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Cisco Umbrella vs IBM NS1 Connect comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 30, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Umbrella improves security, reduces costs, and boosts productivity with easy deployment and effective cloud-based threat prevention.
Sentiment score
5.9
IBM NS1 Connect enhances uptime, optimizes traffic, and reduces costs with automation, boosting performance and customer experience for users.
I have seen a return on investment, specifically in terms of time saved and needing fewer employees.
SVP IT at AS IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
Cisco is a big brand in the networking domain, but in security, they are pushing a lot and improving day by day.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using the solution is that it makes it a lot easier to delegate some of the tasks that were traditionally used, such as building policies on the firewalls and doing it through Cisco Umbrella.
Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
I have definitely seen a return on investment with IBM NS1 Connect as it has given our organization more control and flexibility in managing DNS at a global scale, which almost was impossible before.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
Regarding return on investment, this automation saves eight engineer hours per month, which at $40 per hour translates to about $320 monthly and approximately $3,840 annually.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
I had high downtime before its implementation and now achieve 99% uptime, a significant improvement for my customer.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Umbrella's customer service is praised for expertise and professionalism, though some experience delays, particularly with email support.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM NS1 Connect support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though complex issues may require higher plans for faster solutions.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
If I don't need to go to support all the time, that means the product is working fine, so I'm very happy with them.
Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
The customer support for IBM NS1 Connect is very proactive and responsive twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
You raise a PR, and then it takes several weeks for them to respond.
Assosiate Director at TIAA
I believe subscribing to a higher plan would ensure immediate support to prevent losing too many customers, particularly premium customers.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella adapts seamlessly to user growth, offering scalable, cloud-based security with efficient centralized management and flexible licensing options.
Sentiment score
6.4
IBM NS1 Connect excels in scalable query handling, offering reliability and adaptability for high traffic and dynamic environments.
Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.
Network Engineer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cisco Umbrella scales really well with the growing needs of my company, bringing the ability to ensure that people are safe and connected.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Cisco Umbrella scales effectively with the growing needs of my company; it's excellent, and I have experienced no issues.
Senior Network Engineer at Boys Town
Using NS1 with a low TTL capability to propagate DNS updates globally in under five seconds is highly commendable.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
When the number of users increases, it can distribute traffic automatically across multiple servers, clouds, or regions.
Especialista De Produtos at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
IBM NS1 Connect's scalability is very high, managing scenarios with a large volume of queries by distributing load among free nodes.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is renowned for its exceptional stability, delivering near-100% uptime and reliable performance with minimal connectivity issues.
Sentiment score
8.4
IBM NS1 Connect is highly reliable, demonstrating excellent stability, scalability, and consistent uptime, even during high traffic and DDoS attacks.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Cisco Umbrella Secure Access is pretty stable in my mind, and we have not seen many glitches that would have interrupted services at customer locations.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
The stability and reliability of the Cisco Umbrella platform have been great.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
IBM NS1 Connect is very stable as I have not experienced any lagging or downtime.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Umbrella faces criticism for high pricing, complex integration, support delays, and usability issues, needing streamlined features and documentation.
IBM NS1 Connect needs UI, reporting, cost, training enhancements, better automation, AI integration, and user-friendly design improvements.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
I have to write an email to Umbrella support to get assistance, unlike the other products where I can call the Cisco technical assistance center and get an engineer.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
IBM NS1 Connect has a very steep learning curve in terms of learning the custom filter chains and the complex multi-region setup, which requires a specialized DNS expert and can be difficult for beginners.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Pricing can be more transparent, especially when dealing with tight budgets.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
I think the support for upcoming technical updates in IBM NS1 Connect could be improved as they are not up to the mark, and their development or new enhancements are very slow.
Data Protection Specialist at CompuCom
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Umbrella is deemed costly but valued for security, though license complexity and cost competitiveness could improve.
IBM NS1 Connect pricing is seen as fair and competitive, balancing cost with functionality and reliability for enterprise buyers.
We've bundled that with our firewall stuff and our VPN, which brings the price down and adds the ability to grow.
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
Network Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Other competitors have offered a very low price compared to IBM, and that aspect is very tough for us to convince clients.
Data Protection Specialist at CompuCom
Licensing poses a more challenging part since the cost depends on the plan, DNS query volume, check monitors, filter limits, and additional capabilities.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
The essentials plan is very affordable, costing less than 100 a month.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Umbrella enhances network security with DNS protection, easy management, remote integration, and proactive threat detection for organizations.
IBM NS1 Connect enhances performance with DNS automation, intelligent routing, API-driven features, security, and improved uptime and efficiency.
The DNS layer security provided by Cisco Umbrella is very effective for our security posture, offering us vast improvements in visibility over DNS queries and potential threats.
Manager Cyber Security Department at Mana
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
Network Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The best possible thing is that it is very easy to deploy, easy to configure, and very fast to get onboarded with a customer because this is a cloud-based service.
Chief Technology Officer at Binary Global Limited
The intelligence criterion directs the user to the best server based on latency and availability with 100% SLA for DNS resolution, and the API makes automation easier and reduces manual errors, plus it detects failures and redirects users.
Especialista De Produtos at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We can host our application wherever our presence is, supporting disaster recovery situations and automated failover scenarios with 99.99% uptime.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The API-first automation automates DNS configurations and changes through APIs and infrastructure as code workflows, reducing repetitive manual work and the risk of human error.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Umbrella
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
IBM NS1 Connect
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
9th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Managed DNS (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 17.0%, down from 22.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM NS1 Connect is 2.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella17.0%
IBM NS1 Connect2.2%
Other80.8%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

