Expert Guide

Best Web Filtering Software in 2026: Prices for 25 Staff

What 25 staff pay for DNS and web filtering, what each free tier publishes, and which vendors keep their price off the page.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 25,000+ Cyberpresso subscribers · Updated Oct 2026

Product links may be affiliate links. How we rate 7 tools compared

TL;DR

For 25 staff at list prices, DNSFilter Core is the cheapest paid web filter we can price in dollars, at $300 to $345 a year, checked on the vendors' pricing pages on 12 October 2026. Cloudflare One's free plan covers up to 50 users at no cost, but its plans page does not list which filters that plan includes, so test it before you rely on it.

Key facts7 tools compared: Cloudflare One, DNSFilter, Control D, NextDNS, AdGuard DNS, Quad9, Cisco…

Updated: October 18, 2026
Top pick: Cloudflare One (best for: Teams that want a free start on zero trust and web filtering in one console)
Top pick price as of October 18, 2026: Cloudflare One: Free plan for up to 50 users; Pay-as-you-go $7/user/mo; contract priced on request

7 tools compared: Cloudflare One, DNSFilter, Control D, NextDNS, AdGuard DNS, Quad9, Cisco Umbrella
DNSFilter (best for: Small teams that want a flat per-license DNS filter with a 14-day trial): Core $1.00 to $1.15 per license/mo; Plus $2.25 to $2.50, $750 a year minimum; no free plan
Control D (best for: Teams that want a per-endpoint SMB price they can read before any sales call): SMB $2 per endpoint a month; 14-day trial with no credit card
NextDNS (best for: Budget teams that can accept euro pricing, or a free tier to pilot first): Free: 300,000 queries a month. Business: €199 a year per 50 employees, priced in euros

For a 25-person company, the question is what the cheapest filter that does the job costs in a year, and what its free tier leaves out.

DNS filtering answers that for most offices, because it is light to run and priced per person or per device.

Four of the seven options have a free tier, one prices in euros, and two keep their business price off the page.

Toolradar data: the security ranking on Toolradar evaluated 856 security tools for October 2026, and the list we read names no DNS or web-filtering product, so every price below comes from a vendor's own pricing page.

If you already run zero trust, our Cloudflare Zero Trust review covers its free plan in more depth, and best VPN for small business shows where web filtering sits next to remote access.

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

#1 Top pick

Cloudflare One

Free for up to 50 users, so 25 staff pay nothing at list price. The plans page does not list which Gateway filters the free plan includes.

Pricing

Free plan for up to 50 users; Pay-as-you-go $7/user/mo; contract priced on request

Best for

Teams that want a free start on zero trust and web filtering in one console

Visit Cloudflare One Details

DNSFilter

The cheapest paid option we can price in dollars. Core comes to $300 to $345 a year for 25 licenses, and Plus lands on its $750 minimum.

Pricing

Core $1.00 to $1.15 per license/mo; Plus $2.25 to $2.50, $750 a year minimum; no free plan

Best for

Small teams that want a flat per-license DNS filter with a 14-day trial

Visit DNSFilter Details

Control D

At $2 per endpoint a month, one device per person costs $600 a year for 25. Every laptop and phone counts toward the bill.

