Best Cisco Umbrella Alternative for 2025: 5 Picks for 5 Situations

The best Cisco Umbrella alternative depends on why you're leaving. Some teams just need cheaper DNS filtering. Others need to see inside HTTPS, govern AI tools, or stop sending remote users through a cloud detour. And with Cisco ending sales of Umbrella SIG and DNS on January 31, 2027, every Umbrella customer has to pick a next step anyway.

So this isn't a top-10 list. It's five picks, one per situation. If you want the full field with ten vendors and their trade-offs, read our top 10 Cisco Umbrella alternatives for 2027.

Full disclosure: we're dope.security, and we're one of the five. We've tried to be fair to the other four.

The 5 picks at a glance

• You want to stay with Cisco: Cisco Secure Access.
• Your team is remote or hybrid and you need HTTPS inspection and AI governance without a detour: dope.security.
• You only need DNS filtering on a tight budget: DNSFilter.
• You already run on Cloudflare: Cloudflare One.
• You're a large global enterprise standardizing on a cloud SSE: Zscaler Internet Access.

Why pick now: the Umbrella deadline

Cisco's end-of-life bulletin EOL15975 sets three dates for Umbrella SIG and DNS: January 31, 2027 (end of sale and end of new enhancements), January 31, 2028 (last day to renew), and January 31, 2029 (end of support). Cisco's recommended path is Secure Access, but you're changing platforms either way. Our Cisco Umbrella end of life guide walks through the dates and options in detail.

1. Staying in the Cisco ecosystem: Cisco Secure Access

Cisco Secure Access is Umbrella's official successor: Cisco's Security Service Edge platform, combining secure internet access (SWG, cloud firewall, CASB, DNS security) with private access (ZTNA and VPN as a service). Cisco's bulletin maps each Umbrella package to a Secure Access equivalent, and Cisco says most customers can migrate in an hour or less with its upgrade tool.

• Pick it if: you run Meraki, Duo, ISE or Cisco SD-WAN and want the least vendor change.
• The trade-off: it's still a cloud proxy. HTTPS inspection happens in Cisco data centers, and you still learn a new console and policy model.

2. Remote and hybrid teams that need full inspection: dope.security

dope.security moves the secure web gateway onto the endpoint. SSL inspection, URL filtering and Cloud Application Control run on the device, and traffic flies direct to the internet with no stopover data center. That closes Umbrella's two gaps at once: DNS-only packages can't see inside HTTPS, and SIG fixes that by backhauling.

• AI governance: Cloud Application Control allows enterprise ChatGPT, Claude, Google and Microsoft 365 tenants and blocks personal logins. Dopamine DLP catches sensitive data in uploads and AI prompts: text is extracted on the device and classified by an LLM with zero data retention.
• Operations: one console, policy lands on every endpoint in under a minute, and the agent runs on Mac and Windows in under 100 MB of RAM. If the cloud is unreachable, the agent keeps enforcing cached policy in fallback mode.
• Proof: Greylock Partners left Cisco Umbrella and went from first proposal to signed contract in 27 days. Another Umbrella customer migrated 2,000 machines in two days.
• The trade-off: a younger vendor than Cisco, and it needs an agent on every managed device.

3. DNS filtering on a budget: DNSFilter

If you only ever used Umbrella's DNS tier and you're happy with domain-level blocking, DNSFilter is the most direct swap. It's a DNS-layer filtering service with simple per-user plans and an MSP program.

• Pick it if: you want low cost and low effort, and HTTPS inspection isn't a requirement.
• The trade-off: it shares Umbrella's core limit. DNS sees the domain, not the session, so uploads, URL paths and account sign-ins stay invisible. More in is DNS filtering enough.

4. Already on Cloudflare: Cloudflare One

Cloudflare One layers a secure web gateway, ZTNA and CASB on Cloudflare's global network, with the Cloudflare One Client (formerly WARP) on each device. Cloudflare offers a free Zero Trust plan for teams under 50 users, which makes it easy to trial.

• Pick it if: your apps and DNS already live on Cloudflare and your users sit near Cloudflare's edge.
• The trade-off: inspection happens in Cloudflare's cloud, so an edge incident becomes your incident, and TLS inspection needs a Cloudflare root certificate on every device. See our Cloudflare WARP explainer.

5. Large global enterprises: Zscaler Internet Access

Zscaler is the largest cloud-proxy SSE vendor. Its Zero Trust Exchange runs across more than 160 data centers worldwide, according to its FY2024 annual report, and it has deep enterprise references and compliance credentials. Netskope One is the closest runner-up if SaaS and data visibility matter most.

• Pick it if: you're a global enterprise that wants a mature cloud SSE with a large point-of-presence footprint and a team to run it.
• The trade-off: you trade one backhauling cloud proxy for another, and enterprise pricing and complexity are common complaints. Compare the two in Cisco Umbrella vs Zscaler.

How to pick in three questions

• Do you need to see inside HTTPS? If no, DNSFilter is the simple swap. If yes, keep reading.
• Where should decryption happen? In a vendor data center (Secure Access, Cloudflare One, Zscaler) or on the device (dope.security). That choice drives latency, privacy and outage exposure.
• How committed are you to Cisco? Deep Cisco shops lose the least by moving to Secure Access. Everyone else should run a proof of concept with at least two options and test the corporate-vs-personal ChatGPT case live.

What to carry over from Umbrella, whichever you pick

Every option on this list is a migration, so the work that saves the most time happens before you pick. Gather these from your Umbrella dashboard first:

• Your policy list: which categories you block or warn on, by group, and any custom allow and block lists.
• Your bypass list: domains and apps you exempt from inspection today, and why. Many were added years ago and no longer need to be there.
• Your identity setup: how users and groups map from your identity provider, so policy follows people instead of networks.
• Your integrations: SIEM log streaming, Duo or other MFA ties, and any API automation built on Umbrella or Investigate.
• Your device footprint: which machines run Cisco Secure Client with the Umbrella module, and which MDM (Intune, Jamf or other) you'll use to push the replacement.

Then run a two-week proof of concept with real users, not a lab. Measure page load times for remote staff, count the bypasses you need, and time how long a policy change takes to reach a laptop on a home network. Those three numbers will tell you more than any feature checklist, including this one.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Cisco Umbrella alternative?

It depends on your reason for leaving. For remote and hybrid teams that need HTTPS inspection and AI governance without backhauling, dope.security inspects on the device. For DNS-only needs, DNSFilter is the simplest swap. To stay with Cisco, Secure Access is the official successor.

Is there a free alternative to Cisco Umbrella?

Cloudflare offers a free Zero Trust plan for teams under 50 users. Most business-grade options, including dope.security, offer free trials rather than free plans.

Do I have to replace Cisco Umbrella?

Eventually, yes. Cisco ends sales of Umbrella SIG and DNS on January 31, 2027, the last renewal date is January 31, 2028, and support ends January 31, 2029. You can move to Cisco Secure Access or switch to another platform.

How long does it take to switch from Cisco Umbrella?

It varies by platform. Greylock Partners went from first proposal to signed contract with dope.security in 27 days, and another Umbrella customer migrated 2,000 machines in two days. Cloud-proxy migrations often take longer because of tunnel, PAC file and policy work.

Try the on-device option

Pick the alternative that fixes your actual reason for leaving. If that's visibility, speed or AI risk, start a free trial at dope.security/pricing or book a 20-minute demo.