Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Rapid7 Metasploit comparison

The compared Cato Networks and Rapid7 solutions aren't in the same category. Cato Networks is ranked #3 in SASE , with an average rating of 9.0, and holds a 9.4% mindshare in the category. Rapid7 is ranked #26 in VM , with an average rating of 9.3, and holds a 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cato Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cato SASE Cloud Platform and Rapid7 Metasploit based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, Cato Networks and others in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).

To learn more, read our detailed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

March 2026

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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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cato SASE Cloud Platform	9.4%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks	10.8%
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform	9.1%
Other	70.69999999999999%

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Rapid7 Metasploit	1.7%
Wiz	5.5%
Qualys VMDR	4.4%
Other	88.4%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula

Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support

The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.

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reviewer2697738

Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Cloud security has unified global network design and has simplified threat visibility

I think all of the functionalities, such as the secure web gateway feature, are quite good. I also believe Cato SASE Cloud Platform is one of the only solutions that has not only a software firewall solution but also a physical software solution where you can change the company's firewalls and put in sockets from Cato SASE Cloud Platform, which I see as an advantage for them. The single-pass architecture has improved user experience with Cato SASE Cloud Platform as it provides security teams in companies a platform where they can easily obtain information if there are breaches or security issues. I assess the benefit of integrating WAN optimization as good. There is ease in making rules between WAN optimization, especially when it comes to global connections because of all their points of presence that are spread over the world. I think the real-time threat protection of Cato SASE Cloud Platform is also good. Their points of presence are quite efficient, and I do not see any delays in that area.

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reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Extensive exploit database and seamless integration enhance penetration testing capabilities

The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even the same attack you provide today will go in different ways another day. I prefer when the auditor or pen-tester provides the attack in a non-automated mode. For some, it might be a valuable option, but I'm not sure it's valuable for us, as after the attack has been provided, we should release a report detailing how it transpired and what the customer should improve to block this way of attack. If the attack was provided in an automated mode, you cannot receive sufficient information that helps with this final report for the customer. While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system. Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved in areas concerning the experience with finding particular scripts pre-installed in the solution. Customers, administrators, and pen-testers spend considerable time trying to locate the specific component they need by the name of the technique or the name of the attack, so any improvements in making it easier to find those predefined components by name or timeframe would be beneficial. Search filters could be a correct improvement.

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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 solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent."

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."

"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"As I mentioned, the return on investment is significant, as it saved our office locations' bandwidth because when you are working remotely at home, your internet traffic routes directly to iboss and will not go to your office building, saving bandwidth bottlenecks and ensuring that issues with our building internet circuits will not impact your internet connectivity because you are directly going to the iboss data center."

More iboss pros

"It's a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything."

"The solution is stable."

"The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity. There is no complex routing."

"I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users."

"This solution has allowed us to have more points of presence around the world, improved bandwidth across different areas, and provided data leak prevention, CASB, a better dashboard, and the ability to drill down into security problems in a few clicks."

"The WAN aggregation feature is the most valuable."

"The main features we use are the firewall and secure web gateway."

"I haven't had any trouble, and practically forget that I'm using it."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pros

"The solution is open source and has many small targetted penetration tests that have been written by many people that are useful. You can choose different subjects for the test, such as Oracle databases or Apache servers."

"The solution is open source and has many small targetted penetration tests that have been written by many people that are useful."

"When I compare Metasploit with Nessus, I find that Metasploit is faster and it does not burden the system as much."

"Overall, it is a very good product for penetration testing."

"Metasploit is the most favored toolkit for network security professionals and penetration testers."

"For a free product, the capabilities are absolutely astonishing."

"When I compare Metasploit with Nessus, I find that Metasploit is faster and it does not burden the system as much."

"It is scalable. It's in line with our needs."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pros

Cons

"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."

"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."

"It is stable, but due to growth, it can sometimes be less stable than wanted."

"The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices; it is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents, and that is where in 2025 we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability within the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing."

More iboss cons

"There's no principal in Malaysia, only a distributor."

"They can't do one-to-one NAT (Network Address Translation) in AP (their access point), and that is something that Palo Alto can do."

"They should add more sophisticated security features. It should also be integrated into the cloud."

