BlueCat Edge vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

BlueCat and Cisco are both solutions in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category. BlueCat is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0, while Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.2. BlueCat holds a 3.4% mindshare in DS, compared to Cisco’s 21.2% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of BlueCat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

BlueCat Edge

Read 7 BlueCat Edge reviews

982 Views
982 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Umbrella

Read 121 Cisco Umbrella reviews

22,390 Views
4,478 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BlueCat Edge

Cisco Umbrella

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Cisco Umbrella and BlueCat Edge operate in the enterprise DNS security market. Cisco Umbrella seems to have an edge in ease of use and seamless integration with cloud services, while BlueCat Edge stands out with its DNS traffic management and detailed logging capabilities.

Features: Cisco Umbrella excels with DNS-based protection, advanced threat defense, and user-friendly management, providing comprehensive web content filtering and seamless integration with cloud services. BlueCat Edge offers robust DNS traffic management with precise DNS routing and security policies, enhancing enterprise-level DNS configurations. Detailed logging and visibility assist users in troubleshooting and security audits.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Umbrella could benefit from deeper threat intelligence integration and improved malware protection. Enhancing its reporting capabilities, customization for user-specific rules, and third-party tool integration are suggested. BlueCat Edge might accelerate the implementation of feature requests and offer finer security settings control, like content category filtering. Improved visibility and data export capabilities are also needed.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Deployment of Cisco Umbrella is straightforward with flexible cloud options. Its customer service is recognized for excellent technical support. BlueCat Edge provides similar flexibility, performing notably well in hybrid and on-premises setups, and its customer service, while effective, could benefit from more efficient feature enhancement processes.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Umbrella is priced reasonably and its comprehensive features usually justify the cost, with flexibility in licensing tiers to suit different needs. BlueCat Edge, although viewed as more expensive, offers value in scalability for large enterprises. Both solutions realize ROI through increased productivity, reduced security risks, and effective threat management, with Cisco Umbrella noted for reducing hardware costs and support times.

To learn more, read our detailed BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

July 2025

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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

BlueCat Edge

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Umbrella

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

121

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of BlueCat Edge is 3.4%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 21.2%, down from 26.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

Featured Reviews

David Muscat

Principal Architect, System Design /Enterprise-Hybrid Cloud DNS Lead at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides good visibility and control, and we can quickly put it in place and integrate it

About Nine months ago, we were still using their Edge endpoint version 3. We recently moved to version 4 of their Edge endpoint. In Edge endpoint version 3, we did not have the ability to clean up our dashboards properly. As we decommissioned sites and commissioned new sites, we were left with a mess of data still sitting there because of the way they had originally designed version 3. Now the old data is gone, and the function of the new version 4 has really helped with that. It was a nuisance for the past few years. One pain point concerning DNS Edge is the inability to see per Edge endpoint, what devices are querying against it. They do have the capability for you to look at that data, but the data is roughly 24 to 48 hours old. I am looking for real-time data, and I cannot get that per Edge endpoint. I would call it a work in progress. I am still finding things that bug me in terms of how something functions. I might find out how to do something when it is not documented. That is great, but documentation becomes an issue with me on that.

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Emilio Montoya

CTO at PROA

Ensures internet navigation safety and boosts productivity

The features of Cisco Umbrella I prefer most are DNS protection and traffic redirect. With Cisco Talos's threat intelligence, we reduce the impact of malware traffic in our network, and we currently see the behavior of equipment and choose the correct sites. Cisco Talos has helped us reduce the impact of malware traffic. We can see the behavior and choose the correct sites. We're currently testing secure access with Umbrella in order to secure access to core applications. It's a product that the user doesn't even know is there, even though it is protecting them. It's not hard on the equipment. And, for us, it centralizes everything, which improves productivity. With the Experience Insights feature of Cisco Secure Access, we've seen impacts on the management of user connectivity by allowing us to deliver safe connectivity. We are testing the Secure Access product with Cisco Umbrella to improve our connectivity with our users in order to secure access to the corporate applications. Cisco Umbrella is in the cloud, which is nice.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I found most valuable is the ability to put it in place and integrate it very quickly. It allows us to create routing rule sets to route DNS traffic where it needs to go most efficiently in our environment."

