Cisco Umbrella - 2026 Pricing, Features, Reviews & Alternatives

Simple to deploy and manage, Cisco Umbrella's cloud-delivered security enables an immediate improvement in security and compliance posture. That's because DNS is at the heart of every internet connection request. Securing the DNS layer means blocking malicious domains, IP addresses, and cloud applications before a connection is ever established. Cisco Umbrella processes over 600 billion internet requests every day, leveraging the expertise of one of the world’s largest cyber threat intelligence teams, Cisco Talos. More than 30,000 organizations depend upon Umbrella DNS to deliver a fast, safe, and reliable internet experience that is simple to deploy and easy to manage.

A recent study by GigaOM ranked Cisco #1 in DNS-layer security, and our DNS security contributed to Miercom ranking Cisco #1 in the industry in its laboratory testing of SSE threat efficacy. When you are looking to build upon DNS-layer protection with additional user protection capabilities, including ZTNA, SWG, CASB, DLP, and more, see Cisco Secure Access. Cisco Secure Access features a single client, single manager, and single policy construct protection for multi-function internet access protection and integrated ZTNA and VPNaaS application access.

For years, Cisco has led the industry in protecting remote users. Out of all SSE vendors, only Cisco features a recursive DNS architecture. The real-world benefit of this architecture is that it lowers latency, improving your users' experience. Building upon this tradition of strong security for remote users, with Cisco Secure Access you can -- with a single policy -- enable user application access via ZTNA or our VPNaaS. Unlike with other solutions, your end users do not have to remember which applications are accessible via ZTNA and which require VPN, as application just works, transparently and automatically, without user selection. Another benefit, for administrators, is that when you are undertaking a zero trust project, you do not have to rollout ZTNA connections to every app, but you can take a phased approach. Also, you can rest assured if you discover you have legacy applications that will not work with ZTNA that you will have a practical fallback position.

Another differentiated real-world benefit that Cisco brings to the table is seamless access across networks. Imagine that your user is in an airport lounge on an airline's airport WiFi network, then at the gate, on the airport's central WiFi, then on an LTE or 5G connection while on the jetway or bus to the aircraft, and finally, on the aircraft's network once they are inside the plane. Only Cisco employs MASQUE and QUIC protocols for ZTNA to ensure seamless application access, without requiring reconnection, when a user is accessing an application while roaming across multiple networks.

If you take a demo of Cisco Umbrella DNS, you'll see for yourself that it is simple to deploy and provides one of the best "bang for your buck" enhancements to your security stack. And, if you elect to do a proof of value exercise for Cisco Secure Access, you'll discover not only the aforementioned ZTNA, VPNaaS, and CASB capabilities, but also how Cisco is employing artificial intelligence and machine learning not only for threat defense, but also to simplify policy creation and provide advanced data loss prevention capability. For instance, you can use our AI capability to identify sensitive M&A data, patent applications, and even to control ingress and egress of source code, by computer language.

Whether you are looking for a quick win to strengthen your current security stack, or are focused upon transitioning to a full SSE and a SASE architecture, Cisco empowers you to confidently meet today’s cloud security and networking goals.