Pricing

SMB $2 per endpoint a month; 14-day trial with no credit card

Best for

Teams that want a per-endpoint SMB price they can read before any sales call

Visit Control D Details

Best Web Filtering Software in 2026: Prices for 25 Staff: 7 tools compared, updated Oct 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Cloudflare One	Free plan for up to 50 users; Pay-as-you-go $7/user/mo; contract priced on request	Teams that want a free start on zero trust and web filtering in one console
DNSFilter	Core $1.00 to $1.15 per license/mo; Plus $2.25 to $2.50, $750 a year minimum; no free plan	Small teams that want a flat per-license DNS filter with a 14-day trial
Control D	SMB $2 per endpoint a month; 14-day trial with no credit card	Teams that want a per-endpoint SMB price they can read before any sales call
NextDNS	Free: 300,000 queries a month. Business: €199 a year per 50 employees, priced in euros	Budget teams that can accept euro pricing, or a free tier to pilot first
AdGuard DNS	Starter free by default; Team for small businesses, price not shown; Enterprise by request	Small teams that want a free DNS starting point before asking for a Team price
Quad9	Free public resolver; no sign-up, no account data, no contract	Offices that want free malicious-domain blocking at the resolver, with no admin console
Cisco Umbrella	Contact sales; no list price published for DNS or Secure Internet Access	Buyers ready to take a sales call and a written quote before comparing prices

Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026. 1 of 7 sells by quote only and publishes no price; that entry says so rather than estimating. 1 of 7 publishes prices for some plans and quotes the rest.

Top Pick

Cloudflare One

Free for up to 50 users, so 25 staff pay nothing at list price. The plans page does not list which Gateway filters the free plan includes.

Pricing: Free plan for up to 50 users; Pay-as-you-go $7/user/mo; contract priced on request

Best for: Teams that want a free start on zero trust and web filtering in one console

Pros

The free plan covers up to 50 users at no cost, so a 25-person pilot adds no line item
Pay-as-you-go is priced per user, so each new hire adds $7 a month

Cons

The free plan's filters and query caps are not listed on the plans page
Contract plans are priced on request, so a company that wants a fixed annual price has to ask sales

DNSFilter

The cheapest paid option we can price in dollars. Core comes to $300 to $345 a year for 25 licenses, and Plus lands on its $750 minimum.

Pricing: Core $1.00 to $1.15 per license/mo; Plus $2.25 to $2.50, $750 a year minimum; no free plan

Best for: Small teams that want a flat per-license DNS filter with a 14-day trial

Pros

Published per-license prices and minimums, so the budget is known before a sales call
14-day trial, so the plan can be tested before any payment

Cons

No free plan, so the trial is the only free way in
Add-ons are priced per license a month on top of the plan, SecureTransit at $2.00 for example

Control D

At $2 per endpoint a month, one device per person costs $600 a year for 25. Every laptop and phone counts toward the bill.

Pricing: SMB $2 per endpoint a month; 14-day trial with no credit card

Best for: Teams that want a per-endpoint SMB price they can read before any sales call

Pros

SMB price shown on the page, with a 14-day trial and no credit card
Per-endpoint pricing suits shared machines, such as a meeting-room PC, which count once

Cons

Devices count, not people, so two devices each doubles the bill
The FAQ says plans can be paid monthly or annually, but does not say which term the SMB plan uses

NextDNS

Business is €199 a year for up to 50 staff, priced in euros, so it stays out of the dollar order. Free keeps answering past its query cap without blocking.

Pricing: Free: 300,000 queries a month. Business: €199 a year per 50 employees, priced in euros

Best for: Budget teams that can accept euro pricing, or a free tier to pilot first

Pros

Business bills employees, not devices, so a second laptop or phone adds nothing to the bill
The free plan covers 300,000 queries a month, enough to pilot before paying

Cons

Euro prices, so the dollar cost is left to your own conversion
Each block of 50 employees is priced separately, so a 51st person starts a second block

AdGuard DNS

Starter is free and comes by default. Team is pitched at small businesses, with no price shown.

Pricing: Starter free by default; Team for small businesses, price not shown; Enterprise by request

Best for: Small teams that want a free DNS starting point before asking for a Team price

Pros

Starter is free by default, so a pilot needs no purchase
The Enterprise plan is billed per user or per 100 million requests, so the bill can follow headcount or volume

Cons

Starter's device, query and feature limits are not stated
No dollar figure for Team, so the 25-staff cost cannot be stated

Quad9

Quad9 blocks malicious host names at the lookup. The page describes no admin console or reports, so it is a block list, not a managed filter.

