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Cloudflare vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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
6.5
Cloudflare users experienced increased performance, security, and cost-effectiveness, leading to improved loyalty and revenue despite difficult ROI calculations.
Sentiment score
5.9
Organizations using Zscaler Internet Access achieve financial gains, improved security, and operational efficiency, with significant cost savings.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In terms of return on investment with Cloudflare, it costs my time to set them up, but basically once they're set up, it's done.
Owner at Hga consulting
The managed service aspect of Zscaler Internet Access has allowed for reduced staffing costs, resulting in a saving of approximately 20-25% compared to prior expenses.
Principle Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Cloudflare's customer service is quick, but technical support feedback is mixed, with improvement needed in responsiveness and detailed assistance.
Sentiment score
6.7
Zscaler Internet Access is praised for responsive, knowledgeable support, though some report initial delays and suggest improving customer interactions.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
Senior Consultant CDN at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support with Cloudflare as excellent every time I've had to call them.
Owner at Hga consulting
I have primarily worked not with the tool's customer support but with the product's sales engineers and technical sales engineers, who seem to know their stuff.
Principal Cyber Prevent and Defense Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The technical support for Zscaler Internet Access is rated around seven out of ten due to some response time issues and the engagement model.
Principle Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Zscaler Internet Access customer service is really very good.
Product Owner at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
I find customer support to be quite adequate
Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Users praise Cloudflare for seamless scalability, effective traffic management, easy upgrades, and robust global infrastructure without disruptions.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zscaler Internet Access offers scalable cloud-based solutions, highly rated for reliability, with some financial and regional considerations.
It is a SaaS tool, but the fact that they have workloads deployed across the world proves that it is a highly scalable tool.
Principal Cyber Prevent and Defense Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.
Engineer at SITMEXICO
I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.
Independent Consultant at Unaikui
With the pricing structure that they currently have, it is only for big customers.
Product Owner at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
I find Zscaler Internet Access to be highly scalable, which was one of the reasons for choosing it.
Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
Zscaler Internet Access is scalable and has points of presence across the globe to ensure low latency and reliable connections.
Principle Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cloudflare is highly rated for stability and uptime, with few past issues, especially on higher-tier plans.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zscaler Internet Access is stable and reliable, with minor latency issues and high user satisfaction for global deployments.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
Independent Consultant at Unaikui
The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
Engineer at SITMEXICO
Zscaler Internet Access is stable and capable of building resilient architectures.
Principle Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Zscaler Internet Access is very stable, and I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.
Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Enhancements needed in Cloudflare: analytics, CDN latency, API integration, user support, DNS, pricing, documentation, server coverage, WAF, and cache.
Zscaler Internet Access needs better integrations, reporting, simpler pricing, improved performance, user-friendliness, and more data centers for enhanced user experience.
Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.
Managed Services Manager at Adapture Technology Group
Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements.
Senior Cloud Solution Architect at Integrated Technology Solution Group (ITSG)
There are some performance considerations when it comes to dynamic content that involves fetching data from databases or using APIs.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
The response time and engagement model for technical support could be improved to handle complex outages more efficiently.
Principle Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
In future updates, I would like to see some of the features bundled into the existing product set, perhaps more AI features and a refreshed interface.
Cyber Security Architect at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Zscaler Internet Access has introduced AI control for tools such as ChatGPT, providing options to restrict to text-only input without file or image uploads through CASB restriction controls.
Assosiate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions
 

Setup Cost

Cloudflare offers scalable pricing, from free to enterprise plans, providing significant value especially for mid-sized companies.
Zscaler Internet Access is costly but valued for robust cloud security; opinions differ on its competitive pricing.
I find it to be cheap.
Engineer at SITMEXICO
I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive.
Principal Cyber Prevent and Defense Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Zscaler Internet Access is recognized as an expensive solution.
Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
Zscaler Internet Access is less expensive than competitors like Palo Alto, offering a premium service justified by security enhancements and cost-effective scalability.
Principle Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Of course, it is an expensive product.
Product Owner at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cloudflare enhances performance and security with CDN caching, DDoS protection, and an easy-to-use dashboard, benefiting many users.
Zscaler Internet Access offers advanced security features, scalability, and high performance, enhancing secure internet access and threat prevention.
The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.
Senior Cloud Solution Architect at Integrated Technology Solution Group (ITSG)
Techniques like minification and image compression reduce the size of assets, leading to better performance and faster user load times.
Senior Solutions Architect at Think Power Solutions
The solution has been able to compare it to the market, and I think the product has taken great strides in automating quite a bit of things, and they use a lot of AI.
Principal Cyber Prevent and Defense Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
It prevents numerous web attacks through its AI/ML incorporated capability which identifies malware, threats, and viruses.
Assosiate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions
Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted my organization by reducing the dependency on on-premises hardware and improving security posture, enabling faster user onboarding, and providing better performance for remote users.
Senior Network Engineer at Anthology
The most valuable feature for me is the ability to see how my network and traffic looks with modules like analytics and insights.
Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
CDN (1st), WAN Optimization (4th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (1st), Managed DNS (1st), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (5th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (12th)
Zscaler Internet Access
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (3rd), Internet Security (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Cloudflare is designed for Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection and holds a mindshare of 16.7%, down 18.0% compared to last year.
Zscaler Internet Access, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Web Gateways (SWG), holds 13.3% mindshare, down 16.0% since last year.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cloudflare16.7%
Arbor DDoS9.8%
Radware DDoS8.2%
Other65.3%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zscaler Internet Access13.3%
Cisco Umbrella15.1%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks9.2%
Other62.400000000000006%
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

HA
Owner at Hga consulting
Has helped manage client domains with streamlined access control and threat visibility
I don't know what areas could be improved with Cloudflare WAF; Cloudflare is constantly improving and adding features to their feature set. They're doing a good job, and as far as DNS and support for any domains that I create or my clients create, it's mandatory for me to make sure that they have Cloudflare as their DNS provider. The Cloudflare load balancing capability hasn't really helped in enhancing my website's uptime and resiliency because we don't really get that much traffic; it's mostly remote users, and web hosting is done by a web hosting service. It doesn't pay to try to host your own website.
Mohan Janarthanan - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection solutions are best for your needs.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user68487 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Expert with 51-200 employees
Nov 6, 2013
CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Web Application Firewall
CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Round 2 Web Application Firewall Comparative Penetration Testing Analysis Report v1.0 Summary This document contains the results of a second comparative penetration test conducted by a team of security specialists at Zero Science Lab against two cloud-based Web…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise38
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds ...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service that offers great redundancy and advanced security with built-in unmetered and ...
What do you like most about Cloudflare?
Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.
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. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...
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 and manage cloud applications, protecting your sensitive data from exfiltration....
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Internet Access?
It is only for big companies currently and they only focus on that. That is one of the problems to get into the market. Of course, it is an expensive product.
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS
ZIA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
Ulster-Greene ARC, BanRegio, HDFC, Ralcorp Holdings Inc., British American Tobacco, Med America Billing Services Inc., Lanco Group, Aquafil, Telefonica, Swisscom, Brigade Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Radware, NETSCOUT and others in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection. Updated: January 2026.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.