Appgate SDP vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform comparison

Appgate and Zscaler are both solutions in the ZTNA as a Service category. Appgate is ranked #13 with an average rating of 9.0, while Zscaler is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6. Appgate holds a 3.3% mindshare in ZaaS, compared to Zscaler’s 17.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Appgate users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Appgate SDP and Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform compete in the Zero Trust security space. Appgate SDP offers competitive pricing and excellent support, while Zscaler has a robust feature set and high perceived value, giving it an edge.

Features: Appgate SDP features dynamic access control, micro-segmentation, and secure authentication to efficiently manage network security. Zscaler shines with its comprehensive security stack, scalability, and integration capabilities that cater well to diverse enterprise needs.

Room for Improvement: Appgate SDP may improve by enhancing scalability, refining its integration features, and expanding its analytics capabilities. Zscaler could benefit from simplifying its deployment process, optimizing performance for low-bandwidth environments, and providing more granular policy controls.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Appgate SDP is known for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, accelerating security protocol implementation. Conversely, Zscaler, although more complex, offers robust customer service that supports comprehensive configuration needs.

Pricing and ROI: Appgate SDP boasts a competitive pricing model leading to a promising ROI by delivering cost-effective security solutions. Zscaler's higher setup costs are justified by its extensive features, resulting in a positive ROI over time.

To learn more, read our detailed Appgate SDP vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Appgate SDP vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

September 2025

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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 October 2025, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Appgate SDP is 3.3%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is 17.4%, down from 20.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

ZTNA as a Service Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform	17.4%
iboss	2.4%
Appgate SDP	3.3%
Other	76.9%

ZTNA as a Service

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

Read full review

IgnitiusMolepo

Senior IP Network Defense at MTN

Helps us manage traffic-related issues and streamlines access management for the network

Appgate SDP has significantly streamlined our access management, providing a notably efficient solution compared to traditional VPNs. The simplicity of the SDP platform is a standout feature; instead of navigating through intricate details, users can seamlessly connect to the company's network or switch to the internet with minimal effort, unlike VPNs which often involve waiting for connection handling and unblocking. Recognizing the robustness of SDP, we made strategic decisions to minimize reliance on VPNs, reserving only two for administrative purposes. In a scenario where Appgate SDP significantly improved our network security posture, the platform played a crucial role in fortifying defenses against major threats. The encryption algorithms utilized by SDP provide a high level of security to our network architecture. Compared to Cisco, SDP proves to be most critical in protecting resources with the help of role-based policies. It only provides selective access to the application. The dynamic policy engine significantly enhances our access control mechanisms. It has single sign-on and multifactor authentication features. It makes processes faster and easier. It has helped our IT team to manage the workload with ease. It gives an intelligent solution whenever they face traffic-related problems. I rate it a nine out of ten.

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Sumit Bhanwala

architect at Tata Consultancy

Cloud-based platform simplifies device and data center management

I find it to be good. The solution is cloud-based with the latest inspection engines, which I find to be amazing. We are less dependent on data centers and device management, which reduces our efforts significantly. It improves our device management, data center management, and updating devices. We need fewer engineers for this management, and it reduces time and efforts for data center management, device upgrades, and IT support.

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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

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

"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."

"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."

More iboss pros

"The flexibility of the tool is valuable. It is very robust. It has a very robust configuration capability."

"It is pretty stable."

"One of the most important features is stopping lateral movement across our network."

"The interface is really friendly. It's simple to understand."

"The simplicity of the SDP platform is a standout feature; instead of navigating through intricate details, users can seamlessly connect to the company's network or switch to the internet with minimal effort."

"It is a scalable solution...The support answers your questions very fast."

"On DLP terms, Zscaler Cloud DLP ensures that data doesn't go outside of the organization. So on the network level, Zscaler does a pretty good job."

"The most valuable feature of Zscaler Private Access is the categorization of the dynamic URLs which keeps the customer's environment protected. The threats and the malware are correctly categorized."

"The product provides a seamless user experience."

"The product’s most valuable features are inbound and outbound scanning and API control."

"It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"It is easy to use."

"The scalability of the solution is great."

"The most valuable aspect of Zscaler Cloud DLP is its automatic DLP feature."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform pros

Cons

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

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."

"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."

"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."

More iboss cons

"It would be better to connect to an application portal from any device. Documentation and support could be better."

"One limitation is that it's harder to provide access to multiple applications in the company with Appgate, but that's probably because of poor management."

"On the cloud, when you make some changes, it may be difficult."

"The user interface should be improved as it is not very easy to work with the updates."

"They could provide a single-box solution to manage tools for 4000 users. Additionally, they could add extra features to enhance remote micro connection."

"One thing that kind of sticks out to me is the ability to do a proper non-split tunnel. VPN tunnel-wise, it is not really a true unsplit tunnel, but I think that's just because of the way it's designed. A split VPN basically allows your system to talk to other systems without being forced down the tunnel. A VPN running in a non-split tunnel mode forces all the traffic down the tunnel to wherever you're VPNing to. It forces the traffic down so that the traffic is subject to the firewall and rules that you have in your corporate environment and such. It helps to prevent remote malicious folks that may be talking directly to that box from piggybacking into the corporate environment through it. They do it partially, but it would be nice to see more of an enterprise-level solution there."

