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CensorNet Cloud Application Security vs Cisco Secure Access comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

iboss
Sponsored
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
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), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (6th)
CensorNet Cloud Application...
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
21st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Secure Access
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (4th), Firewalls (9th), ZTNA (5th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of iboss is 4.5%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CensorNet Cloud Application Security is 1.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Access is 4.8%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Access4.8%
iboss4.5%
CensorNet Cloud Application Security1.0%
Other89.7%
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
 

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.
Aman-Yadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr technical support executive at Immenzza
User-friendly, affordable, and provides visibility into user activities on the corporate network
The solution works for both corporate and home networks. We can create policies based on keywords for DLP purposes. We can create policies based on regular expressions. We can also scan PDFs and Microsoft Word files. If users are not able to access any website, they can raise an unlock request via the browser. The request will be passed to the web security administrator on the web security portal. It is the most important feature of the tool. Users need not send emails to the administrators. For reporting purposes, we get real-time visibility of the user activities. It also shows when a certain activity was done. We can get details like hostname, IP address, and user name. For CASB purposes, we can see whether users are typing anything on the web or WhatsApp. Everything is captured on CASB. We can see the messages in the CASB visibility report using keywords. Policy creation is very easy. It is just drag and drop. The solution is very user-friendly. We need not create policies manually.
reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Secure access has unified zero trust and web protection while AI assistance automates tasks
From a feature perspective, I have not experienced any issues, drawbacks, or shortcomings. However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high. My clients usually prefer cheaper options if possible. Mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access. Additionally, there is a steep learning curve, as it is very intensive. Someone with significant knowledge can work on it, but a new professional would have to spend considerable time to get accustomed to it. It is hard to find engineers who can work on it. Overall, we get what we pay for, as it is a pretty good feature and service. The pricing of Cisco's products and licensing is higher than competitors. If they could be more reasonable, that would help. The support offered for two years also has higher costs. Overall, the client's IT budget gets affected. It was challenging to learn because, as mentioned, it has a significant learning curve and requires considerable training to become proficient.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"iboss is definitely very good in terms of service."
"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."
"From a corporate perspective, I understand that it's important to keep the company data safe."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."
"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."
"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."
"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Access is the level of security it provides."
"The biggest return on investment when using this product is that I can be proud of my work."
"I experience several benefits from Cisco Secure Access identity-based security measures, including all benefits since the administration is on the cloud, the facility for entry, and all other capabilities and features."
"What I like the most about Cisco Secure Access is that it is really easy to use and it is secure."
"It is very flexible, a very competitive solution, very helpful, and very secure; it includes everything a business needs, and the pricing is also available."
"It's very useful because you can have visibility, especially in terms of logging and knowing who's doing what with Cisco Secure Access."
"I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten."
"Cisco Secure Access is more than a mature product at this point."
 

Cons

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."
"It is stable, but due to growth, it can sometimes be less stable than wanted."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"iboss can be improved because the integration could be better; you need to import all the sites that you access today, and there are a few problems whenever you import thousands of websites, making the integration process messy for the users."
"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."
"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"I have heard they are doing DDoS filtering, but I am not certain if they are implementing it correctly."
"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"We face some API errors on the portal."
"The ease of managing Cisco Secure Access is quite challenging; it is not user-friendly, and we have to involve too much time to review the information available in the dashboard, which can be confusing."
"There are times it feels difficult to navigate and get things configured, but that is coming from a CLI perspective."
"One big challenge which I see with Cisco is their MDR capabilities. They do not provide it as a service, which Palo Alto does provide."
"To improve Cisco Secure Access, I would suggest simplifying the need for different components that Cisco has tried to implement; for example, to have Cisco Secure Access, it is necessary to have AnyConnect, ISE, and Duo, meaning there are various products that need to integrate to achieve the same result, unlike the all-in-one compact products from other vendors."
"Cisco Secure Access can be improved by developing a portal to control all tools together, which is the feature I want most as we are on this journey and learning about it."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
"We don't have any good tools right now, which is a problem."
"There are times when Cisco Secure Access feels slow; it takes multiple attempts to log in, which can definitely improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, 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."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"The tool is cheap."
"The pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Secure Access have been very competitive compared to other platforms. I believe that if Cisco continues to improve costs or offers something similar to a Cisco credit, it would attract more customers."
"For what you get, it's a fair price in comparison to other products."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
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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%
No data available
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise10
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise39
 

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...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Access?
The pricing is not too bad because it's per headcount with Cisco Secure Access. You check how many clients you have. ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Access?
I am dealing with Cisco Secure Access products. As a consultant and reseller, I am using it myself with Cisco Secure ...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Secure Access?
The AI element of Cisco Secure Access should have better guidance on the logs. To be honest, I can't think of anythin...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
CensorNet CASB
No data available
 

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.
National Portrait Gallery, Gama Aviation
1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Google 5. Apple 6. Cisco Systems 7. Oracle 8. Intel 9. HP Inc. 10. Dell Technologies 11. Verizon Communications 12. AT&T 13. Comcast 14. T-Mobile 15. Sprint 16. Vodafone 17. Orange 18. BT Group 19. Deutsche Telekom 20. Telefonica 21. Nokia 22. Ericsson 23. Samsung Electronics 24. Sony 25. Panasonic 26. LG Electronics 27. Siemens 28. General Electric 29. Ford Motor Company 30. General Motors 31. Toyota Motor Corporation 32. Volkswagen Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, Microsoft and others in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB). Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.