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DNSFilter vs. Cisco Umbrella

Escape high costs and complex tools with DNSFilter, a Cisco Umbrella alternative

Tired of Cisco’s rising prices, clunky UI, slow support, and forced migrations? So were thousands of organizations who switched to DNSFilter. We give you faster protection, easier management, real support and no hidden surprises — all deployed in an afternoon.

  • Stop threats faster

    DNSFilter blocks malicious domains an average of 10 days sooner than competitors that rely on third-party threat feeds.

  • Simplify deployment

    Customers report DNSFilter’s setup takes minutes, with intuitive policy management built in.

  • Avoid costly errors

    Cisco Umbrella customers often encounter configuration issues with IP filtering and SSL decryption — errors that take days to resolve.

  • Real support, real fast

    While Cisco struggles with slow or unresponsive support, DNSFilter delivers fast, knowledgeable help whenever needed.

  • Continuous innovation

    DNSFilter is actively investing in faster filtering, better reporting, and smarter protection — unlike Cisco’s stagnant platform.

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DNSFilter vs. Cisco Umbrella

DNSFilter vs. Cisco Umbrella
Features DNSFilter Cisco Umbrella
Stable & global network Yes Yes
LAN proxy / virtual appliance Yes Yes
Policy change update INSTANT UP TO 1 MIN
Desktop roaming clients Yes Yes
Mobile roaming clients apple android light blue Group 1
Imagery-based anti-phishing Yes No
Branded for resale Yes No
Domain categorization Yes Yes
Bulk block lists Yes No
Percent of customers up and running in a month 95% 46%
G2 comparison

G2 comparison

Real users on G2 compared DNSFilter and Cisco Umbrella side by side. DNSFilter came out ahead on setup, support and admin, which are the things that matter once you’re past the demo.
Compare on G2

Source: G2 Reviews, DNS Security Solutions category, Fall 2026 (opens in a new tab)

DNSFilter4.6 / 5 · 272 reviews
Cisco Umbrella4.4 / 5 · 283 reviews
Ease of Setup
92% DNSFilter 84% Cisco Umbrella
Quality of Support
91% DNSFilter 84% Cisco Umbrella
Good Partner in Doing Business
93% DNSFilter 85% Cisco Umbrella
BYOD Protection
90% DNSFilter 83% Cisco Umbrella
Domain Categorization
87% DNSFilter 81% Cisco Umbrella
Ease of Admin
93% DNSFilter 88% Cisco Umbrella
Ease of Use
92% DNSFilter 87% Cisco Umbrella
Likelihood to Recommend
92% DNSFilter 87% Cisco Umbrella
G2 user satisfaction ratings: DNSFilter vs. Cisco Umbrella

See why 4 out of 5 Cisco customers switch to DNSFilter

Deploy in minutes. Block threats 10 days faster. Get real support from real people. Start your free trial today and experience the difference in your first session — no credit card required.
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4 out of 5 customers who made the switch from Cisco Umbrella to DNSFilter say it’s easier to use, easier to manage, and delivers better support.

Cisco Umbrella roaming client vs. DNSFilter roaming clients

Roaming Clients give you the ability to deploy AI-powered threat blocking and content filtering to your endpoints, and it’s a useful tool if you’re interested in more granular reporting.

Cisco Umbrella’s Roaming Clients reached End-of-Life in April 2025, requiring Umbrella customers to migrate and re-implement their Roaming Clients using the Umbrella Roaming module in Cisco Secure Client. Avoid the complexity, downtime, and resource drain of Cisco’s next forced migration. Choose DNSFilter—the easy-from-the-start solution for smarter, seamless endpoint-based threat and content filtering.

Learn more about Cisco Umbrella roaming client end-of-life

Frequently asked questions

What is Cisco Umbrella?

Cisco Umbrella (previously OpenDNS) is a cloud-based DNS security solution, similar to DNSFilter. Umbrella provides basic web filtering, and integrations with platforms like Connectwise PSA and Amazon S3 for log export. DNSFilter matches these capabilities, offering log export options and integrations with six of the leading PSA platforms, including Connectwise.

However, Cisco Umbrella is not as effective at threat blocking as DNSFilter, which leverages AI-based detection to identify new malicious domains an average of 10 days sooner than competitors. Cisco Umbrella is harder to deploy and has not continued to update or invest in their product over time—really since they acquired OpenDNS.

Is OpenDNS the same as Cisco Umbrella?

