Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Netskope Private Access comparison

Cato Networks and Netskope are both solutions in the ZTNA as a Service category. Cato Networks is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.8, while Netskope is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5. Cato Networks holds a 10.7% mindshare in ZaaS, compared to Netskope’s 4.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cato Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Netskope users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Cato SASE Cloud Platform and Netskope Private Access are leading solutions in the secure access service edge (SASE) category. Cato SASE Cloud Platform appears to have the upper hand in pricing and support, while Netskope Private Access is noted for its feature set.

What features are offered by Cato SASE Cloud Platform in comparison to Netskope Private Access?

Cato SASE Cloud Platform offers comprehensive security, network optimization, and ease of management. Netskope Private Access provides granular data control, robust security policies, and seamless integration with various applications.

What areas of improvement can be found in Cato SASE Cloud Platform in comparison to Netskope Private Access?

Cato SASE Cloud Platform needs enhancements in analytic capabilities and policy configurations. Netskope Private Access users suggest improvements in stability during peak loads and expanding customizability.

How is the ease of deployment and customer service of Cato SASE Cloud Platform in comparison to Netskope Private Access?

Cato SASE Cloud Platform is noted for straightforward deployment and responsive support. Netskope Private Access also earns praise for deployment but receives mixed feedback on customer service responsiveness.

What setup costs and ROI can be seen with Cato SASE Cloud Platform in comparison to Netskope Private Access?

Cato SASE Cloud Platform is competitively priced with a favorable ROI. Netskope Private Access is seen as more expensive but justified by its advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Netskope Private Access Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Netskope Private Access

March 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 847,862 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 April 2025, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 1.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cato SASE Cloud Platform is 10.7%, up from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netskope Private Access is 4.8%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

Alexander Azikov

It Manager at Diamond Braces

Provide a seamless experience for end users with internet duplication feature

The setup and onboarding process is very straightforward - I'd rate it a ten out of ten for ease. We use CatoCloud as our cloud provider. They have points of presence, and we connect to the nearest one to our physical location. All the routing, inspection, and logic for what to route, block, or allow happens in the cloud, not on the local device. Our deployment took a couple of weeks because we installed the sites manually. If we had a team to help switch locally, it could have been done in a week. The deployment process is straightforward. We set up all the sites in their cloud system; then, they ship the sockets directly to the location or our main office. We connect the device to the internet, it gets activated, we assign it to a specific site inside the cloud, and it's online and ready to use. It's very easy.

Read full review

Christian Dagal

Security Architect Manager at Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc.

Provides network visibility, infrastructure protection and advanced security protections, especially the DLP (Data Loss Protection)

Room for improvement is more on the policies offered for DLP. Netskope detects certain data or contents, but there are some limitations on how we can customize those policies for DLP. In the next release, I hope we can see more use cases for mobile devices, not just for laptops or servers but also for key features that will be available on mobile devices or smartphones.

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 security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."

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

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"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."

"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."

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

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

More iboss pros

"Cato offers all the functionality found in other solution. The life cycle management is always very stable."

"The visibility control and security aspects are amazing."

"The product's most valuable features include advanced firewall capabilities for robust security, a secure gateway for safe data transmission, and next-generation anti-malware for threat prevention."

"It is a stable solution...it is a scalable solution."

"The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity. There is no complex routing."

"When I first encountered Cato, I didn't know how to use it, but after a week of training, I could onboard our systems to it, so the solution was easy to learn and navigate."

"It's a pretty straightforward solution."

"It's a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pros

"In the firewall, we don't have a user-based policies list, and we can't create them. Netskope helps us to create user-based policies. For example, if there are specific teams like HR or more than nine teams, and we want logs from access over particular URLs, and we don't want to allow that specific URL for certain users, we can create these policies in Netskope. It's handy, easy to use for new users, and has a cool GUI interface. We can create multiple policies, and as for the proxy, it's a leading solution."

"With private access or next-gen VPN, they are able to keep you secure, but they are invisible in terms of how they do it. Anybody working from home and trying to bring up VPN quickly can pretty much get VPN up and running in a matter of minutes because this doesn't require any VPN technology on-prem. All the VPN technologies that you're using to access applications on-premise can be eliminated by using their software. If you're accessing Microsoft 365 or salesforce.com, you can go straight out from your home office or home internet to that application rather than having to come through a VPN. It still has all the policies enforced, and it mitigates any business risks in terms of how that user is accessing that application and what they're doing inside of it. VPN piece is really critical, especially at this time of Covid, and your latency also goes down. Your latency gets better by using the platform because they're intercepting your traffic, routing it through their local data center, and then sending it to whichever SaaS service or whatever you're going to. It does it better, faster, and quicker with all your governance policies enforced, rather than you having to go through your data center. So, all the traffic gets hauls there, and then that traffic has got to route somewhere else, and then it has got to go up to the cloud. Your latency actually goes down. They can guarantee 15 milliseconds or less pretty much across anywhere on the planet for about 95% or 90% of it."

