VMware Carbon Black App Control vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform comparison

VMware and Zscaler are both solutions in the Application Control category. VMware is ranked #1 with an average rating of 10.0, while Zscaler is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. VMware holds a 24.6% mindshare in AC, compared to Zscaler’s 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of VMware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

VMware Carbon Black App Con...

Read 8 VMware Carbon Black App Control reviews

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283 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange...

Read 63 Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform reviews

143 Views
78 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

VMware Carbon Black App Con...

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

VMware Carbon Black App Control and Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform are both major players in the cybersecurity sector, targeting advanced threat protection and secure access. Though VMware impresses with strong support and competitive pricing, Zscaler's extensive feature set and long-term value give it an edge.

Features: VMware Carbon Black App Control offers endpoint protection, application control, and file integrity monitoring, ensuring unauthorized access is blocked. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange provides a scalable zero trust model, facilitating secure user and application traffic with seamless integration and advanced threat detection capabilities.

Room for Improvement: VMware Carbon Black App Control could benefit from improved cloud integration, streamlined deployment, and enhanced real-time analytics. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange might improve in areas like reducing latency, expanding offline capabilities, and offering more flexible user management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Carbon Black App Control often requires traditional on-premises setup, which can be resource-intensive. Zscaler, with its cloud-native architecture, allows for smoother deployment. VMware is noted for its personalized customer support, while Zscaler excels in responsive online assistance with extensive documentation.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Carbon Black App Control offers competitive initial setup costs, which can yield a positive ROI for businesses focusing on endpoint security. In contrast, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, despite higher upfront costs, delivers ROI through simplified management and decreased hardware needs, appealing to larger enterprises seeking comprehensive security solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

April 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

VMware Carbon Black App Con...

Ranking in Application Control

1st

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange...

Ranking in Application Control

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (3rd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (1st), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (13th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (10th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Control category, the mindshare of VMware Carbon Black App Control is 24.6%, down from 32.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is 8.5%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Control

Featured Reviews

reviewer1535181

Chief Information Officer at a manufacturing company with 1-10 employees

Very stable, reasonable price, works well, and provides good visibility and reporting

We are small potatoes. We only have around 200 machines. We are actually in the middle of a review with it, which we are doing for the first time since we installed it. We're having the original guy who helped us through the implementation, which is rare these days because people usually don't stick around or you wouldn't get them back. He is an excellent security guy who works for VMware, and he told me of a 30,000 plus installation that he has done with 30,000 devices, machines, and servers, which is pretty big.

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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.

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

"I use the console to check for threats and I find it to be very user-friendly."

"If any malicious activity, like VAT viruses, anything RNE, ZOD malware, or something similar, comes in we know that unless we approve it, it's going to be blocked."

"We use App Control to scan the network for virtual machines that have unauthorized applications. We can isolate the problem VMs and control application access."

"All the functions within VMware Carbon Black App Control are valuable."

"The API integration is good."

"The effectiveness of application whitelisting is very good."

"The visibility is valuable."

"The visibility, reporting, and the ability to stop or prevent malicious or undesired applications from being installed are the most valuable features."

"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."

"It is a stable solution."

"Yes, it is very stable. I have never seen it go down, not once."

"SASE's most valuable features are proxy and content filtering."

"The Live Logs are a cool feature. We can directly identify issues and divert user traffic."

"It's one of the easier products on the market as far as set-ups and deployments. Even across their whole product suite, they've made it pretty simple."

"The most valuable feature of Zscaler Private Access is we do not have to connect to a VPN, it is seamless. It is more convenient for us because we use one agent to cover the internet and VPN access."

"Overall, the solution does a pretty good job at web filtering."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform pros

Cons

"The initial setup is somewhat complex."

"The solution should have overhead in keeping lists of applications that you want don't want to run."

"Carbon Black does not use the database for identifying the file, the fields, or malware."

"Its setup is very complex, and it requires guidance from the support team, but it is well worth the effort."

"Another issue is that even sometimes if you approve, for example, Adobe as a publisher, you say any product or anything that's from Adobe has to run. It generally runs, but especially in a large environment and with a lot of users, sometimes, due to some certification validation issues or some other issue, it might stop the process from running. Genuine processes like Adobe and Chrome can get blocked. so that needs to be improved."

"The reporting is not good and needs to be improved."

"I would like to see the addition of some more features that are in other, similar solutions."

"I rate App Control six out of 10 for scalability."

"Conflicts arise if you do not have the same management teams on the product."

"Zscaler CASB breaks down at times."

"We have issues with the tool's maintenance and networking. It should be able to work in offline mode as well."

"There are some performance issues with the solution once the module addition begins"

"It would be better if the Zscaler Private Access team made it easier for people to find subscriptions on the portal, mainly information on what my customers subscribed to or the type of licenses purchased."

"The product is not reliable."

"They should work on a replica account. There could be alerts and replica files sent to the DLP team during data collection."

