Dispel Review: Unlock Faster OT Connections for Reduced Downtime

Is remote access to OT ever really secure?

If you’re evaluating secure remote access tools for critical industrial systems, you’re likely worried about how to keep vendors and contractors connected—without putting your operations at risk.

But here’s the kicker: every day you wait, unauthorized access risks pile up and you’re stuck worrying about compliance and costly downtime.

That’s exactly where Dispel stands out. They tackle not just the “how” of remote access but reshape OT and ICS security entirely—combining Zero Trust Access, moving target defense, and seamless high-speed connections, all designed for the unique realities of industrial networks.

So in this review, I’ll break down how Dispel actually reduces risk while making secure access faster—and why that could be a gamechanger for your team.

In this Dispel review, you’ll see an in-depth look at their platform, including key features, compliance credentials, pricing, drawbacks, and exactly how Dispel compares to other options as you plan your next move.

Expect to walk away with the features you need to balance security, usability, and control—so you can make a confident choice for your critical infrastructure.

Let’s get started.

Dispel Overview

Dispel Features

Worried about securing critical industrial systems from cyber threats?

Dispel features offer a unified platform for secure remote access and data streaming in OT and ICS environments. These are the five core Dispel features that help fortify your operational technology.

1. Secure Remote Access

Struggling with slow, insecure access for OT systems?

Granting access to critical industrial systems can be a security nightmare, often leading to downtime and delays for your team.

Dispel’s Secure Remote Access ensures quick, clientless, and end-to-end encrypted connections for internal and third-party users. What I found impressive is time-based access and “Just in Time” requests, which ensure granular control. This feature cuts downtime and accelerates OT modernization by simplifying secure connectivity.

This means you can provide necessary access while maintaining stringent security, ensuring only authorized individuals connect for specific durations.

2. Moving Target Defense (MTD)

Tired of static defenses that attackers can easily map?

Traditional network security often relies on fixed perimeters, making it easier for determined adversaries to find and exploit vulnerabilities over time.

Dispel’s Moving Target Defense continuously reconfigures and encrypts data pathways, dynamically altering your attack surface. From my testing, this constant network re-topology renders attacker intelligence obsolete quickly, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access. It’s a truly proactive defense.

This ensures your operational network is a moving target, making it exponentially harder for any attacker to establish a persistent presence.

3. Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Is managing privileged user access a constant headache?

Controlling who has elevated access to critical systems can be complex, risking insider threats or unauthorized changes if not handled carefully.

Dispel’s PAM enforces unique logins, integrates with federated identities like SSO, and offers multi-factor authentication (MFA AAL2 & 3). This feature also supports vendor self-onboarding and robust role-based access control, giving you granular permission management.

So you get tight control over privileged users, ensuring only authenticated and authorized individuals can access and manage your most sensitive systems.

4. Industrial Data Streaming

Need to leverage OT data securely without security compromises?

Extracting real-time data from OT environments for analytics can often introduce new security vulnerabilities or require complex DMZ architectures.

Dispel’s Industrial Data Streaming provides secure, real-time data flow from OT to IT, simplifying complex DMZ setups. This feature consolidates access points and protocols, ensuring your crucial operational data is leveraged for insights without exposing your network.

This means you can gain valuable operational insights from your OT data securely, supporting analytics and modernization efforts without increasing risk.

5. Session Recording and Monitoring

Lacking visibility into who did what in remote sessions?

Without a clear audit trail of remote activities, compliance becomes difficult, and investigating security incidents can turn into a guessing game.

Dispel offers comprehensive session recording and over-the-shoulder monitoring, providing a full audit trail of all activities. What I love about this feature is it supports compliance requirements and enhances your overall security posture through accountability.

This ensures you have indisputable records for incident investigation and regulatory adherence, maintaining full visibility into actions on critical systems.

You’ll appreciate how these Dispel features work together to create a comprehensive, zero-trust security framework for your critical infrastructure.

Dispel Pricing

Confused about what you’ll actually pay monthly?

Dispel pricing is based on custom quotes tailored to your specific operational needs, offering flexibility but requiring direct contact to get detailed cost information.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Custom quotes dominate here.

