Cisco OpenDNS vs Cloudflare comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Cloudflare are both solutions in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category. Cisco is ranked #17, while Cloudflare is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.1. Cisco holds a 2.9% mindshare in DS, compared to Cloudflare’s 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Cloudflare users who would recommend it.

Cisco OpenDNS

Read 2 Cisco OpenDNS reviews

1,198 Views
1,198 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cloudflare

Read 80 Cloudflare reviews

45,874 Views
2,294 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Cisco OpenDNS

Cloudflare

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco OpenDNS and Cloudflare based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco OpenDNS vs. Cloudflare Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco OpenDNS vs. Cloudflare

September 2026

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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

Cisco OpenDNS

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cloudflare

Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security

6th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CDN (1st), WAN Optimization (5th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (2nd), Managed DNS (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco OpenDNS is 2.9%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare is 6.2%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	6.2%
Cisco OpenDNS	2.9%
Other	90.9%

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

Featured Reviews

reviewer1678521

Lead - Global IT Networks at a recruiting/HR firm with 10,001+ employees

A stable solution that can be used for upgrades, vulnerability remediation, configuration, and standardization

I am using the latest version of Cisco OpenDNS. Users should prioritize the challenges that they have before implementing the solution. They need to be very clear about what they are looking for. Those parameters need to be defined, success criteria need to be checked, and then they can proceed with the solution that meets the requirements. Overall, I rate Cisco OpenDNS a nine out of ten.

Read full review

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility

From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.

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

"We use Cisco OpenDNS for upgrades, vulnerability remediation, configuration, and standardization."

"The platform is highly stable."

"Its most significant benefit to date is the speed with which it refreshes DNS records on the internet once you change it. If you are changing a website or registering a new record, it is very quick."

"Stability is great; I love their mechanisms, I love their GUI, I love their front end, I love their behind the scenes, algorithms and everything, it all makes sense."

"So far I use free tier and happy with it."

"I didn’t have to pay anything for better website security and reduced server load."

"DDoS attacks target unprotected machines. Cloudflare detects and stops these attacks using internal systems. It identifies incoming DDoS attacks, issuing challenges or blocking them immediately."

"The technical support is good."

"Cloudflare has positively impacted our organization by giving us flexibility to manage the DNS part, being quite fast, and allowing us to manage everything from a single dashboard, which is quite handy."

"It's a reasonably priced solution that meets customers' needs and it's not too difficult to deploy."

More Cloudflare pros

Cons

"The solution’s dashboard could be improved."

"The platform's DNS database area needs improvement."

"Access to the solution's dashboards is not intended for a service company. You are practically blind, and to validate a problem, you must view the customer's screen."

"If they improve on the placement of their data centers, it would be better. I'm living in a remote area. I would like to connect to them without any kind of lag."

"It should be easier to collect the logs with companies like Sumo. However, based on my discussions with the salespeople, I understand that's how they make their money. With the enterprise product, they want people doing those kinds of enterprise features to do the logging. They want them to pay a lot of money, and that's where I have an issue with them. That should be a default. You should be able to get the log no matter what. The logging should be universal."

"The installation was complex until I learned what I had to learn."

"There are some issues with the CDN services."

"One area of improvement is in the Access Rules. Hypothetically, if we wanted to block or challenge traffic outside of the United States, the only way to currently do that (as far as I know) is to enter every single country outside of the United States. That could be a labor intensive job. A solution could be to enable users to create a rule where traffic is only allowed within a certain country."

"At the end, it is worth than giving your house keys to the NSA."

"The one feature that is paid is the custom nameservers instead of using the default ones, I want to use a custom one."

More Cloudflare cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution."

"The product is expensive yet cost-effective. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten."

"The pricing for the service is reasonable, neither excessively cheap nor prohibitively expensive. It aligns well with the value of their solution."

"When you compare Cloudflare DNS to other solutions, such as Akamai, the price is reasonable."

"The product's pricing is cheap."

"For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed."

"I give the price a five out of ten."

"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."

"There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."

"The cost primarily depends on the size of the organization."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

24%

Construction Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

Questions from the Community

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Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds ...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service that offers great redundancy and advanced security with built-in unmetered and ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare DNS?

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Umbrella vs Cisco OpenDNS

Compared 18% of the time

SafeDNS vs Cisco OpenDNS

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security vs Cisco OpenDNS

Compared 8% of the time

Akamai Edge DNS vs Cisco OpenDNS

Compared 7% of the time

TitanHQ WebTitan vs Cisco OpenDNS

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco OpenDNS Competitors

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 26% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Fastly vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

More Cloudflare Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Domain Name System (DNS) Security

October 2026

Download Cisco OpenDNS product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

October 2026

Download Cloudflare product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloudflare DNS

Overview

Cisco OpenDNS is a network security solution that enhances online security and protects against threats. It effectively blocks malicious websites and prevents malware infections. Easy to implement and manage, it is suitable for organizations of all sizes. OpenDNS provides content filtering and enforces acceptable use policies, ensuring a safe and productive online environment. Its robust security measures, efficient web filtering capabilities, and seamless integration with existing systems make it a valuable tool for comprehensive protection against online threats.

Cisco

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

Sample Customers

1. Netflix 2. IBM 3. Deloitte 4. Airbnb 5. Pinterest 6. Box 7. LinkedIn 8. Adobe 9. Spotify 10. Uber 11. Twitter 12. Cisco Systems (the parent company) 13. The New York Times 14. Verizon 15. Coca-Cola 16. General Electric 17. Microsoft 18. Facebook 19. Apple 20. Amazon 21. Google 22. Intel 23. Oracle 24. AT&T 25. Cisco Meraki 26. Salesforce 27. Cisco Webex 28. Cisco Umbrella 29. Cisco Talos 30. Cisco AMP for Endpoints 31. Cisco AnyConnect 32. Cisco Stealthwatch

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

Buyer's Guide

Cisco OpenDNS vs. Cloudflare

September 2026

Free Report: Cisco OpenDNS vs. Cloudflare

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco OpenDNS vs. Cloudflare and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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