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ControlUp vs Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ControlUp
Ranking in Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (33rd)
Zscaler Digital Experience ...
Ranking in Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) category, the mindshare of ControlUp is 8.1%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) is 7.5%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ControlUp8.1%
Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)7.5%
Other84.4%
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Jean-CharlesMoriaud - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Engineer Citrix at EDR Media LLC
Automation capabilities and proactive monitoring have improved infrastructure reliability and reduced troubleshooting time
ControlUp has a lot of automation in it. It detects problems and failures very well. It's not only monitoring, but it's also detecting, and it could even fix problems with a lot of automation that you can put in place to fix problems automatically before you even detect them. That's one of the strong points of ControlUp. All the automations, and there's a large customer-written automation. You can pick up those automations and use them on your environment, and it helps a lot. This is very good. It's not third-party, but it's external routines and automations that you can download from their website and implement on your side. That's one of the strong points of ControlUp. ControlUp, the way we implemented it, and the goal of ControlUp, is to be proactive instead of starting to work on a problem when it already happens. There are a lot of counters and monitors you can implement that will help you detect problems before they happen.
Chella  Chalapathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Program Manager at Infosys
Offers steady access and reliable support but could benefit from better integration and user-friendly insights
Regarding future updates, I would like to see Zscaler prioritize pricing and integrate more with multiple products. Multiple integrations with various platforms would enable some sort of automation. Zscaler provides real-time insights, but it is not reaching the end users properly, which is something Zscaler should improve because it should be user-friendly for understanding what Zscaler is offering. When there is too much technology, people cannot understand it, so it should be very simplified, and there should be some ways for users to gain knowledge about the product themselves. Zscaler's ability to analyze millions of telemetry data points in real-time is still somewhat unclear to me; perhaps that level of knowledge has not been reached by me or the end users, indicating that Zscaler has to focus on that area.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"ControlUp has a lot of automation in it; it detects problems and failures very well, and it's not only monitoring, but it's also detecting, and it could even fix problems with a lot of automation that you can put in place to fix problems automatically before you even detect them."
"The high-level view of the estate coupled with powerful administration tools has been great."
"The script-based actions have allowed us to extend the core reporting capabilities."
"It has a great career time monitoring tool."
"ControlUp has some good functionalities, such as remotely pushing scripts in the device through the tool."
"The Solve interface has provided us the ability to view our entire estate including physical devices in a single pane of glass, transforming the way we approach the troubleshooting and reporting of our estate."
"ControlUp has an easy installation process."
"When using ControlUp, the core feature that we have found valuable is its UI. It is a valuable tool to view the analysis reactions of a base core Level 2 or Level 1 team so that they can complete the necessary troubleshooting."
"Regarding the benefits of Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)'s traffic analysis for my IT operations, I believe it greatly supports our needs."
"Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) has positively impacted my organization by being beneficial for me as a troubleshooter and administrator, as I can identify all types of network performance-related issues, leading to faster resolutions of user complaints, improved collaboration between network, desktop, and security teams, and more productivity in identifying issues before they affect users."
"Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) positively impacted my organization by providing Zero Trust Network Access, which many organizations are moving towards."
 

Cons

"There is area for improvement, maybe in the reporting. It could use some work in reporting."
"The most common complaint that I have heard, at least within our organization, is about reporting. They have their own reporting. It's just that it doesn't yet include everything that you can look at within the application. You can only report on specific metrics or collections."
"This solution be improved by including load throttling tools. For example, I can identify a service where we spend a lot of CPU but I cannot restrict the service from ControlUp. I have to use another tool like AppSense."
"The graphical user interface needs to be improved from version to version."
"It can be improved by including script-based scheduling."
"Most reports give information about the top 100 devices, but not all of the devices."
"ControlUp doesn't allow us to monitor the network infrastructure, so we are obliged to acquire another solution that allows us to monitor the network."
"The on-premises version has limited scalability as challenges occur because the console takes a lot of computer power."
"I have noticed drawbacks within Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX), as the sales team is too arrogant and too aggressive, playing politics, but the product itself is very good."
"Support responses are excellent, but for more complex cases, it sometimes takes longer."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Based on my experience, ControlUp is not that expensive."
"Personally, I would say that the only thing I could compare it to is another monitoring tool that we use, Nagios."
"We are satisfied with the price compared to other solutions."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Healthcare Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise8
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ControlUp Real-time?
It is expensive. It is very expensive. I was working in a bank, and even in the bank, which was quite healthy, the ControlUp budget was something we had to defend very harshly.
What is your primary use case for ControlUp Real-time?
I was taking care of a Citrix infrastructure, and as ControlUp is the best monitoring tool for those environments, I was also using ControlUp to monitor those environments.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)?
I consider the pricing reasonable for the value delivered, and the setup is straightforward with good onboarding support.
What needs improvement with Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)?
Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) can be improved with more detailed mobile device support, better integration with third-party ITSM platforms, and enhanced reporting customizations. I can easily in...
What is your primary use case for Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX)?
My main use case for Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) is to monitor end-user experience for SaaS applications, and I can also integrate all those applications within the tenant and troubleshoot net...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

B/E Aerospace, North Carolina SECU, Vancouver Island Health Authority, University of Florida
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about ControlUp vs. Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.