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Cisco Umbrella vs F5 BIG-IP DNS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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 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)
F5 BIG-IP DNS
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 21.2%, down from 26.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP DNS is 6.4%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Emilio Montoya - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Raja Waqar Ahmad - PeerSpot reviewer
Suitable for use cases around multiple data centers and provides good stability
F5 is working on improving its identity management features. This is an important area for improvement, as it is a key component of Zero Trust architecture. So, when I was working on the zero-trust architecture, I noticed that there was a lack of documentation. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published some documentation and frameworks for ZTA implementation. In the NIST framework, multiple vendors can be used for different components of the architecture. For example, for identity management, common vendors include Azure, Intune, AWS, Cisco Duo, and Zscaler. I remember reading about F5 mentioned in the context of the ZTA framework. So, it's encouraging to read that F5 is being considered for ZTA implementations. Netskope is also using F5 for their ZTA solutions. I would also like to see all of F5's features integrated into a single box, as it would be the most beneficial for end customers. F5 is already enhancing its security capabilities. Initially, load balancing and security required separate devices, but now F5 offers solutions that combine both functionalities in a single device.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It makes it really easy to accomplish content filtering. We don't have to do a lot of customization. You just click the box for the content category and it's up to date."
"My overall rating for Cisco Umbrella is ten out of ten."
"The most valuable features are the dashboard, visibility, and reporting capabilities. Our customers can see how much Umbrella is protecting their organization. If you don't know what you've got, you can't protect it. With Umbrella, you get the visibility and see the protection that it's providing. We can get PDF reports on a weekly basis of any malware activities and any denial of service or command-and-control-type activities."
"One of the most important features is the security posture check which Umbrella offers when a user accesses any website. That is one of the most unique features that it offers."
"It enables us to go granular in the customization of blocking some categories on the DNS."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its reliability."
"We can have a full overview and a quick overview of all the DNS requests. For us, it's quite important."
"We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The management is very easy."
"BIG-IP DNS's best features are DNS monitoring and global service load balancing."
"BIG-IP DNS effectively handled a traffic surge. For example, we have application forms replicated across our DCs. If our primary application becomes unavailable, BIG-IP automatically fails over to a client-unaware secondary application."
"F5 BIG-IP DNS stands out as they are number one when it comes to WAF and load balancing technologies, and they have plenty of add-on features such as APM and AFM to handle DDoS attacks, DNS security, and GSLB."
"F5 BIG-IP DNS is useful, depending on how you use it."
"F5 technical support is quite good and they follow up if there are any issues."
"F5 BIG-IP DNS is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"Although Cisco Umbrella has an excellent global network footprint, there is still room for improvement and growth in this area. Additionally, there are bandwidth limitations associated with the connectors that need to be addressed. To be a viable solution for larger offices, Cisco Umbrella must continue to expand and improve its capabilities in these areas."
"We've noticed some issues with the SWG where, when I'm connected, it thinks I'm in Miami, Florida instead of Savannah, Georgia."
"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."
"There should be a way to monitor traffic at the user level."
"Data reporting could be improved."
"Something on our end that might make it better is alerting going to our ticketing system. It's not something that we have discussed, but that would be a proactive option for us to provide a learning experience for the staff."
"Hopefully, it works with the Canvas and starts feeding results into the AI canvas. That would be excellent."
"The solution's technical support is not very good."
"There is room for improvement in pricing. It is very pricey."
"I would like to see the login facilities improved, as well as more troubleshooting."
"In the product, one of the shortcomings is related to its configuration part...Though you can find some manuals or F5 documents, in real life, it's very hard to understand this product."
"Scalability is a concern, it could be improved."
"CNC (control and command) communication would be beneficial. We would like to have control and command blocking to prevent visiting malicious websites."
"The initial setup is a step-by-step process, so it can be a bit complicated for someone who's using it for the first time."
"The solution can improve by adding cloud integration through plugins or additional configurations so we can use F5 BIG-IP DNS to communicate with the cloud."
"F5's technical support responds a little slowly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has a reasonable price. It is certainly not as expensive as it used to be. It is in line with other offerings on the market. There are a number of different flavors of Umbrella. They could bring Umbrella SIG down a bit because its price is a little bit high for what it does, but I also understand why its price is high."
"It was a little bit expensive on a per seat basis, but the company I was running was only a midsize Australian company, and it was a reasonable budget per computer for that system. It started off being a free product, and then Cisco bought it, and it went to a reasonable price. I was using Cisco AMP as well. So, my per computer cost was reasonably high, but for a small company, it was within an acceptable level."
"I am not sure, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think it's $1.00 or so per device/month."
"The price could be lower."
"Cisco has a model called ELA. With ELA, if you buy the solution you will have the complete security portfolio and you can pay it yearly or after three years, it depends on the contract."
"There is a one-time cost of approximately $800 USD per user, and then a yearly support fee of about $50 per user."
"It needs a better price point."
"The pricing is great and very competitive with the rest of the market."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being a low price."
"This product is quite pricey but if you compare the feature set and its compatibility with similar products on the market, you would understand why it's that price."
"They are competitively priced."
"In some cases, it is expensive."
"You cannot do much around DDoS protection without an additional license from F5."
"Cost is a factor. It is really costly."
"The on-prem version is only available on a yearly license, but the cloud version can be paid for on a day-by-day basis."
"BIG-IP DNS is more expensive than its competitors like Citrix, but it gives good value for money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP DNS?
For one of our clients, F5 improved global server load balancing with an active-active site configuration for Disaster Recovery.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP DNS?
In terms of pricing, F5 BIG-IP is not cheaper compared to other solutions like Fortinet or Citrix. The cost can be high due to its comprehensive modules.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP DNS?
The support response time could use improvement. In critical cases, such as in the big environment projects, faster support is needed to address critical issues promptly.
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
F5 BIG-IP DNS, F5 DNS Delivery
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Ricacorp Properties, Bangladesh Post Office, Shawbrook Bank, Shinsegae Internet Duty Free
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. F5 BIG-IP DNS and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.