KamranJameel - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Secure browsing has protected users from DNS threats and improves malware defense
The major issue is that sometimes when you install the client, it shows you protected and displays that it is live with the backend servers and everything. However, in reality, it was not getting any feed from the main client and is just sending your traffic to open DNS, which sometimes causes an issue because the protection you have implemented can be breached by users. The primary thing that Cisco Umbrella lacked most of the time is their client. Previously, they had a separate Cisco client. Now they have merged everything into the Cisco Secure Endpoint client—one client for everything, for Cisco Endpoint, for Cisco AnyConnect, and for Cisco Umbrella, which they did probably in 2025.
reviewer2889387 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Intelligent traffic steering has improved uptime and now needs simpler policies and support
The best features IBM NS1 Connect offers include the authoritative DNS filter chain, traffic steering policies, and endpoint health monitoring, along with its API-first automation and DNS reporting, which are all some of the most valuable features. Out of those features, I find myself relying on the traffic steering policies the most because we detect the endpoints and steer new DNS responses towards healthy alternatives. This is very helpful because whenever there is a massive amount of requests coming into the region or to the server, and for a better user interface and customer experience, we should not show the user that the server is down. We can reroute the request to the server nearest to that region, making it an important capability. The authoritative DNS ensures DNS queries for domains and reliable DNS resolution are essential for users, particularly to discover application endpoints, but it alone does not guarantee this. The API-first automation automates DNS configurations and changes through APIs and infrastructure as code workflows, reducing repetitive manual work and the risk of human error. The DNS reporting and analytics help teams understand query volume, traffic distribution, and unusual behavior under the support of troubleshooting and capacity planning.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Domain Name System (DNS) Security solutions are best for your needs.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise51
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise16
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing reveals that the pricing is acceptable, but it is marginally a bit high. However, the services provided are much better, leading to a good retu...
What needs improvement with NS1 Managed DNS?
IBM NS1 Connect has a very steep learning curve in terms of learning the custom filter chains and the complex multi-region setup, which requires a specialized DNS expert and can be difficult for be...
What is your primary use case for NS1 Managed DNS?
IBM NS1 Connect serves as our managed authoritative DNS and traffic steering service, which is highly reliable, and its performance is excellent for a global Anycast network. For a specific example...
What advice do you have for others considering NS1 Managed DNS?
Regarding IBM NS1 Connect's AI capabilities, I think its governance and security are great as it's a SaaS-based solution, and the governance is also good. While we haven't had a very close connecti...
 

Also Known As

OpenDNS
NS1 Managed DNS, NS1
 

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
Avast Software, Bloomberg L.P., BBC, Carfax, CNBC LLC, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Disney Streaming, Dropbox, EBAY Inc, Gannett Media Corp, Salesforce, Wayfair, Workday
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. IBM NS1 Connect and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.