Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Akamai and Zscaler are both solutions in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category. Akamai is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.0, while Zscaler is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.7. Akamai holds a 1.4% mindshare in WSG, compared to Zscaler’s 9.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise and Zscaler Internet Access based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Secure Web Gateways (SWG) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs. Zscaler Internet Access Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs. Zscaler Internet Access

November 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 3.2%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Internet Access is 9.8%, down from 14.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zscaler Internet Access	9.8%
iboss	3.2%
Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise	1.4%
Other	85.6%

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula

Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support

The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.

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Denis Burnaev

Infrastructure Securiy & Cyber Engineer at El Al

Protects internet access through proxy while newer options offer more flexibility

Our organization does not utilize the internet access feature of Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise because our company routes internet traffic through our public ISPs rather than through Akamai. We use a firewall at the perimeter, which is a straightforward approach used by most companies. From my perspective, the internet access feature would not be the most accurate feature to review for our use case. From a financial standpoint, I do not believe Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is cost-effective when compared to other solutions available in the industry. More affordable and accessible solutions exist, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. Competing SASE platforms from Check Point, Palo Alto, and Zscaler offer cheaper alternatives that are more readily deployed. While I cannot speak to all capabilities since we are not fully utilizing Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise, routing clients through Akamai as a proxy does provide enhanced security benefits. Organizations can mask their public IPs behind Akamai's infrastructure, which provides additional security. However, the market currently offers many excellent alternative solutions. We are using all the features of the SaaS offering for Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise. My overall rating for this product is seven out of ten.

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VikasTiwari

Senior Network Engineer at Anthology

Cloud security has transformed remote access and now supports zero trust for all users

The best features Zscaler Internet Access offers are Secure Web Gateway, URL filtering, SSL inspections, and policy-based access control. I find myself relying on Secure Web Gateway, URL filtering, SSL inspection, and policy-based access control the most because these are the main and top-most features I use regularly. Zscaler Internet Access has all of these types of features for securing all internet access and web inspections, allowing me to control all traffic through these features. Zscaler Internet Access features include a Secure Web Gateway for URL filtering, file type control, and inline SSL inspections. The second feature is a cloud firewall with Layer 3 to Layer 7 filtering control and stateful inspections. No hardware inspection or hardware firewall is required. I can also perform segmentations by users, location, and application. There is a cloud CASB solution available as well. Additionally, there is an advanced threat protection feature with signature-based behavioral detections, inline IPS, and zero-day threat protections. The cloud sandboxing solution scans unknown files and provides machine learning-based verdicts to prevent zero-day malware delivery in my environment. There is also a DNS security feature that provides DNS tunneling detections, malicious domain controls, and faster threat containment at the DNS layer. The data protection feature includes inline DLP and CASB-style cloud app control, data sovereignty enforcement, and browser isolation, which executes risky sites in isolated cloud browsers and prevents endpoint compromises. Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted my organization by reducing the dependency on on-premises hardware and improving security posture, enabling faster user onboarding, and providing better performance for remote users. It has resulted in a drop in security incidents related to web threats and improved visibility into user activity. An area for improvement includes fine-grained troubleshooting tools, better policy simulations, and optimizations around initial configuration complexity.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

"This product is solid, fairly easy to use, and reliable."

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

More iboss pros

"The best feature of Akamai SPS Threat Avert is that it's very user-friendly compared to other technologies."

"The threat intelligence feature is particularly valuable when used with another product of Akamai, as their researchers continuously update this threat feed database, making it an effective tool for defending against and blocking bad actors, public malicious IPs, harmful hashes, and malicious URLs."

"Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is a product which has very good features and capabilities."

"The data loss prevention feature is the most valuable. It stops our users from inadvertently leaking our customers' data to the Internet or anywhere else it shouldn't go."

"The solution’s customer service is good."

"This solution helps you establish a secure connection from your laptop to the closest Zscaler point of presence, so you have protection anywhere in the world."

"For our needs, the cloud-native proxy architecture is a very good solution. We are moving away from on-prem appliances and moving more toward cloud-based solutions. Zscaler is a good fit for our strategy. This architecture helps with cyber threats because we inspect most of the traffic and we can see that a lot of threats are stopped directly in the secure web gateway."

"Zscaler excels in security protection and the cloud is always up-to-date. It does not matter if you are a small or big organisation, you will receive the same security quality."

"We enjoy all of the proxy capabilities and the capability to integrate into the SIEM/SOC solution."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine and a half out of ten...The setup phase was easy."