Dispel’s pricing operates on a custom, enterprise-focused model without public tiers, requiring a direct sales consultation. What I found regarding pricing is that costs depend heavily on your specific OT environment complexity, number of users, and chosen features like Moving Target Defense or Industrial Data Streaming.

From my cost analysis, this means your budget gets a solution perfectly matched to your needs, avoiding unnecessary features.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Is this pricing worth it?

Dispel’s focus on Zero Trust Access for critical infrastructure offers significant ROI by reducing the risk of costly breaches and downtime. From my cost analysis, this means enhanced security for sensitive systems, preventing financial and reputational damage far exceeding the software cost.

The result is your budget gains protection against escalating cyber threats, outperforming generic security solutions.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Watch out for hidden expenses.

Beyond the tailored subscription, implementation and ongoing support are crucial cost considerations. What makes their pricing work for you is how they likely factor in your existing IT/OT infrastructure for integration, but you’ll need to budget for professional services to ensure optimal deployment and training.

Budget-wise, you can expect an initial investment in setup, followed by predictable operational expenses for robust security.

My Take: Dispel’s pricing aligns with high-value, specialized cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, making it ideal for enterprises requiring robust, tailored protection rather than off-the-shelf solutions.

The overall Dispel pricing reflects customized enterprise security value for critical systems.

Dispel Reviews

What do real customers actually think?

To help you understand Dispel from a user’s perspective, I’ve analyzed numerous Dispel reviews and real user experiences to offer a balanced overview of common sentiment and critical feedback.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Users seem consistently impressed.

From my review analysis, Dispel maintains strong ratings, recognized as a “High Performer” on G2 with an impressive 4.8 out of 5.0 stars. What I found in user feedback is a clear trend of satisfaction with security and ease, which stands out for a technically sophisticated platform.

This suggests you can expect a highly functional and well-regarded solution.

2. Common Praise Points

Security and simplicity win users over.

Users consistently highlight Dispel’s robust security, including MFA and approval workflows, alongside its surprising ease of use and deployment. Review-wise, the seamless experience for secure third-party access is frequently mentioned, which significantly reduces operational headaches.

This means you’ll likely find Dispel highly effective for managing secure remote access.

3. Frequent Complaints

Sales process and pricing lack transparency.

While technical capabilities receive high marks, common complaints revolve around sales complexity and a lack of public pricing. What stands out in customer feedback is how less technical customers find the value difficult to grasp, and pricing requires direct engagement.

These aren’t deal-breakers, but rather considerations for your evaluation process.

The overall Dispel reviews reflect genuine user satisfaction with its core capabilities, despite minor frustrations.

Best Dispel Alternatives

Navigating many ZTNA options?

The best Dispel alternatives include several robust platforms, each better suited for different business sizes, industry focuses, and specific security priorities.

1. Zscaler

Need a broader, cloud-native Zero Trust solution?

Zscaler excels when you require a comprehensive Zero Trust Exchange platform across a diverse IT landscape, particularly for a distributed workforce and general internet access security. From my competitive analysis, Zscaler offers a more generalized Zero Trust platform for enterprise IT, in contrast to Dispel’s OT specialization.

Choose Zscaler for wide-ranging cloud-delivered security across your entire IT environment, not just OT systems.

2. Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Access)

Looking for a unified SASE platform with advanced network security?

Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access works well if you need a comprehensive SASE solution integrating network security and secure access for both IT and cloud. What I found comparing options is that Palo Alto provides strong next-generation firewall capabilities, though its OT specialization isn’t as pronounced as Dispel’s.

Consider this alternative when you prioritize a unified SASE platform and advanced network security across IT and cloud.

3. Fortinet (FortiSASE)

Seeking a cost-effective, integrated IT and network security platform?

Fortinet’s FortiSASE would be a strong choice for organizations needing an integrated security platform covering a wide range of IT and network security needs, including SASE, with a focus on performance. From my analysis, Fortinet is often a more cost-effective option with good performance across its broad security portfolio.

Choose Fortinet for comprehensive, integrated IT and network security where performance and budget-friendliness are key.

4. GoodAccess

Are you a medium-sized business needing rapid, user-friendly Zero Trust?