"It allows us to easily monitor our subnets and routers."

"We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having."

"The namespace and access control features are notable."

"IP Address Management (IPAM) is the most valuable."

"The unparalleled visibility offered by BlueCat Edge is arguably the most critical benefit we receive."

"Edge has reduced the complexity and has been more reliable."

"BlueCat has increased security efficiency tremendously within the first month of deployment."

"The Global Block List is one of the most valuable features because it's really easy to block domain names as well as URLs. Sometimes you don't want to block the whole site, you just want to block one URL. The Global Block and Allow Lists are the best features for us."

"Using this solution has meant that we've needed to make fewer firewall changes."

"The implementation is pretty easy."

"Stability-wise, it's good. I have never encountered any bugs."

"The weekly reportings are great. The investigation is super and the application management is equally great."

"The Secure Internet Gateway benefits my company because now our whole traffic goes to the Umbrella Cloud and it gets checked there, so nothing malicious is coming into our network."

"I also think that the dashboard view is really helpful. Whenever sites get blocked, we get the details and the users who are connecting to them."

"Cisco Umbrella is such a solution and can be implemented very fast and easy. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that are going to use in Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

Cons

"I would like to see improvements in threat detection and the ability to add categorization for blocking queries, such as those related to adult entertainment."

"One pain point concerning DNS Edge is the inability to see per Edge endpoint, what devices are querying against it. They do have the capability for you to look at that data, but the data is roughly 24 to 48 hours old. I am looking for real-time data, and I cannot get that per Edge endpoint."

"Its price is on the higher side."

"I have concerns about several aspects of BlueCat's site management."

"BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement."

"The main improvement for BlueCat Edge's security configuration would be more granular control."

"BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement."

"A more graphical user interface would be a benefit."

"I am unsure if Cisco Umbrella offers a Windows option for running the server."

"It has happened in the past that Cisco Umbrella has denied us access to secure websites."

"One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella. Sometimes when you want to use technology, such as Always On VPN, it will not work. There are some looming issues as one type of technology starts to crossover with Umbrella. That is the challenge and Umbrella should find a way to be more compatible with some of the endpoint response solutions that are coming out on the market."

"The firewall capabilities could be better. Cisco is starting to introduce some layer 7 capabilities now, but there's still some room to grow. They should continue with the development of Umbrella so that it is a full-blown cloud-managed firewall solution."

"They should provide more integrations and bring things together so that there is a more standard feel to their platform. We also use Cisco ISE, and it has a very different feel from Cisco Umbrella."

"It should have a real-time malware classification engine. It should check the malware on the website. It would be good if it had a real-time malware check for the websites because currently, it just compares the DNS queries of the blacklist. It should also have malware control over file execution and the types of files that the users are allowed to download."

"Cisco Umbrella can be improved in terms of limited coverage and wind vulnerability. The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users."

"They need to improve analytics so they report on more of the specifics of user activity."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We find the current pricing model more reasonable compared to the previous per-IP pricing."

"I'm doing a costing and licensing comparison between the BlueCat DNS Integrity and Micetro by Men&Mice. BlueCat has given me a range instead of a specific price. They gave me a range of ten thousand to two hundred thousand USD. That was a bit too wide for the cost comparison. Based on what I'm seeing, they are definitely on the higher side and very expensive."

"The licensing model for BlueCat Edge seems very good, although I can't confirm if it's specific to our contract."

"One of the nice benefits of getting DNS Edge is that you buy the subscription, and you are allowed to deploy as many Edge endpoints as you need. You do not need a separate license for each one. If you deploy 20 of them, you will not be billed for that many. It is one subscription. You can deploy as many as you need and consume as much as you need. The cost comes in based on the number of IPs that you are consuming and running through DNS Edge. We have that pretty much locked in for what we need for internal purposes. Being able to save money on deploying Edge endpoints has saved us drastically from deploying other BlueCat products in lieu of that."

"The price is quite good."

