The Cisco Umbrella Alternative
That Just Works

Faster Protection, Easier Management, Real Support

Cisco Umbrella, also known as Cisco Secure Access or OpenDNS, has caused a lot of headaches for IT and cybersecurity professionals. Cisco Umbrella's rising costs, forced migrations, repeated up-selling with minimal new value, and vanishing support are pushing thousands of IT teams to look for something better. DNSFilter gives you AI-powered DNS security that deploys in minutes, catches threats days sooner, and comes with support that actually picks up the phone.

In your free trial, you will:

Block Threats 10 Days Faster Than Cisco

DNSFilter's AI-driven domain categorization identifies malicious domains an average of 10 days sooner than competitors relying on third-party threat feeds. Stop waiting for static blocklists to catch up — get real-time protection from zero-day phishing and malware from day one.

Deploy in Minutes, Not Weeks

95% of DNSFilter customers are fully deployed within a month. No complex SSL decryption configs, no multi-step Secure Client migrations. Point your DNS, push the roaming client, and start filtering — it's that simple.

Skip Cisco's Next Forced Migration

Cisco's Roaming Client hit end-of-life in April 2025, forcing yet another migration to Cisco Secure Client. DNSFilter's roaming clients are actively maintained with new releases every two weeks. No sunset surprises. No re-deployment headaches.

Why DNS-First Security Beats Platform Bloat

At renewal time, Cisco is pushing Cisco Umbrella customers into a Secure Access (SSE) platform. That means more agents, more complexity, and paying for ZTNA, CASB, and DLP modules you may already have covered elsewhere in your stack.

DNSFilter takes a different approach.

No platform lock-in. DNSFilter does DNS security, and does it well. We integrate with your existing stack instead of trying to replace it. Keep your SIEM, your endpoint agent, your identity provider -- DNSFilter works alongside all of them.

No forced bundling. You buy what you need. No paying for SSE capabilities just to keep your DNS filtering running.

Faster threat detection by design. Our AI categorization engine was built from the ground up for DNS. That’s how we catch malicious domains an average of 10 days before competitors using only traditional threat feeds. DNS security isn't a checkbox inside a bigger platform. It's the core of what we do.

Built for MSPs and lean IT teams. Seamless multi-tenant management, simple pricing, and a deployment model that assumes you have better things to do than run a 6-month migration project. If you manage client environments, DNSFilter was designed for how you actually work.

LIMITED TIME: Cisco Umbrella customers can get up to 6 months of content filtering free when they make the switch. [Talk to sales to claim your offer →]