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Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs Google Cloud VPN comparison

 

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

Cisco IOS SSL VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (4th)
Google Cloud VPN
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Cisco IOS SSL VPN is 2.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud VPN is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco IOS SSL VPN2.7%
Google Cloud VPN1.1%
Other96.2%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

VM
student at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cost efficiency and ease of setup define network management while potential improvements in complexity handling are noted
Optimizing and configuring for network segmentation is the biggest thing for helping with segmenting traffic management. Configuring QoS on Linksys is pretty easy, especially compared to Cisco QoS, which I am certified in, as it helps ensure that the bandwidth for voice or other applications doesn't bleed over into the data links. In the past, Linksys has been pretty good at network protection, segmenting off that protection for unauthorized access or cyber threats. Cost savings and ease of use are the benefits I've seen from Linksys. It's a little bit less complex to set up and configure compared to Cisco switching. I utilized the VLAN support feature in the Linksys switches. A lot of the networks I have were broken up by VLAN, and I definitely configured them for different VLANs. The best feature of Linksys in my opinion is cost, as they tend to be more cost-effective compared to larger switches or Cisco switches.
Prashast Tripathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Customizes networks with flexible configurations and high reliability
Google Cloud VPN offers a lot of flexibility to customize, supporting dual track IPv4 and IPv6, and v6-only configurations. It supports dynamic routing, and the SLA is a key factor with a 99.999% reliability. The Cloud VPN tunnel supports up to 250,000 packets per second for both ingress and egress traffic.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IOS is user-friendly and simple. You connect to a particular VPN, and that's it. You become seamless after that."
"Cisco IOS SSL VPN is very stable. We never experience issues with it."
"Cisco IOS SSL VPN is an easy-to-use and straightforward solution."
"The user interface is user-friendly."
"A reliable and stable solution for remote network access."
"The platform provides value and benefits to our organization through efficient and effective communication."
"The solution is quite transparent."
"It is stable."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud VPN are its speed, connectivity, and reliability."
"The most valuable feature of the product is its compatibility with almost every network."
"Google Cloud VPN offers a lot of flexibility to customize, supporting dual track IPv4 and IPv6, and v6-only configurations."
"Any time we had an issue with connecting the OpenVPN to a user, we just to them on the group's VPN and connected our VPN."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud VPN are its speed, connectivity, and reliability."
"Google Cloud VPN is a reliable and easy-to-use solution."
 

Cons

"Improvements could be made in terms of connectivity for applications."
"They could provide the cloud-based as-a-service model with monthly rental payments."
"The only issue with Cisco IOS SSL VPN is on the price point. Price is an area of the solution where improvements are required."
"Cisco IOS SSL VPN should add a sensor that can authenticate with a fingerprint instead of having to type the username and password every time."
"The Secure Plus Connect product could be improved with many enhancements in any price license, especially for licensing. Cisco could simplify the licensing; it could make it easier to order and use the features."
"The product’s dashboard is not good enough."
"The configuration is critical and complex."
"The performance could be improved."
"The price for Google solutions could be cheaper. In general, I would rate it a seven."
"The logging needs improvement."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement. Additionally, cost-efficiency enhancements or service integrations could add further value."
"The customer service and support from Google are not top-notch yet are available. I would rate them around 7.5 to eight out of ten."
"The customer service and support from Google are not top-notch yet are available."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable"
"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee for Cisco IOS SSL VPN."
"Price flexibility could be improved in comparison to other vendors."
"The licensing cost of the solution is on a yearly basis, and it is expensive compared to other solutions in the market."
"FortiGate does not charge the client a licensing fee, although Cisco charges clients a couple of dollars per year for each license."
"I would say it is a bit expensive, but I think it is worth the price."
"The tool is expensive."
"There are no pricing programs for non-profit organizations and the product is otherwise expensive by comparison."
"The product pricing is high."
"It is fairly priced."
"It's not super cheap, but it's also not unrealistically priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise25
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco IOS SSL VPN?
I have not found any areas that could be improved so far. I am not sure how Cisco IOS SSL VPN can continue their improvements for the future, but I think it is a great product. To stay on top, they...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud VPN?
The price for Google solutions could be cheaper. In general, I would rate it a seven.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud VPN?
The troubleshooting guides need to be updated. We see errors but there's no proper documentation for resolving them. If Google can improve their resources on common problems and solutions, it would...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud VPN?
We set a VPC boundary for all our storage with Google Cloud VPN. For all our compute, everything goes into those VPC boundaries.
 

Also Known As

Cisco SSL VPN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MST Systems
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. Google Cloud VPN and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.