Cisco Umbrella vs Skyhigh Security comparison

Cisco and Skyhigh Security are both solutions in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category. Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.2, while Skyhigh Security is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.8. Cisco holds a 12.8% mindshare in WSG, compared to Skyhigh Security’s 2.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Skyhigh Security users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Skyhigh Security and Cisco Umbrella compete in the cloud security domain. Cisco Umbrella seems to have the upper hand due to broader integration capabilities and stronger customer support.

Features: Skyhigh Security offers a robust shadow IT capability, cloud risk registry, and DLP integration, providing comprehensive visibility and risk assessment for cloud services. It supports identifying and mitigating cloud service risks, ensuring data compliance. Cisco Umbrella is renowned for its DNS layer security, web protection, and analytics. Its strong integration capabilities allow organizations to efficiently secure remote users and devices.

Room for Improvement: Skyhigh Security faces challenges such as limited explanations in reports and sluggish performance in the console. Integration with unsanctioned applications and third-party tools can be improved, along with UI and actionable insights. Cisco Umbrella is advised to enhance inline CASB features, simplify policy configurations, and improve support for geofencing and certain integrations. Customers look for a more intuitive UI and better pricing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Skyhigh Security is deployable across hybrid, on-premises, and public clouds but experiences mixed reviews on technical support. Cisco Umbrella is flexible for deployment across various cloud environments and is praised for its customer support, though resolving complex configurations can improve.

Pricing and ROI: Skyhigh Security offers value-based licensing, especially for large organizations, though it is costly. Cisco Umbrella's tiered subscription model can be expensive but provides ROI advantages when bundled with other Cisco services. Umbrella's licensing is favorable for hybrid IT setups in enterprise environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Umbrella vs. Skyhigh Security Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella vs. Skyhigh Security

March 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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.5%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Umbrella is 12.8%, down from 19.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Skyhigh Security is 2.9%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella	12.8%
iboss	2.5%
Skyhigh Security	2.9%
Other	81.8%

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2701851

Managing Director

Enhances web security with a single pane of glass and flexible deployment

I don't see any need for improvement; one of the really good things about iboss as a company is that they listen to customer feedback. I have suggested enhancements, and they are responsive, making changes for the better, and they do a lot of testing. To improve iboss, although we haven't used it, we considered the VPN solution that comes with the highest tier licensing, which includes DLP and various other add-ons. We prefer using another product which automatically logs you back onto your network when turning on your PC. With iboss, the connection is manual, which doesn't meet our needs. Additionally, sizing can be tricky because, although the initial recommendations may seem adequate, actual usage may require more gateways than anticipated.

Read full review

Bryan Bettencourt

Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

Ensures comprehensive protection with seamless threat logging and efficient policy management

My favorite feature of Cisco Umbrella is probably just the DNS and the fact that when a security threat happens, all of that gets logged in their Umbrella portal, and it's very easy to find who's been accessing the site and how many people have accessed it, so that we can go to them and make sure they're not compromised. The features of Cisco Umbrella benefit my company by providing less time to search for things through logs, to look for what we need. It's just one place to go, and we just search for it, and we find it really fast. The fact that there's a virtual database that has all that information is great on our portal.

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Karthik Sathivel

Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems

Proxy integration has strengthened email security and centralized monitoring for all branches

We have nearly 900 plus branches here, where we have rerouted our traffic through proxy like Trellix Skyhigh Security. We operate in a major financial sector in India, and that is why we use Skyhigh Security to reroute all our traffic via proxy for our security. Only then will it reach our gateway. We monitor all the URLs and the plant IPs in our proxy. We are tracing those IPs to see whether they have a valid code or not. We also check with Trellix Sandbox to determine whether the URL is malicious or not. Additionally, we have included our Cisco Umbrella with our proxy, so the DNS resolution happens on our Umbrella side. We continuously monitor the traffic on our proxy side. The threat protection feature is a major useful thing because for our 900 branches we monitor with this proxy only. If any issue or any URL does not reach, it is quite helpful to check whether the issue is in the proxy side or in the actual end-user side. It is quite easy to monitor. We do not get all those things from the firewall end, and it is quite easy to gather that information from the proxy, which is a major benefit here. It also majorly helps to hide our actual IPs, as we have directed all the IPs from the proxy, making it very helpful to hide our internal servers.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

"We chose iboss for both zero trust and proxy (SWG) because their SWG was superior."

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"

More iboss pros

"The implementation is pretty easy."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Cisco's support is better nowadays."

"The most valuable feature for us is the DNS-based protection."

"Using this solution has meant that we've needed to make fewer firewall changes."

"The features of Cisco Umbrella benefit my company by allowing us to do protective DNS instead of URL filtering, which lets us avoid having to backhaul traffic and run it through a firewall in a data center."

"Stability-wise, it's good. I have never encountered any bugs."

"This product is very straightforward and simple to setup."

"Cisco Umbrella is the first layer of security that protects me while surfing the net, identifying untrusted websites to prevent access."