"Netskope enables users to securely access private applications remotely without a VPN."

"Even without extensive training, if you're a proficient IT professional, you can easily configure it."

"The initial setup of Netskope Private Access is pretty simple and straightforward."

"In the VPN scenario, what was happening, the user would get back to the complete source. But in NPA, the application will go to the user. There is an outbound connection. There is no inbound. Storage providers are also not there. It's the best feature because it is the replacement of the VPN."

"The most valuable feature is being able to see who is accessing the application, whether it is a managed device or a bring-your-own-device published by Netskope."

"There are several valuable features, like advanced security protections, especially the DLP (Data Loss Protection), and there's also browser and web filtering, or content filtering for our users to protect them when accessing certain links or websites, ensuring their security and permission."

More Netskope Private Access pros

Cons

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

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

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

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

"Its pricing could be better."

"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 reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."

More iboss cons

"Cato Networks could improve their intrusion detection. There is not a lot in place."

"The tool needs to be more granular. Its reports are not very in-depth."

"However, Cato's solution is modular. You don't have to buy the whole package; instead, you can start with some of the functionality and then expand it as you see fit, based on its value and as your other contracts expire."

"A little tweaking or improvement of the UI in terms of logging when troubleshooting would be an improvement because it's very detailed."

"The different languages in the user interface should be enhanced."

"The product's technical support could be more responsive."

"I am located in South Korea, and I can say that most people here have no idea about Cato Networks. I think Cato Networks should promote its network services in various countries."

"The solution is not cheap."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform cons

"The ability to provide more security around agentless access has room for improvement."

"The major problem that we are facing is if we deploy Netskope on the server level or if we get a new server in the EMEA factor, it will affect all the machines. Recently, this has caused us to fail some reviews."

"The main challenge we are facing across various Trust Network Access (TNA) technologies, including Netskope, is their inability to support broadcast applications or those relying on broadcasting protocols."

"Netskope needs to provide some kind of data protection strategy as well because, currently, if you connect through private access, we don't have any data protection policies or implementation."

"The cost has room for improvement."

"Netskope Private Access only supports TCP and UDP ports and does not support ICMP or ping."

"The solution needs to develop faster features. Its interoperability feature is not working. It takes six months to one year for any product to implement the improvements. However, the process should be faster to implement the changes quickly."

"The product is not easy to use."

More Netskope Private Access cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

"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."

"Cato Networks is an expensive product, but it works out of the box, so that's the usual trade-off, make versus buy. If you decide to buy a product that doesn't require much programming, then you'd want to go for Cato Networks, which will work naturally, and immediately without any complex setup. However, the product is a little bit more expensive than the competitors. On a scale of one to five, I'd rate the pricing for Cato Networks as four."

"The solution has reasonable pricing. It has a yearly subscription. The pricing depends on the permit to code. Sometimes, we need to increase the permit, and the cost will automatically change. There's no fixed cost. Unless we request additional modules such as DNS security, ELP, and decent features, there will be no additional cost."

"The price is not an issue for us, as it is priced more competitively than some other vendors."

"The price of Cato Networks is in the middle range compared to other solutions. NetFoundry is a less expensive solution than Cato Networks."

"The pricing is on the higher side, almost an eight out of ten."

"Cato Networks seems more expensive than Cisco Meraki."

"You pay yearly based on the speed of your network. If you increase the speed of your network, you increase the cost for your throughput. It is by bandwidth for the most part and then licenses for VPN. There is some per-seat licensing for VPN access, but the majority of it is minimal. It is like $30 a year per client. The rest is based on how much bandwidth you'll use. You pay for that upfront for the year, and if you have to increase it, you increase it, and then they let you send more data through. There are no additional costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"If you compare with VeloCloud, the price is the same or even cheaper."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

"The pricing of the solution is cheap."

"It is not the most expensive option, being more affordable than Zscaler, but it's also not the most budget-friendly choice available."

"Netskope Private Access is more inexpensive than other products."

"It is significantly cost-effective compared to its contenders."

"I believe that the price for Netskope Private Access is included in the features or functionality my company purchased from NetSkope."

"When it comes to pricing, Netskope Private Access is relatively cheap compared to other solutions."

"The tool's price is normal. It is not very cheap but good compared to the competitors."

"It is not cheap, but the value of the solution is there. It's worth the investment."

More Netskope Private Access pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which ZTNA as a Service solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

847,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

27%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iboss?

I have the same complaint about them that I have about other software companies. Sometimes when you call in support, ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

We are a PreK-12 public school district, and we use iboss to filter internet content for our students at home and sta...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cato Networks?

The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity....

