Web Security

The Top 10 DNS Web Filtering Platforms For Business

Discover the top DNS web filtering platforms for business. Compare key features including web content filtering, policy controls, flexible deployment, security controls, and reporting.

The Top 10 DNS Web Filtering Platforms Include:
  • 1. WebTitan Web Security
  • 2. Cisco Umbrella
  • 3. Cloudflare Gateway
  • 4. Zscaler DNS Security
  • 5. Palo Alto Networks DNS Security
  • 6. Barracuda Content Shield
  • 7. DNSFilter
  • 8. NordLayer DNS Filtering
  • 9. Avast Secure Web Gateway
  • 10. Webroot DNS Protection

Enterprise DNS web filtering solutions are security tools that protect users against unsafe or inappropriate web content. DNS filtering solutions work by filtering domains or IP addresses at the Domain Name System (DNS) level. When a user attempts to visit a domain, the request is sent to the DNS filtering solution. If the website appears to be malicious or is on a blocklist, the DNS filter service will block the employee from being able to access the requested web content.

DNS web filtering solutions are important tools to protect users against unsafe web content. Harmful websites can spread malware to company endpoints or can be used as part of phishing campaigns to harvest user credentials and compromise sensitive company data. On top of this, DNS web filters can be used to enforce company safe use policies. There are several categories of website content many organizations wish to block employees from accessing, such as adult content, gambling, and illegal materials. DNS web filtering solutions enable admins to enforce these compliance policies with ease and provide comprehensive reporting of user behavior online.

To help you find the right product, here’s Expert Insights’ shortlist of the top DNS web filtering platforms. We’ll explore their effectiveness at web filtering, the threat protection they offer, the quality of reporting and the admin controls. The DNS web filtering solutions featured on this list are primarily SaaS-based, cloud-native tools, with key features including DNS-based web content filtering, policy creation, and flexible deployment.

WebTitan Logo

WebTitan Web Security is a robust web filtering solution that provides threat protection and advanced DNS filtering controls. The platform provides protection against malicious webpages, phishing webpages, viruses, ransomware, and harmful web content. WebTitan Web Security filters over 500 million URLs, and offers a comprehensive policy engine, allowing admins to configure granular content filtering rules and categories. WebTitan Web Security is easy to use and provides strong threat protection for users both in the office and working remotely. WebTitan Web Security is scalable, fast, and affordable, making it a strong solution for SMBs, MSPs, and schools looking for DNS-based web protection.

WebTitan Web Security provides content filtering that stops users from accessing malicious or harmful web pages and ensures compliance with legal standards, with a URL classification database used by over 650 million end users. WebTitan Web Security also provides threat protection against malware, viruses, unsafe downloads, and phishing attacks, with AI-powered engines that can identify zero-day phishing domains and malicious URLs. The service offers remote management and monitoring via API, with no latency. From any location, admins can configure granular polices with per user, per IP, per agent and per group policy options, and generate a variety of reports to ensure the service is effectively catching the web-based threats facing their organization.

WebTitan Web Security is a fast and scalable DNS filtering solution. It provides comprehensive threat protection and is easy to use and manage, making it a suitable solution for SMBs and larger organizations. WebTitan Web Security is also a strong solution for education environments, allowing admins to easily configure policies to protect students and ensure compliance standards are met. WebTitan Web Security is also popular in the MSP community, providing margin friendly pricing and a fully multi-tenant environment. Customers highlight WebTitan Web Security’s ease of use, cost-effective pricing, granular policies for content filtering and strong technical support.

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Cisco logo

Cisco Umbrella is a web secure gateway service that utilizes DNS-based technology. It processes billions of webpages, applying extensive threat research to classify and block harmful web content. Umbrella provides effective threat protection and detection and adaptable admin controls with security policies for a wide range of use cases. Pre-made and scheduled reports are made available by Cisco for assessment and control purposes.

Umbrella brings simplicity to content filtration, with policy customizations enabling admin’s ability to fine-tune their service level based on their specific requirements. Umbrella DNS Security provides effective protection against ransomware, malware, and gaps in coverage and visibility. This solution offers a stand-out feature that blocks requests to malware, ransomware, and phishing attempts before a connection is made, reducing the security vulnerabilities related to unmonitored DNS resolution.

Umbrella is user-friendly, reducing security management complexity as well as bandwidth costs. It can easily be deployed within minutes, providing an additional tier of security. Furthermore, its API functionality allows other security solutions to utilize Umbrella’s capabilities for risky domains identification and blocking. This feature ensures extended mitigation regardless of the location of user log in. Umbrella is a popular enterprise DNS web filtering service, which we would recommend for teams looking for a secure, fast and flexible DNS web filtering solution.

