# Cisco Umbrella alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 175 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Cisco Umbrella holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/cisco-umbrella/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- DNSFilter: 58
- Cloudflare Gateway: 21
- Quad9: 10
- Control D: 6
- Cloudflare One: 5
- NextDNS: 5

## DNS filtering

**Small business**: 71 of 84 answers did not name Cisco Umbrella (Cisco Umbrella is #4 of 8 at 5%).

- DNSFilter: first choice in 34 of those 71
- Cloudflare Gateway: first choice in 11 of those 71
- Control D: first choice in 4 of those 71
- NextDNS: first choice in 3 of those 71
- Quad9: first choice in 3 of those 71
- Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 for Families: first choice in 2 of those 71
- Cloudflare One: first choice in 2 of those 71
- Cisco Umbrella DNS Security Essentials: first choice in 1 of those 71

**Mid-market**: 62 of 84 answers did not name Cisco Umbrella (Cisco Umbrella is #3 of 9 at 6%).

- DNSFilter: first choice in 17 of those 62
- Cloudflare Gateway: first choice in 9 of those 62
- Quad9: first choice in 7 of those 62
- Cloudflare: first choice in 2 of those 62
- Cloudflare One: first choice in 2 of those 62
- Control D: first choice in 2 of those 62
- NextDNS: first choice in 2 of those 62
- Cisco Secure Access – DNS Defense: first choice in 1 of those 62

**Enterprise**: 42 of 84 answers did not name Cisco Umbrella (Cisco Umbrella is #1 of 7 at 43%).

- DNSFilter: first choice in 7 of those 42
- Cisco Secure Access: first choice in 3 of those 42
- Cisco Secure Access – DNS Defense: first choice in 3 of those 42
- Cloudflare: first choice in 1 of those 42
- Cloudflare Gateway: first choice in 1 of those 42
- Cloudflare One: first choice in 1 of those 42
- Cloudflare One Gateway: first choice in 1 of those 42
- Infoblox Threat Defense: first choice in 1 of those 42

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.