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Darktrace vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
Darktrace users experience substantial returns through threat prevention and reduced downtime, despite deployment challenges and difficulty measuring returns.
Sentiment score
7.2
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange offers high ROI, enhancing security and productivity, reducing costs, and improving remote user experience significantly.
Other NDR solutions provide virtual appliances that can be deployed on virtualization servers to get up and running quickly.
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
Using this solution provides financial benefits by securing from server attacks, which offers indirect savings.
Systems Specialist/ Administrator at ALFA International Company Limited.
When I see that I am trying to cut costs, for example, even when replacing Prisma, we have managed to save about over half a million dollars a year.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
In terms of time savings, since users no longer manually connect to the VPN, access became seamless, improving user productivity, especially for remote users.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
We don't have to purchase many components such as load balancers and proxy servers that were necessary in traditional setups.
Lead Engineer at FIS Global
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace's customer service is praised for responsiveness and efficiency, though some suggest improvements for complex issues.
Sentiment score
4.9
Zscaler's customer service is professional and knowledgeable, but complex issues can cause delays, affecting global user ratings.
The technical support from Darktrace is of high quality.
Network & Security Section Head/Digital Transformation at a government with 201-500 employees
Darktrace provides excellent technical support with a monthly meeting to review platform incidents, ensuring the system functions as expected.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
The challenge lies in waiting for a response after logging a ticket.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
The support engineers are technically knowledgeable, particularly for Zscaler Private Access related issues, providing clear guidance and documentation for troubleshooting.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Sometimes, support takes time since the solution has some bugs that need fixing.
architect at Tata Consultancy
They have provided the numbers and contact supports, and it is almost immediate.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace is praised for its scalability, supporting diverse user bases and integrating well with existing infrastructures.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform's cloud-native architecture enables scalable, efficient, and seamless expansion for diverse enterprises with minimal hardware changes.
Darktrace has high scalability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Network & Security Section Head/Digital Transformation at a government with 201-500 employees
Since it's cloud-based, it expands easily.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
There is still a gap in terms of storage, and we are trying to figure out how to increase that capacity for regulated environments, which require data retention for 5 to 6 years.
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
The only limitation I was mentioning is that it was unable to identify the sources of vulnerability, which they are going to embed by the mid of this year.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is highly scalable, primarily because it is built on a cloud-native, globally distributed architecture.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Darktrace is highly rated for stability and reliability, with effective monitoring and an intuitive interface despite occasional traffic impacts.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform offers high reliability and availability with minimal downtime, ensuring effective performance for enterprises.
The stability of Darktrace is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
The appliance itself has never let me down.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
For stability, I would rate Darktrace an eight out of ten.
Security Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is very stable, especially in enterprise environments.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is very stable.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Room For Improvement

Darktrace needs improved integration, automation, usability, pricing, support, and clarity, plus better endpoint protection and third-party tool integration.
Zscaler's Zero Trust Platform faces cost, latency, and control issues, with users seeking better integration, support, and scalability.
There is no dedicated salesperson in Egypt, and having one would help to improve focus on this market.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
They say they can integrate with most firewalls, but when we did an integration with Meraki MX firewalls, that integration didn't work and still doesn't work to this day.
Security Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
We need Darktrace on each branch to get the data out, and I suggest having some kind of a centralized product that gets data from multiple sources to aggregate and provide the data.
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
It would be beneficial to have more granular centralized visibility, allowing for quick end-to-end tracing of a user request from authentication to application access without switching between multiple views.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform probably needs to be more efficient because scanning takes a lot of time.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
They might be able to identify if something is missing with Zscaler.
architect at Tata Consultancy
 

Setup Cost

Darktrace is costly yet valued for advanced features, offering flexible module selection with negotiable discounts and yearly contracts.
Zscaler Zero Trust pricing varies, with flexible customization options and potential savings offsetting initial high costs for larger organizations.
The product is considered expensive compared to others.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The pricing is costly in USD, and they charge based on device counts.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
The licensing cost is approximately eight dollars a year.
Security Information & Incident Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
There is minimal setup cost since it is a cloud-delivered platform, eliminating the need to invest in additional hardware such as VPN gateways or maintain infrastructure.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is much, much cheaper when comparing price.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Valuable Features

