Whether Cisco Umbrella is worth it depends on your environment, budget and plans for the next few years.
It tends to suit organisations that:
- Already run Cisco networking and security products and want tight integration
- Need fast, lightweight DNS-layer protection across many sites without new hardware
- Value Cisco Talos threat intelligence and a mature, widely deployed service
Reviews back up those strengths. It scores around 4.4 out of 5 on G2, Gartner Peer Insights and PeerSpot, with users praising easy deployment and effective threat blocking.
It may be less worth it if:
- Cost is a priority, as pricing rises quickly across tiers and add-ons
- You need zero trust network access, which the DNS and SIG packages do not include
- Remote users see slower performance when traffic is proxied
- Your team lacks time to manage complex policies and HTTPS inspection exceptions
The biggest factor in 2026 is lifecycle. Cisco has announced end of sale for Umbrella DNS and SIG on 31 January 2027, with support ending on 31 January 2029. New buyers would be committing to a product that is already being replaced, and existing customers face a migration to Cisco Secure Access either way.
That makes now a good time to look at the full picture. Compare Secure Access against other SSE platforms on performance, licensing simplicity and total cost, and run a short proof of concept before renewing.