With an increasingly sophisticated online threat landscape, many organizations are considering the implementation of Secure Web Gateways (SWGs) in 2025. By inspecting web traffic and providing enhanced security controls, SWGs offer significant benefits compared to traditional solutions.
Before discussing the different vendors, let’s first discuss the technology itself and the key criteria you need to consider for meaningful SWG comparison.
A secure web gateway is a security solution that protects corporate users and networks against online threats. SWGs are an on-premises or cloud-delivered service positioned between users and the internet to filter traffic for malicious content.
With an SWG, IT staff can develop and implement policies to prevent users from exposing themselves and the broader network to online threats. This protects you from web-based malware and data breaches while also enabling the blocking of content for reasons other than security, such as enhancing productivity.
SWGs can enforce a range of security controls, including:
SWGs have some overlapping functionality with firewalls. However, there are several differences, particularly in the scope of the technologies.
Given its more focused nature, SWG integration is often part of a broader security framework. For example, with a Security Service Edge (SSE) or Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. This SWG deployment method integrates its functionality with other network security technologies, such as:
…as well as networking technologies like a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN).
Below are 5 key criteria used to develop our list of the top 5 SWG solutions for 2025. These factors are critical for SWG comparison and finding the top providers in the current market.
Content filtering is a foundational feature of web traffic security and secure web gateways. It allows you to control access to websites and web applications based on various factors (risk level, internal policies, etc.).
Top SWG solutions should offer granular URL filtering and flexible policy generation.
They should also enable application control, giving security teams the ability to block or limit access to web apps and individual app functions.
DLP features help organizations monitor, detect, and block the unauthorized transfer of sensitive information via web channels. SWGs inspect web traffic in real-time, enabling built-in DLP policies defining how data can be utilized.
This reduces the risk of accidental or malicious data breaches and helps ensure compliance with various regulations.
Top SWG providers often differentiate themselves through advanced threat prevention techniques and the ability to safeguard against emerging attacks.
During SWG comparison, search for solutions that maximize security by combining:
Also, look for sandboxing capabilities that enable the solution to safely analyze suspicious files without compromising your network security.
The underlying architecture of SWGs determines how they perform. Generally speaking, cloud-native SWG deployment models offer advantages compared to on-prem architecture. These benefits include:
While cloud SWGs seem like the obvious choice, there are some downsides. They require all traffic to pass through it, often leading to congestion and lower network performance. To mitigate the congestion associated with cloud SWG, organizations often employ split tunneling.
But, this can lead to security gaps, as traffic bypasses SWG inspection. In contrast, on-prem SWG deployment models don’t have this problem.
Top SWG providers offer extensive reporting capabilities and enhanced visibility to help understand performance, protect users, and enforce policies.
An effective SWG should provide intuitive dashboards that give security teams a clear picture of:
Here are the top 5 SWG solutions to consider in 2025 – based on our analysis of the top 100 SWG solutions.
Part of its SASE product, Check Point offers a unique secure web gateway solution. Unlike on-prem or cloud-based SWG deployment models, Check Point’s SASE incorporates a hybrid SWG. Designed based on feedback from IT teams across the industry, Check Point’s hybrid SWG eliminates the drawbacks of both on-prem and cloud-based deployments to provide enhanced security and better performance, while simplifying operations and compliance.
A comprehensive security framework, Check Point SASE extends across your entire network, regardless of the environment, to protect all users and devices wherever they connect from.
One of the top SWG solutions for 2025, Check Point delivers unified policy control relying on advanced protections against both known and unknown malware.
Plus, with URL filtering and application control for 9,000+ apps, the platform is easy to deploy.
Among the top SWG providers in 2025 is Forcepoint with its all-in-one cloud-based SSE solution. The Forcepoint ONE platform combines SWG use cases with CASB, ZTNA, and Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) across all devices for real-time protection.
The service safeguards users when browsing the internet, blocking access to suspicious URLS and preventing any malicious downloads.
Forcepoint ONE delivers these SWG security features while maintaining high speeds. Additionally, with a large number of pre-defined security policies, new users can quickly implement adequate SWG controls and start protecting their users.
A significant player in the cybersecurity industry and one of the top SWG providers, Palo Alto offers integrated secure web gateway functionality to protect against advanced web threats. This includes SaaS security, advanced URL filtering, Domain Name System (DNS) security, behavior monitoring, and RBI.
The Prisma Cloud SWG is part of Palo Alto’s broader Prisma Access SASE security stack that includes extensive CASB and DLP capabilities. Palo Alto’s SWG is scalable and flexible, allowing you to develop and implement your own web traffic security policies.
By monitoring all business data in your web traffic, the solution also helps maintain compliance.
A cloud-based deployment, Cisco Umbrella’s Secure Web Gateway provides advanced control and transparency while enforcing web traffic security protections. Users can log, inspect, and control internet traffic with URL and application-level controls, as well as anti-virus and sandboxing security controls.
An essential part of the Cisco Umbrella SSE architecture, the platform’s SWG is delivered alongside FWaaS, CASB, and DNS security.
All these security features can be managed and deployed from a single, easy-to-use interface.
Netskope’s Next-Gen Secure Web Gateway solution provides URL filtering to block malicious or inappropriate content across all users and devices. Netskope users can develop granular SWG policy controls that take into account contextual information, such as risk ratings for different users or applications.
The Netskope SWG can be managed entirely from a single cloud-based interface.
This helps enforce consistent policies for web access and cloud services. The company also provides additional modules for advanced analytics that incorporate significant metadata on your web and cloud activity.
With its hybrid deployment model, Check Point’s SASE’s SWG service stands out, even among the other top 5 SWG solutions for 2025.By combining the benefits of on-prem and cloud solutions, Check Point provides a comprehensive security framework based on an industry-leading secure web gateway.
Learn more by seeing a demo of Check Point’s SASE in action.
