Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

AWS Direct Connect vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

AWS Direct Connect
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Secure Client (includ...
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (1st), ZTNA as a Service (9th), Cisco Security Portfolio (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of AWS Direct Connect is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is 7.0%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Flavio Gomes Figueira Camacho Junior - PeerSpot reviewer
Establish secure and private connections between on-premise infrastructure and cloud environments
AWS Direct Connect allows me to connect our on-premise infrastructure directly with AWS infrastructure. This is particularly beneficial because it helps me use our infrastructure for databases and testing while leveraging AWS's computing power for production purposes. I also do not need to expose management of our machines to the public internet, enhancing security by using a private connection.
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet."
"Direct Connect provides an improved connection quality and a diversified link, which contributes to high availability and failover capabilities."
"The platform's most valuable feature for us is its robust network performance."
"The most valuable feature of Direct Connect is its low latency to the users."
"It is a highly scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of Direct Connect is its low latency to the users."
"AWS Direct Connect allows me to connect our on-premise infrastructure directly with AWS infrastructure."
"AWS Direct Connect is highly secure and much faster compared to normal network infrastructure."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client is very stable."
"It's easy to handle. You can have it on Windows, Linux or Mac, that's quite useful."
"The solution has good performance. It is a simple tool to use, once I turn on Windows it automatically starts to use the VPN."
"Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is a straightforward and simple product that works effectively."
"It is easy to handle, you can have it on Windows, Mac, and Linux."
"The ability to add multiple two-factor authentication options for the user to choose from when they log in has helped increase the security of our network, especially with so many people working remotely."
"AnyConnect SMC's best features are that it's secure and connects seamlessly to clients' networks."
"The solution is secure and has a lot of benefits."
 

Cons

"Having more locations could improve the convenience of using the service."
"There is no room for improvement in Direct Connect right now."
"It is complicated to do additional BGP configuration for the product."
"Its terminologies are challenging to interpret."
"AWS Direct Connect should support cross-cloud connections, such as migrations between Azure and AWS, for disaster recovery purposes on different cloud platforms."
"It can be difficult to configure compared to cloud-based GUIs."
"I would like to see better traffic visibility and higher throughput security, especially for organizations that require more than what the current limit allows."
"The platform's stability needs improvement."
"It should autodetect or monitor it, when I am in the office it goes to the network in the office, or when I'm not at the office, it automatically activates my VPN connection."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client can be improved by having better speed and reliability. However, the speed and reliability are already really good."
"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."
"The deployment process should be improved, specifically making it easier. Fully automated deployments are quite challenging."
"We don't have the correct visibility to see the quantity of licenses we are consuming or not consuming."
"In terms of areas for improvement in Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, from my point of view, the solution works well and right now I don't see the need to improve it. Probably a better user interface could be created for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, but its core is VPN creation, and that works well, though I'm not a VPN specialist, and I'm not an expert on how to create a VPN, how the VPN gateway works, how it's implemented, and what's the architecture behind it. A two-factor authentication feature was recently added to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. In the past, you only needed to log in with your username and password, but now, there's a token, and the user interface for that token isn't that good. That's another area for improvement. Cisco should also make the two-factor authentication better in the solution. What I'd like added to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client in its next release is a better two-factor authentication, in particular, the validity of the code being shorter because sometimes when I get the code and I add it to the client, it's invalid, though I'm unsure if it's centrally set up that way or if its a characteristic of the product. Making the interface of the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client more user-friendly is also what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution."
"I'm not noticing any missing features."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution."
"It has reasonable pricing in terms of the features offered."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"The initial cost is the ASA and other items, but after that, it is relatively inexpensive."
"The solution is reasonably priced and costs $600 for a five-year license in our scenario."
"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."
"We are in the North African region, and Cisco products are expensive for us. On a scale from one to ten with one being very affordable and ten being expensive, I'd rate the price at eight."
"There is a license needed to use this solution. There are different licensing models available, such as a three-year license."
"One thing I've noticed is the price in comparison to other VPNs."
"The price is okay."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Infrastructure VPN solutions are best for your needs.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
34%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Direct Connect?
AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet.
What needs improvement with AWS Direct Connect?
It is working fine for us as it is. AI is the icon in the future, so they need to provide more information for us. For us, it is a new concept, and we will try to use it for our vertical industry i...
What is your primary use case for AWS Direct Connect?
We are using SAP boxes for the ERP system. We are using VPNs, elastic internet IPs. We have Route 53. We have mail because it is necessary to have mail if we want to publish a domain on the interne...
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, which provide free VPN when the firewall is purchased. Palo Alto and Fortinet prov...
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.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Direct Connect vs. Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.