OpenDNS alternative web filter: WebTitan DNS filter is a direct swap out technically for OpenDNS. It is the number one OpenDNS alternative in the market and we have swapped thousands of customers across. Both are DNS filters with best of breed advanced threat protection and are built on the same core principles. OpenDNS has evolved from a free service to a paid for service that was acquired by the tech giant Cisco. Over the last 36 months, many Cisco Umbrella customers and MSPs have made the switch to WebTitan web filter.
Managed Service Providers are moving from OpenDNS to WebTitan because of the better pricing, no need for minimum users and monthly targets, private cloud options with WebTitan and fantastic support from product experts both before and after the sales process.
UPDATE: July 2022:
Cisco recently announced the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates for the Managed Service Provider (MSP) contracts with OpenDNS, effective July 31, 2022. This is a crossroads for MSPs and an opportunity to evaluate what aspects should be considered when choosing an alternative to Cisco OpenDNS.
To support MSPs impacted, TitanHQ are offering our DNS security solution free of charge for 2 months of your next contract, on a 12-month deal.
Read more about the benefits of WebTitan DNS filter for Managed Service Providers here
WebTitan Web Filter provides leading-edge AI driven threat intelligence compared to OpenDNS competitors including:
Discover why TitanHQ's web filtering solution is the #1 alternative to OpenDNS. Book a free demo with a WebTitan technician and see for yourself why OpenDNS customers are migrating to WebTitan.
The WebTitan Web filter WINS in 6 key success rating factors.
On the G2 Crowd independent review platform which leverages more than 650,000 independent and authenticated user reviews read by more than 3 million buyers WebTitan web filter is neck and neck with OpenDNS and also comprehensively wins on the 6 main rating factors.
These are independent customer reviews of both products PLUS WebTitan is considerably more affordable than OpenDNS.
WebTitans Malicious Detection solution employs a crowd-sourced approach to obtaining a constant stream of URLs for analysis. The continuous stream of ActiveWeb URLs comes from our global network of over 650 million end users across a number of high traffic markets. We leverage an integrative, multi-vector approach to detect, monitor, and accurately categorize new threats as they occur. WebTitan uses AI-based services and human-supervised machine learning techniques and verification methods to achieve unmatched coverage (99.9%) and accuracy (99%+) for ActiveWeb domains, sub-domains, full-path URLs, and IP addresses. That includes 100% coverage of the Top 1 Million most visited sites and supports 200 languages, worldwide.
We identify malicious sources from the following:
● URLs/Website Detections
● Browser/Traffic Detections
● Data Mining and more...
The key reasons that businesses and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are looking for Cisco Umbrella alternatives include the following:
Comparison video:
WebTitan is the number 1 OpenDNS alternative - book a free demo to learn more
Book a demoThe current 2022 Cisco Umbrella pricing comparison that we are seeing when talking to prospective customers is as follows:
2022 Web Filtering Pricing – Cisco Umbrella Pricing versus WebTitan Web Filter
TitanHQ WebTitan: $1.42
(this price is based on per user per month, with 100 users for the same key features and threat intelligence.)
WebTitan offers flexible pricing based on the customer's preferences - we can price based on AP's, IP's or locations - the customer decides.Read more WebTitan Web Filter reviews
Customer Quote:
"Excellent web proxy WebTitan is extremely easy to use and easy to setup. Integration with our network was very simple as well. We were looking for a product that had an informative dashboard and an easy way to set up rules. This was the perfect product for us. If you are looking for an effective solution that meets your price requirements as well as ease of administration, WebTitan is a perfect product for you. We are using this product to limit internal users from accessing restricted sites. We also use this product to audit activity for specific users in our office."
System Administrator in Non-Profit Organization
*Cisco Umbrella and WebTitan Comparison Grid
2. Differences in Support levels between Cisco Umbrella and WebTitan
Support from TitanHQ is hands-on and world-class including contact with a qualified engineer through the entire process - this includes full support during the trial period, migration help and on-going free technical support when you become a customer. With TitanHQ there are no additional support costs or add on pricing- all features, upgrades, and support are included in the price quoted. TitanHQ are very hands-on when it comes to support
We have had several customers migrate to WebTitan because of poor post-sales support.
Cisco Umbrella Versus WebTitan Live Review on Capterra:
"I am liking it a lot better than Umbrella by Cisco, which we were previously using.
Pros: The simple interface is the best feature. When Cisco bought OpenDNS, they revamped the UI to make it look "modern", but they also made it a lot slower to use and find the info you need. With WebTitan, I am finding that I can log in, quickly look for blocked users, check their individual traffic, and get out in less than 5 minutes. With Umbrella (formerly known as OpenDNS), I just wasn't even bothering to look at traffic because the experience was frustrating. Now with WebTitan, I am finding that I am using it daily again because it is quick and easy to use and doesn't make me feel like I am fighting with the UI."
Todd Russell, Director of IT, Saint Joseph Seminary College, Covington, Louisiana
Here's an excellent new case study detailing Saint Joseph Seminary Colleges move from Cisco Umbrella to WebTitan for improved usability, reporting & costs.
