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Barracuda SecureEdge vs Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.4
Implementing iboss boosted efficiency and security, offering high ROI despite increased per-device fees, through enhanced productivity and reduced VPN dependency.
Sentiment score
7.5
Barracuda SecureEdge delivers ROI by reducing costs, streamlining management, and enhancing security with easy setup and centralized controls.
Sentiment score
6.9
Cisco Secure Client enhances remote connectivity with robust security, ease of use, and varied ROI experiences across organizations.
With iboss, whenever you turn on your laptop, the iboss agent automatically connects to the iboss cloud, enforcing all security policies. So with respect to the security side, it strengthens measures.
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Deploying iboss leads to good return on investment, estimated around 70% to 80%.
Manager at Cyvogenix
I have seen some cost effectiveness from iboss; it has reduced certain support requirements, making it a more hands-off solution.
Managing Director
Considering the security features and centralized management capability it provides, we feel it offers good value for the investment.
network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
It has enhanced visibility into user activity and helped enforce consistent security policies across different locations.
Senior Technical Support Executive at digital track
I estimate that routing network administration and policy management activities require roughly 30 to 40% less effort than before, allowing our team to focus on higher priority projects rather than day-to-day maintenance.
Network engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
With Cisco Secure Network Analytics implemented, we have achieved collaboration as an IT support team where we reached out to network-related members to understand how they work on Cisco Secure Network Analytics-related issues.
Intune Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Iboss support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge but faces challenges with response times and communication during outages.
Sentiment score
6.7
Barracuda SecureEdge's customer service is efficient, knowledgeable, and responsive, consistently resolving user queries quickly with high satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.8
Cisco Secure Client provides reliable performance, with support generally quick and effective, though access sometimes requires contracts and has delays.
They are very fast, responsive, and knowledgeable.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
The quality of the support is fantastic.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
We had promising discussions about resolving these issues, but no real action followed.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
The support team for Barracuda SecureEdge is responsive, knowledgeable, and helpful when troubleshooting issues.
network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
The engineers have been able to provide useful guidance during troubleshooting and implementation activities.
Network engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
The ticketing system is very efficient, and they provide support promptly.
OT Cybersecurity Analyst at a government with 10,001+ employees
Cisco offers very high-quality customer service.
Manager - Network Services at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Cisco technical support is difficult, and it requires lots of contracts.
Technical Manager at Gannexion BV
Over the years, there's been a decline in the quality, mainly in areas such as the experience level of support engineers and the time taken to address and escalate issues.
Director/ Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
iboss offers scalable, containerized cloud architecture, efficiently expanding resources and swiftly resolving performance issues during traffic spikes.
Sentiment score
6.7
Barracuda SecureEdge offers scalable, cloud-based management, enabling effortless expansion and administration for growing companies with minimal effort.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Client efficiently scales for organizations, providing secure access while integrating with existing infrastructures despite potential hardware challenges.
They are also able to meet on-demand requirements based on your contract with them, and can easily provide adequate resources and scalability.
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
If I start seeing sluggishness or anything like that, I just reach out to my rep, and they connect with their dev team, typically resolving it the same day.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
The centralized management platform makes it easy to manage growth without significantly increasing administrative effort.
network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
The centralized cloud management makes it easy to support additional users, locations and security requirements.
Network engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
Barracuda SecureEdge has good scalability because it is a cloud-based solution.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
A smaller firewall can handle fewer sessions, while a larger one can handle tens of thousands of sessions.
Director/ Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The scalability of Cisco Secure Client depends on the hardware I choose.
Network Architect at Sysnet Solutions Bangladesh Limited
Regarding scalability, Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) rates as excellent because we can scale out by simply buying more licenses from the vendor.
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
iboss is praised for stability, quick support, and reliability despite occasional minor challenges or growth-related fluctuations.
Sentiment score
8.4
Barracuda SecureEdge is stable and reliable, performing consistently for security management and remote access without major issues.
Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Secure Client is praised for its stability and reliability, effectively handling remote connectivity despite minor flaws.
It's been pretty solid; I've never had an outage with them, and if I ever had, it's only been once out of the seven years.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
We've experienced zero downtime.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device despite our ClearPass sending information to the iboss box.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
The platform has provided consistent performance for both security management and remote connectivity.
network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
It has improved consistent performance for security connectivity and remote access.
Network engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability ten out of ten.
Sr. I&C Enginner at Reliance Industries Ltd
The stability is really good, and I would rate it up to nine.
Manager - Network Services at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Regarding the performance of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect), I have not seen any issues because performance-wise it functions properly.
Manager - Projects at airtel
 