More Cisco Umbrella pros

"The ability to identify shadow IT within our environment through proxy log analysis based on risk assessments provided by Skyhigh Registry have been invaluable in helping us reduce our overall data risk."

"The product has a very high rating from reviewers. It's a well-respected product."

"The solution significantly helps in enhancing security management."

"In my opinion, the best features of Skyhigh Security are that it is easy to recommend because it is not expensive like Symantec, and second is antivirus, and third, I think it is not heavy."

"What I found most valuable in Skyhigh Security is its stability. The solution also has good KB articles that make it simple for users to do the deployment of Skyhigh Security themselves, without the need for integrators."

"Without Skyhigh, we had zero visibility, but now we are aware of so much more."

"Skyhigh offers solutions like WLP and CASB. These tools provide instructions and guidelines for enhancing data security. Additionally, they offer additional software solutions for further protection."

"They were very, very aggressive in the market to get a new market share or to take over market share while other companies were being broken up."

More Skyhigh Security pros

Cons

"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."

More iboss cons

"Support for multiple domains is important to us."

"I would like to see more integrability with other products."

"Cisco Umbrella should introduce an on-premises device."

"I would like to see more integrations with more products. Some of the integrations need to be simpler as well. For example, the integration with Cisco Secure Firewall could be simpler. It would be good to make reporting simpler. For those who don't use SecureX, it would be good to make Umbrella really simple to use upfront. It's not a difficult product, but it can be daunting for someone who isn't exposed to it because there are so many options."

"Missing a real data leakage prevention solution."

"The product can be pretty expensive."

"The pricing changes too fast. We get the license and we need to relicense it because they already made changes to it. We always need to be on top of the licenses because they're always changing."

"I would like to see a graphical representation of the entire network."

More Cisco Umbrella cons

"The cloud needs improvement with respect to DLP."

"Skyhigh Security is complex to manage. While it should ideally be more user-friendly, customers often find themselves having to manage it post-deployment."

"The secure gateway could be improved."

"It would be nice to be able to get more advanced search functions to filter out data and quickly obtain the data that we need."

"Even if you narrow down the scope of the report so that there is not too much data, when a report is generating, sometimes it will get hung; thus you have to delete it and run it again."

"Needs integration with other technology ecosystems."

"The solution is hard to configure, our team does not have specific training requirements for McAfee making it difficult."

"One thing that can be improved is their ability to integrate with other web proxies to discover unsanctioned IP apps."

More Skyhigh Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"The licensing part for Umbrella is really flexible."

"The product is pricey compared to Cisco Firepower."

"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."

"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."

"Pricing and licensing of Cisco Umbrella is a bit confusing because you have to separate the DNS solution and the full-feature solution. Cisco in Portugal helped us understand which one was the right one for us."

"Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."

"There are no hidden costs with Umbrella. Everything is included in the package."

"As an educational partner, we get better licensing structures. We are very happy with that. It has been very nice that Cisco has partnered with the educational sector to bring that."

More Cisco Umbrella pricing and cost advice

"They definitely charge a huge amount. All the security service providers charge a huge amount."

"The solution is quite expensive. As we take add-ons continuously as per our customer's requirements, there are additional charges."

"Pricing for Skyhigh Security is okay, though there's always a scope for price improvements. Its pricing is okay compared to other products because other products have very expensive licensing costs. Along with the licensing, support is also provided for Skyhigh Security, so pricing is reasonable, but if there's proactive or better support, that will justify the pricing. I haven't interacted with the Skyhigh Security technical support team yet, so I'd give pricing a four out of five rating for now."

"There is an annual licensing cost to use McAfee Web Gateway. The purchasing of licensing can be difficult for the government sector."

"The licensing fees are based on what environments you are monitoring."

"Some of our clients have a perpetual license and pay additional support yearly."

"This is an expensive product, although it is made for larger enterprises and not for small organizations."

"Commercially, I find Skyhigh Security a little costlier, compared to other products such as SentinelOne or Cybereason which are really novelty products. I'm not comparing Skyhigh Security with Trend Micro, but with other products, in particular the new, next-generation products. The price for Skyhigh Security is high in terms of value and ROI. I would rate the product price combined with product efficacy a six out of ten."

More Skyhigh Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	30
Large Enterprise	51

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	38

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

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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. Zs...

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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-nat...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?

The pricing for Cisco Umbrella is fair compared to other platforms out there for DNS security. We acquired it as a bu...

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What needs improvement with McAfee Web Gateway?

When compared to other technologies, Skyhigh Security is quite simple, but if there is any improvement in the GUI, it...

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What is your primary use case for McAfee Web Gateway?

I am currently working on Cisco Email Security Gateway, ESA, and I am also exploring Trellix Skyhigh proxy. I have be...

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What advice do you have for others considering McAfee Web Gateway?

For IAM, we are using other tools, as we are a financial institution, so we do not go with a single vendor platform. ...