"The product's technical support could be more responsive."

"For a packaged solution, needing external intervention or a system integrator to get other features not offered by Cato Networks could be an area for improvement. Cato Networks does what it's meant to do and is even overstretching capabilities when introducing new features. The product can only have very few features added on top of what its currently doing. Managed service providers can deliver the extra features you'd need. It's a set of managed services, and what Cato Networks does is very comprehensive. So, for the time being, when the actual incarnation of the SASE solution is deployed, Cato Networks is a very effective product. Naturally, technology will evolve, so everybody knows that in three, four, or five years, there will be a new kid on the block, a new game. Still, at the moment, Cato Networks only needs to improve a little regarding SASE delivery. The product is doing very well, but one feature the Cato Networks team is doing right is preparing for the future through deploying the SSE 360, so the security service is at that edge. It's an excellent strategy to prepare for the future. SSE 360 is what Cato Networks should invest in the most to keep prospering."

"Web application firewalling (WAF) is a feature we would like to have in this solution and does not exist yet."

"The solution could be made more user friendly for the administrator to use the portal. It is difficult to use it for people who are not experienced with Cato Networks."

"A little tweaking or improvement of the UI in terms of logging when troubleshooting would be an improvement because it's very detailed."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform cons

"The solution should be more user friendly."

"Advanced Infrastructure should be implemented in the next release for better orchestration."

"We'd like them to offer better coverage of malware."

"The initial setup was a bit "tweaky" for the open-source version."

"The solution is not very scalable, it does not provide any automation to be able to scale it."

"There are numerous outdated exploits in their database that should be updated."

"While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management."

"I would like to see more capabilities, more functions, and more features. More types of attack vectors."

More Rapid7 Metasploit cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"You pay yearly based on the speed of your network. If you increase the speed of your network, you increase the cost for your throughput. It is by bandwidth for the most part and then licenses for VPN. There is some per-seat licensing for VPN access, but the majority of it is minimal. It is like $30 a year per client. The rest is based on how much bandwidth you'll use. You pay for that upfront for the year, and if you have to increase it, you increase it, and then they let you send more data through. There are no additional costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The solution has reasonable pricing. It has a yearly subscription. The pricing depends on the permit to code. Sometimes, we need to increase the permit, and the cost will automatically change. There's no fixed cost. Unless we request additional modules such as DNS security, ELP, and decent features, there will be no additional cost."

"Cato Networks seems more expensive than Cisco Meraki."

"The platform is expensive."

"The pricing of the solution depends upon the bandwidth required for different branches"

"The price of Cato Networks is in the middle range compared to other solutions. NetFoundry is a less expensive solution than Cato Networks."

"The solution is reasonably priced since Cato Networks provides features like SASE and monitoring, which I am very happy with currently."

"I'd rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform's pricing as about five or six out of ten. It's not the cheapest solution, but it is cheaper than Palo Alto and even VeloCloud. We've been working with them for a while and have significant discounts. Our licensing costs vary because we keep adding sites, but it's about 280 per month per site. This includes additional features beyond the base product, starting at around 200."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

"I have used the free version of Rapid7 Metasploit."

"We pay monthly. The pricing is reasonable."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is an open-source solution."

"The cost is approximately $15 per device."

"There are two versions available, one of which is the Pro version, and the other is the free version."

"I use the open-source version of this product. Pricing is not relevant."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is cheaper than Tenable.io Vulnerability Management."

"It is expensive. Our license expired, and our company is not thinking to renew because of our budget."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

iboss can increase security in cyberspace. I have heard they are doing DDoS filtering, but I am not certain if they a...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

I use iboss for corporate VPN and all the corporate VRF, with basically all user traffic proxying to the internet.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

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What is your primary use case for Cato Networks?

I can see that I am a consultant at a reseller and I am the architect of Cato SASE Cloud Platform designs. In the bas...

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What advice do you have for others considering Cato Networks?

It is difficult to find types of companies I would not recommend Cato SASE Cloud Platform to, and I believe you can u...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cato Networks?

I do not find it particularly expensive, but for some companies, they may not have the budget to be at that level of ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 Metasploit?

The pricing of Rapid7 Metasploit is quite affordable. It has a free version that many customers start with, and after...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?

