Cloudflare One vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

Cloudflare and Zscaler are both solutions in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category. Cloudflare is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.3, while Zscaler is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. Cloudflare holds a 3.2% mindshare in WSG, compared to Zscaler’s 14.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cloudflare users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 28, 2025

Zscaler Internet Access and Cloudflare One both operate within the secure internet access and zero-trust networking categories. Zscaler Internet Access appears to hold an advantage for organizations prioritizing comprehensive security, while Cloudflare One is favored for its user-friendly integration and deployment capabilities.

Features: Zscaler Internet Access provides robust security features including URL filtering, data loss prevention, and advanced threat protection. Additionally, its cloud-native proxy architecture enhances network visibility and threat intelligence. Cloudflare One offers seamless setup with efficient DDoS protection and integrated CDN services, ensuring user-friendly configuration and cost-effective deployment.

Room for Improvement: Zscaler Internet Access users seek enhancements in generating reports, integrating with diverse applications, and centralizing authentication processes, alongside reducing reliance on additional firewalls. Cloudflare One users suggest improving technical support responsiveness and simplifying the onboarding process, alongside enhancing customer support options in higher-tier plans.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zscaler Internet Access facilitates integration across varied cloud environments with specialized support, though responsiveness may require improvement. Cloudflare One excels in public cloud deployment, offering straightforward processes, with generally reliable but occasionally delayed support in complex scenarios.

Pricing and ROI: Zscaler Internet Access is priced high, justified by its extensive security features and global reach, making it ideal for larger organizations. In contrast, Cloudflare One's competitive pricing and efficient deployment offer significant value, ideal for businesses with simpler security needs, ensuring quicker ROI. Both solutions support strategic cost savings, with Zscaler offering comprehensive tools for enterprise-level security and Cloudflare enhancing ROI through its affordability and simplicity.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloudflare One vs. Zscaler Internet Access Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare One vs. Zscaler Internet Access

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 872,706 peers since 2012

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 Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.2%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare One is 3.2%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Internet Access is 14.2%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zscaler Internet Access	14.2%
iboss	2.2%
Cloudflare One	3.2%
Other	80.4%

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

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

Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch

Engineer at SITMEXICO

The solution enables seamless security management and fosters a learning environment

Feedback could be enhanced. While I work efficiently with Clover as a partner in Mexico City, sometimes the information and requests are easier to manage with more concrete solutions. For the solution stopping us for e-learning, I appreciate the concept yet need more resources or courses in Mexico, preferably in Spanish. Certifications are easy, however, I require more real-world environments and instructors.

Read full review

Mohan Janarthanan

Assosiate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions

User access management and threat prevention are enhanced with user-friendly controls

The best features Zscaler Internet Access offers include application control, tenant segregation, and PoP center regions which have low availability zones. The internet access is very successful and bandwidth speed is excellent. It also has application-based control, URL-based control, and SSL inspection capabilities, which are very useful. Additionally, the in-depth CASB segregation is very beneficial to us. One unique feature I found helpful is the tenant level restrictions, which we use to only access our organization's tenant level mail IDs, drives, and specific tenant level access while restricting public access. Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted our organization as we have noticed substantial outputs and income. It has improved our security environment control and endpoint protection. It prevents numerous web attacks through its AI/ML incorporated capability which identifies malware, threats, and viruses. It has a toggle button to enable features entirely at the tenant level for all users onboarded into Zscaler Internet Access, resulting in much better outcomes.

Read full review

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."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"We chose iboss for both zero trust and proxy (SWG) because their SWG was superior."

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."

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

More iboss pros

"The blocking feature is very good."

"The best feature is rate limiting. If I'm expecting 500 visits per hour, Cloudflare will limit the requests if I suddenly get 50,000."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform removes the risk of exposing the applications to the public."

"It's the endpoint exposition. We don't need to expose our VPN server to the internet and need a zero-test solution. I can apply some conditional access to the endpoint that's connecting to our network to check their security policies or the security condition of their workstation. Once the workstation is trying to connect to my internal network, then I would like to check the discrete condition of these endpoints that are trying to access my internal network. We created some conditional access. We have CrowdStrike, to check if the CrowdStrike is installed, to check if it's updated, and to check for Windows updates. We created some conditional policies to check it."