You can view the full case study here.
Also here's a new case study about a UK based MSP called Network Needs migrating from
OpenDNS Cisco Umbrella to WebTitan
With WebTitan there are No minimums, No DNS request limits, No extra support costs, No unanswered support calls. Once you are a WebTitan customer, you are a customer. There are No tiers or costly minimums just a solid product and great service. As a business, we will grow and shrink with you. Can Cisco Umbrella say the same?
MSP Customer Quote:
"Comprehensive protection at a reasonable price. I really love the amount of options you have in protecting your network. There seems to be an almost endless granularity in filtering.
My clients have realized the potential of DNS Filtering services. The reporting has gotten more comprehensive. Our recurring revenue has increased because of this."
Capterra MSP
WebTitan is the number 1 OpenDNS alternative - book a free demo to learn more
Book a demoWebTitan can guarantee that your data stays in your region. Cisco Umbrella is a shared AnyCast system.
WebTitan Cloud is regionalized so ALL info is guaranteed to stay within the same region (US/EU/ANZ etc.) Our private clouds are located in your data centre or in AWS locally.
The following companies trust WebTitan:
WebTitan offers twice as many custom reports as Cisco Umbrella. Custom reports allow for flexible reporting based on an organization's specific requirements. When Active Directory integration is in place WebTitan offers an additional 10 reports as well as the ability to add filters to the pre-canned reports. WebTitan reporting is also renowned for its speed and real-time functionality. All of this reporting is available via our extensive API.
Customer Quote:
“Ensuring our network and users are secure is vital, and Umbrella’s frustrating interface was making this task more difficult than it needed to be, We were unhappy with the overly-complex Umbrella user interface for a long time and were jeopardizing security because of this complexity. WebTitan’s many features prompted tus to explore the solution. It didn’t take long to realize that WebTitan was the best alternative for an efficient, cost-effective, and easy to use filtering solution to replace Cisco Umbrella”.
Todd Russell, Director of IT, Saint Joseph Seminary College, Covington, Louisiana
With WebTitan you can enable safe search for Google and Bing with just one click. When SafeSearch is on, it helps block explicit images, videos, and websites from Google Search results. This is an integral part of web filtering. Why block content in the search results if users can see the content in images and videos.. With WebTitan implementing safe search is simple, fast and effective.
WebTitan's extensive API set facilitates simple integration for users. The OpenDNS API is not as extensive with less customization possible. WebTitan Cloud allows deep integration making 'Cloud to Cloud' integration straightforward. Our backend expertise brought through to your front end provides you a single pane of glass view.
Benefits of an API driven architecture:
» Easy - Backend functionality is split from front-end allowing easy back-end integration.
» Scalability - You can add more clients as you wish and all call the same API.
» You save time by removing the need to repeat laborious tasks and increase organizational efficiency.
MSP Customer Quote:
"Webtitan review. The service is very intuitive and easy to use. I'm using it as an MSP provider and the integration with the API is simple, well documented and supported. Makes it much easier to use and offer it to our customers.
Offering domain filtering services to my customers, and not having to develop it as a service of our company, made it economically better"
Wasserman MSP, Australia
With WebTitan you have the ability to set up email alerts to be notified if a user hits a page/domain that's blocked (for security reasons). An administrative alert email is immediately sent to the admin account or another designated user in the account.
We routinely receive great feedback (98% customer satisfaction) for our post-sales support. Hands-on contact with a qualified and experienced engineer at all stages is an important factor in this high rating.
MSP Customer Quote about Cisco Umbrella support:
"We pay for it for all our clients. Support is very slow, days to get responses. Adding a blocked site should be easy. The Cisco dashboard is overly complicated for a basic proxy service. The switch to Cisco has come at a cost to the end users and tech people. Not happy."
Jonathan2766, IT service provider, Spiceworks.
" Cisco Umbrella Sales. What do you actually need to do to sign up for this thing?
We’ve signed up for a trial (last week)and ready to go. Sent two requests to their sales team requesting someone to reach out so that we can convert to a paid subscription. Nothing!"
"Cisco Umbrella
Good luck. It took me 8 months to get them to reply to me AFTER we signed our contract with them.
Appalling account management."
"Cisco AMP and Cisco Umbrella is officially the worst communication and support I have ever seen in my entire IT career. How can a company treat a customer THIS freaking poorly after asking for the amounts of money we have paid them?
UPDATE: We have Dropped Cisco for security. They reached out to us and said it would be another 48+ hours till they could get us licensing. So we are being refunded (THIS is a complex thing with this much money "Refund" Does not give it justice. but for now "Refund") Our Partner went to a 2nd solution and is moving heaven and earth to get us techs who work with the new product. And yes it was Cisco who dropped the ball here and not the partner.
I don't know what else to say. It has been a nightmare. They are seriously the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life.
Literally never had a worst customer experience in any other way with any other business.
They do not give a sxxt about their customers in the slightest."