Cloudflare Logo

Cloudflare Gateway is a cloud-native Secure Web Gateway (SWG) that protects against ransomware and phishing, and facilitates a faster, safer browsing experience. The solution utilizes Cloudflare’s extensive visibility into internet traffic and a wealth of threat intelligence to provide more effective web content filtering. Users can design custom HTTP, DNS, and network filtering policies that apply to both remote and office users.

Cloudflare Gateway provides faster internet access by enforcing security measures closer to the end-users and eliminating the need to route user requests to centralized scrubbing centers for evaluations. It functions by securely routing traffic from individual devices or branch routers to Cloudflare, inspecting traffic against massive threat intelligence and customized filtering and applying other in-line services like data loss prevention or remote browser isolation for additional controls.

Setting up and managing Cloudflare Gateway is a streamlined process with simplified creation of policies. It effectively blocks user access to known harmful, risky, or unwanted destinations, and provides admins with comprehensive visibility into internet traffic across different users, devices, and locations. Admins are able to scan for threats, identify compromised devices, and identify unsanctioned SaaS applications. Cloudflare is used by organizations of all sizes around the world, with users praising the diverse feature set and the ease of use offered.

Zscaler logo

Zscaler DNS Security offers effective DNS security, filtering, and control, optimizing both security and performance. Delivered as part of Zscaler’s comprehensive cloud-native Security Service Edge (SSE) and Zero Trust platform, the DNS Security solution brings enterprise-grade DNS oversight with fast and reliable service.

Zscaler DNS Security provides absolute visibility over all DNS traffic. It allows investigation into all DNS transactions through detailed logs and context-rich data, maintaining Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with stringent user authentication. This is combined with regular policy checks to detect and cease malicious connections via adaptive, real-time policy enforcement. The platform keeps users and endpoints shielded from harmful sites and DNS tunneling, without compromising on performance. Users enjoy optimal experiences as requests are resolved rapidly and efficiently at the edge, which also allows content to be delivered in the user’s local language and currency.

Zscaler’s Trusted Resolvers speed up DNS resolution by processing requests in servers close to the user’s geographic location. This maximizes user experiences on every device, while facilitating secure DNS access via gateways to third-party resolvers. Overall, Zscaler DNS Security provides effective defense against DNS threats. Its mechanism involves the comprehensive inspection and filtering of all DNS traffic, unearthing and mitigating potential data leaks and DNS attacks.

Zscaler logo
Palo Alto Logo

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security offers comprehensive enterprise protection against DNS-based threats. This solutions utilizes inline deep learning algorithms that predict and identify new and sophisticated threats, providing robust defense against DNS-based attacks.

Palo Alto DNS Security protects against a wide range of threats including malware, phishing, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and other exploits.

This solution identifies and blocks tens of millions of malicious domains through real-time analysis and a constantly growing global threat intelligence database. DNS Security automates responses to identified threats, allowing it to block, alert, or divert traffic based on categories such as malware, dynamic DNS, or newly registered domains. It also offers automation tools to prevent the spread of infection, rapidly identify infected users on the network, and isolate them as necessary.

This service is built on a modular, cloud-based architecture and adds new detection, prevention, and analytics capabilities, without requiring the user to reconfigure their system. It integrates easily with Palo Alto Networks NGFW platform and works seamlessly with existing system configurations and deployment models. DNS Security provides its users with detailed DNS analytics, allowing thorough analysis of all DNS traffic. This further helps in maintaining advanced security measures without impacting business performance or causing any operational difficulties.

Palo Alto Networks DNS Security offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed for enterprise-sized organizations to streamline operations and secure against DNS-based threats.

Palo Alto Logo
Barracuda Essentials Logo

Barracuda Content Shield is a cloud-based web security platform that provides content filtering, file-based protection, policy enforcement, and reporting. Content Shield provides effective DNS filtering and URL reporting to protect users from malicious web content, allowing the creation of specific user or group-based access policies via integration capabilities with LDAP and Azure AD. This system also extends to remote workers, with the Barracuda Content Shield agent allowing enterprises to widen the scope of their company policies beyond the confines of the office network.

Barracuda’s web security solution is easy to deploy and manage, and provides comprehensive visibility of user browsing, making it easier to identify potential security risks. The solution provides information about all network assets and their security status, offering a comprehensive view of the network’s vulnerabilities and overall degree of security. Web content filtering is powered by Barracuda’s global threat intelligence network, which keeps pace with rapidly evolving cyber threats by gathering and processing real-time data from millions of sources worldwide.

Barracuda Content Shield provides real-time protection against online threats. It protects users against downloaded files, endpoint files, and malicious web content. Content Shield also provides businesses with visibility at a per user level at activities and gives admins customizable alerts when malicious activity is detected. One of the main benefits of Barracuda’s platform is its ease of set up and deployment. Users say that the platform is easy to use, with strong visibility into web-based threats.