"Enables me to work from two locations."

"For Cloudflare Access, I am using the free plan...The most valuable feature is their protection."

"I'm very satisfied with the environment and the dashboard."

"Cloudflare, in my opinion, was easy to implement."

More Cloudflare One pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is SWG traffic."

"Tech support is good."

"We like Zscaler's traffic filtering, web security, DLP, and IPS features. The real-time threat protection is excellent."

"Zscaler Internet Access protects using data loss prevention. If you have a CASB exposing your cloud out into the network, then Zscaler Internet Access will go ahead and control that unknown cloud application in the CASB, protecting it. There is also data detection with exact data match. This improves the data coming into your cloud so you are protecting it."

"I would recommend Zscaler Internet Access due to its ease of use and deployment, with a user-friendly interface."

"All internet access flows through the Zscaler proxy, regardless of whether people are in office or remote. I have greater control site access and I minimize the number of compromises that we experience to almost none."

"The policies are very intuitive and easy to configure, with very little possibility of messing things up."

"Zscalar Internet Access is for Internet security, like an Internet security gateway. I like how it runs seamlessly in the background with a single sign-on. The controls you can have on devices for Internet security are good, and it doesn't impact speed wherever you're connected. Overall, I think it's very good so far."

More Zscaler Internet Access pros

Cons

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

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"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."

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"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 solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

More iboss cons

"When there are any dynamic changes in complex applications, the tool takes a lot of time, making its analytics-related area a major matter of concern where improvements are needed."

"Operating and tuning the product is difficult."

"Feedback could be enhanced. While I work efficiently with Clover as a partner in Mexico City, sometimes the information and requests are easier to manage with more concrete solutions."

"Our customers no longer use Cloudflare because its service is subpar."

"Feedback could be enhanced."

"The initial onboarding was causing us some confusion."

"The pricing is an area that can be improved. Pricing, as far as I recall, was the source of our problems."

"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."

More Cloudflare One cons

"In terms of usage, here in the GCC, it's still growing a growing market, so the combination of DLP, data leak prevention, to a certain extent is fine. But what it requires is user-based access or role-based access. The solution needs to grow into that, which definitely takes time. There's not an easy way to integrate it, when you have a cloud-based solution."

"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."

"We'd like for them to include some sort of antivirus tool."

"One thing that they could improve is the ability to import rules from other platforms."

"Zscaler does not provide dedicated IPs to each customer. Hence, they share a pool of IPs provided by Zscaler. There is a chance of blacklisting these IPs. I also do not like the multi-management portal."

"The deployment process of Zscaler Cloud Connector needs to be more user-friendly."

"I would like to see the ability to choose a pool of IPs for my company, set up rules based on them, and know that those IPs are not used by other companies."

"An improvement would be if they could provide an out-of-the-box experience, like 20 to 30 features all ready to go. In comparison, LogRhythm offers out-of-the-box features. With Zscaler Internet Access, there is firewall IPS, multiple security services, filtering, DLP, and CASB browser isolation. These are things that all users are going to be using. However, when an administrator or architect would start building this, I would definitely need to engage professional services to help clients do it."

More Zscaler Internet Access cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."

"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."

"The prices are slightly expensive."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."

"The solution is not that expensive."

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. The licensing cost is also very low. I rate the cost and pricing a three out of ten."

"My company has to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no hidden charges apart from the licensing costs of the solution."

"The pricing for Zscaler Internet Access could be made cheaper."

"We have found the solution to be expensive."

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

"The pricing is an issue. It is expensive compared to other firewalls on the market."

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

"Our monthly fee is around R3000."

"The pricing is fair based on its competitive market."

"Roughly, we might spend $70,000 a month on the solution. We don't pay for anything beyond the standard licensing fee."

More Zscaler Internet Access pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Secure Web Gateways (SWG) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

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	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	37

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 Cloudflare Access?

The tool also offers good scalability, and the dashboard, along with real-time analytics, is very good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Access?

The price of Cloudflare Access is the same as compared to Akamai, but I get better performance from Cloudflare. My co...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Access?

Cloudflare Access has strong integration with Microsoft, among other platforms. However, when it comes to Kaspersky, ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zscaler Internet Access?

The solution has reduced cyberattacks.