"When talking about Cisco solutions in general there pricing model is horrible. For example, you can sell a Meraki-based solution, but if the customer starts shopping around, someone is going to have access to the pricing at a level that you cannot compete because they do not have uniform pricing. Not everybody gets fair pricing. Unless you are one of the real major corporations selling the solution your ability to compete is impossible. Cisco will acknowledge the situation and assure you next time it will be in your favor but it never becomes favorable for you. Cisco is not very good in this regard. However, Umbrella is good."

"Its value exceeds its pricing."

"The pricing model is easier compared to some of the other solutions, and it is also competitive."

"The product is pricey compared to Cisco Firepower."

"The licensing and pricing structure of Cisco Umbrella is in line with standard systems on the market, and we have no specific requirements in this area. Overall, we have found it to be an acceptable pricing model for our organization."

"Its price for us is quite expensive because it's a subscription, and we just use it for the DNS log. So, for us, it's quite expensive."

"The licensing part for Umbrella is really flexible."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BlueCat Edge?

We implemented BlueCat Edge to solve the visibility and security issues we were having.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BlueCat Edge?

I'm not aware of the exact pricing and licensing as I was not part of the procurement process. However, there was a significant cost reduction thanks to BlueCat Cloud DNS managing external solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BlueCat Edge?

BlueCat should consider deploying feature enhancement requests faster, especially if they are simple to implement. They need to focus and deploy such features in the next version itself, which woul...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

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What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?

Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.

See all answers

Comparisons

EfficientIP DNS Firewall vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 26% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 18% of the time

F5 BIG-IP DNS vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 12% of the time

EfficientIP DNS Guardian vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 9% of the time

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense vs BlueCat Edge

Compared 7% of the time

More BlueCat Edge Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 16% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Access vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 8% of the time

Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Cisco Umbrella

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Umbrella Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge

August 2025

Download BlueCat Edge product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

August 2025

Download Cisco Umbrella product report

Also Known As

BlueCat DNS Edge

OpenDNS

Overview

BlueCat Edge is an intelligent DNS resolver and caching layer that leverages existing DNS infrastructure to provide unprecedented visibility and control over DNS traffic. As a first hop DNS resolver, BlueCat Edge intelligently manages DNS forwarding rules and logs all queries to offer intuitive analytics and data governance. By monitoring all queries and IP addresses with BlueCat Edge, enterprises can also leverage BlueCat’s advanced Threat Protection and policy-based network/security features to protect the enterprise against cyber threats, such as domain name generation algorithms and tunneling that lead to data exfiltration or network downtime.

BlueCat

Cisco Umbrella delivers rapid DNS security with over 30,000 customers, providing outstanding threat protection and handling more than 600 billion requests daily. It's recognized for high threat efficacy in the SSE domain and integrates elements like SWG, ZTNA, CASB, and more.

Cisco Umbrella is renowned for its effective DNS-layer security against ransomware and phishing. It offers flexible content filtering and integrates seamlessly with existing networks while providing single-pane-of-glass management for centralized monitoring. Its robust threat intelligence and customizable policies are central to its appeal. Users highlight room for improvement in areas like WHOIS data inclusion, malware enhancement, and reporting analytics. Integration with other threat feeds and better client support are requested for more comprehensive coverage.

What are the key features of Cisco Umbrella?

DNS-Layer Security: Blocks malicious domains, preventing ransomware attacks.
Web Content Filtering: Allows users to manage lists for strict content control.
Seamless Integration: Blends with systems like Active Directory and Meraki.
Remote Protection: Keeps remote users safe across different locations.
Single-Pane Management: Facilitates effective monitoring and reporting.

What should users expect in reviews about Cisco Umbrella?

Threat Intelligence: Provides comprehensive malware and attack data.
Customizable Policies: Enables tailored security measures for users.
Integration Options: Works with diverse systems for holistic security.
Ease of Use: Offers a straightforward experience for administrators.
Remote Worker Security: Ensures protection outside traditional networks.

Industries implement Cisco Umbrella primarily for DNS-level security, web filtering, and protecting remote employees. It strengthens cybersecurity frameworks by blocking malware and avoiding access to harmful sites. The tool is widely integrated with Active Directory and Cisco Meraki, providing consistent internet security for employees.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Swisslos, Cologne Bonn Airport, TYROLIT

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

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

July 2025

Free Report: BlueCat Edge vs. Cisco Umbrella

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