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Cisco Umbrella vs Webroot DNS Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

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

Cisco Umbrella
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
Webroot DNS Protection
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
11th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 22.4%, down from 27.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Webroot DNS Protection is 1.0%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Alessandro Braga - PeerSpot reviewer
Has comprehensive reporting and scales easily
The reports and notifications are the most useful part of the platform. As soon as you deploy the security layers, the reporting is very comprehensive. It helps you to have, at a glance, a clear view of what's going on. The integration between Cisco Secure solutions is pretty good. We have been able to deliver the solution in a few days. The integration of Umbrella and Meraki is literally one click away from the customer. One of the reasons why we chose Umbrella was its capability to perform end-to-end detection of malware and web traffic. In the last two years, we have been covered, detection has been faster, and we have been able to contain some potential threats along the way. We use the Umbrella stack from DNS protection to web and content protection. Our workforce is made up of 150 Macs; thus, we use Mac as a client. We have some PCs and integration with the network in our co-working spaces. Utilizing Cisco Secure has helped us save time. Being a nimble organization, we don't have IT staff who are fully dedicated to security. The maintenance is also not very time-consuming. In terms of the amount of time saved, it would be half an FTE a year, given the fact that we are informed and notified when threats arise. In terms of operating expenditures, we have been able to negotiate a better cyber insurance rate with our insurance company due to the fact that we are covered by Umbrella. Another benefit of using Cisco Umbrella is application scanning. We have been able to understand how many other applications we were consuming in the cloud, address them, and save money. Without Cisco Umbrella, we would not have realized that we had so many cloud applications in the company. We have been able to close at least four or five applications that were duplicates of others that we were already using in the company. We have realized approximately 10,000 to 12,000 euros a year of immediate savings in an organization of 150 people, which is quite significant.
James Selby - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers reasonable pricing and solid scalability in the enterprise context
In my limited experience with Webroot, it has shown good scalability, particularly in the enterprise context. When it comes to Webroot DNS, I find it to be a nice solution but prefer a more comprehensive approach. I lean towards XDR vendors that can integrate DNS protection into a unified dashboard, especially as traditional anti-malware solutions like Webroot face challenges with evolving threat actors. Currently, I have around 60,000 Webroot users for anti-malware, but for DNS protection, it is a fraction—about one or two percent—since some clients opt for other solutions. Traditional anti-malware technology is becoming less effective against sophisticated threats.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The single-pane-of-glass management is really important. In today's era, administration costs and operational expenses will cost you a lot, and it reduces that as well. You don't need extra resources to manage all your parameter firewalls, looking at every single device to allow resources internal access. By just introducing the single-pane-of-glass management, it has lifted the burden off of management, especially the network management."
"The DNS data exfiltration and the blocking of DNS tunneling are the most effective features for threat prevention in our company."
"The primary advantage of Cisco Umbrella is its ability to safeguard our users no matter where they are working from - whether it's in the office or remotely, as per the new work model that has emerged globally. This integrated security solution has simplified our lives by combining all the necessary security measures in one product. Additionally, deploying the product is all it takes to protect all our users."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Cisco's support is better nowadays."
"Provides dependable DNS monitoring of external devices."
"Improves security through DNS visibility, which can block malware, phishing, C&C, etc."
"For me, it's important that I get a connection to my corporate network in a secure and fast way. This product just runs in the background and doesn't need any attention. For me, as a user, it's perfect."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security."
"Almost everyone who uses it is happy about the product. I don't get any types of complaints from my clients."
"Webroot excels in DNS protection, particularly in blocking malicious sites and phishing."
"When compared with other products, Webroot DNS Protection is the best to secure the end users."
"The installation is easy and doesn't take long. The program speedy and doesn't crash. It doesn't consume computer hardware or software."
"DNS protection is valuable."
"The dashboard of the solution is a valuable feature."
 

Cons

"Its price could be better."
"We need to work on integration as it is very complex."
"The main issue that we have is with the final steps or the full integration and getting rid of Zscaler. The company still has to fall back to Zscaler when something in Umbrella is not working as expected, such as when we enable SSL inspection. When something is not working 100%, the company is falling back to Zscaler."
"Actually, we recently switched over to Zscaler because it has more features and it's more scalable than Cisco Umbrella."
"The prices need to go lower. The price of technology is just crazy."
"If I want to see which users access a website, I need an Active Directory registered on Umbrella's cloud."
"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."
"Cisco Umbrella hasn't integrated customized reporting yet. With Cisco Secure Endpoint Hub, I can see a report on user downloads and set it up to constantly get an email alert. Based on my understanding, Cisco Umbrella can't do that. You can set it up with third parties, but it would be better if that were built into the platform."
"The price could be improved."
"Reporting is not done in real-time. Rather, it is done in 15-minute intervales. This is something that should be configurable by the admin."
"The reporting system needs improvement. They should make is that we can customize it so we can add, remove or change its interface but they use a template. The reports cannot be changed."
"It addresses a specific risk related to malicious sites but doesn't cover broader security aspects."
"If the solution could integrate with FortiGate where there would only be a need of one dashboard instead of having to set policies on our firewall and our DNS, this would be helpful."
"It needs to be more secure for production environments."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As an educational partner, we get better licensing structures. We are very happy with that. It has been very nice that Cisco has partnered with the educational sector to bring that."
"The price should be slightly lower than the current price because if you look at the whole solution, it is simply a threat intelligence solution to block blacklisted things. The price should be lower looking at the features provided by the solution. The price isn't too high either, but it could be lower."
"It needs a better price point."
"The price of Cisco Umbrella is a little higher than similar solutions, like Gateway."
"​The pricing is fair."
"The price depends on the use case, and it's a bit linear. But it depends on the customer's strategy and how Cisco plans to optimize the costs."
"Cisco is expensive. For example, we are looking at Nexus Dashboard, and it's costing about 250,000 euros. I ask, "What do I get from it?" I'm still not convinced that we have to spend on it, so pricing is a problem."
"We were using the free version, and we implemented the paid version about two months ago. I'm paying a fair price, but everything is negotiable with Cisco. One of the benefits that I got by having Cisco Umbrella is the licensing of the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions are best for your needs.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
31%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Wellness & Fitness Company
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...
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-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
SecureAnywhere DNS Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
1. Cisco  2. Dell  3. HP  4. IBM  5. Microsoft  6. Oracle  7. Symantec  8. McAfee  9. Trend Micro  10. Palo Alto Networks  11. Fortinet  12. Check Point Software Technologies  13. Juniper Networks  14. F5 Networks  15. Citrix Systems  16. VMware  17. FireEye  18. Splunk  19. Proofpoint  20. Carbon Black  21. Barracuda Networks  22. SonicWall  23. WatchGuard Technologies  24. Sophos  25. Kaspersky Lab  26. Bitdefender  27. Avast  28. AVG Technologies  29. ESET  30. Malwarebytes  31. Webroot (the company itself)  32. OpenDNS (now part of Cisco)
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. Webroot DNS Protection and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.