"The pricing for Private Access seems to be on the expensive side, and I believe they should consider making it more competitive with other solutions."

"There is improvement in enhancing proper manageability, policies, and logs. So, log management could be improved."

"In the next release, I would like to see RE2 Regex supported."

"There could be a feature to view the VPN tunnel activities in terms of configuration."

"Sometimes, support takes time since the solution has some bugs that need fixing."

"The connectivity monitoring part should be included in the core license without any extra charges."

"It's an expensive solution."

"Zscaler Private Access's reporting is poor. We should have more insight into the reports regarding what is blocked and allowed."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

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

"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 expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"The pricing is according to the market price. It is not a very cheap solution. They have some very aggressive promotions to sell the product in the market."

"It is a pretty expensive tool. It is maybe about $20,000 per year for a hundred users or so."

"We pay $100 per user per month. One license for the site is around $17."

"The technical support is good."

"The solution has increased prices this year."

"There is definitely an ROI."

"In terms of market positioning, I would describe Zscaler Private Access as offering optimal pricing. Based on our experience, Cato Networks tends to be slightly more expensive."

"It is an auto-renewal subscription service."

"The licensing model for Zscaler Cloud DLP allows you to only buy what you need. You don't need to buy it as a whole, so it's good."

"As per industry leads, Zscaler CASB is an expensive solution."

"The product is a bit expensive."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	41

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

See all answers

What do you like most about Appgate SDP?

The simplicity of the SDP platform is a standout feature; instead of navigating through intricate details, users can ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Appgate SDP?

They could provide a single-box solution to manage tools for 4000 users. Additionally, they could add extra features ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Appgate SDP?

We use Appgate SDP as a substitute for traditional VPN.

See all answers

What is the better solution - Prisma Access or Zscaler Private Access?

We looked into Prisma Access before choosing Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). Palo Alto’s Prisma Access is a secure ac...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zscaler SASE?

The most valuable features of Zscaler Private Access are reliability, scalability, and availability.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zscaler SASE?

The solution needs to improve a lot of aspects.

See all answers

Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Twingate vs iboss

Compared 3% of the time

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Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Appgate SDP

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Appgate SDP

Compared 8% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Appgate SDP

Compared 7% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Appgate SDP

Compared 5% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Appgate SDP

Compared 4% of the time

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Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 7% of the time

FortiSASE vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Netskope Private Access vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 4% of the time

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

ZTNA

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

October 2025

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform report

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Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

Zscaler SASE, Zscaler DLP, Zscaler CASB, Zscaler CSPM, Zscaler Browser Isolation, Zscaler Posture Control

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Appgate SDP is a network access control tool for local and remote access, multifactor authentication, and micro-segmentation. It is a flexible, robust, and configurable tool with good documentation, interface improvements, and ease of deployment.

It helps organizations prevent lateral movement across networks and servers and provides a more granular access control structure than traditional VPNs. Appgate SDP's valuable features include the ability to hide servers, good support, stability, scalability, and stopping lateral movement. It is currently being used as the main VPN solution for many companies.

Appgate

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange enhances security with seamless cloud-based connectivity and VPN-less operation, offering integration with multiple identity providers and advanced security features, suitable for remote work environments.

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange provides secure, adaptive connectivity without traditional VPNs, allowing organizations to replace legacy systems and bolster remote work security. The platform offers cloud-based protection, single sign-on, dynamic URL categorization, and scalable solutions. While advanced security features like DLP and threat protection enhance data protection, users may face issues with speed, connectivity, and some customization options. Integration challenges, latency due to multi-tenant hosting, reporting delays, and licensing costs require consideration. It supports secure internet access and private application security, ensuring traffic control and data compliance.

What are the key features of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange?

VPN-less Connectivity: Enables secure remote access without traditional VPNs.
Cloud-based Security: Offers scalable protection utilizing cloud infrastructure.
Single Sign-On: Integrates with multiple identity providers for streamlined access.
Dynamic URL Categorization: Provides real-time URL filtering to enhance security.
Advanced Threat Protection: Detects and mitigates sophisticated threats effectively.
Customizable Policies: Allows tailored security protocols to fit unique requirements.
Comprehensive DLP: Protects sensitive data through robust data loss prevention.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with cloud services and applications.

What are the benefits of using Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange?

Enhanced Security: Delivers consistent protection regardless of user location.
Improved Compliance: Ensures adherence to data protection regulations.
Streamlined Access: Simplifies connectivity to private and cloud applications.
Scalability: Supports expanding organizational demands with cloud scalability.
Real-time Visibility: Provides instant insights into security incidents and network traffic.

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange is deployed across industries to secure remote access and enforce zero trust principles. Organizations in finance, healthcare, and technology sectors utilize it for secure internet access and visibility into cloud applications, enhancing performance and compliance in dynamic environments.

Zscaler

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

United States Air Force FINRA Weight Watchers Rackspace DataDog SageNet Verdant Norwegian Cruise Line VoiceBase The Third Floor

Siemens, AutoNation, GE, NOV

Buyer's Guide

Appgate SDP vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

September 2025

Free Report: Appgate SDP vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about Appgate SDP vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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