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Azure DNS vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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
3.7
Azure DNS offers cost savings, reliability, and efficiency with pay-as-you-go pricing and free queries, enhancing business operations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Umbrella improves security, reduces costs, and boosts productivity with easy deployment and effective cloud-based threat prevention.
The ROI is always high because Azure DNS setup is essential and does not incur high charges.
Works at Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co.
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
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.4
Azure DNS support is generally well-rated for efficiency and responsiveness, though some experience delays and communication issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Umbrella's customer service is praised for expertise and professionalism, though some experience delays, particularly with email support.
Technical support is minimally required for DNS-related tasks if you have previous experience.
Works at Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co.
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
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Azure DNS is highly rated for its scalability, reliability, and ease of use, ideal for growing enterprises.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella adapts seamlessly to user growth, offering scalable, cloud-based security with efficient centralized management and flexible licensing options.
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
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Azure DNS is highly stable and dependable, praised for reliability, though scalability and installation challenges are occasionally noted.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is renowned for its exceptional stability, delivering near-100% uptime and reliable performance with minimal connectivity issues.
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.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improved Azure DNS troubleshooting, security, analytics, integration, setup ease, pricing clarity, support, and user-friendly interfaces.
Cisco Umbrella faces criticism for high pricing, complex integration, support delays, and usability issues, needing streamlined features and documentation.
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
 

Setup Cost

Azure DNS is cost-effective and affordable, offering flexible pricing with pay-as-you-go and subscription plans for enterprises.
Cisco Umbrella is deemed costly but valued for security, though license complexity and cost competitiveness could improve.
Azure DNS charges based on the number of zones enabled, offering some free queries monthly, which keeps costs low.
Works at Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co.
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
 

Valuable Features

Azure DNS provides secure, automated, and scalable DNS solutions with seamless Azure integration, high availability, and simplified management.
Cisco Umbrella enhances network security with DNS protection, easy management, remote integration, and proactive threat detection for organizations.
Azure DNS provides end-to-end P2P connectivity and enhances security, making it more secure and reliable.
Works at Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co.
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
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure DNS
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Managed DNS (5th)
Cisco Umbrella
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) (2nd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Azure DNS and Cisco Umbrella aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Azure DNS is designed for Managed DNS and holds a mindshare of 11.6%, up 8.0% compared to last year.
Cisco Umbrella, on the other hand, focuses on Domain Name System (DNS) Security, holds 16.9% mindshare, down 23.3% since last year.
Managed DNS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Azure DNS11.6%
Cloudflare23.5%
Quad921.9%
Other43.0%
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella16.9%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security10.7%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection6.1%
Other66.30000000000001%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Dieudonné-Nsabimana - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultancy Manager at cidns
Overall experience improves efficiency and lowers operational challenges
* Add native management routing (geo‑routing, failover, weighted records) directly within Azure DNS zones to reduce dependency on extra services. * Cost Efficiency: Offer bundle pricing tiers or discounts for high‑volume enterprise customers, or an option for cost‑optimized internal DNS zones. * Improved Error Diagnostics: Provide more descriptive error codes and guided troubleshooting steps in the portal or CLI.
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.
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917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise51
 

Questions from the Community

Azure DNS or Amazon Route 53?
Azure DNS is a hosting service of DNS domains. It has excellent operating time and performance, resulting in fast resolution. We like the ability to view everything in the Azure portal - this makes...
What needs improvement with Azure DNS?
Azure DNS could be improved with more advanced DNS analytics, richer auditing reporting, and better visibility into DNS query patterns and troubleshooting data. There is also a desire for deeper se...
What is your primary use case for Azure DNS?
Azure DNS is used primarily for hosting and managing public and private DNS zones for customer applications and cloud infrastructure. From a cybersecurity perspective, it provides centralized DNS m...
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?
The pricing for Cisco Umbrella is fair compared to other platforms out there for DNS security. We acquired it as a bundle with other Cisco purchases.
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

M-Files
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlueCat and others in Managed DNS. Updated: October 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.