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Cisco Umbrella vs Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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 Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
Cisco Umbrella
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
Proofpoint Cloud App Securi...
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
17th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of iboss is 4.4%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 5.9%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker is 1.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella5.9%
iboss4.4%
Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker1.0%
Other88.7%
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
 

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.
KamranJameel - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Secure browsing has protected users from DNS threats and improves malware defense
The major issue is that sometimes when you install the client, it shows you protected and displays that it is live with the backend servers and everything. However, in reality, it was not getting any feed from the main client and is just sending your traffic to open DNS, which sometimes causes an issue because the protection you have implemented can be breached by users. The primary thing that Cisco Umbrella lacked most of the time is their client. Previously, they had a separate Cisco client. Now they have merged everything into the Cisco Secure Endpoint client—one client for everything, for Cisco Endpoint, for Cisco AnyConnect, and for Cisco Umbrella, which they did probably in 2025.
Farzad Ebrahimi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Devsecops Cloud Cybersecurity Specialist at CGI
Layered security has protected our cloud AI apps and significantly reduced attack incidents
The best features Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker offers are multilayer protection against security attacks and escalation. The escalation feature in Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker is valuable because we are using more and more users, and it is very scalable in relation to the number of users using the same app on the cloud. The performance of Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker stands out as the number of attacks blocked is more than 90%. Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker has positively impacted my organization by resolving all of the security issues related to app security. I can share specific outcomes, such as a reduction in the number of incidents, which is more than 90% related to the past.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From a corporate perspective, I understand that it's important to keep the company data safe."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"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."
"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."
"This product is solid, fairly easy to use, and reliable."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"There was a positive effect on productivity because we could track and confront the users that were frequently using social media or streaming video during the work day."
"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."
"I like that it integrates with the infrastructure, and I also like the kind of data and intelligence that's built-in, as it helps create innovative reports for security."
"We use Cisco Umbrella for web security and it's very good."
"Stability-wise, it's good. I have never encountered any bugs."
"Umbrella has helped my IT staff in two ways. First, our security team was able to get more insights into the users, their devices, and the sites they browse. Second, our system administration team was able to manage DNS resolutions in a way that is more accessible and less intrusive to our domain system."
"The integration features within, for example, the Cisco VPN product and the Umbrella module are valuable."
"When we have laptops that leave the building, they could connect to public WiFi before they establish a VPN connection back into the company. For that duration or that period of time when they're not docked in the network or on a VPN, they effectively don't have that full layer of security that I provide inside the building. This tool stands in during that period of time, and we extend the security settings through their basic firewall or their cloud-based firewall at that time. So, we do content filtering and control access, but they also are looking at new domains, IP addresses, and bad requests. They're blocking them on my behalf when a laptop is not sitting behind our security appliances."
"The product is stable."
"The quarantine feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker has positively impacted my organization by resolving all of the security issues related to app security."
"The tool's most valuable feature is reporting. It helps us understand what's going on in our environment."
"From stability and availability standpoints, it is pretty good."
 

Cons

"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"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."
"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 reporting feature needs improvement."
"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."
"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."
"The easiest device I have set up was the Barracuda line of products."
"I would like to see a graphical representation of the entire network."
"It's easier for us to have support features with companies who are Cisco representatives, but sometimes, it's hard for us to get the help we need without having to use our contacts within Cisco."
"It could be improved by having a local data center and caching, which can provide protection support."
"Cisco Umbrella could be improved by making the policies more granular, as in some cases, it's difficult to find the correct link to open a specific site securely."
"Although Cisco Umbrella has an excellent global network footprint, there is still room for improvement and growth in this area. Additionally, there are bandwidth limitations associated with the connectors that need to be addressed. To be a viable solution for larger offices, Cisco Umbrella must continue to expand and improve its capabilities in these areas."
"Data reporting is something I would like to see improved."
"It would be useful if they had a malware protection engine running inside their own VM."
"I would like to see Cisco enable us to get objects from the internet. I would also like to be able to choose groups."
"They are priced significantly higher and less cost-effective than alternative options."
"I think some of the hiccups that we had were with the number of domains that we had and how that had to be implemented in Proofpoint."
"Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker should be cheaper."
"The TLS encryption needs to be improved. It's not state of the art."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"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."
"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."
"I think it's worth the money."
"Our costs were negotiated, and they are okay."
"Cisco solutions are generally perceived to be rather expensive. We have constant internal discussions as to whether we should offer lower-priced security solutions from some of the competitors."
"It has a reasonable price. It is certainly not as expensive as it used to be. It is in line with other offerings on the market. There are a number of different flavors of Umbrella. They could bring Umbrella SIG down a bit because its price is a little bit high for what it does, but I also understand why its price is high."
"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."
"The licensing fee is paid on a yearly basis."
"The licensing part for Umbrella is really flexible."
"We had an enterprise contract with them for about 32,000 users at that point, which has now grown."
"The tool's most valuable feature is reporting. It helps us understand what's going on in our environment."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise51
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
iboss could be improved by making the dashboard more user-friendly, providing more detailed real-time alerts, and imp...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
iboss is primarily used for cloud security, helping to protect users when they access websites and cloud applications...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
The pricing and licensing for iboss were reasonable for the security features. The setup costs were manageable, thoug...
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. Zs...
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-nat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing reveals that the pricing is acceptable, but it is marginally a ...
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker?
Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker can be improved with more AI features, as it could help. I feel it is fine to no...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker?
My main use case for Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker is to protect our applications on the cloud against securit...
What advice do you have for others considering Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker?
My advice to others looking into using Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker is that more AI features are needed. Proo...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
OpenDNS
FireLayers, PCASB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.
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
Emerging Technologies, HP, CSA, Perion
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. Proofpoint Cloud App Security Broker and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.