Pricing: Free public resolver; no sign-up, no account data, no contract

Best for: Offices that want free malicious-domain blocking at the resolver, with no admin console

Pros

No cost and no sign-up, so nothing enters the budget
Blocks malicious host names at the lookup, before a connection opens

Cons

No per-user policies, category choices or reporting on the page
No query limit is stated, so a shared office resolver has no published ceiling

Cisco Umbrella

Cisco publishes no list price for Umbrella and routes buyers to sales or a demo. Third-party estimates exist, but we do not use them.

Pricing: Contact sales; no list price published for DNS or Secure Internet Access

Best for: Buyers ready to take a sales call and a written quote before comparing prices

Pros

Enterprise name, with a free trial that can be requested from its site
A written quote gives the exact figure for your headcount

Cons

No published price, so the 25-staff cost cannot be stated
Sales-led buying adds time before you can compare it with the rest of this list

What it is

A web filter blocks staff from reaching websites by domain or category, and it logs each attempt. A DNS filter, the lightest kind, answers every name lookup with allow or block and never sees the page itself.

For families choosing home controls, see our parental control apps, which price a different buyer.

Why it matters

The category is easy to confuse with two neighbours. A web application firewall protects your own sites from attacks, so it does nothing for what staff browse.

A small business firewall sits at the network edge, and the page we link prices it per device.

The unit of billing decides the bill more than the list rate does. Per-license plans count people, per-endpoint plans count devices, and NextDNS counts employees in blocks of 50.

A team of 25 with two devices each pays double on an endpoint plan, $1,200 a year on Control D instead of $600. Our IT team of one stack already relies on Cloudflare One's free plan for web filtering, so the question of what that free plan includes comes up there too.

Key features to look for

DNS filtering

Blocks at the name lookup, before a connection opens. It is light to deploy, but it sees domains, not the page or file behind an allowed domain.

Category and group rules

Blocks by category, such as gambling or malware, with custom lists. Check whether a plan lets you set different rules for different groups, or only one rule for everyone.

Per-license or per-endpoint billing

The unit that sets the bill. Count people when each person carries several devices, and count devices when machines are shared.

Free tier limits

A query cap, a user cap or a feature list that is not published. A cap decides whether a free plan survives a busy office, and a missing list means you test before you trust.

Trial length

DNSFilter and Control D both list 14-day trials. Run the trial with the staff list you really deploy, not a demo account.

Pricing

For 25 staff at list prices, the dollar order runs Cloudflare One's free plan at no cost, then DNSFilter Core, the lowest paid line, then Control D, DNSFilter Plus, and Cloudflare's pay-as-you-go plan last at $2,100 a year. DNSFilter Plus has a yearly minimum that 25 licenses at $2.25 do not reach ($675), so the minimum sets the bill.

NextDNS Business covers up to 50 staff, but its price is in euros, so we did not convert it into the dollar order. Quad9 and AdGuard Starter cost nothing, but neither describes staff-level policies, so neither replaces a paid filter for a managed office.

Plan	Price	Best for
Cloudflare One Free	Free for up to 50 users	Covers 25 staff; the plans page does not list which filters the free plan includes
Cloudflare One Pay-as-you-go	$7/user/mo	Works out to $2,100 a year for 25 users at the list rate
Cloudflare One Contract	Custom	Annual price per user, quoted by Cloudflare
DNSFilter Core	$1.00 to $1.15/license/mo	Core for 25 licenses comes to $300 to $345 a year, above its $240 minimum
DNSFilter Plus	$2.25 to $2.50/license/mo	$750 a year minimum applies at 25 licenses, with a 14-day trial
Control D SMB	$2/endpoint/mo	25 endpoints come to $600 a year; the page does not tie SMB to a billing term
NextDNS Free	€0	300,000 DNS queries a month and unlimited devices; keeps answering past the cap without blocking
NextDNS Business	€19.90/mo or €199/yr	One block covers up to 50 employees; priced in euros, so not in the dollar order
AdGuard DNS Starter	Free	Free by default; device, query and feature limits are not stated
AdGuard DNS Team	Price not shown	Pitched at small businesses; no price on the pricing page
Quad9	Free	Free public resolver with no account; no admin console or per-user policies described
Cisco Umbrella	Contact sales	No published list price; a free trial can be requested