"We don't have to buy equipment to use it. And when our engineers set it up on our side, we just configured a few settings and we were in."

More Zscaler Internet Access pros

Cons

"iboss could improve by making alert noises lower, adding clearer setup steps, and speeding up support response times."

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."

"I would rate iboss an eight out of ten because it provides strong cloud-based security threat protection, centralized policy management, and visibility into web traffic. I would give it a higher rating if automation, reporting, and troubleshooting capabilities could be improved further."

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

More iboss cons

"Akamai SPS Threat Avert's pricing could be improved because it's a very expensive enterprise solution."

"From a financial standpoint, I do not believe Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is cost-effective when compared to other solutions available in the industry."

"Their support response time needs improvement. They take on average one week to respond, which is not satisfactory given how critical applications are to the organization."

"One thing that needs to be improved is their presence in China. I'm not sure if that's a Zscaler thing or if it's a problem with all vendors in this space, but it would be nice to have better coverage in China. This concern is a common one for vendors across the board when dealing with the Chinese market."

"The scalability of Zscaler Internet Access rates at 7-8 in the majority of cases. However, I am currently working with a client that requires very high internet throughput, which has been challenging."

"The admin UI and documentation for Zscaler Internet Access could be more intuitive for new users, specifically during initial rollout and advanced policy design."

"The pricing is an issue. It is expensive if you have all of your users in the same location. It is expensive compared to other firewalls on the market."

"The license is per user, and there's a minimum license per user per year. It's costly if you compare it to the traditional solutions like Symantec or Bluecoat."

"They block Zscaler IPs when the traffic origin is from Zscaler IPs. They've been blocked by certain government organizations so the end users are not able to visit those websites unless we ask them to unblock those IP. This is a bit problematic."

"The solution is quite expensive. It's around double what others are offering."

"Zscaler should continue to make the user interface better. They should also improve the backup network and continue to expand it so that it can handle larger numbers of customers."

More Zscaler Internet Access cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"Provided the features Akamai SPS Threat Avert provides, it is bound to be expensive."

"The price is competitive. It's not cheap and it's not expensive."

"It is a few pounds per user per month."

"Be aware that you will need to invest some time and money to adapt your environment for Zscaler (traffic redirection, software deployment, authentication, etc)."

"We have found the solution to be expensive."

"ZIA follows a subscription model pricing and charges you based on the number of users. I would say its price is good."

"It is quite expensive. It does its job, but it is quite expensive for what we need."

"Because it's a cloud solution, we pay on a yearly basis. It is affordable and includes tech support and all features."

"The price of Zscaler Internet Access should improve, it is expensive."

More Zscaler Internet Access pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	16

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	39

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

iboss could be improved by making the dashboard more user-friendly, providing more detailed real-time alerts, and imp...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

iboss is primarily used for cloud security, helping to protect users when they access websites and cloud applications...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

The pricing and licensing for iboss were reasonable for the security features. The setup costs were manageable, thoug...

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What needs improvement with Akamai SPS Threat Avert?

Since Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is not being used in our campus environment, as our users do not route...

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What is your primary use case for Akamai SPS Threat Avert?

Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is designed to protect users' access to the internet.

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What advice do you have for others considering Akamai SPS Threat Avert?

Our organization does not utilize the internet access feature of Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise because our...

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Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?

Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zs...

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Which is better, Zscaler internet access or Netsckope CASB?

We researched Netskope but ultimately chose Zscaler. Netskope is a cloud access security broker that helps identify ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Internet Access?

We have not purchased Zscaler Internet Access through the AWS Marketplace; the licensing process was handled separate...

See all answers

Comparisons

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 6% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs iboss

Compared 4% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Symantec Proxy vs Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise

Compared 13% of the time

Symantec Secure Web Gateway vs Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense vs Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise

Compared 3% of the time

More Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise Competitors

Cisco Umbrella vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 31% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 5% of the time

Netskope vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 2% of the time

More Zscaler Internet Access Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2026

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

October 2026

Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise report

Download Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Internet Access

October 2026

Download Zscaler Internet Access product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Akamai Enterprise Threat Protector, Akamai ETP, Akamai SPS Threat Avert

ZIA

Overview

iboss is the Zero Trust SASE platform that gives organizations complete visibility and governance over their AI, data, and applications through one unified platform, one console, one policy engine, and one data lake.

Your endpoints may already stop malware. Your data and application activity can still be invisible. iboss decrypts and understands every connection, then turns that signal into answers security leaders can act on.

