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Cisco Secure Access vs FortiSASE comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 10, 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 Access Service Edge (SASE)
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (5th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (8th)
Cisco Secure Access
Ranking in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Firewalls (10th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (3rd), ZTNA (7th), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (2nd)
FortiSASE
Ranking in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.5%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Access is 3.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiSASE is 6.9%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Access3.7%
FortiSASE6.9%
iboss2.5%
Other86.9%
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
 

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Kartik Amin - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at Redex IT Limited
Secure access has unified zero trust and web protection while AI assistance automates tasks
From a feature perspective, I have not experienced any issues, drawbacks, or shortcomings. However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high. My clients usually prefer cheaper options if possible. Mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access. Additionally, there is a steep learning curve, as it is very intensive. Someone with significant knowledge can work on it, but a new professional would have to spend considerable time to get accustomed to it. It is hard to find engineers who can work on it. Overall, we get what we pay for, as it is a pretty good feature and service. The pricing of Cisco's products and licensing is higher than competitors. If they could be more reasonable, that would help. The support offered for two years also has higher costs. Overall, the client's IT budget gets affected. It was challenging to learn because, as mentioned, it has a significant learning curve and requires considerable training to become proficient.
LK
Head Vice President, Delivery at Gehnax Technologies LLP
Implementation complexity challenges are addressed and bundled solution offers significant ROI
For other solutions such as FortiAnalyzer and FortiSIEM, integration is easy, but it's not straightforward due to license complexity. As FortiSASE is new in the market in India, if you want to use a Delhi data center, you need a separate license, and if you have a different kind of firewall, you cannot transfer your license from one box to another box. FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time. The product appears to have been launched without being tested properly in real market conditions. While testing may have been done in lab environments, real-time scenarios seem to be missing from this solution. The SPA licenses are limited to the box UTM, UTM make and model. If someone has a UTM currently and plans to upgrade or downgrade in the coming year after procuring the SPA license for three years, they cannot transfer those licenses to another box, which is a challenge that needs improvement.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."
"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."
"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent."
"I believe Cisco Secure Access is the best option on the market at the moment; it is the right and recommended choice."
"The features of Cisco Secure Access that I most prefer are easy management or manageability, and overall security."
"It's pretty streamlined. Everything you need to find is in the GUI interface, and if you have any trouble, it's easy to navigate and get around."
"The integrated capabilities of Cisco Secure Access deliver significant ROI through reduced mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), with resource efficiency notably improved as fewer personnel are needed for triage and system management."
"Cisco Secure Access is more than a mature product at this point."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Access is the VPN, which I find very easy to use."
"Cisco Secure Access has definitely helped our organization, cutting incident response time at least in half and giving us analytics that let us quickly identify devices and users so everything from headquarters contacting the base to the on-site tech removing a rogue device from the classroom network is much quicker."
"From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Secure Access is the significant reduction in security risks and improved operational efficiency."
"It is easy to integrate with Fortinet."
"We built a local node in Jordan, which is the main advantage, and the data is localized in-country, giving FortiSASE a significant edge compared to others where data is outside the country."
"The solution is scalable, it is highly scalable."
"Its function is related to the licensing framework."
"The solution is easy to deploy and simple to manage."
"We built a local node in Jordan, which is the main advantage. The data is localized in-country."
"We utilize the web filtering part of FortiCASB for our network security."
"The product can scale."
 

Cons

"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."
"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."
"It is stable, but due to growth, it can sometimes be less stable than wanted."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"My experience with customer support for Cisco Secure Access has been okay, but it is not very fast."
"However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high, and mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access."
"Cisco Secure Access can be improved with more integration; the more integrations, the better. There are always third-party products that you might have, such as Carbon Black."
"In general, what can be improved about this solution is to not change the name of everything every year, as Cisco marketing are experts at making changes to everything, and I don't understand what this is; that was the AnyConnect VPN, and now it's Cisco Secure Access, and what's tomorrow?"
"When you have planned works in your data center, I think you need to carry out some post-checks to ensure we are not affected as users."
"Throughout my experience with Cisco Secure Access, I have had some stability and reliability issues, including lagging when accessing the portal."
"Cisco Secure Access may not seamlessly integrate into such settings, although it performs well in a Cisco-based environment."
"We don't have any good tools right now, which is a problem."
"FortiSASE is an expensive product and the cost is indeed high."
"Stability issues persist."
"FortiSASE is an expensive product and the cost is indeed high."
"Areas of FortiSASE that could be improved or enhanced in future releases are related to being more open to supporting third-party integrations."
"FortiSASE implementation is too complex where other products take two to three months or maximum four months to implement, FortiSASE took more than double that time."
"The main concern is that if the client is using another firewall, they cannot establish a private channel with the Cisco cloud."
"Security and support are two areas with certain shortcomings in the product where improvements are required."
"Improvements should focus on security. Although FortiCASB performs well in many areas, I believe its security aspects could be enhanced further."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"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."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"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."
"For what you get, it's a fair price in comparison to other products."
"The pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Secure Access have been very competitive compared to other platforms. I believe that if Cisco continues to improve costs or offers something similar to a Cisco credit, it would attract more customers."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
"I can only speak about the pricing for education users because we get discounts. Other users aren't going to get the same price, but FortiSASE is competitive with the other products out there. All the solutions came in at the same price, so it just came down to the product that works best for us."
"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price, and ten is low price."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
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886,932 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
 

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...
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.
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Access?
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cisco Secure Access is that it is part of our security ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Access?
Cisco Secure Access has many features, and I want to clarify whether the discussion pertains to Cisco ISE or the Cisc...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Secure Access?
Cisco Secure Access always requires monitoring for updates and signatures, similar to a health check, but not intensi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiSASE ?
The pricing, licensing, and setup costs of FortiSASE are very advantageous if you are already a Fortinet customer. If...
What needs improvement with FortiSASE ?
Areas of FortiSASE that could be improved or enhanced in future releases are related to being more open to supporting...
What is your primary use case for FortiSASE ?
FortiSASE is typically used by customers with two major concerns: many branches or stores and sometimes remote worker...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
No data available
No data available
 

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.
1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Google 5. Apple 6. Cisco Systems 7. Oracle 8. Intel 9. HP Inc. 10. Dell Technologies 11. Verizon Communications 12. AT&T 13. Comcast 14. T-Mobile 15. Sprint 16. Vodafone 17. Orange 18. BT Group 19. Deutsche Telekom 20. Telefonica 21. Nokia 22. Ericsson 23. Samsung Electronics 24. Sony 25. Panasonic 26. LG Electronics 27. Siemens 28. General Electric 29. Ford Motor Company 30. General Motors 31. Toyota Motor Corporation 32. Volkswagen Group
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Access vs. FortiSASE and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,932 professionals have used our research since 2012.