See all answers

Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs iboss

Compared 5% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Cloudflare One

Compared 6% of the time

Twingate vs Cloudflare One

Compared 5% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cloudflare One

Compared 5% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cloudflare One

Compared 4% of the time

AWS Shield vs Cloudflare One

Compared 4% of the time

More Cloudflare One Competitors

Cisco Umbrella vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 21% of the time

Netskope vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 14% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiProxy vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 1% of the time

More Zscaler Internet Access Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2025

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare One

October 2025

Download Cloudflare One product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Internet Access

October 2025

Download Zscaler Internet Access product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform

ZIA

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

Cloudflare One is a single-vendor Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform that enables Zero Trust security and any-to-any connectivity across enterprise applications, users, devices, and networks. Cloudflare One helps organizations simplify, modernize, and consolidate their IT architecture by converging security and networking services on our single global network and control plane.

Many organizations start by adopting our Security Service Edge (SSE) services — like ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and DLP — to reduce their attack surface, stop threats like phishing and ransomware, protect data, and apply identity-based Zero Trust verification across web, SaaS, and private app environments. Others prioritize simplifying network connectivity across offices, data centers, and cloud environments with our WANaaS.

Every service is available for customers to run in every location across Cloudflare’s global network, which today spans 330+ cities in 120+ countries, so you can scale connectivity with fast, consistent protections everywhere.

Cloudflare

Zscaler Internet Access is a cloud-native security service edge (SSE) platform. Its main purpose is to provide AI-powered protection for all users, all applications, and all locations. The solution replaces other legacy network security solutions to stop advanced attacks and prevent data loss by using a comprehensive zero trust approach.

Zscaler Internet Access Features

Zscaler Internet Access has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Proxy (native SSL)
IPS and advanced protection
Cloud sandbox
DNS security
Cloud firewall
URL filtering
Bandwidth control
DNS filtering
Cloud DLP w/EDM and IDM
Cloud access security broker (CASB)
Cloud security posture management (CSPM)
CloudBrowser isolation
Cloud secure web gateway (SWG)
Zero trust network access (ZTNA)
Digital experience monitoring

Zscaler Internet Access Benefits

There are several benefits to implementing Zscaler Internet Access. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Fast access with zero infrastructure: Zscaler Internet Access creates a fast, seamless user experience because of its direct-to-cloud architecture. With no infrastructure, Zscaler Internet Access helps you eliminate backhauling, which improves performance and simplifies network administration.

Threat intelligence: By using threat intelligence, Zscaler Internet Access can stop ransomware, zero-day malware, and advanced attacks via Inline inspection of all internet traffic, including SSL decryption, and a suite of AI-powered cloud security services.

Consistent security: With Zscaler Internet Access, your security policy goes everywhere your users go. When you move security to the cloud, all users, applications, devices, and locations remain protected and secure based on identity and context.

Hybrid workforce: Zscaler Internet Access enables secure access to all external and internal apps from anywhere, so remote work is not an issue. You can also enforce business policies that follow the user, making security identical regardless of location.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Zscaler Internet Access users.

A Service Manager at a construction company says, "There are a bunch of different capabilities that are valuable within the platform. We use quite a lot of them, but not everything. The ones that are most important to us are the URL Filtering and the application control. For our needs, the cloud-native proxy architecture is a very good solution. 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."

Owen N., Security Architect at Claro Enterprise Solutions, explains that the solution’s most valuable features include “The integration of the gateway that inspects all ports and protocols. So, there is threat prevention; The cloud sandbox; VNS security; Access control that will protect URL filtering and the cloud firewall; Data protection that will protect your gateway, like your CASB or your cloud DLP; The capabilities of this will point your traffic to Zscaler Cloud.”

An Architecture Senior Manager at an insurance company mentions, "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." He also adds, “The solution provides quick access to cloud services, securing our data and allowing us to inspect all our traffic.”

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.

23andMe

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

Cloudflare One vs. Zscaler Internet Access

September 2025

Free Report: Cloudflare One vs. Zscaler Internet Access

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare One vs. Zscaler Internet Access and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cloudflare One vs. Zscaler Internet Access report.

See our list of best Secure Web Gateways (SWG) vendors.

We monitor all Secure Web Gateways (SWG) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.