Cisco Umbrella began as OpenDNS in 2008 as the first cloud-based protective DNS service. OpenDNS was purchased by Cisco in 2014. The name OpenDNS is now used for free filtering for home and families. It has different settings to block threats and/or adult categories compared to its Cisco Umbrella counterpart. In 2022, Cisco announced that while OpenDNS will remain free for home use (with limited features), old OpenDNS MSP programs reached end-of-life.

What is the pricing for Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella does not have public-facing pricing. Learn more about Cisco Umbrella Pricing, Licensing, and Package FAQs.
What challenges do Cisco Umbrella customers encounter?
When a customer signs up for Cisco Umbrella, they face a slew of challenges. The first, and the one we hear repeatedly from our customers and prospects, is the total lack of support for the product. When you have an issue with Cisco Umbrella, it can be nearly impossible to get a hold of someone. This leads to impacted Cisco customers without any DNS security for large chunks of time.

The Cisco UI/UX is not intuitive and takes a more technical individual to implement the setup. This means you might need senior technical resources to take on a deployment they don’t have time for, as opposed to passing it over to a more junior engineer. Not to mention, within the Cisco Umbrella UI it is difficult to find things and some things are in multiple places, making it even harder to maintain a sense of where things are and where you can update them.

Other common Cisco challenges customers endure are long contracts that lock you in, no investment or innovation on the product (the UI has not evolved very much since its OpenDNS days), and a slower anycast network.
What is the biggest difference between DNSFilter and Cisco Umbrella?
The biggest difference between DNSFilter and Cisco Umbrella is the efficacy of DNSFilter's domain classification, which relies on our ML Webshrinker. Further, DNSFilter has an approachable company culture, and customers are involved in our decision-making process of which features to implement. We have a transparent pricing model displayed on our public website and our support team is incredibly responsive compared to Cisco's. DNSFilter also offers more branding options for MSPs.
What does it mean to me that Cisco Umbrella has end-of-lifed their roaming clients?
As of April 2025, Cisco Umbrella Roaming Clients officially reached end of life. Customers who haven’t already migrated will need to migrate to the Umbrella Roaming module in Cisco Secure Client—or risk operating unsupported clients with no access to updates, no compatibility guarantees with new operating systems, and increased security risks. Read more about this change and how to migrate to DNSFilter.

Trusted by enterprise, SMBs, and MSPs

Learn more in our DNSFilter vs. Cisco Umbrella case studies.
  • arclightgroup
    DNSFILTER VS CISCO UMBRELLA

    ArcLight Group Case Study

    "We'd tried the Cisco Umbrella way and they were just not overly friendly to the MSP market at the time. They had some really bad or unwieldy requirements on limits and so on, and we were just trying to get started. So, we shopped around, we tried them for a while and then we landed on DNSFilter."

  • monument
    DNSFILTER VS CISCO UMBRELLA

    Healthcare System Switched to DNSFilter from Cisco Umbrella

    "The impending renewal of their Cisco Umbrella contract, due roughly two months from the initial contact, created a sense of urgency to find an alternative solution that could meet their needs more cost-effectively."

  • Oetker Collection
    DNSFILTER VS CISCO UMBRELLA

    Oetker Collection Relies on DNSFilter to Stop Threats in Real Time

    "After deciding his team couldn't move forward with Cisco Umbrella, Florian turned to Reddit to read discussions about web filtering solutions. He found other IT professionals mentioning DNSFilter. He started his free trial, and shortly after signed."

Customers love us, threats hate us

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G2 High PerformerG2 Most ImplementableG2 Best UsabilityG2 Best RelationshipG2 Best ResultsG2 Momentum Leader
  • G2

    “DNS Filtration that just works”

    I haven't found anything I don't like about DNSFilter. I've never had issues with it or needed to troubleshoot it. It just works and it listens to me. Customer support is extremely responsive, gives quick and concise answers with little to no time wasted.

  • G2

    “Does what the product claims; good value for the price”

    We use the product for handling business URL filtering. The DNS look ups are fast and the management of allow/deny lists is pretty easy. Reporting is useful. There are some cool features for granular management at an individual machine level. The price is quite reasonable for what it does. It's pretty much set and forget.

  • G2

    “Its raining malware but I wont reach for my Umbrella, but DNS Filter instead”

    The ease of use and overall ability to block applications, limit search engines, block a number of threat types and add good sites to a whitelist or block a known bad site in a blacklist. Reporting is also the BEST I have seen as it is so easy to find good and bad blocks...allowing you to easily and daily to monitor and update lists as needed.

DNS filtering shouldn’t be hard. It should be stupid easy.

You’re only minutes away from protecting employees from unwanted content on the company network. Try it right now, commitment-free.
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