The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Rapid7 Metasploit?

I use Rapid7 Metasploit as a distributor, as an integrator, and as a user. I use Rapid7 Metasploit in my company inte...

See all answers

Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 9% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 9% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

FortiSASE vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 6% of the time

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Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Aryaka Unified SASE Platform vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform Competitors

Tenable Nessus vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 8% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 5% of the time

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 5% of the time

More Rapid7 Metasploit Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

April 2026

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform

April 2026

Download Cato SASE Cloud Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

April 2026

Download Rapid7 Metasploit product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Cato Networks

Metasploit

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Cato Networks is a leading SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, combining SD-WAN and network security to obtain a cloud-native service. Cato Networks optimizes and secures application access for users and identities. The platform delivers a next-generation secure networking architecture that minimizes legacy IT infrastructures’ complexity, costs, and risks. The goal of Cato Suite is to connect any user to any application securely and optimally.

Cato Suite runs on a private global network of more than 65 PoPs (points of presence) connected via SLA-backed network providers. The service can connect branches, data centers, users, and clouds. Cato can be deployed in stages to augment legacy network services.

Cato Suite delivers end-to-end route optimization for WAN and cloud traffic. The architecture is self-healing, enabling a high service uptime.

Cato Features

Cato Cloud has a global backbone to deliver a reliable, global network. Here are some key SD-WAN features of Cato Cloud.

Optimizes traffic flows: The Cato Suite can individually optimize traffic flows in the last mile - from the customer’s location to the point of presence, and also between PoPs. This feature eliminates the need for internet providers to hand off traffic to each other, avoiding the resulting latency and congestion.
Controls and manages bandwidth: The software-defined overlay is encrypted across the entire cloud infrastructure. This overlay uses application-aware routing, analyzing latency and loss data to choose the best route according to network conditions. These features, like protocol priority marking, enable the system to ensure the performance of real-time applications.
Delivers redundancy and failover: By connecting the points of presence with multiple Tier-1 IPs, Cato builds the redundancy needed to ensure security and highly available service.
Cloud-native: Cato is built as a scalable, resilient, and elastic cloud service.
Converged: The platform converges SD-WAN and network security into a single infrastructure framework.
Secures all edges: Cato Network can secure and optimize traffic from all users, locations, applications, and clouds.

What challenges does Cato Network solve?

Migration to SD-WAN

MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) networks are usually expensive and limited in their capacity. Cato simplifies migrating to a faster, higher-capacity internet and SASE cloud. Cato SD-WAN appliances enable customers to improve usable capacity and resiliency.

Global connectivity optimization

Customers who suffer from the challenge of high latency and network inconsistency can use Cato to deliver a consistent connection and user experience to access on-premises and cloud applications.

Securing branch internet access

Cato’s complete network security stack connects all branch locations to the Cato cloud, therefore protecting all traffic, both internet-bound and WAN, with enterprise-grade, cloud-based security services. This capability avoids having to backhaul internet traffic to a data center or hub or having to implement stand-alone cloud security solutions.

Cloud acceleration and control

Organizations using Cato notice an acceleration of cloud traffic. Cato achieves this by routing all traffic from the edges to the PoP closest to the data center. Because of the close distance between the two, the latency is near zero.

Reviews from Real Users

An IT manager/project coordinator at a healthcare company says that “[Cato is] a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything. They are the classic SaaS solution.”

Yeong-Gi L., a network engineer at Snetsystems, notes that “The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. Technical support was always helpful and responsive. The integration capabilities are not a problem at all.”

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features," says Lorenzo S., senior solutions consultant Lead at MDI.

Cato Networks

Attackers are always developing new exploits and attack methods—Metasploit penetration testing software helps you use their own weapons against them. Utilizing an ever-growing database of exploits, you can safely simulate real-world attacks on your network to train your security team to spot and stop the real thing.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Paysafe, AdRoll, Pet Lovers Centre, Arlington Orthopedics, Humphreys & Partners Architects

City of Corpus Christi, Diebold, Lumenate, Nebraska Public Power District, Prairie North Regional Health, Apptio, Automation Direct, Bob's Stores, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions, Carnegie Mellon University

Buyer's Guide

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

March 2026

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