Darktrace offers AI-driven threat detection, real-time monitoring, and autonomous response with scalability and ease of integration for enhanced security.
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform enhances security and user experience with seamless connectivity, scalability, and robust control features.
It is capable of responding to lateral movement and ransomware deployment within environments where there is data exfiltration.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
I do not need to manually process incidents as Darktrace provides an incident summary, potential detection paths, and other details, all exportable with just a click.
Security Information & Incident Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
If I am in a data center where I don't have layer two, it becomes an issue because the autonomous response is reliant on sending spoofed TCP resets to my core switch to block traffic, which is a major issue.
Security Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The solution is cloud-based with the latest inspection engines, which I find to be amazing.
architect at Tata Consultancy
We have excellent account management, smooth marketplace engagement, and processing in how my team or organization uses Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform.
Manager, Software Development at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Since we started using Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, it has auto-configuration, and wherever we have deployed the auto-configuration, we have not encountered any problem.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Categories and Ranking

Darktrace
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (8th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (11th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (9th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (4th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (4th), AI Observability (9th)
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (6th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (9th), Application Control (6th), ZTNA as a Service (1st), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (4th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Darktrace is designed for Network Detection and Response (NDR) and holds a mindshare of 16.6%, down 25.3% compared to last year.
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), holds 9.5% mindshare, down 11.7% since last year.
Network Detection and Response (NDR) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Darktrace16.6%
Vectra AI12.5%
ExtraHop Reveal(x)6.7%
Other64.19999999999999%
Network Detection and Response (NDR)
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform9.5%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks11.8%
Cato SASE Cloud Platform9.8%
Other68.9%
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
 

Featured Reviews

AM
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
Consistent threat hunting and anomaly detection deliver valuable insights for network security management
In terms of improvement for Darktrace, pricing is the main concern. Pricing bothers me and this is one of the major factors when choosing a solution. When we get feedback from customers, that's the only felt need. When we factor in Darktrace, we do it only limited. We put it on where the perimeters and connections are, but still, some gray areas are left out, especially if we have multiple branches. We need Darktrace on each branch to get the data out, and I suggest having some kind of a centralized product that gets data from multiple sources to aggregate and provide the data.
Vibin Thomas - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zero trust access has transformed remote connectivity and now simplifies secure app usage
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, especially Zscaler Private Access, is very strong, though there are a few areas where improvements can be made. One challenge observed is around initial troubleshooting and visibility. While Zscaler Private Access provides logs, it can sometimes take time to pinpoint the exact cause of access issues, especially in complex environments with multiple policies and identity integration. Another area is the dependency on identity and connector health. Since Zscaler Private Access is heavily reliant on app connectors and identity providers, any issues with these components can impact user access, making proper monitoring critical. During the initial setup, policy configuration and application onboarding require careful planning, especially for larger environments with many applications. These challenges are manageable with proper design and monitoring. Overall, the platform delivers strong security and user experience. I would recommend a few improvements, especially around user interface, reporting, and troubleshooting experience. From a user interface perspective, while the platform is powerful, the policy configuration and navigation can feel complex, especially for new users. A more simplified and intuitive layout for policy mapping and application access would help reduce the learning curve. In terms of reporting, Zscaler Private Access provides logs, but having more built-in customizable dashboards and analytics would be very helpful. Better visibility into user access patterns, application performance, and real-time troubleshooting insights would improve operational efficiency. From a support and troubleshooting standpoint, it would be beneficial to have more granular centralized visibility, allowing for quick end-to-end tracing of a user request from authentication to application access without switching between multiple views. These improvements would make the platform even more efficient, especially for large-scale enterprise environments.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing user interface that makes setup easy and seamless. CrowdStrike Falcon offers a cl...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is meant for smaller to medium-sized businesses. It is also a good option for organ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Darktrace?
Concerning pricing for the product, I would say it is somewhat expensive.
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 access service edge (SASE) designed to deliver network security in a cloud-deliver...
What do you like most about Zscaler SASE?
The most valuable features of Zscaler Private Access are reliability, scalability, and availability.
What needs improvement with Zscaler SASE?
The solution needs to improve a lot of aspects.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Zscaler SASE, Zscaler DLP, Zscaler CASB, Zscaler CSPM, Zscaler Browser Isolation, Zscaler Posture Control
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
Siemens, AutoNation, GE, NOV
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
885,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.