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Check Point Web Gateway vs Cisco Web Security Appliance comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (4th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (8th), ZTNA as a Service (12th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)
Check Point Web Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Web Security Appliance
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless
One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured
Ajinkya Mohod - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers cost-effectiveness and is user-friendly
In terms of the effectiveness of the threat prevention technology in Check Point Web Gateway, the tool helps secure our company's environment, as threat detection and blocking work well. Others can definitely go ahead with the tool, especially if they want to secure their networks and manage firewalls or network traffic. In terms of the benefits offered by the product, I can say that it helps in securing network parameters, environments from network attacks, lateral movements within an environment, blocking of traffic, and managing the traffic. The tool improves our company's cybersecurity posture. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.
IgnitiusMolepo - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures security for remote workers
The Cisco Web Security Appliance provides DLP to organizations. It helps prevent the unauthorized transmission of sensitive information by blocking such attempts. Additionally, it safeguards against malware attacks, particularly on websites not authorized by our company. Its role in protecting us from malware is pivotal. The organization itself handles the configuration and management of Cisco Web Security Appliance. Cisco assists in deploying and configuring the appliance and managing all associated services. Integrating the Cisco Web Security Appliance with other solutions is quite challenging. For instance, when we tried to integrate Netscape KSP, we encountered difficulties retrieving logs. Additionally, our solution failed to interact with the Web Security Appliance. Overall, the integration process remains problematic, hindering the effectiveness of our security infrastructure. We have both the cloud version and the on-premises version. For clients who require data sovereignty, we offer the on-premises version, which includes a data sovereignty tool. This allows them to enforce policies that prevent the transfer of logs to third-party data centres, ensuring compliance with their country's regulations. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."
"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. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."
"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."
"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."
"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."
"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."
"It offers good security and we use it when we want to implement the best security in an organization due to the fact that it gives us broader visibility."
"It is very stable."
"The product covers all the security needs of roaming users."
"The interface is simply amazing."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the HTTPS inspection mechanism, application control, and URL filtering."
"It's easy to deploy this tool."
"The most valuable feature that I see in the application is the filtering of the URLs."
"The product's best feature is observing how the traffic flows from one gateway to another. It's convenient for checking specific details, and you can manage everything centrally."
"It integrates well with Cisco Email Security Appliance."
"Cisco is the best in giving technical support. There is no doubt about that."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Web Security Appliance is the provided anti-malware functionality and URL categorization. I can block access to malicious websites. 99 percent of the cases are related to a malicious website. If I cannot browse those malicious websites, then we are 99 percent protected."
"What we liked best about it was the ability to apply policy to either a user ID or an IP-based network."
"It's a scalable product."
"Since working with the tool, we have not found any threats in our organization."
"It also has high availability."
"Cisco Web Security Appliance has very good security benefits for any company and is easy to integrate."
 

Cons

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."
"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."
"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."
"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."
"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."
"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."
"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."
"It is expensive. Its price should be better."
"There is room for improvement in support because the solution needs multiple regions to reach certain features and validations."
"The documentation must be improved."
"I would like to be able to see an integration with centralized management services."
"The tool's stability needs improvement. The biggest problem is with updates."
"Management of the account portal is not there."
"Most of the time, we are struggling when it comes to getting support."
"It is not user-friendly."
"Sometimes reporting is a little bit short."
"This solution could be more secure."
"The licensing model needs to be more flexible."
"I would like more automation."
"The transparent proxy is quite difficult to enforce on smartphones and tablets."
"The solution is priced high."
"The one thing I don't like about Cisco is that they are very much fragmented in terms of providing the complete solution. They keep on breaking their different feature sets into different boxes."
"Cisco lacks a GUI-based troubleshooting feature compared to products by other vendors."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"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."
"The price is very high."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product. The product is neither too expensive nor too cheap, so it comes at a good price point for my company."
"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the tool's price as a seven out of ten."
"Our customers pay a licensing fee annually or once in three or five years, per their requirements."
"The price is on the higher side, even when compared to Azure Firewall Premium."
"The product is not cheap. It is expensive."
"It is expensive. Licensing is on a yearly basis. You need to do the support subscription."
"This program is very, very expensive."
"There is a subscription-based license needed to use this solution."
"The solution's cost depends on how many users you purchase. It was maybe $3 or $5 per user, which is a bit expensive."
"The solution has a standard license."
"When you compare the price of this solution to the price of FortiGate, it's high."
"The licensing options begin with 100 users and this is a high threshold for smaller networks."
"Cisco Web Security Appliance is not the cheapest solution on the market, but it's well worth it."
"The pricing is too high."
"I rate the product price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Government
16%
Security Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Non Profit
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?
Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.
What needs improvement with iboss?
I have the same complaint about them that I have about other software companies. Sometimes when you call in support, ...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
We are a PreK-12 public school district, and we use iboss to filter internet content for our students at home and sta...
What do you like most about Check Point Web Gateway?
You don't have to wander around the tool since it is very simple. You can grab and get a hold of the tool very quickly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point Web Gateway?
I don't have a comparison with other products. I know that Check Point is relatively expensive compared to its compet...
What needs improvement with Check Point Web Gateway?
Authentication is only possible through Check Point Identity Awareness technology, limiting some customers' deploymen...
What do you like most about Cisco Web Security Appliance?
The most valuable features of the solution are the functions of proxy for the users who use the internet and the secu...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Web Security Appliance?
Pricing is competitive and varies across sectors. Public sector clients receive good pricing, whereas enterprise or c...
What needs improvement with Cisco Web Security Appliance?
The product is great, however, incorporating features offered by competitors would be beneficial. Competitors sometim...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
Cisco WSA, Cisco Web Security
 

Overview

 

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.
Morton Salt, Medical Advocacy and Outreach, BH Telecom, Lightbeam Health Solutions, X by Orange, Cadence, Nihondentsu, Datastream Connexion, Good Sam, Omnyway, FIASA, Pacific Life, Banco del Pacifico, Control Southern, Xero, Centrify, Tradair, Laterlite, Phoenix International, Unisinos, Wilkin Chapman, Connexus Energy, Mutua Universal, Smart & Final, Central New Mexico Community Colleg, Grupo Financiero Multiva
New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Caixa Seguradora
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Web Gateway vs. Cisco Web Security Appliance and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.