GoodAccess is ideal if you’re a mid-sized business looking for a straightforward, rapidly deployable Zero Trust solution for remote and hybrid teams, especially in multi-cloud and SaaS environments. Alternative-wise, GoodAccess emphasizes quick, low-code/no-code deployment for broader enterprise security needs.

You’ll want to consider GoodAccess for its ease of deployment and user-friendliness for general business use, not specialized OT.

The best Dispel alternatives ultimately depend on your specific operational technology and IT security priorities.

Dispel Setup

What does Dispel implementation really entail?

Dispel’s deployment approach balances technical sophistication with a focus on streamlined implementation, as this Dispel review explores. This section prepares you for the practicalities of getting it up and running.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Dispel deployment is surprisingly straightforward.

Setting up Dispel involves deploying a “wicket” within your network, with the rest of the infrastructure residing in a dedicated Azure cloud. What I found about deployment is that regions are automatically built within 15-30 minutes, offering a single-tenant architecture without shared infrastructure for your implementation.

You’ll need to define your network segments and access policies, but the core setup is highly automated.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Expect specific, but manageable, IT considerations.

Your team will need to provision resources for each Dispel Region (2-4 vCPU, 4-16GB RAM, 50GB storage) running Ubuntu LTS. From my implementation analysis, device compliance for end-users is crucial, requiring updated OS, app versions, and virus protection for their local devices before login.

Plan for seamless integration with identity providers like Okta or EntraID and consider log forwarding for comprehensive visibility.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is prioritized, but admin training helps.

While Dispel is designed for an effortless user experience, administrators will benefit from understanding the platform’s full capabilities for OT environments. What I found about deployment is that Dispel’s team provides excellent support and guidance to ease the learning curve, ensuring successful user adoption.

Focus on clear communication regarding new secure access protocols to help users transition smoothly.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support significantly enhances deployment success.

Customer feedback consistently praises Dispel’s proactive and flexible after-sales service, acting as a true partner during implementation. From my analysis, their commitment to continuous improvement based on feedback directly contributes to a smoother, more effective deployment experience.

Leverage Dispel’s support team for guidance, and actively provide feedback to tailor the platform to your evolving needs.

Overall, Dispel setup is efficient and well-supported, but success hinges on active IT engagement and leveraging vendor expertise.

Bottom Line

Is Dispel the right choice for your critical infrastructure?

My Dispel review shows a highly specialized solution delivering robust security for Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) in regulated sectors.

1. Who This Works Best For

Critical infrastructure demanding advanced OT security.

Dispel works best for mid-market and enterprise organizations in manufacturing, utilities, or government, needing secure remote access to highly sensitive OT/ICS environments. From my user analysis, businesses with stringent compliance needs like NERC CIP or IEC 62443 will find Dispel invaluable for maintaining operational integrity.

You’ll succeed if your primary concern is actively thwarting cyber threats within your industrial control systems and third-party access.

2. Overall Strengths

Unmatched security with Moving Target Defense.

The software excels by combining Zero Trust Access with unique Moving Target Defense, actively reconfiguring network pathways to deter attackers and enhance resilience. From my comprehensive analysis, its proactive threat defense capabilities truly set it apart from standard ZTNA solutions that lack this dynamic security layer.

These strengths translate into superior protection, reduced downtime, and greater confidence in your industrial operations’ cybersecurity posture.

3. Key Limitations

Pricing transparency is a notable concern.

The lack of publicly available pricing information requires direct engagement with their sales team, which can prolong the evaluation process for some prospects. Based on this review, initial cost assessment requires a direct conversation with Dispel, unlike some competitors offering tiered pricing online.

I consider this a minor hurdle rather than a fundamental flaw, but it does add an extra step to your due diligence.

4. Final Recommendation

Dispel earns a strong, specialized recommendation.

You should choose this software if your organization operates critical infrastructure and requires a highly specialized, secure remote access solution for OT/ICS environments. From my analysis, Dispel excels for regulated industries prioritizing advanced security over generalized IT network solutions, providing exceptional compliance support.

My confidence level is extremely high for its niche, but for broader IT security, you might find alternatives more fitting.

This Dispel review shows exceptional value for its target market, offering specialized, robust security for critical industrial environments.