See all answers

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Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Skyhigh Security

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Zscaler Internet Access vs Skyhigh Security

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

March 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella

March 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Skyhigh Security

February 2026

Download Skyhigh Security product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

OpenDNS

McAfee MVISION Cloud, McAfee MVISION Unified Cloud Edge, McAfee Web Gateway, McAfee MVISION CNAPP, and Skyhigh Networks, McAfee Web Gateway

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

iboss

Demo not available

Cisco

Skyhigh Security

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Cisco Umbrella provides fast-deploying DNS-layer security with powerful threat protection capabilities. Trusted by over 30,000 entities, it ranks highly in DNS security and effectively supports secure remote work environments.

Cisco Umbrella offers comprehensive DNS security, web filtering, and ease of use, enhancing network security through robust threat protection and malware prevention. It processes over 600 billion requests daily, making it a leader in its field. The seamless integration with existing infrastructures and cloud-based nature makes it suitable for remote and distributed work environments, ensuring consistent security throughout. Management is streamlined with a single-pane interface that simplifies administration, while in-depth reporting capabilities provide valuable insights for continuous monitoring.

What are the key features of Cisco Umbrella?

DNS Security: Provides leading protection by managing DNS queries and blocking malicious sites.
Web Filtering: Offers granular control over web content to safeguard internet usage.
Ease of Integration: Fits well into existing infrastructures, simplifying deployment and use.
Intuitive Management: Single-pane management streamlines administration and enhances usability.
Cloud-Based Flexibility: Supports secure remote work environments.

What benefits can users expect from using Cisco Umbrella?

Superior Threat Protection: Reduces risk by effectively detecting and preventing cyber threats.
Consistent Security: Provides uniform protection across network environments.
Efficiency and Visibility: Leverages comprehensive reporting for better security insights.
Easy Deployment: Quick and straightforward setup with minimal disruption.

Cisco Umbrella is widely adopted in industries requiring advanced DNS-level security to counteract malware, phishing, and cyber threats. Its ability to monitor and protect remote and roaming employees makes it an attractive option for sectors highly dependent on cloud services. By managing DNS queries and blocking harmful sites, Cisco Umbrella enhances cybersecurity across networks, providing an added layer of protection for businesses worldwide.

Cisco

Skyhigh Security protects organizations with cloud-based Zero Trust security solutions that are both data-aware and simple to use. Skyhigh’s Security Service Edge portfolio goes beyond data access and focuses on data use, allowing organizations to collaborate from any device and from anywhere without sacrificing security, while providing the visibility and control required to monitor and mitigate security risks.

The Skyhigh Security Service Edge portfolio includes Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway, Skyhigh Cloud Access Security Broker, Skyhigh Private Access, and Skyhigh Cloud Native Application Protection Platform. All solutions form a fully converged, consolidated platform, and are managed from the same single console.

Skyhigh Cloud Access Security Broker protects data and stops threats in the cloud across SaaS, and PaaS, and IaaS environments from a single, cloud-native enforcement point. It enables organizations to accelerate their business by giving them visibility and control over their data in the cloud and protection from threats with a frictionless deployment model.
Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway connects and secures your workforce from malicious websites and cloud apps from anywhere, any application, and any device. It protects users from threats and data loss with integrated Remote Browser Isolation, Cloud Access Security Broker and Data Loss Prevention capabilities while providing the ability to access the web and cloud.
Skyhigh Private Access is the data centric Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution that provides integrated Data Loss Prevention scanning and seamless Remote Browser Isolation integration for robust data protection, using Zero Trust principles. Apply a unified policy across web, SaaS, and private apps.
Skyhigh Cloud Native Application Protection Platform is the industry’s first platform to extend Cloud Access Security Broker, bringing application and data context to converge Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) with IaaS Data Loss Prevention for IaaS public clouds. Skyhigh CNAPP provides consistent data protection, threat prevention, governance, and compliance throughout the cloud-native application development lifecycle.

Skyhigh Security Benefits

Modern Data Protection. Extensible data protection policies to determine what can be accessed, shared, and how it can be used.
Zero Trust for the Cloud. Extend zero trust to the cloud ensuring that your sensitive data is accessed, shared, and stored appropriately.
Actionable Insights. Unified view of data and risk, regardless of where and how the policy is enforced.

Skyhigh Security Features

99.999% Uptime. Connects users seamlessly and without disruption through Hyperscale Service Edge with cloud-native web security that operates with ultra-low latency and 99.999% uptime.
Remote Browser Isolation. Prevents threats of a web page from reaching endpoints with intelligent, multi-layer remote browser isolation technology that provides secure web browsing through robust machine learning analysis on real-time telemetry.
Cloud Registry. The world’s largest and most accurate registry of cloud services based on a customizable 261-point risk assessment to support risk-aware cloud governance.

Skyhigh Security

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

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

Western Union.Aetna.DirecTV.Adventist.Equinix.Perrigo.Goodyear.HP.Cargill.Sony.Bank of the West.Prudential.

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Umbrella vs. Skyhigh Security

March 2026

Free Report: Cisco Umbrella vs. Skyhigh Security

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