Mistakes to avoid

×Paying per endpoint for a team that carries two devices each. Control D bills each endpoint, so 25 people with laptops and phones pay for 50, and the bill doubles to $1,200 a year.

×Trusting a free plan you have not tested. Cloudflare's free plan covers up to 50 users at no cost, but its plans page does not list the filters, so run a policy test before you sign off on one.

×Assuming DNS filtering inspects pages. It sees the domain name only, so a blocked category can still arrive through a domain that is not on your list, and a file downloaded from an allowed site is not stopped.

Expert tips

→Count people and devices before you request a quote. Per-license plans bill people, per-endpoint plans bill devices, and NextDNS bills employees in blocks of 50.

→Run the 14-day DNSFilter or Control D trial with the machines you will really deploy, then check the device count against the bill.

→If you pick NextDNS Business, plan for the 51st employee now, since it starts a second block. Keep staff off NextDNS Pro, which the vendor prices at €19.90 a year for personal and close family use.

The bottom line

For 25 staff, DNSFilter Core is the cheapest paid option we can price in dollars.

Start with Cloudflare One's free plan only if you can confirm its filters meet your needs, because it covers up to 50 users at no cost.

Control D suits a published per-endpoint price, and NextDNS suits a euro budget.

Quad9 and AdGuard DNS's Starter plan cost nothing, but neither page describes staff policies or reports, so neither is a managed web filter.

Cloudflare is also tracked on Toolradar, and enterprise secure web gateways such as Netskope sit outside this ranking because we did not price them on vendor pages.

For the rest of the security stack, see best zero trust platforms and best free VPNs.

Methodology: we read the pricing pages of seven vendors on 12 October 2026.

We priced 25 staff with one license or endpoint each, at list prices in US dollars as the pages show them. DNSFilter prints its per-license prices without a time unit, so we read them as per month. NextDNS publishes in euros and stays in euros.

Cite this: Cyberpresso, "Best Web Filtering Software in 2026: Prices for 25 Staff", October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best web filtering software in 2026?

For 25 staff, DNSFilter Core is the cheapest paid option we can price in dollars, using its per-license list prices checked on 12 October 2026. Cloudflare One is free for up to 50 users if its filters cover your needs, and Control D is the pick when you want a published per-endpoint price.

How much does web filtering cost for 25 staff?

At list prices, DNSFilter Core runs $300 to $345 a year for 25 staff, DNSFilter Plus costs $750 a year on its minimum, and Control D costs $600 a year if each person has one endpoint. Cloudflare's pay-as-you-go plan is $2,100 a year at $7 per user a month. NextDNS Business is €199 a year, in euros.

Is there a free web filter for a small business?

Yes, with limits. Cloudflare One's free plan covers up to 50 users at no cost, and NextDNS's free plan covers 300,000 DNS queries a month with unlimited devices. Quad9 is free with no account but describes no admin console, and AdGuard DNS's Starter plan is free by default without stated limits.

Is DNS filtering the same as web filtering?

Not quite. DNS filtering blocks a domain at the name lookup, so it never sees the page or file behind an allowed domain. Cisco Umbrella sells both DNS and Secure Internet Access, and publishes no list price for either.

Which web filters do not publish a price?

Cisco Umbrella publishes no list price for its DNS or Secure Internet Access plans and routes buyers to sales. AdGuard DNS shows no price for its Team plan for small businesses. Enterprise secure web gateways are left out of this ranking because we did not price them on vendor pages.

Sources

Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.