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 3.6% mindshare in DS, compared to Cisco’s 22.8% 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

951 Views
401 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Umbrella

Read 111 Cisco Umbrella reviews

6,179 Views
3,928 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BlueCat Edge

Cisco Umbrella

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

December 2024

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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 January 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of BlueCat Edge is 3.6%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 22.8%, down from 29.6% 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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Rohan Singh

Consultant at KRS Systems

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.

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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

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

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

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

"The namespace and access control features are notable."

"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."

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

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

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

"The implementation is pretty easy."

"If it didn't have a single pane of glass, we would not be using it. The single pane of glass gives you a one-stop shop. It's like going to Home Depot. You find all your stuff there. You can see all your threats and your endpoints. It's a very important feature and makes things very simple."

"The integration features within, for example, the Cisco VPN product and the Umbrella module are valuable."

"The weekly reportings are great. The investigation is super and the application management is equally great."

"By using Cisco Umbrella, you are sure of inspecting all the traffic. Whenever the user machine is connected to your network, it is inspected. That's the best thing. It means you are sure that nothing is being exported or imported without your choice. That is the best feature."

"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."

"The core business of Cisco Umbrella is non-malware. That's all it does: block the malware on the gateway."

"We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"Its price is on the higher side."

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

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

"Something on our end that might make it better is alerting going to our ticketing system. It's not something that we have discussed, but that would be a proactive option for us to provide a learning experience for the staff."

"It would be good if the more complex versions of Umbrella are simplified so that we can offer them in a more standardized way. We, as a telco, do not operate the same as a traditional integration partner would, who can sell all its services. We try to have a standardized approach as much as we can so that we can sell the solution with as many services added to it as possible. If you look at the structure of businesses in Switzerland, 95% of them have 10 persons or less, and they do not have a security specialist. Therefore, the higher the automated and standardized features, the better it is for them."

"I would like to see more integrability with other products."

"They need to improve analytics so they report on more of the specifics of user activity."

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

"It needs better integration with external threat feeds to improve scoring."

"The pricing changes too fast. We get the license and we need to relicense it because they already made changes to it. We always need to be on top of the licenses because they're always changing."

"With any Cisco product, it's the licensing side of things that needs improvement."

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."

"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."

"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."

"I think it's worth the money."

"Cisco has a model called ELA. With ELA, if you buy the solution you will have the complete security portfolio and you can pay it yearly or after three years, it depends on the contract."

"It needs a better price point."

"The licensing and pricing structure of Cisco Umbrella is in line with standard systems on the market, and we have no specific requirements in this area. Overall, we have found it to be an acceptable pricing model for our organization."

"In the region I'm from, that of EMAR, Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia and Africa, our organizations do not have many liquid cash assets, so the price could be better."

"Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing and there are three subscription plans."

"The licensing part for Umbrella is really flexible."

"In my opinion, Cisco Umbrella now has a good price in the basic packages. When it comes to Cisco Umbrella SIG Essentials package and Cisco Umbrella Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Advantage package, it depends on whether the project has a good price or not"

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Educational Organization

23%

Computer Software Company

18%

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 31% of the time

EfficientIP DNS Firewall vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 26% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 15% of the time

F5 BIG-IP DNS vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 13% 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 9% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 7% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge

January 2025

Download BlueCat Edge product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

January 2025

Download Cisco Umbrella product report

Also Known As

BlueCat DNS Edge

OpenDNS

Learn More

BlueCat

Cisco

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.

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.

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

December 2024

Free Report: BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

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