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cato Networks?

We have been using Cato Networks as a solution for firewall and secure web gateway.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Cato Networks?

I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

See all answers

What do you like most about Netskope Private Access?

Even without extensive training, if you're a proficient IT professional, you can easily configure it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Netskope Private Access?

Netskope Private Access could improve by enhancing visibility of user performance and application performance. It sho...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Netskope Private Access?

Our primary use case for Netskope Private Access ( /products/netskope-private-access-reviews ) was for internal acces...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 11% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 16% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 14% of the time

Netskope vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 8% of the time

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform Competitors

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Netskope Private Access

Compared 35% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Netskope Private Access

Compared 28% of the time

Appgate SDP vs Netskope Private Access

Compared 11% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Netskope Private Access

Compared 8% of the time

Jamf Connect vs Netskope Private Access

Compared 4% of the time

More Netskope Private Access Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

April 2025

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform

April 2025

Download Cato SASE Cloud Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Netskope Private Access

March 2025

Download Netskope Private Access product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Cato Networks

No data available

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Cato Networks is a leading SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, combining SD-WAN and network security to obtain a cloud-native service. Cato Networks optimizes and secures application access for users and identities. The platform delivers a next-generation secure networking architecture that minimizes legacy IT infrastructures’ complexity, costs, and risks. The goal of Cato Suite is to connect any user to any application securely and optimally.

Cato Suite runs on a private global network of more than 65 PoPs (points of presence) connected via SLA-backed network providers. The service can connect branches, data centers, users, and clouds. Cato can be deployed in stages to augment legacy network services.

Cato Suite delivers end-to-end route optimization for WAN and cloud traffic. The architecture is self-healing, enabling a high service uptime.

Cato Features

Cato Cloud has a global backbone to deliver a reliable, global network. Here are some key SD-WAN features of Cato Cloud.

Optimizes traffic flows: The Cato Suite can individually optimize traffic flows in the last mile - from the customer’s location to the point of presence, and also between PoPs. This feature eliminates the need for internet providers to hand off traffic to each other, avoiding the resulting latency and congestion.
Controls and manages bandwidth: The software-defined overlay is encrypted across the entire cloud infrastructure. This overlay uses application-aware routing, analyzing latency and loss data to choose the best route according to network conditions. These features, like protocol priority marking, enable the system to ensure the performance of real-time applications.
Delivers redundancy and failover: By connecting the points of presence with multiple Tier-1 IPs, Cato builds the redundancy needed to ensure security and highly available service.
Cloud-native: Cato is built as a scalable, resilient, and elastic cloud service.
Converged: The platform converges SD-WAN and network security into a single infrastructure framework.
Secures all edges: Cato Network can secure and optimize traffic from all users, locations, applications, and clouds.

What challenges does Cato Network solve?

Migration to SD-WAN

MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) networks are usually expensive and limited in their capacity. Cato simplifies migrating to a faster, higher-capacity internet and SASE cloud. Cato SD-WAN appliances enable customers to improve usable capacity and resiliency.

Global connectivity optimization

Customers who suffer from the challenge of high latency and network inconsistency can use Cato to deliver a consistent connection and user experience to access on-premises and cloud applications.

Securing branch internet access

Cato’s complete network security stack connects all branch locations to the Cato cloud, therefore protecting all traffic, both internet-bound and WAN, with enterprise-grade, cloud-based security services. This capability avoids having to backhaul internet traffic to a data center or hub or having to implement stand-alone cloud security solutions.

Cloud acceleration and control

Organizations using Cato notice an acceleration of cloud traffic. Cato achieves this by routing all traffic from the edges to the PoP closest to the data center. Because of the close distance between the two, the latency is near zero.

Reviews from Real Users

An IT manager/project coordinator at a healthcare company says that “[Cato is] a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything. They are the classic SaaS solution.”

Yeong-Gi L., a network engineer at Snetsystems, notes that “The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. Technical support was always helpful and responsive. The integration capabilities are not a problem at all.”

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features," says Lorenzo S., senior solutions consultant Lead at MDI.

Cato Networks

Netskope Private Access is an integral component of the Netskope Security Cloud platform that provides zero-trust secure access to enterprise applications and data in hybrid IT (public cloud and data center) environments. It offers comprehensive policy management, compliance assessment, and supports any application, protocol, and device to reduce risk and simplify security operations.

Netskope

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.

Paysafe, AdRoll, Pet Lovers Centre, Arlington Orthopedics, Humphreys & Partners Architects

Evalueserve, Stroock, Apria, Ather Energy

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Netskope Private Access

March 2025

Free Report: Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Netskope Private Access

Find out what your peers are saying about Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Netskope Private Access and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

847,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Netskope Private Access report.

See our list of best ZTNA as a Service vendors.

We monitor all ZTNA as a Service 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.