The Top 5 Cloud Web Filtering Solutions

Zscaler is a market leading cloud-based secure web gateway. The Zscaler platforms defend against malware, browser exploits, and a host of other threats. Zscaler’s threat protection is highly effective, working in real time to detect and block web based threats. Zscaler offers real-time viewing of individual user behaviour. The service offers granular analytics to help you get more knowledge about the online threats facing your organisation.

Zscaler offer a range of admin controls to help customise the service to the needs of your organization. Admins can set bandwidth controls and filter specific URLs. They provide a ‘Continue Anyway’ function for advanced users. This means people who know a URL is safe can choose to access the site, even if the platform deems it unsafe, helping to improve usability for end users and reduce IT support tickets.

Customers praise this service for its high performance and easy to manage console. Zscaler integrates well with Office 365 to block inbound email web threats.

You can read our full review of Zscaler here.

TitanHQ is an industry leader in a range of cybersecurity tools and platforms, including web security with TitanHQ DNS Filtering. This web filtering tool is a powerful yet intuitive cloud filtering solution which contains a robust URL filtering and classification database that is regularly and continually being updated. The product provides strong protection from online and web-borne threats such as malware, ransomware, phishing, and viruses. It can support a fully multi-tenant environment, making it an attractive option for MSPs and larger organizations. Users have in particular highlighted the company’s strong customer service and response times in the event of an issue, as well as noting the product overall for its quick deployment and minimal learning curve when it comes to managing the solution.

Other notable features of the product include a full REST API, per IP and per location policy options and extensive reporting capabilities. Different policies can be applied in different contexts. A malicious activity detection service helps to monitor and identify threats in real-time. Reporting for this product is strong, with admins granted access to interactive reports and clear data visualization. Behavioral, trend, and security reports are frequently delivered.

You can read our full review of TitanHQ DNS Filtering here.

Broadcom Symantec Secure Web Gateway offers strong threat protection. It has a range of different features to protect your company. These include URL filtering, inbound and outbound threat protection, and a range of admin controls. Symantec was acquired by Broadcom in November 2019.

Symantec is a dependable, effective service which you can trust. One of the major strengths of this service is that it is informed by Symantec’s huge Global Intelligence Network. This is one of the best threat intelligence networks available, and it provides real-time threat protection updates. Symantec also has a focus on data loss prevention. They have integrated a range of strong anti-virus products into this platform to help you achieve a secure network which also offers market-leading reports and analytics.

Broadcom Symantec is a reliable and trusted cybersecurity service provider. This is a an effective web security option for large corporate clients, who need strong available, and are willing to pay a higher price.

You can read our full review of Symantec Secure Web Gateway here.

Forcepoint offers a cloud-based secure web gateway with a focus on protecting small to mid-sized organisations. They offer one of the highest levels of reporting and analytics, with over 10,000 different levels of analysis available. Forcepoint’s reports and monitoring of user behaviours are the standout features of this service. They offer comprehensive logs and filters. These are flexible, and clients can create custom categories for monitoring. They offer real-time analysis of behaviour and threat detection, even off the network. This is great for keeping people who work from home secure. Forcepoint also offers strong security. They block malicious sites and provide features to stop employees accessing dangerous websites.

This service is very popular among customers who praise its threat protection, ease of use, and ease of deployment. If you represent a smaller to midsized company we’d recommend Forcepoint as a strong web filtering solution.

You can read our full review of the Forcepoint service here.

Censornet’s web security product used to be aimed at schools but now has moved over to commercial business protection. This platform has a focus on protecting employees from inappropriate content at work. It also blocks sites which can harm productivity such as games and social media. This service does not include malware protection as standard, but these are available as add-on services. Censornet filter over 500 different categories of web content, and billions of pages, to make sure employees cannot access harmful material. Their platform uses machine learning algorithms to monitor new URLs in real time.

Admins can set a wide variety of rules to determine what web content employees can have access to. The platform gives you the option to open up the web to employees, while still blocking malicious content. But in return, you can set policies to show you if harmful or blacklisted content is accessed at work. The reporting add-on is comprehensive. It includes in-depth visualisation of behaviours. This shows you how people are browsing the web and what content they are looking at.

Censornet is popular with customers as it keeps web speeds high and is a low-cost service. We recommend Censornet to smaller companies looking to make sure that their employees are not accessing harmful content online at a low price.

You can read our full review of Censornet Web Security here.