"The only issue with Zscaler Cloud DLP is that it only gives you DLP protection from web traffic, which is flowing out, while a full-blown DLP solution such as Forcepoint or Symantec gives you DLP coverage for multiple channels. Zscaler Cloud DLP doesn't give you coverage for email, fax, and USB channels, and this is the only challenge or room for improvement in the solution. It's just an extension on top of what you're buying on the proxy, so it's just an added layer, and it doesn't cover DLP on a very broad level. I'm unsure if Zcaler is in the business of competing with a full-blown DLP solution, and if there's a plan to expand the features of Zscaler Cloud DLP beyond the web channel because you'll have to deploy a full-blown agent for it. I'm unsure if this is on the cards because the solution is just an added layer that you get with your proxy. I've asked the Zcaler team whether there's a plan to go full DLP in the future, but I didn't get a positive response. There isn't any feature I'd like added to Zscaler Cloud DLP currently, because anything you could think of that should be in cloud or SaaS solutions is already there, except for machine learning, as it's the only functionality that seems to be lacking in the solution. Machine learning is an additional policy available in other DLP solutions in the market, but my team didn't find it in Zscaler Cloud DLP."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay a fee for support, which is renewed annually."

"The pricing for this product is competitive and our customers who told us that often, Carbon Back is the cheaper solution."

"Its price is reasonable and what is expected for these types of products."

"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."

"Pricing for Zscaler Private Access is moderate. It's acceptable, though I can't give you the exact price currently. It's not too expensive, and on a scale of one to five, I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."

"Zscaler Private Access can be an expensive solution, depending on the license type you will purchase."

"The solution has increased prices this year."

"The product has reasonable pricing."

"Zscaler DLP solution is expensive, with a fixed pricing structure that is billed annually and monthly. There are no additional costs for licenses."

"It's expensive currently. But when purchasing for a large number of users, there's room to negotiate. It's really up to the procurement team."

"It has been relatively reasonable for what it does. Some of the additional license costs based on the advanced next-generation firewall functions are quite high, and they should have certain features ready and available as a baseline rather than having to purchase additional licenses for it. Overall, the cost seems reasonable."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

48%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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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...

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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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler SASE?

Zscaler SASE is quite expensive compared to other solutions. The price is not fixed and it does not include all of the features, so my advice for organizations would be to evaluate their specific n...

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Comparisons

Ivanti Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 33% of the time

McAfee Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 30% of the time

ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 23% of the time

Check Point Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 14% of the time

More VMware Carbon Black App Control Competitors

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 10% 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 5% of the time

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

VMware Carbon Black App Control

April 2025

Download VMware Carbon Black App Control product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

April 2025

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform report

Download Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform product report

Also Known As

CB Protection, Carbon Black CB Protection

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

Overview

Carbon Black is a leading provider of next-generation endpoint security. Carbon Black serves more than 3,700 customers globally, including 33 of the Fortune 100. As a cybersecurity innovator, Carbon Black has a strong heritage of innovative technology leadership in multiple endpoint security categories, including application control, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and next-generation antivirus (NGAV). Leveraging its big data and analytics cloud platform - the Cb Predictive Security Cloud - Carbon Black solutions enable customers to defend against the most advanced cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and non-malware attacks. Deployed via the cloud, on premise, or as a managed service, customers use Carbon Black solutions to lock down critical systems, hunt threats, and replace legacy antivirus.

VMware

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform acts as a VPN alternative for secure remote access, cloud protection, and zero-trust strategies. It enables secure data transmission, supports remote work, and enhances compliance through a cloud-based architecture, offering improved performance and simplified management.

Designed for organizations seeking secure application access and robust data protection, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform delivers a comprehensive solution through seamless VPN connectivity, data loss prevention, and SSL inspection. Its cloud integration ensures scalability and reliability, while its interface provides intuitive management. Companies benefit from automatic secure access, minimizing constant authentication needs, and safeguarding sensitive data. The platform allows easy deployment and integration with diverse identity providers, granting granular control for access and application segmentation. Despite powerful capabilities, enhancements are needed in speed, bandwidth, and legacy support, with users noting interface and configuration challenges.

What are the key features of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform?

Seamless VPN Connectivity: Provides automatic secure access without repetitive authentication.
Strong Security Measures: Offers DLP and SSL inspection for data protection.
Cloud Integration: Ensures scalability and performance optimization.
Granular Access Control: Manages access with application-specific segmentation.

What benefits should companies look for in reviews when evaluating this platform?

Performance: Enhanced connectivity and reduced latency.
Data Protection: Comprehensive DLP and encryption capabilities.
Scalability: Efficient handling of growing organizational demands.
Ease of Deployment: Quick setup and integration with IDPs.

In specific industries, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange has been implemented to enhance security protocols in fields like finance and healthcare. By prioritizing data protection and compliance, it assists companies in safely managing sensitive information and meeting regulatory requirements. Organizations leverage its features to ensure secure operations across remote and cloud environments, adapting to industry-specific needs with customizable access and security controls.

Zscaler

Sample Customers

Kaas Tailored, Core-Mark, Indeed, Hologic, Landmark Credit Union, Project Worldwide

Siemens, AutoNation, GE, NOV

Buyer's Guide

VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

April 2025

Free Report: VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

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