Cisco Umbrella vs NextDNS
Zero of fourteen models named Cisco Umbrella first on the direct prompt; zero named NextDNS. Cisco Umbrella was named by twelve of the fourteen models and NextDNS by thirteen and Cisco Umbrella carries 40 labels and NextDNS 27, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in five categories this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the DNS filtering page.
By framing
Cisco UmbrellaFirst choices, of fourteen modelsNextDNS
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Cisco Umbrella and NextDNS were named in the same answer forty-two times, of the 165 answers naming Cisco Umbrella and the 68 naming NextDNS. In those answers NextDNS took the first choice six times and Cisco Umbrella nine.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | ||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | |||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | |||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | |||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | ||
| Llama 4 Maverick | ||||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | | ||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-6 Luna | | |||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
Cisco Umbrella NextDNS first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Cisco Umbrella on the left and NextDNS on the right.The direct prompt
Neither was the first choice, one was named
8 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
6 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Cisco Umbrella5%#4 of 8NextDNS0%#7 of 8Cisco Umbrella6%#3 of 9NextDNS2%#5 of 9Cisco Umbrella43%#1 of 7NextDNS0%#– of 7What the models said about Cisco Umbrella
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“its pricing and complexity can be prohibitive for small businesses, and setup can be steep... can be overkill or frustrating for smaller deployments” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“But watch out for: Quote-based pricing that can escalate quickly ... Often feels like overkill for mid-market needs” DeepSeek V4 Flash · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Services like Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway, and DNSFilter are powerful but come with cautionary notes” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Best for: Large enterprises, organizations with complex security needs ... Industry-leading threat intelligence, extensive integration ecosystem, mature platform” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
“Popular options for 500 users include DNSFilter (AI-focused, easy deploy) and Cisco Umbrella (enterprise-grade integrations).” Grok 4.1 Fast · scale prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend Cisco Umbrella as the top DNS security solution.” Grok 4.1 Fast · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about NextDNS
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“NextDNS/AdGuard: Highly customizable (ads/trackers/parental), but free tiers have query limits” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · soft negative
“NextDNS's free plan should not be relied upon for critical filtering applications” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Browser Secure DNS Can Bypass NextDNS and Pi-hole: How to Check and Fix It” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative
“NextDNS is usually the best value if you mainly want DNS filtering and easy policy control” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
“NextDNS is often considered the most flexible option for tech-savvy users.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“NextDNS – best for privacy-focused users needing advanced DNS controls” Muse Glimmer 30B · comparative prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.