The platform leads with three capabilities in this order: AI Security and Visibility, Data Security and Visibility, and App Visibility and Control. Zero Trust Network Access, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN sit underneath as the access fabric that carries those three. Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

- AI Security and Visibility: conversation capture, shadow-AI discovery, AI DLP, and agent governance across Claude, Co-Work, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, and emerging services.

- Data Security and Visibility: full SSL/TLS decryption, deep content inspection, MIP label compliance, and one-click compliance reporting.

- App Visibility and Control: signatureless CASB, dual risk scoring, in-app controls, and SSPM for major SaaS.

- Containerized Zero Trust SASE: dedicated containers, isolated SSL keys, one console, one policy engine, one data lake.

- Access fabric: ZTNA, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN under the same platform.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

- Complete visibility over AI, data, and applications from one platform instead of separate point tools.

- Encrypted traffic is inspected by default so data decisions use content and context together.

- Shadow SaaS and new web tools appear as they are used, with enforceable controls in one console.

- Native data sovereignty through dedicated containers, in-region inspection, and per-customer SSL key custody.

- Scale proven in published materials: 10M+ users, 100+ countries, 150B+ transactions, 2.5B+ threats blocked.

Economic buyers are CISOs, CIOs, and VPs of Security. Champions include security architects, network and infrastructure leaders, SecOps, and GRC. Primary segments: enterprise and business, financial services, government (including FedRAMP Gov Cloud), healthcare, manufacturing, legal and professional services, retail and hospitality, and MSP/MSSP partners. Education, including K-12, is one vertical among these.

iboss

Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise offers robust cybersecurity to protect organizations from threats and provides seamless cloud-based connectivity to safeguard remote work operations.

Designed with a focus on high-performance security, Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise efficiently manages web and internet traffic, transforming traditional network defenses into sophisticated security architectures. Its intelligent threat detection capabilities ensure that malicious attacks are identified and neutralized before they can cause harm, providing peace of mind for IT teams.

What are the key features?

Threat Intelligence: Continuously updated threat intelligence to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Secure Web Gateway: Comprehensive security for web access to block malicious content.
Centralized Management: Simplified management through a unified interface for easy control.
Cloud-Based Architecture: Scalability and flexibility to accommodate changing organizational demands.

What benefits should users expect?

Increased Security: Enhanced protection for sensitive data and business operations.
Cost Efficiency: Reduced infrastructure costs with cloud-based solutions.
Enhanced Productivity: Seamless and secure access for remote and office workers.
Compliance Support: Helps maintain compliance with industry regulations.

In the financial sector, for example, Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is employed to balance stringent compliance needs with agile internet access. Healthcare industries utilize it to protect patient data without compromising connectivity, demonstrating its versatility across fields.

Akamai

Zscaler Internet Access provides internet security through cloud-native architecture, ensuring threat protection and traffic management without relying on traditional VPNs and firewalls.

It enhances security by offering features such as CASB and DLP. With its cloud-native proxy architecture, it facilitates seamless security with reduced latency and high availability. Organizations value the scalability and centralized policy management, integrating seamlessly with existing systems for remote work. It ensures secure traffic management by delivering advanced threat protection and support for applications through SSL inspection and sandboxing. Enhanced measures for DLP, better integration with tools like MFA, and optimized reporting are areas for growth.

What are the key features?

Website Filtering: Controls access to harmful sites to protect users.
SSL Inspection: Shields against threats bypassing traditional defenses.
Cloud Sandbox: Provides advanced threat protection through testing.
CASB: Offers cloud application visibility and security enforcement.

What benefits should users seek?

Scalability: Easily adjusts to growing requirements without manual intervention.
Centralized Management: Simplifies policy implementation across locations.
Seamless Integration: Reduces need for traditional VPNs by integrating with remote infrastructure.

Many industries leverage Zscaler Internet Access for securing internet traffic and safeguarding against threats like malware and DDoS attacks. It is integral as a secure web gateway to fulfill data loss prevention, bandwidth control, and filtering needs, allowing remote users robust access and protection globally. Companies employ it alongside existing tools for proper security and policy enforcement.

Zscaler

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.

MCNC, Educational Testing Service

Ulster-Greene ARC, BanRegio, HDFC, Ralcorp Holdings Inc., British American Tobacco, Med America Billing Services Inc., Lanco Group, Aquafil, Telefonica, Swisscom, Brigade Group

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs. Zscaler Internet Access

November 2026

Free Report: Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs. Zscaler Internet Access

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs. Zscaler Internet Access and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.

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