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Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs Cisco Secure Workload 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

Cisco Secure Client (includ...
Ranking in Cisco Security Portfolio
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (4th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (6th), ZTNA as a Service (12th)
Cisco Secure Workload
Ranking in Cisco Security Portfolio
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Cloud and Data Center Security (10th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (23rd), Microsegmentation Software (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cisco Security Portfolio category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is 9.4%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Workload is 5.9%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cisco Security Portfolio Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)9.4%
Cisco Secure Workload5.9%
Other84.7%
Cisco Security Portfolio
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
Discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map
We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration allows Cisco Secure Workload to learn about our networks and network tags, providing valuable insights into vulnerabilities related to the operating system and various applications installed on our servers. Recently, Cisco announced a new product called HyperShield, an AI-based autonomous micro-segmentation solution. While Cisco has not stated that HyperShield will replace Cisco Secure Workload, it represents a natural evolution for the company. HyperShield features dynamic policy discovery and enforcement; however, once policies are enforced, they do not change until a discovery occurs, requiring a re-enforcement process. This new platform operates autonomously, minimizing the need for user or security engineer intervention. I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product. Instead of enhancing the current product, they have introduced a new solution. Cisco plans to honor existing Tetration licenses, allowing users to transition to HyperShield without additional costs, reflecting the investment enterprises have already made. From Cisco’s perspective, this represents a natural progression in their product line. While the product name changes, it seems more of a rebranding effort. The enhancements are greater autonomy, improved discovery, and automatic enforcement, which are now being introduced in HyperShield. Cisco Secure Workload offers automatic policy enforcement but cannot adjust policies dynamically as the application needs to change. Having used the platform for the past five years, the recent announcement has been reassuring. Cisco has confirmed that our investment in the platform will not go to waste. They will honor our existing licenses, providing a natural migration path to the new solution without any disruption

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a very good solution. My teams are currently distributed all over the globe and leading the software engineering work and for business purposes."
"I think Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client is stable."
"Every time I have to connect to the network I use this solution; it is a customizable solution, it makes life easier for me, and it makes the global workforce work much easier and more secure."
"The most useful feature of Cisco Secure Client is the capability for any kind of VPN, facilitating remote connections in the network."
"AnyConnect SMC's best features are that it's secure and connects seamlessly to clients' networks."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"AnyConnect provides a secure connection to your corporate resources."
"The solution is quite stable."
"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."
"By using Tetration insight, we are able to get the latency on our level accounts and we can determine whatever the issue is with the application latency itself."
"Scalability is its most valuable feature."
"This product does everything that you need it to do and more and does a lot to provide visibility in a network environment, save time and money, and make the organization IT operate in a much more streamlined fashion."
"The only use case I can see that makes sense is micro-segmentation. I think there are other use cases for it. The main purpose of the product is to do micro-segmentation by collecting IP. That could be done by installing an agent, and then you have all the communication coming in and out. You could also use some flow sensors installed in the network that receive a copy of the traffic and then report that back to the system."
"Overall, this is a really good product and I am happy with it."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is security."
"Secure Workload's best feature is that it's an end-to-end offering from Cisco."
 

Cons

"There are times the WiFi connectivity has disruptions and you have disconnections. It doesn't work with two connections. I have two switches back and forth sometimes. It doesn't have a failback scenario feature. However, on the gateway side, it does, but on the user device, it doesn't have that kind of option. It would be nice to have this feature."
"The price could be reduced."
"You do need technical expertise to set up the product."
"If there's any cloud version available, instead of on-premise, that would be ideal."
"They can redesign the reset password, reset function, and user interface."
"One improvement could be ensuring better backward compatibility."
"Frequency of updates could be reduced."
"It would be useful to have an automatic install process where if you connect and you don't have the latest version, it should be automatically done."
"The integration could be better, especially with different types of solutions."
"The product must be integrated with the cloud."
"Cisco Tetration needs more flags and system alerts that we should get with network capture."
"They should scale down the hardware a bit. The initial hardware investment is two million dollars so it's a price point problem. The issue with the price comes from the fact that you have to have it with enormous storage and enormous computes."
"The interface is really helpful for technical people, but it is not user-friendly."
"It is highly scalable, but there is a limitation that it is only available on Cisco devices."
"The multi-tenancy, redundancy, backup and restore functionalities, as well as the monitoring aspects of the solution, need improvement. The solution offers virtually no enterprise-grade possibility for monitoring."
"The problem is that we can only deploy the particular solution where we have the hardware with Cisco."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a license needed to use this solution. There are different licensing models available, such as a three-year license."
"One thing I've noticed is the price in comparison to other VPNs."
"We pay for an annual subscription. Additionally to the subscription, we thought in order to connect this solution to the Active Directory we had to purchase a Cisco ACS, Access Control System. It turns out we did not actually need it."
"I am using a paid version of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client."
"We have yearly licensing and it's very affordable."
"The price is okay."
"Sometimes there is a problem with the number of licenses for the end-user. The number of concurrent users is limited due to a valid license."
"I would rate the pricing for the license of Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client around four to five out of ten. It's not the cheapest option, but it's also not overly expensive."
"The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated."
"The cost for the hardware is around 300k."
"The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it."
"Pricing depends on the scope of the application and the features. Larger installations save more."
"It is not cheap and pricing may limit scalability."
"Regarding price, Cisco Secure Workload can be expensive if you don't have a budget. If you're not doing micro-segmentation, every extra security measure or enforcement you're putting on top of your existing environment will be an extra cost. It's not a cheap solution at all. But from my point of view, if you need to do micro-segmentation, this is one of the best tools I've seen for it. I can't compare that to Microsoft's solution because I haven't looked into it. I've looked into VMware and Cisco. Those are the only two that I know of. I didn't know that Microsoft could do micro-segmentation at all. Maybe they can, but I haven't heard anything about it."
"The price is based on how many computers you're going to install it on."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise49
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

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, which provide free VPN when the firewall is purchased. Palo Alto and Fortinet prov...
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. If I could change one thing about it, I would have no changes to suggest.
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 have Cisco APIs and Cisco VPN that serve as the foundation for our operations. As a...
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Also Known As

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
Cisco Tetration
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
ADP, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC)
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs. Cisco Secure Workload and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,336 professionals have used our research since 2012.