heavy lifting. Users didn't notice that we implemented it. You can start with a very low monitoring mode and start observing what Cisco Umbrella sees."

"It has certainly saved us time. If we go and look at what's rejected on the requests from the hospital itself, it has saved about 5% or 6% time."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

Cons

"BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement."

"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."

"A more graphical user interface would be a benefit."

"I have concerns about several aspects of BlueCat's site management."

"The main improvement for BlueCat Edge's security configuration would be more granular control."

"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 price is on the higher side."

"It would be better if there was a little bit of flexibility for organizations that don't have SD One in their environment. Because of the complexity of the environment, it's not easy to actually turn on the feature of the secure internet gateway for our users. We have not been able to explore that option yet."

"We need to work on integration as it is very complex."

"Cisco Umbrella should introduce an on-premises device."

"The price could be better. The price is definitely a bit high, but we have to pay a premium for Cisco products."

"The solution is very expensive in Brazil."

"If the virtual appliances could also gather traffic bandwidth reports, that would be great."

"Cisco Umbrella hasn't integrated customized reporting yet. With Cisco Secure Endpoint Hub, I can see a report on user downloads and set it up to constantly get an email alert. Based on my understanding, Cisco Umbrella can't do that. You can set it up with third parties, but it would be better if that were built into the platform."

"They should provide more integrations and bring things together so that there is a more standard feel to their platform. We also use Cisco ISE, and it has a very different feel from Cisco Umbrella."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

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."

"The licensing model for BlueCat Edge seems very good, although I can't confirm if it's specific to our contract."

"We find the current pricing model more reasonable compared to the previous per-IP pricing."

"When talking about Cisco solutions in general there pricing model is horrible. For example, you can sell a Meraki-based solution, but if the customer starts shopping around, someone is going to have access to the pricing at a level that you cannot compete because they do not have uniform pricing. Not everybody gets fair pricing. Unless you are one of the real major corporations selling the solution your ability to compete is impossible. Cisco will acknowledge the situation and assure you next time it will be in your favor but it never becomes favorable for you. Cisco is not very good in this regard. However, Umbrella is good."

"There is room for improvement when it comes to the cost."

"Our costs were negotiated, and they are okay."

"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."

"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."

"The pricing is great and very competitive with the rest of the market."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

University

Educational Organization

25%

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BlueCat Edge?

I'm not aware of the exact pricing and licensing as I was not part of the procurement process. However, there was a significant cost reduction thanks to BlueCat Cloud DNS managing external solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BlueCat Edge?

BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement. They need to focus and deploy such features in the next version itself, which woul...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

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What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?

Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.

See all answers

Comparisons

EfficientIP DNS Blast vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 26% of the time

EfficientIP DNS Firewall vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 26% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 17% of the time

F5 BIG-IP DNS vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 15% of the time

More BlueCat Edge Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 19% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 10% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge

February 2025

Download BlueCat Edge product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

February 2025

Download Cisco Umbrella product report

Also Known As

BlueCat DNS Edge

OpenDNS

Overview

BlueCat Edge is an intelligent DNS resolver and caching layer that leverages existing DNS infrastructure to provide unprecedented visibility and control over DNS traffic. As a first hop DNS resolver, BlueCat Edge intelligently manages DNS forwarding rules and logs all queries to offer intuitive analytics and data governance. By monitoring all queries and IP addresses with BlueCat Edge, enterprises can also leverage BlueCat’s advanced Threat Protection and policy-based network/security features to protect the enterprise against cyber threats, such as domain name generation algorithms and tunneling that lead to data exfiltration or network downtime.

BlueCat

Cisco Umbrella delivers rapid DNS security with over 30,000 customers, providing outstanding threat protection and handling more than 600 billion requests daily. It's recognized for high threat efficacy in the SSE domain and integrates elements like SWG, ZTNA, CASB, and more.

Cisco Umbrella is renowned for its effective DNS-layer security against ransomware and phishing. It offers flexible content filtering and integrates seamlessly with existing networks while providing single-pane-of-glass management for centralized monitoring. Its robust threat intelligence and customizable policies are central to its appeal. Users highlight room for improvement in areas like WHOIS data inclusion, malware enhancement, and reporting analytics. Integration with other threat feeds and better client support are requested for more comprehensive coverage.

What are the key features of Cisco Umbrella?

DNS-Layer Security: Blocks malicious domains, preventing ransomware attacks.
Web Content Filtering: Allows users to manage lists for strict content control.
Seamless Integration: Blends with systems like Active Directory and Meraki.
Remote Protection: Keeps remote users safe across different locations.
Single-Pane Management: Facilitates effective monitoring and reporting.

What should users expect in reviews about Cisco Umbrella?

Threat Intelligence: Provides comprehensive malware and attack data.
Customizable Policies: Enables tailored security measures for users.
Integration Options: Works with diverse systems for holistic security.
Ease of Use: Offers a straightforward experience for administrators.
Remote Worker Security: Ensures protection outside traditional networks.

Industries implement Cisco Umbrella primarily for DNS-level security, web filtering, and protecting remote employees. It strengthens cybersecurity frameworks by blocking malware and avoiding access to harmful sites. The tool is widely integrated with Active Directory and Cisco Meraki, providing consistent internet security for employees.

Cisco

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

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

January 2025

Free Report: BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

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