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VMware NSX vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

VMware NSX
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (1st), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)
Zscaler Internet Access
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Internet Security (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. VMware NSX is designed for Network Virtualization and holds a mindshare of 45.8%, down 46.4% compared to last year.
Zscaler Internet Access, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Web Gateways (SWG), holds 16.2% mindshare, down 17.4% since last year.
Network Virtualization
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

AANKITGUPTAA - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 14, 2022
Great micro-segmentation, distributed IPS, and IDS functionality
I primarily use the product as network virtualization software. VMware NSX is a great product for network virtualization. No other vendor can offer this kind of solution up until now, and it's great for enhancing security at the virtual machine level. There is micro-segmentation, and a distributed…
S Azeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 12, 2023
Reduces cyberattacks and helps to focus on granular things
Zscaler Internet Access provides customers with the internet. We can easily integrate policies.  The solution has reduced cyberattacks. We can focus on a granular level of things.  Zscaler Internet Access needs to integrate more ISPs. It is good to have more than three ISPs.  I have been…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has valuable features for security and network extension."
"Overall, for me, it's a good solution and has been working well."
"The initial setup was straightforward. You just have to click it and follow the manuals."
"Overall, I would say the solution has been quite stable."
"The security offered by VMware NSX is the most valuable, plus it's a feature-rich product that's straightforward to install and configure."
"The most valuable features of VMware NSX are the tight integration with the VMware Hypervisor natively and the management console. We have a lot of other integrations where you are able to see the virtual machine's end-to-end visibility."
"It is easy to implement it."
"The solution is robust as it covers everything we want to do and is stable, so we're happy enough with it. We have had no problems so far. Everything is great."
"Zscaler covers all the features needed to replace a VPN or proxy solution. They are good. They've been on the market for 15 years now, so they are mature enough."
"For our needs, the cloud-native proxy architecture is a very good solution. We are moving away from on-prem appliances and moving more toward cloud-based solutions. Zscaler is a good fit for our strategy. 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."
"I like the granularity of the control of all the traffic, including SSL inspection. I also like the fact that the user interface is intuitive. The latencies with Zscaler are minimal compared to those of any other competitor. Other competitors do not really have the global scale that Zscaler has and cannot promise low latencies."
"The solution’s customer service is good."
"The best thing about Zscaler Internet Access is the website filtering. In the UAE it's quite an important feature because most of the malware comes through the SQL injection and through downloads from websites. Zscaler helps protect against that."
"SSL inspection is a valuable feature."
"The users are at different locations, and Zscaler helps us to put the organization's central security controls on these roaming users."
"The solution offers a distributed organization to master and to control all of the endpoints."
 

Cons

"In the future, the solution should be compliant with internet NIC."
"It's not feature-rich."
"This solution is really unusable from my perspective at this point. Overall, I would rate the solution a one of ten."
"Going through and getting more features sets from the routing protocols is definitely necessary for the future."
"It could be more user-friendly, but it's manageable. When we add a specific node to this particular NSX and the configuration changes, it won't push through the errors where required, but it'll accept it. However, while using it, we will have issues. It can also be more stable."
"The scalability is not perfect."
"If you're worried that NSX is too complex, I would tell you to take another look. If you compare NSX to a similar solution you might find it to be a bit more complex. Usually, the guy that comes in to implement NSX isn't the network guy and will lack the knowledge for the program. He can lack the knowledge for this program and will therefore think it's complex. You need somebody with network experience."
"They need to enhance their technical support."
"There are a few features that are not compatible with the Azure cloud."
"They should enhance the audit reporting feature."
"It also needs better integration with other applications as well. There are some restrictions."
"What could be improved in Zscaler Internet Access is its price. It could be cheaper."
"The interface for administration could be better. They should upgrade the management portal."
"Cloud App’s database should be improved."
"The OS capabilities and WSL support could be improved."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this product is too high."
"We are using the free version of the solution."
"I would rate the pricing of VMware NSX as seven out of ten"
"We are using a perpetual license to use the solution and we have support."
"The price is pretty high."
"It is an expensive product, but cheaper than some competing solutions."
"The licensing fees are expensive and we pay on a yearly basis."
"Pricing and licensing could be improved as we are a government entity. Lower pricing could always help."
"We pay around 6,500 INR per user per year, which is very expensive. I would rate Zscaler's pricing one out of five."
"Roughly, we might spend $70,000 a month on the solution. We don't pay for anything beyond the standard licensing fee."
"It is a few pounds per user per month."
"It is quite expensive. It does its job, but it is quite expensive for what we need."
"If we need any extra features, the price will increase."
"Licenses are available on a per-host basis. Some features like sandboxing require an additional fee, but most standard features are included in the license."
"There are multiple bundles: enterprise, business, and transformation. Transformation includes all the features, but recently I've seen a few more line items that are additional costs. Overall, it's expensive."
"Zscaler is transparent about its pricing model."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What do you like most about VMware NSX?
The product has valuable features for security and network extension.
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....
 

Also Known As

VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender
ZIA
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis
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 Cisco, VMware, Array Networks and others in Network Virtualization. Updated: August 2024.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.