Room For Improvement

Concerns include pricing, agent reliability, security, integration complexities, slow reporting, limited cloud integration, and improved support and presentations.
Barracuda SecureEdge needs upgrades in reporting, integration, interface, and security features for enhanced enterprise functionality and efficiency.
Cisco Secure Client faces usability and integration challenges, including outdated support, cumbersome authentication, and issues with pricing and technical support.
It is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard.
Manager at Cyvogenix
We also had a problem with a transition when we upgraded from one appliance of theirs to another, but their engineer lost a good deal of our data.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
If Barracuda's security team could provide some use cases on how to secure the remote access of contractors and remote users who are facilitating utilities like energy sectors and water treatment plants, it would give a very good edge to Barracuda's security team.
OT Cybersecurity Analyst at a government with 10,001+ employees
Compared to leading SASE vendors, Barracuda SecureEdge is still evolving and lacks some advanced features and integration depth that may require evaluating for large and global enterprises.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
One area where I believe the product could be enhanced is in reporting and analytics, with more customizable dashboards and deeper insight for security and performance monitoring.
network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
I am using Intune for deployments, and it's not easy to create an automated deployment where users do not need to register server addresses.
Chief Technologies Officer at ASTORG PARTNERS
Vendors offer more features, such as a kill switch.
Technical Manager at Gannexion BV
Cisco's security portfolio, including Secure Client and the firewalls, is falling behind.
Director/ Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Iboss offers competitive, transparent pricing and simplicity, but costs may increase with usage compared to ZScaler and Check Point.
Cisco Secure Client licensing offers flexible annual terms but is sometimes considered costly compared to Fortinet and Palo Alto.
It offers the same features you would get from a vendor that charges 250,000 British pounds for a fraction of the price.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
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.
Network Administrator at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern.
Managing Director
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Barracuda SecureEdge has been good, as our director dealt with it, and we received a good package with our current system because we were also using Barracuda cloud backup.
Infrastructure & Support Senior Specialist at a retailer with 51-200 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is acceptable.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Palo Alto and Fortinet provide free VPN connections, but Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) requires a license purchase.
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
I perceive the pricing to be a seven, however, I have perpetual licenses.
Technical Manager at Gannexion BV
The pricing seems to align equally with other competitors like Palo Alto during a competitive situation.
Director/ Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

iboss excels with cloud-native security features, centralized management, zero trust access, and reliable, seamless integration for enhanced efficiency.
Barracuda SecureEdge provides integrated security features enhancing operational efficiency and connectivity with intuitive management and advanced threat detection.
Cisco Secure Client provides reliable, cross-platform VPN access with multi-factor authentication and seamless Active Directory integration for enhanced security.
The solution's mental health function can detect if someone needs help.
Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water
It's given us a lot more visibility into our computer assets that may be infected with viruses and also shows us people who have unusually large uploads or might be engaging in high-risk activities, such as searches or going to sites not categorized by their web crawler.
Educational Technology Coordinator at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
iboss was the best solution for us because, no matter what domain you were in, everything is under a single pane of glass, which is exactly what we wanted.
Managing Director
The best features that Barracuda SecureEdge offers, in my experience, start with a Secure Web Gateway for internet traffic protection, Zero Trust Network Access, SD-WAN integration, Firewall as a Service, centralized policy and management, remote user security, work-from-home capabilities, branch connectivities plus cloud security, and application-level access control.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It simplified policy management, reduced the time spent on administration and gave us better visibility across all locations.
Network engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
The best features Barracuda SecureEdge offers are its centralized cloud-based management, secure remote access capabilities, and ease of deployment.
network security engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
Beneficial for businesses needing secure access outside the office.
Director/ Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Additionally, it gives the user flexibility of working from anywhere, which is a major feature we are looking at.
Manager - Projects at airtel
Cisco Secure Network Analytics filled the gap between the monitoring and management side, allowing us to check end user activity clearly from the Cisco Secure Network Analytics console.
Intune Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

iboss
Sponsored
Ranking in ZTNA as a Service
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (6th)
Barracuda SecureEdge
Ranking in ZTNA as a Service
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (14th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (13th)
Cisco Secure Client (includ...
Ranking in ZTNA as a Service
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (3rd), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (6th), Cisco Security Portfolio (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 3.6%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda SecureEdge is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is 2.8%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ZTNA as a Service Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
iboss3.6%
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)2.8%
Barracuda SecureEdge1.5%
Other92.1%
ZTNA as a Service
 

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.
Esther Sultaana - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage Consultant Storage at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Centralized security has protected global cloud access and now simplifies rapid office onboarding
I cannot think of anything off the top of my head for improving Barracuda SecureEdge; it just needs some fine-tuning. In my experience working with it, it has features that deal with cyber threats and unintentional cyber threats with the sandboxing to prevent users from possibly clicking on suspicious links, and single pane management gives you your centralized dashboard to manage security rules and review threats while tracking network performance on a global scale. The only small improvement I can think of for Barracuda SecureEdge is if it were free, but that is more of a joke. I really do appreciate the product, and at the moment, I cannot think of anything that I have a complaint about. I cannot think of any improvements needed for Barracuda SecureEdge; the upgrades or rather additions they made were really solid, showing they are on top of it, which further impresses me about Barracuda, as they address emerging needs in the cyber world effectively.
AS
Manager - Projects at airtel
Offers work-from-anywhere flexibility but navigates occasional proxy confusion
The analytics I downloaded from your site as a free download did not carry the information that was actually required. I was looking at the market segmentation and market share, along with some USPs which differentiated them from each other. The free download had two issues: many things were repetitive, and it was designed to not release any relevant information. Only headers were present, so I was not able to determine whether the final report would be worthwhile. I have not worked with enterprise tools that I could share feedback on for website publication. I see benefits from using Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect). However, I would not recommend it because future adoptions will be towards Zscaler, as SSC is a better model than VPN. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution a 7.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
19%
Retailer
14%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
I think iboss could be improved by making reporting and dashboard customization more flexible, and simplifying troubl...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
I use iboss as a cloud-based secure web gateway to provide secure internet access, web filtering, and protect remote ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
My experience with iboss's pricing structure, setup cost, and licensing model has been positive, straightforward, and...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda SecureEdge?
I'm not directly involved in the purchasing decision, so I cannot comment on exact pricing figures. However, from an ...
What needs improvement with Barracuda SecureEdge?
I cannot think of anything off the top of my head for improving Barracuda SecureEdge; it just needs some fine-tuning....
What is your primary use case for Barracuda SecureEdge?
My main use case for Barracuda SecureEdge is for Microsoft 365, as it secures user access to applications like Salesf...
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?
There are no features that I wish Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) had that it does not currently provide. ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
I primarily use Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) for VPN connections and network-related activities. We hav...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
Barracuda CloudGen Access
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
 

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.
Information Not Available
MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda SecureEdge vs. Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.