A Secure Web Gateway sits between your users and the internet and inspects their web traffic — blocking malicious or off-policy websites, scanning downloads for malware, and enforcing acceptable-use rules. It protects people as they browse and gives you visibility and control over web and cloud-app usage across the organisation.

A firewall controls connections in and out of your network broadly, across all ports and protocols. An SWG focuses specifically on users' web traffic (HTTP/HTTPS), applying detailed URL filtering, content categories, malware scanning and app control at the user level. They're complementary — many organisations run both, and increasingly both as cloud services within a SASE platform.

An on-premise SWG (a proxy appliance) protects users behind it at a fixed location. A cloud-delivered SWG protects users wherever they are — in the office, at home or travelling — without backhauling traffic, and scales without hardware. With hybrid and remote work now common, most organisations are moving toward cloud SWG, often as part of SASE/SSE. We help you choose the right fit.

Most web traffic is now encrypted (HTTPS), which means threats can hide inside it. SSL/TLS inspection lets the SWG decrypt, inspect and re-encrypt traffic so it can catch hidden malware — while respecting sensitive categories (like banking and healthcare) that you choose to exempt. Done correctly, with the right policy and user notice, it's a standard and important control. We help you set it up responsibly.

Web security supports broader obligations: the DPDP Act covers personal data, CERT-In sets expectations around logging and incident reporting, and you may have your own acceptable-use and content rules — so policy, logging and how you handle inspected traffic matter. Pricing is usually per user per month for cloud SWG, or per-user licensing plus appliance cost on-premise. Figures here are illustrative, and this is general guidance, not legal advice — confirm specifics with the partner and your advisors.