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Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs Netskope Private Access comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 ZTNA as a Service
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (5th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
Cisco Secure Client (includ...
Ranking in ZTNA as a Service
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (1st), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (5th)
Netskope Private Access
Ranking in ZTNA as a Service
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netskope Private Access is 4.9%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ZTNA as a Service Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Netskope Private Access4.9%
iboss2.3%
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)3.5%
Other89.3%
ZTNA as a Service
 

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
Wouter Beer - PeerSpot reviewer
Generates revenue through service offering while needing additional safety features
The primary use case for Cisco Secure Client, including AnyConnect, is as a VPN for remote access I use AnyConnect because I have Cisco infrastructure. It utilizes certificates, which allows for automatic setup. The security features are beneficial, and the whole idea of the app is that it should…
AshwaniTyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced security management supports mobile workforce efficiently
If we compare it with Zscaler, Netskope Private Access requires more configuration for setup of the overall solution. This is an area they can improve upon. Considering the competitive landscape we have today, they can further optimize the recurring subscription they offer as part of the proposal. This would give a better return on investment for customers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"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."
"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."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"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."
"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"The solution provides secure and easy access to corporate network resources."
"This solution is stable. There have been no technical issues."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client is good for securing our connection. It is very easy to use, I click to use it and it works."
"The multifactor authentication enhances security posture, and integrating our internal application for authentication was easy."
"I haven’t experienced any issues and the connection is always stable."
"The tool is user-friendly, robust and easy to use in any environment."
"On Cisco's side, the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) story is quite valuable."
"The security AnyConnect offers is excellent. It disconnects automatically if someone isn't using it on a private network and doesn't allow you to work, ensuring the data within the system is secure."
"In the firewall, we don't have a user-based policies list, and we can't create them. Netskope helps us to create user-based policies. For example, if there are specific teams like HR or more than nine teams, and we want logs from access over particular URLs, and we don't want to allow that specific URL for certain users, we can create these policies in Netskope. It's handy, easy to use for new users, and has a cool GUI interface. We can create multiple policies, and as for the proxy, it's a leading solution."
"The base features have been fantastic. The ability to be able to granularly assign application access to end-users has been really good."
"We can block and alert the ports and allow the public traffic software in our environment."
"Netskope enables users to securely access private applications remotely without a VPN."
"The most valuable feature is being able to see who is accessing the application, whether it is a managed device or a bring-your-own-device published by Netskope."
"With private access or next-gen VPN, they are able to keep you secure, but they are invisible in terms of how they do it. Anybody working from home and trying to bring up VPN quickly can pretty much get VPN up and running in a matter of minutes because this doesn't require any VPN technology on-prem. All the VPN technologies that you're using to access applications on-premise can be eliminated by using their software. If you're accessing Microsoft 365 or salesforce.com, you can go straight out from your home office or home internet to that application rather than having to come through a VPN. It still has all the policies enforced, and it mitigates any business risks in terms of how that user is accessing that application and what they're doing inside of it. VPN piece is really critical, especially at this time of Covid, and your latency also goes down. Your latency gets better by using the platform because they're intercepting your traffic, routing it through their local data center, and then sending it to whichever SaaS service or whatever you're going to. It does it better, faster, and quicker with all your governance policies enforced, rather than you having to go through your data center. So, all the traffic gets hauls there, and then that traffic has got to route somewhere else, and then it has got to go up to the cloud. Your latency actually goes down. They can guarantee 15 milliseconds or less pretty much across anywhere on the planet for about 95% or 90% of it."
"The product's scalability is good."
"Netskope Private Access covers a wide range of use cases with solutions for client-server and server-to-client connectivity patterns."
 

Cons

"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"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."
"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."
"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."
"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."
"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client would be perfect if it weren't for the fingerprint feature."
"Complicated scenarios are difficult to deploy. On a scale from one to ten, with one being the most difficult, I'd give a rating of between two and three for the initial setup."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could improve by adding faster connectivity."
"The setup is a bit difficult to handle on the server-side."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could improve by making a feature to set it apart from other competitors."
"Every two weeks there was a new version to install which was annoying for the users."
"We were going to use the Cisco AnyConnect with hardware tokens. However, right now, it's very complicated in terms of delivering the hardware token to the customer. That's why we are looking for a software token right now."
"Usability could be improved, as the look and feel of it is somewhat dated."
"We faced certain issues with China users as it can be rather challenging for them due to the presence of Great Firewall."
"The ability to provide more security around agentless access has room for improvement."
"The major problem that we are facing is if we deploy Netskope on the server level or if we get a new server in the EMEA factor, it will affect all the machines. Recently, this has caused us to fail some reviews."
"There could be an ability to access one server from another when we have console access to the first server."
"Netskope Private Access could improve by enhancing visibility of user performance and application performance. It should also integrate wider DLP and inspection engines on private access traffic."
"Netskope detects certain data or contents, but there are some limitations on how we can customize those policies for DLP."
"I would rate the stability around seven out of ten. Sometimes, we face some difficulty, but it depends upon the complexity of the environment."
"Netskope Private Access allows mapping only one DNS server. If a user uses a secondary DNS on-premises, Netskope fails to disconnect them. This is an issue that needs to be addressed."
 

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."
"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."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"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."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"The initial cost is the ASA and other items, but after that, it is relatively inexpensive."
"Sometimes there is a problem with the number of licenses for the end-user. The number of concurrent users is limited due to a valid license."
"The pricing depends on the requirement, so proper planning and an RF analysis help to properly size the solution and get the best pricing."
"We have yearly licensing and it's very affordable."
"The price is okay."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"The solution is based on an annual licensing model and is expensive."
"I would rate the pricing for the license of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client around four to five out of ten. It's not the cheapest option, but it's also not overly expensive."
"The pricing of the solution is cheap."
"It is significantly cost-effective compared to its contenders."
"When it comes to pricing, Netskope Private Access is relatively cheap compared to other solutions."
"It is not cheap, but the value of the solution is there. It's worth the investment."
"The tool's price is normal. It is not very cheap but good compared to the competitors."
"Netskope Private Access is more inexpensive than other products."
"It is not the most expensive option, being more affordable than Zscaler, but it's also not the most budget-friendly choice available."
"There was about 60% ROI, just in terms of savings. We had 40% to 60% reduction in monthly operational costs by using Netskope."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
34%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise46
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...
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 do you like most about Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
The tool is user-friendly, robust and easy to use in any environment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is somewhat expensive compared to others such as Fortinet or Palo Alto, wh...
What needs improvement with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
At times there is confusion regarding when to keep the proxy on or off, a problem faced by some users.
What do you like most about Netskope Private Access?
Even without extensive training, if you're a proficient IT professional, you can easily configure it.
What needs improvement with Netskope Private Access?
If we compare it with Zscaler, Netskope Private Access requires more configuration for setup of the overall solution....
What is your primary use case for Netskope Private Access?
That is good for a very simplified way, especially in Netskope Private Access. Since we have this single client which...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
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.
MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
Evalueserve, Stroock, Apria, Ather Energy
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs. Netskope Private Access and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.