DNS Filter Logo

DNSFilter is a web protection and content filtering software designed for, mid-sized businesses, enterprises, and MSPs. This solution improves internet browsing safety by blocking malicious content in real-time and providing crucial visibility for IT teams.

To facilitate easy policy creation, DNSFilter allows users to block 36 content categories, eight threat categories, ads, and trackers with just a few clicks. The software helps prevent nearly one-third of security incidents by protecting users from accessing malicious sites at the DNS level. DNSFilter can be deployed through agentless means, or it can be installed on individual devices for more detailed tracking, reporting, and policy creation.

DNSFilter’s features include content filtering, threat protection, and multi-lingual support. It relies on a combination of community threat feeds, government threat data, and data exchange partnerships to maintain robust threat intelligence. DNSFilter leverages community threat feeds, government threat data, and data exchange partnerships for comprehensive protection against internet threats.

DNSFilter can be used by various organizations, from small businesses to large corporations that require protection and filtering from internet threats. The software aims to help businesses prevent new threats, neutralize existing issues, and block access to time-wasting and bandwidth-intensive sites. DNSFilter comes with an easy-to-use dashboard, backed by a global network of fast DNS servers.

 

NordLayer logo

NordLayer’s DNS Filtering platform is designed to protect businesses from online threats and enhance employee productivity. The service helps protect users from phishing, malware, ransomware, and malicious webpages. It also enables businesses to prevent non-work-related internet activity by blocking access to unproductive platforms such as social media, streaming, or e-commerce sites.

NordLayer’s DNS Filtering solution offers easy-to-configure content filtering, allowing businesses to manage access to 50+ categories of content, including adult content, terrorism-associated sites, weapons, drugs, and several other inappropriate content categories. The platform also offers ThreatBlock, a feature that combines data from various trusted public and internal sources about malicious domains to provide enhanced filtering. In addition to blocking malicious sites, Nordlayer uses advanced AES 256-bit encryption to secure your organization’s data and offers an additional layer of security through its Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology, which detects unwanted communications, assisting in the prevention of malware, ransomware, spam, etc.

NordLayer promotes secure remote working with robust DNS protection, yet is straightforward do deploy, with an installation time of under 30 seconds. Regardless of scale, from small business web filtering to large enterprise deployments, NordLayer DNS Filter offers a simple yet effective solution that strengthens both performance and security measures.

NordLayer logo
Avast Logo

Avast’s Secure Internet Gateway service protects businesses from web-based cyber threats with an advanced, cloud-driven firewall. This eliminates the need for traditional network security appliances, reducing costs and complexity for service providers.

The gateway provides full SSL/TLS inspection, full content and URL filtering, cloud sandboxing, and firewall protection. It also operates a global firewall network with 127 data centers and mobile protection for various operating systems like Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Its virus database is frequently updated, with more than 125,000 updates daily. The system also provides contextual threat visibility and active directory integration with 99.999% availability.

Avast’s Secure Internet Gateway improves security by providing full-encrypted data inspection, eliminating risks associated with unencrypted data. The cloud-based nature of the service eliminates hardware costs, making it particularly attractive to Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs).

Avast’s Secure Internet Gateway is available via three packages: SIG, Advanced, and Total, each with different features and capabilities tailored to your business needs. All versions of the service offer various ways of data inspection, including dynamic content classification and inbound/outbound file inspection, depending on the package chosen. Avast is designed for use by small security teams and organizations, with a focus on ease of deployment and use.

Webroot Logo

Webroot DNS Protection offers a filtering system designed to combine safety and privacy measures. It provides tools for preventing inbound malware and other DNS-based attacks while allowing for the enforcement of internet usage policies. The solution ensures visibility and security controls for DNS over HTTPS (DoH). It can be deployed as a standalone DNS agent or alongside Webroot’s Endpoint Protection solution.

A key feature of the software is its ability to maximize privacy without compromising security. It gives full visibility into user internet usage and enables granular domain filtering, with policy creation options for devices, IP addresses, and groups. The solution provides on-demand, drill-down reporting tools and expanded VPN support. Webroot DNS protection also enables admins to block alternate or unauthorized sources of DNS and restrict access to malicious domains or Command-and- Control (C& C) servers. It can log all DNS requests to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities and halt data exfiltration through DNS. It can be to secure the entire network, including corporate Wi-Fi, LAN, guest Wi-Fi connections, and devices on which an agent can’t be installed.

Webroot DNS Protection effectively improves an organization’s resilience against cyberattacks by preventing threats and harmful content, minimizing impact through quick detection and response, and seamlessly recovering data. The solution is also designed for swift deployment and improved management.

The Top 10 DNS Web Filtering Platforms For Business