--- title: Cisco Umbrella Reviews meta_title: 'Cisco Umbrella Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 284 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Cisco Umbrella works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.4 review_count: 284 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-09' parent_category: name: Web Security url: https://www.g2.com/categories/web-security --- # Cisco Umbrella Reviews **Vendor:** Cisco **Category:** [Secure Web Gateway Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/secure-web-gateways) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 284 ## About Cisco Umbrella Cisco Umbrella simplifies cybersecurity and compliance by providing a converged set of capabilities in a single, cloud-native solution. Its combination of DNS-layer security, secure web gateway, CASB, and more delivers an end-to-end experience that delights customers. Processing over 600 billion internet requests per day and leveraging the world’s largest cyber threat intelligence team in Cisco Talos, Umbrella has achieved AV-TEST’s #1 security efficacy ranking multiple times. Whether you need to strengthen your current security stack or want to transition to a more SASE-based architecture, Umbrella empowers you to confidently meet today’s cloud security goals and embrace tomorrow’s opportunities. ## Cisco Umbrella Reviews ### 1. Excellent protection in your website page **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** The quality and the variety of configuration options. This tool is incredible for protect and use a fast DNS. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** A few steps more to explain better the initial configuration could be good **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Redirections, to blocking some spam and for obtain a better velocity. ### 2. Excellent **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eric L. | Supervisor Support, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Clear and simple interface to take the relevant security measures **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** nothing to improve, OpenDns Umbrella is an indispensable tool **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** maintains a filtering of content in the traffic of the network that allows us employees to maintain a good focus on serving customers ### 3. Umbrella is Total DNS Security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrew L. | Senior Field Services Technician, Food & Beverages, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** All traffic is routed through the Umbrella servers. I noticed an immediate increase in speed and time to first byte from websites. Everything loads much quicker, with images located on CDN's even loading faster. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The service fee - but in this case the small fee is far worth the saved time. There is a small need for an "admin" who knows how to setup and maintain users, but nothing heavy. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Try with and without the client enabled, compare ping times, time to first byte and general loading times of websites. There is a clear difference. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Phishing attack attempts, viruses, user error (typo correction), log creation for accountability. We block certain sites that are known attack sites or out of country to prevent 'what if' scenarios. ### 4. Cloud security **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James M. | Support Agent, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Everything is managed with user identities, one of the most practical ways to offer security in the cloud. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Simple interface but more documentation is missing **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Very useful to access certain criteria without compromising the company's data, very well. ### 5. Web Content Filter And Security Tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leigh M. | IT Secuirty Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 22, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I can generally expect a fast reaction and the help group has the information and devices to discover an answer. I have never needed to hold up in excess of a couple of hours. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Breaking properties into sub-locales turned into somewhat troublesome. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Overseeing Costs and Improving Customer Relationships ### 6. OpenDNS support **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Reynold C. | Sr. Network Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 07, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** OpenDNS provide good protection for our users against malicious DNS. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Support can be difficult to work with. They are not available readily via phone and/or working sessions. Additionally, we have seen some Umbrella client software conflicts with VPN client software. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Client side protection against malicious DNS. ### 7. Simple and Effective **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 06, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** As an MSP Open DNS Umbrella offers a single portal to manage all your OpenDNS customers. The policy builder is simple and easy to use, and the basic implementation of the system can be done (including the deployment of VAs and AD connectors) within an hour. PSA integration and deployment from an RMM also makes deployment of this product very painless. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** With the MSP version AD integration is only possible with the use of a virtual appliance for the AD connector to talk to. This restricts the deployment to smaller or purely cloud based customers. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** We currently Open DNS Umbrella for providing a comprehensve DNS level security for customers who do not require a content filtering platform. We also have a number of customers who work and offer services to vulnerable children and adults. Open DNS allows our customer to provide a safe and secure environment for their service users. ### 8. Security first and foremost **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Justin Alan P. | Analist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Intuitive design, easy access and the security that these are worth safe redundancy when entering the cloud **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** At the moment nothing, as long as it works and works for what it is used for there is no complaint. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Recommended for all companies looking for security for their data in the cloud. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Because now we have more security when using our data, since we use sensitive information is very important security. ### 9. good experience **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Medical Practice | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I have used the product both at home and at work to protect connections in both places, the experience has seemed very satisfactory, it is certainly a good product and I would recommend it. It works very well and its user-friendliness makes it very affordable. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I do not see any inconvenience to the product because as I have been using it every time I have needed it, it has helped me pleasantly. As I said, I would recommend it to almost all my colleagues because it is easy to use. I do not see anything negative **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** several connection problems ### 10. It is a necessity **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Elizabeth C. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Filters all my web traffic before it even hits my office or remote users laptops. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Configuration is a little tricky with the appliances, in-house DNS server and firewall, but still manageable. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Ensure that you have the ability to limit the DNS IP accessed from each device on your network. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** This has been especially helpful at our locations that have limited bandwidth. ### 11. Great cisco experience. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Transportation/Trucking/Railroad | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 30, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Easy to use and reliable. Great system with **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I really like all aspects, except changing my password too often. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication is so much easier with cisco! ### 12. necessary for the safety of my company **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrew W. | Group CEO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** It is very useful to filter all the content that reaches my network, prevents unwanted things like viruses and spam. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** the configuration is a bit complicated to perform, but once configured everything goes great. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is very useful to achieve the virtual security of my company, I love it. ### 13. Good tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** What I like most about the tool is the facility to serve our customers, I've been working with it for some time. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** For now the time I've been using the tool I haven't had any problems using it. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are having a complete communication with users, a wonderful tool. ### 14. Cisco Umbrella great **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food Production | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 29, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I love that it is open dns. It's really easy also to track where people are going on our network and when threats are being blocked. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I don't think there is much to dislike. I don't know that its sped up our network though but that's not that big a deal. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Have seen a dramatic cut down in spam and e-mails trying to get you to click on a link. ### 15. DNS security **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Prior to using Cisco Umbrella we rarely monitored or had anything in place for DNS security. We have various Cisco Firewalls and have access lists in place to permit and deny traffic to various websites, but creating a ruleset for DNS is cumbersome and difficult to manage. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** In the beginning, it was a little daunting with all of the options available. The menu on the side expands to reveal countless configurable options, so when we signed up and got started it seemed like it was going to be difficult to configure and deploy. However, after reviewing some videos on setting it up and reading the documentation it was fairly easy to have ready to use. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Test it out and see if it helps you uncover gaps in your DNS security, it certainly helped bring some areas of interest in our organization! **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are using Cisco Umbrella to solve our gap in DNS based security. We have next-generation firewalls in place that do provide some URL based monitoring and filtering, but they lack in giving us a big picture view of our DNS footprint. Cisco Umbrella provides other options not available in our next-generation firewalls and give us a better picture of our DNS security. ### 16. A great service! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Cisco umbrella (formerly open dns) is great, have not had many if any problems since I began using the product. Very reliable filtering for user based web access. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** There is nothing I have to say here, the product has little problems. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** IT consulting and systems integration ### 17. The first layer of security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ryan M K. | Chief Information Officer, Hospital & Health Care, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I've used Cisco Umbrella/OpenDNS at my current and previous employer. In the multi-layer security of my systems, this is first and foremost at the top. It stops malware attacks, phishing, etc. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** There's not much to dislike. A feature that would be helpful is alerting when something gets blocked (like command & control or phishing). **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** You can't go wrong here. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Security and piece of mind. Knowing many of our security issues can be solved by securing the DNS Lookup that Umbrella does is great. ### 18. Easy to Setup Effective Control **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jonathan S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I have used OpenDNS for a long time and it has always been easy to setup and has always evolved to meet my needs. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I don't like that they started charging for some of their services, but it's still something I recommend for business that need control over their internet access. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Try the free versions first. They usually include everything you need for a Home network **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Low productivity from visiting social media sites has been eradicated, also access to improper websites is easily blocked, as well as whole subjects. ### 19. Simple To Implement Solution For Restricting Access **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Capacity to convey an answer like this in a vast worldwide system in less than about a month and a half. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The necessity for virtual machines for client based measurements. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** restricting access to DNS domains ### 20. Cisco Umbrella **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 01, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Intelligent blocking of internet traffic and reporting allows us to control what is moving in and out of our network and who is making the attempt, allowing us to correct any problems **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** It was a little complex to set up initially, but works well once policies are in place **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Get it. Now. Don't wait **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Prevents access to unauthorized content, potentially hazardous sites and command and control traffic through our internet connection ### 21. Cisco Security Products Integrate Well **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Cisco is happy to work with their clients to make these arrangements work effectively. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The absence of a solitary sheet of glass for the executives. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Implementation, Maintenance or other IT support ### 22. little use but gives results **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2019 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** the help that gives this to people in companies and staff **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I use it to filter the content and protect my site. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** try it is very good **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** he used it for content filtering ### 23. security tool **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lourdes F. | Ingeniero de comunicaciones, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** it is not necessary to install it, it runs from the cloud, it can be used from any location. web filtering can be done by whitelist and blacklist. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** the graphical interface is not very user-friendly for me. the dropdown menus are somewhat uncomfortable. sometimes it loads a bit slowly when expanding the menus. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** danip_@hotmail.com **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Avoid connections to insecure websites and filter content. Reports of connections from any user that is needed can be obtained. ### 24. Great Layer of Security for your network **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Low weight client, you forget its there! Also for mobile users everywhere the device travels it must follow your DNS rules, you can filter categories and specific sites to be blocked no matter where they connect from. The on-site virtual appliances work great on-site and have never had an issue. What I like best is the cloud dashboard for configuring the product, very easy to use and very easy to integrate with AD to get actionable data. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I cannot really think of anything I have ever disliked about this product to be honest, it does a great job and is a great layer for security. If anything remember you cannot rely solely on this tool, its just one of many layers all businesses should add on to their existing security packages. Sometimes AD info is not 100% free flowing but it could be issue on my end that has nothing to do with Umbrella product at all. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Definitely try the trial out and see what your current products are missing that it blocks. It will prove its value on this alone out of the box. Also keep in mind DNS is the first thing used when anyone clicks a bad / malicious link. This can block it before anything ever even occurs at that level. For those wondering what if someone clicks a static IP link, this does intercept that as well, not just host based. Also the DNS traffic is 100% encrypted with this product. MY IPS product by default had issues on the firewall level because most things trying to hide encrypt the DNS traffic. Just be aware is all. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ability to block categories / urls of web traffic which even computers / devices must follow when they leave the building. Greater visibility into what people are doing outside of the building. I like the cloud component of this as well because as soon as I block something in the cloud management, its going to be blocked by all my devices in my building as well as every mobile device with the client loaded. ### 25. Best in class Cloud based dns protection **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** High availability of the dns servers, minimal configuration at each branch. Centralized cloud infrastructure enables Cisco to constantly upgrade security policies without affecting branch level. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Connector deployment and integration s for identity awareness is not easy process **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** And any customer base with any form of cpe can securely browse internet and get protected from variety of attacks Also supports roaming clients which is better when user is off the network ### 26. Easy solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jesus P. | Agente de soporte, Entertainment, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** It provides effective solutions to institutes, schools, universities, libraries and other learning centers, as far as internet is concerned. With your help, communication between different departments in a study center is more efficient. All connected through the network provided by this company. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** It has certain security problems that should be fixed. Another drawback that I find with this service is that when searching for a non-existent domain, it sends you to an OpenDNS search space, called OpenDNS Guide, this site shows search results as if the web domain really existed, when in fact it does not it's like that **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** It is easy to use, easy to configure and manage. It is ideal for institutes, educational centers, libraries, schools and universities, as well as at home. This security improvement fixes certain problems present in previous versions. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Connection between the different departments of the university, including the internal schools to this and the library. Facilitating communication between different workers and administrative staff. ### 27. Ease and peace of mind **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** George V. | Director, Global Network Operations, MSS Services, Telecommunications, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Easy to deploy. Clear steps all the way and know exactly what to expect and how **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** when, for any reason, tunnel to umbrella is down, users are not getting any DNS response **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Easy and fast to deploy with clear vision. Works in combination (or not) with other security products. Integrates easily on existing Cisco infrastructure. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Web security with zero day defense, lock-down functionality so users cannot bypass the protection, concrete and thorough reporting ### 28. Top Notch Cloud Based Security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Photography | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I believe that Cisco Umbrella provides top notch security at an even deeper level than standard security programs which helps to ensure my marketing campaigns are never interrupted by malware or harmful attackers. The program is compatible with many other anti-virus programs and can be integrated as an additional layer of protection for local networks/devices. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I think Cisco Umbrella really has a lot going for them as their customer service team and technical team have been extremely helpful if needed, and the program has never shut down or been compromised in my time using it. I cant complain about it at the present time. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** I definitely feel Cisco Umbrella should be considered for most business and individual needs pertaining to sensitive work data on the web or on a local network. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am keeping my confidential marketing and campaign data safe from prying hackers or competitors through a cloud based security program. The benefits of a cloud based security service are amazing and vary greatly. I keep data and workplace information safe and sound without the fear of possibly getting infiltrated and infected. ### 29. Great free tool for controlling your home network **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mark F. | Freelance Consultant, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I like the content filtering capabilities as well as the web interface. I also like hosting my own personal website, and having the ability to set my own DNS, means avoiding the need to update settings when my provider made changes. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The free version requires some advanced DNS knowledge which could be confusing for the average user. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** It has a robust set of parental controls and content filtering options for parents looking to have a bit more control over their children’s internet usage. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hosting my own private website, and saving money on hosting fees. ### 30. The definitely Cloud DNS filter **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marcos R. | Project leader, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 29, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Cisco Umbrella cloud service is too easy to deploy **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Nothing, I think that Cisco Umbrella is the perfect Cloud DNS filter service **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** We had to deploy a guest WiFi service with a filtered web service where our guests can connect safety to internet, and we could not to configure anything in their machines ### 31. Cisco Umbrella is fine **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rachel F. | Medical Records , Law Practice, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Its user friendly - there aren't a lot of wires and hookups and have to push this button etc etc. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Quality is pretty low - ive never had crystal clear anything, and graphics and design aren't anything to write home about **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** easy to use, great for fast communication with team and employees **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** There are some employees who don't work in the office, so when having a creative group meeting it's nice to have everyone "there" in some way. It's so much easier than trying to plan something on the phone or in email individually, getting rid of that back and fourth ### 32. Open DNS opens the internet for your family and church **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eddie R. | Director Information Services, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** OpenDNS is super easy to set up and once setup in your router covers all devices connecting to it. It’s very good at filtering inappropriate content like pornography or many other categories that are laid out **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** It’s unfortunate though that If users have administrative access to their internet settings they could bypass the dns lookup setting that keep OprnDns working. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a church we provide public access to internet and feel good about doing our part to prevent inappropriate content and scams from reaching our users ### 33. Okay for internet security, but not the best **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Open DNS was a free option with my internet router which was great! Pretty easy to use. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** It did not block the things we had set it to block. Not the best for internet filtering. It is also not user friendly if you aren’t familiar with tech lingo and deciding URLS **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Open DNS offers the ability to block use of certain websites and keeps employees and me on task as we work. ### 34. Great for blocking harmful websites **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I have been using OpenDNS for several years now and it is a great and easy to use personal security system. Very affordable as well. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The interface could be a little easier to use, but once you get used to it, it is fine. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** I primarily use it to block harmful websites through our entire network. The benefits have been peace of mind since I set it and forget it. ### 35. Great Option **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Derek P. | Service Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** As a technician, I enjoyed the ease of navigation throughout the interface. There was no confusion as to where I had to go for what my goal was. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Not much really, they could clean up the button design if anything! I think the solution overall is fantastic really! **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** It was simple to route our VPN and servers through this for Web filtering, which was an additional support onto our SA. ### 36. Open dns **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeremy S. | Business Systems Programmer, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** The ability to have a secure dns provider unrelated to my ISP **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Not all ISP’s allow you to modify your DNS records to allow custom entries **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** With the ability to choose my dns provider I have the option to better secure my internet traffic. Choose how I want my traffic displayed and manage what information is tracked and how to better secure my data. ### 37. Super easy security addition! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vince A. | Solutions Analyst, Computer & Network Security, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Umbrella when used in conjunction with the on site virtual machines is so fantastically simple to use, it makes deployment a breeze! Deploying the OVAs and pointing your clients to them is as easy as deploy, block and done! Anyone can do it. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Generally speaking, Umbrella is a bit on the slow side to update clients with new security settings. While I do realize the time is also dependent on your own network speed, the push from the cloud dashboard to on prem would be a ton better, if you were able to manually set the sync instead of waiting for the time period. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Don't consider!!BUY!! **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clients tend to use the company network as their own personal home network, and with Umbrella, I can not only limit that, but block what I want to, when I want to. Productivity should rise when not all of the users can browse facebook and social media at work like they used to. ### 38. Some worthwhile points to consider, but implementation documentation can be confusing. **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Evan L. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I like the idea of DNS query filtering beyond what's typically available at no cost. I like the ability to do reporting on the data to get insights not typically available without manually collating DNS lookup data. I also like the idea that if DNS results are returned for malicious websites or services you can point a finger at your vendor and that provides some CYA. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** I dislike the implementation documentation, the confusing nature of the setup calls, and overall the idea that the sales people don't really grasp the technical requirements for enterprise rollouts. They just sell sell sell and really don't take the extra time to learn current architecture, caveats, etc. They solution requires virtual appliances (which they weren't very helpful designing architecture) and installing agents on the domain controllers (which they also weren't exactly upfront about). They left me and my team to learn the ins and outs and design the rollout. We also had to enable different audit logging on our domain controllers and they didn't tell us that either. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Look at other options, vendors, etc. Beware of implementation pitfalls and unhelpful sales/tech staff at OpenDNS. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** DNS queries by malicious actors or software are no longer being served. We have a better understanding of what domains and subdomains are regularly requested and visited. We also feel more prepared when it comes to being proactive with security. ### 39. DNS on steroids **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ted J. | Team Lead, IT Operations, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** With the new appliances that are available for on-site deployment, being able to integrate with AD for increased granularity in metrics and visibility is superb. They also allow for split DNS processing for internal and external DNS queries which also further harden the DNS infrastructure from client workarounds. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The initial deployment can be interesting as the permissions required for some of the agent/scripts is not something that may be in place already. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Just give it a try with a good partner, you will not regret it. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Umbrella allows for the filtering on DNS queries to enhance security at a very base level -- allowing for lower workloads on IPS/firewalls in the organization. ### 40. Cisco Umbrella is a necessity **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Filters all my web traffic before it even hits my office or remote users laptops. Allows us to protect against ransomware and other zero day web based threats like DDoS. In todays threat landscape, this is a must to add a layer to your defense in depth strategy. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Configuration is a little tricky with the appliances, in-house DNS server and firewall, but still manageable. I actually am able to protect our separate VLANS at two separate locations and our backup cable modem we use for wireless **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** This is a must to protect your environment from web based threats. Its a web firewall in the cloud, before your traffic ever touches your devices. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can now filter and gather data on remote employees and use that intelligence in case of an incident. I also can now protect remote staff from zero-day web based threats like ransomware ### 41. Cisco Umbrella **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David A. | Director Of Technical Operations, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** The Cisco Umbrella product works great for both Malware protection and web filtering. At its basic level it will provide malware protection when forwarding DNS requests to it. Easy to setup for a MSP. It can be setup to drill down to the user level for web filtering and more. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** The product does take a little bit of training to get all the functionality. Between roaming computers and properly setting up policies. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** The malware protection alone slowed down the volume of calls received because of infected computers. It also allowed us to offer web filtering to our clients with an easy setup. ### 42. Great as a first time user learning and teaching about DNS management **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica R. | Research Assistant, Government Administration, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I appreciated the simple way I could whitelist and blacklist different sites for young users at the public library **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** It is not easy to install, especially not for those with limited computer literacy **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was able to help librarians block children's games which were infecting computers with malware files ### 43. Easy to use for branch offices **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jake S. | Network Administrator, Insurance, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2017 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I love the easy deployment and the accommodation of sites without static IP addresses. They have an IP address application that automatically updates the IP address on the account identity to keep it working. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Without a high-end router, the service is fairly easy to circumvent. Our mid-grade Linksys routers at our smaller branch do not allow for limiting the DNS that is used. To accomplish this, I have to initialize a group policy on each machine. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Ensure that you have the ability to limit the DNS IP accessed from each device on your network. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** This has been especially helpful at our locations that have limited bandwidth. Locations where a streaming video or music application can make phone calls suffer. ### 44. OpenDNS Internet Security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Law Practice | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** No complicated configuration; works with any hardware setup **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Incomplete blocking of inappropriate content (e.g., porn sites blocked, porn on Reddit not blocked) **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Make sure you're OK with the detail level of filtering achievable. (e.g., limited insight into forum sites such as Reddit) **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Block inappropriate content from access; ### 45. Useful for rapid Investigations **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** I used Cisco Umbrella during WannaCry Campaign to check if some of our customer were affected and block all the DNS requests on time. We also found several others indication of compromises that helped us to localize other infections on endpoints and correctly review our security policies **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** 1) Some customers are scared about using Cloud bases applications. 2) To extend visibility behind nat gateways is required to install a virtual appliance. I suggest to consider to integrate this feature in the Cisco Security solution in order to accelerate the adoption by Cisco Security customers. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** For an effective visibility consider to deploy on the whole company (HQ, Branches, Remote Workers) and to integrated it with SIEM in order to better investigate incident **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** End user protection both on and off corporate network. The Off network protection is able to protect the endpoint wherever you are with very low bandwidth requirements (like remote locations or low performance mobile networks) and without obliging the user to connect via VPN in order to be protected by corporate rules. ### 46. Life saver for remote offices **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kyle R. | IT Admin, Insurance, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** The best feature to me is the accommodation of sites with static IP's. Their application keeps everything working by automatically updating IP addresses on the account **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** We use some mediocre Linksys routers at our smaller remote offices that do not allow limiting the DNS that is used. To fix this, we have initialized group policies on each machine to prevent the service from being circumvented. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** Make sure you can limit the DNS IP access from each device on your network. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** A lot of our smaller remote offices have limited bandwidth, where streaming video or music can make the VoIP call quality suffer. Cisco Umbrella helps with this. ### 47. Great way to easily protect your home network and users **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Very easy to configure if you have popular networking equipment that they have step by step instructions for. The interface allows you to monitor what hits against your filters were made. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** For routers that aren't on their instruction list, you're left to figure out how to configure. Not hard if you have a bit of experience in this area, but I image less experienced users may struggle. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reduction in crappy ads, inappropriate sites veiwed on company machines. ### 48. DNS **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Excellent software. So far we are using Umbrella mostly to filter content on public networks at our public library. It works great and was so easy to set up. We chose it because it gives us the ability to unblock sites immediately on patron computers when they request, instead of making them submit and then wait for a response. We are extremely happy with the product and will continue to use it. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** Base pay much lower than similar roles at other companies. Sales org still working out lots of process kinks. The closest thing to a con is the speed at which we're growing (fast!). It can create challenges. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** I recommend it, in my case it worked with total security, I had no problems **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it in my home computers as a security software, with the idea of ​​maintaining my privacy in the network. ### 49. Simple yet powerful **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joe F. | iPhone Software Design and development, Construction, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** Open DNS is easy to manage and maintain. Set it and forget it. It provides fast DNS resolution and basic content filtering. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** It is not a bullet proof solution to all situations. **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** By using Open DNS we are able to provide faster DNS Name resolution than is possible from our ISP. While there may be other solutions Open DNS provides a free solution that works for us. ### 50. Great router-level security for home **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ho'omana Nathan H. | International Teaching Assistant (ITA) Program Coordinator, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Cisco Umbrella?** It's free, relatively simple to set up (although maybe not for a less tech-savvy person), and does a very nice job speeding things up and protecting you from the big stuff. Support and documentation is brilliant. **What do you dislike about Cisco Umbrella?** So far, nothing at all! Occasionally, I'm not able to log in, the "Logging you in" page just spins unless I close the browser and clear the cache. **Recommendations to others considering Cisco Umbrella:** While their enterprise solution, Umbrella, might work better for bigger enterprise applications, this is a great starting point for protecting your users! **What problems is Cisco Umbrella solving and how is that benefiting you?** This has greatly sped up DNS resolution and protects our lab machines from phishing and other content problems. ## Cisco Umbrella Discussions - [What is Cisco Umbrella used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-cisco-umbrella-used-for) - 1 upvote - [What is Open DNS Personal Internet Security used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-open-dns-personal-internet-security-used-for) - [View Cisco Umbrella pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/cisco-umbrella/reviews?page=5§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-09+06%3A11%3A49+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=f2f32b6f-5002-42a6-94ff-16c40dcefa76&secure%5Btoken%5D=49b7a8c8a1d4a691d82d29b85cfb0df0d246a415cf5d8924572734ac0ef61364&format=llm_user) ## Cisco Umbrella Integrations - [Sumo Logic](https://www.g2.com/products/sumo-logic/reviews) ## Cisco Umbrella Features **Additional Functionality** - Penetration Testing - Alerts/Notifications - Audit Trail - Anti Virus - Vulnerability Scanning - Remote Monitoring & Management - VPN - Behavior Analytics - Reporting/Analytics - Real-Time Notifications - Access Controls/Permissions - SSL Security - Patch Management - Event Logs - Anomaly/Malware Detection - DNS Leak Protection - Third-Party Integrations - Server Monitoring - Real-Time Monitoring - Compliance Management - Network Provisioning - API - Email Alerts - Security Auditing - Intrusion Detection System - Data Visualization - Two-Factor Authentication - Generative AI - Firewalls - AI Copilot - Anti Spam - Threat Response - Activity Monitoring - Risk Alerts - Data Loss Prevention - Single Sign On - Intrusion Prevention System - Secure Login - Policy Management - Activity Dashboard **Protection** - Quarantine - Continuous Monitoring - Off-Network Protection - Guest Network Protection - BYOD Protection - Native DNS over HTTPS (DoH) **Management** - Multicloud Management - DLP Configuration - Dynamic Scaling - Policy Enforcement **Web Content and Traffic Filtering - Secure Web Gateways** - SSL/TLS Inspection - Content Filtering - URL Filtering - Real-Time Traffic Inspection - Ad and Tracker Blocking **Cloud Visibility** - Data Discovery - Cloud Registry - Cloud Gap Analytics **Functionality** - DNS Lookups - Threat Intelligence - Advanced Traffic Filtering **Monitoring** - Data Center Networking - Multicloud Visibility - Anomaly Detection **Data Protection and Loss Prevention - Secure Web Gateways** - Data Loss Prevention (DLP) - Phishing Protection - Malware Protection - Cloud Access Security **Security** - Data Security - Data loss Prevention - Security Auditing - Real-Time Data - Cloud Application Security - SSL Security **Administration** - Whitelisting - Policy Enforcement - Incident Reports - Domain Categorization - Multi-Network Management **Protection** - Firewall-as-a-Service - Cloud Application Brokerage - Web Gateway - Adaptive Access Control **Access Control and Authentication - Secure Web Gateways** - Application Control - Authentication and Access Control - User and Group Policies **Identity** - SSO - Governance - User Analytics - Real-Time Analytics - Visual Analytics - Reporting/Analytics **Performance and Management - Secure Web Gateways** - Customizable Policy Enforcement - Bandwidth Management - Integration Capabilities - Reporting and Logging - Threat Intelligence Integration **Additional Functionality** - Alerts/Notifications - AI Copilot - Access Controls/Permissions - Endpoint Management - Intrusion Detection System - Compliance Management - HIPAA Compliant - Search/Filter - API - Two-Factor Authentication - Data Visualization - Risk Assessment - Real-Time Monitoring - Event Logs - Activity Dashboard - Audit Management - Cloud Security Policy Management - Vulnerability Protection - Anti Virus - Incident Management - Threat Intelligence - Real-Time Reporting - Reporting & Statistics - User Management - Encryption - Vulnerability Scanning - Generative AI - Status Tracking - Third-Party Integrations - Real-Time Notifications - Patch Management - Monitoring - Cloud Encryption ## Top Cisco Umbrella Alternatives - [DNSFilter](https://www.g2.com/products/dnsfilter/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (244 reviews) - [Netskope One Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/netskope-one-platform/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (92 reviews) - [WebTitan Web Filter](https://www.g2.com/products/webtitan-web-filter/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (76 reviews)