10. Active Directory Integration
OpenDNS Active Directory integration and multiple policies run off a policy ranking system, Web Titan Cloud runs off a group ranking system. From customer feedback, our ranking system is a lot more user-friendly and easier to manage.
MSP Customer Quote
We looked at OpenDNS last year and ended up going with WebTitan, I've been happy with it so far. It is cloud based, but make sure you install the VM appliance they offer for free to help it sync with your AD to show what user is accessing the content. The cost was a whole lot less than OpenDNS for the same functionality.
We switched from a Barracuda appliance we had at each of our sites. It's nice to show all of our locations from a single console with WebTitan now.
Chad1642, MSP, Spiceworks
TitanHQ has always been MSP focused when it comes to features and product development. This web filter was built by MSP's for MSP's. WebTitan can be deployed as a private cloud with all of your customers on your private cloud. With WebTitan there are lots of customizations options, the solution can be fully white labeled. An Anycast is a shared platform with limited customization options.
13. Freshness of Threat Intelligence is much more important than size
Determining the efficacy of a malicious database does not equate to protection. The internet is made up of nearly two billion websites and many times more full-path URLs. It is also continuously changing—most times legitimate and safe content updates. Some changes are nefarious, such as compromised websites, new phishing sites, or new forms of malware, ransomware etc. Because domains and URLs on the internet are continuously changing—any premium URL database or malicious database that stores a classification must “revisit” those destinations on a regular basis in order to stay current (or “fresh”). This “freshness” is particularly important for malicious categories (i.e. phishing, malware distribution, C&C, etc.) which often “blink” on/off to fulfill a specific purpose. You can also refer to this as a “short shelf life”.
Regular revisits of malicious classifications do two things:
1) ensure the malicious database is an active representation of current threats on the web and
2) prevent database “bloat”. It’s easy to find lists of malicious threats or feeds and include all of them into one “master malicious database.” But unless you have the AI-based and crowd-sourced systems to revisit and re-analyze at scale (and with high accuracy) that database quickly becomes obsolete. As you can imagine, this also means that the size of a premium malicious database will fluctuate from day-to-day, week-to-week, etc. WebTitans malicious dataset can fluctuate (NOTE: ONLY domains and paths classified as malicious—NOT including objectionable or other highly dynamic categories that may support malicious threats) from 2 million to upwards of 10 million malicious threats. Using additional technologies and services, we provide increased protection by identifying other indicators, such as sources of data center and non-human traffic (NHT)—known as our IVT blocklist. Simply put—the takeaway here is that a larger database DOES NOT equate to higher levels of protection. Accuracy (including “freshness” of the database, how recently analysis and classifications were made) as well as high coverage (which we accomplish through crowd-sourcing) are the most important criteria for measuring protection and quality of a malicious database.
"The entire experience with WebTitan has been terrific. From better reporting to a usable UI, we’ve gotten the visibility we need and have therefore been able to improve our security position.
There is nothing to lose by contacting WebTitan and setting up a trial instance. I was able to do that very quickly over the phone and spend a little time in the interface to determine whether or not it could do what I wanted. That brief demo was all I needed to know that WebTitan would serve my needs much better than Umbrella and I have been thrilled with the improvements to my workflow since switching over,”
Todd Russell, Director of IT, Saint Joseph Seminary College, Covington, Louisiana
What does WebTitan from TitanHQ give the MSP:
- margin making capability.
- private, scalable, multi-tenant clouds in the UK, in aws and are fast. Private IP with secondary back up.
- A malware and phishing link killer for your customers.
- Microsoft, T-Mobile, Virgin, ViaSat and Datto all use WebTitan primarily for it's security capabilities.
- save on truck roll cost and engineering + support costs. Stop unhappy, time consuming customers.
- real time LIVE updating of malware and malicious threats.
- active database of 650 million users driving the AI driven protection in this product
- ease of deployment, roll out and use. We’ll hold your hands on roll out and scale you into the product if needs be. We’re a partner who will grow and slow together
– no punitive terms or measures, no sharp practices. - Full industry leading support from real techies who sit beside the product owners over both phone and email. Pre and post-sales support.
- API for the MSP in particular when not using an RMM. Automation capabilities for them.
- Reporting – the power of reporting with full AD integration. Ease of user identification and reporting. They can show their customers the volume of malicious attacks they have prevented.
- Easy filtering at multiple levels and the capability to recognize users in many different ways. Offers remote employee protection.
If you are interested and feel some of these reasons apply to you as a customer or as a managed service provider feel free to drop us an email on info@TitanHQ.com or visit our contact us page .
We have real web security experts offering live support and guidance on our live chat feature - click the buttons on the bottom right and left of the page.
We're happy to provide web filtering pricing, arrange a free trial, a product demo or discuss your technical set up.
More DNS Filtering Comparisons:
Lightspeed: An Independent Comparison of WebTitan Web Filter and Lightspeed Web Filter for the Education Sector
Webroot DNS: WebTitan versus Cisco Umbrella versus Webroot DNS
You can also get a PDF report version of this page here
WebTitan is the number 1 OpenDNS alternative - book a free demo to learn more
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