VMware SASE vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Broadcom and Zscaler are both solutions in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category. Broadcom is ranked #22, while Zscaler is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. Broadcom holds a 1.4% mindshare in SASE, compared to Zscaler’s 8.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform and VMware SASE are competing in the cloud security solutions category. Zscaler seems to have the upper hand in security features due to strong protocol implementation, while VMware SASE is preferred for its integration capabilities.

Features: Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is known for its strong security protocols, seamless cloud connectivity, and enhanced user protection. VMware SASE stands out for its unified management interface, robust networking features, and versatile integration support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zscaler's deployment is quick and simple, coupled with reliable support services. VMware SASE's deployment is more complex, requiring detailed planning, offering considerable customization options backed by supportive service.

Pricing and ROI: Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform offers a competitive pricing structure with strong ROI, driven by dependable security capabilities and straightforward implementation. VMware SASE requires a higher initial investment but potentially offers greater long-term ROI for enterprises seeking an all-in-one networking and security solution due to its expansive features.

To learn more, read our detailed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

October 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 920,769 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 November 2026, in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category, the mindshare of iboss is 3.2%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware SASE is 1.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is 8.6%, down from 11.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform	8.6%
iboss	3.2%
VMware SASE	1.4%
Other	86.8%

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula

Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support

The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.

Read full review

Murat-Alici

System Executive at Huawei

A stable solution that can be deployed in less than an hour

The solution's technical support is not good enough. The support offered by VMware for end customers is not enough. Support from VMware should be made available to our company with just one email or call since VMware currently has a very complex website. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Zaheer_Khan

Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce

Secure access has improved remote work and has reduced vulnerabilities across our workforce

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform probably needs to be more efficient because scanning takes a lot of time. Some vulnerabilities create issues, and when we wanted to identify the source of the vulnerabilities, specifically focusing on mobile ID and related areas, it was unable to provide assistance. However, according to discussions with Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, they said that by the end of mid-2026, they are exploring these features, and probably those features can be incorporated or embedded into this particular system. That is the only major negative point.In terms of responses, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is good. In terms of controlling vulnerability, it is good. The only cons I have noticed is that it is a bit slower, and sometimes it is unable to identify the source. These are the key areas for improvement.

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

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."

"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."

"From a corporate perspective, I understand that it's important to keep the company data safe."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"The students were always protected, and the content filtering worked very well, seeming to work better than other products we had tried previously."

"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."

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

More iboss pros

"It is a stable solution."

"The customer service and support are very good."

"Overall, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, especially Zscaler Private Access, has been a strong and reliable solution for enabling secure access without any need for traditional VPNs."

"The most valuable features of Zscaler CASB are API integration and DLP."

"The scalability of the solution is great."

"It does the job. What it is needed for. I can use it for VPN, I can use it for secure connections, I can use it as a firewall. So the solution does the job."

"The only advantage I see is no more connection is required by the users."

"Subsequently, after this, there is a huge reduction, as the vulnerabilities, especially the security bugs that were coming prior to Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, were about 20,000 to 22,000 and have come down more than 40 percent, which is definitely an advantage over the previous product."

"The best feature is the ability to establish the connection between your public network and automatically connect to the intranet connection."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform pros

Cons

"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."

"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."

"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."

"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."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

More iboss cons

"The upgrade feature of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The pricing for Private Access seems to be on the expensive side, and I believe they should consider making it more competitive with other solutions."

"Having a Zscaler-specific device could streamline this process and provide a more consistent user experience across diverse branches."

"The customers would benefit from more robust documentation and conversations around configurations, as it is slightly complex."

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

"What could be improved in Zscaler Private Access is its notification. For example, if there's a speed issue, there should be a pop-up that alerts the user about it. If there is a network quality issue, for example, it isn't good enough to connect to, or the network quality is bad, there should be a notification from the solution. Zscaler Private Access also needs improvement in terms of its interface and security."

"It has massive room for improvement. The Zscaler product itself is okay, but it doesn't give enough granularity for us as an organization to stipulate rules or processes, especially for data-driven services. For instance, we can stick on SSL inspection, but it's just a click box. It doesn't allow us to go any further into the detail of the SSL inspection. We also can't pull it out without having an additional logging server. It just doesn't give us enough granularity. They should give us more control over the interfaces because it is all backend. They weren't very open to discussing their backend architecture with us in terms of their own data centers. They can maybe a little bit more open about what components are there and how the backend infrastructure works alongside Zscaler. Its licensing can be better. Some of the additional licensing costs are quite high, and they should have certain features ready and available as a baseline rather than having to purchase additional licenses for it. Their support should also be improved. I initially had a consultant from Zscaler for its deployment, but the support that I had throughout the deployment of the project wasn't the best."

"The tool must provide IP-blocking features."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"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."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

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

"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."

Information not available

"The cost is expensive. It depends on the number of users."

"The technical support is good."

"The pricing is expensive and on the higher end. Honestly, in my opinion, it is not worth the price."

"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."

"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."

"As per industry leads, Zscaler CASB is an expensive solution."

"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."

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

No data available

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	15

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	45

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

iboss could be improved by making the dashboard more user-friendly, providing more detailed real-time alerts, and imp...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

iboss is primarily used for cloud security, helping to protect users when they access websites and cloud applications...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

The pricing and licensing for iboss were reasonable for the security features. The setup costs were manageable, thoug...

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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 ac...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Cloud Protection?

This is an area where I have candid feedback from our organization regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Z...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zscaler Cloud Protection?

After three years of working with Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, I do have genuine feedback on areas where I f...

See all answers

Comparisons

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs iboss

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 6% of the time

Okta Platform vs iboss

Compared 3% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs VMware SASE

Compared 21% of the time

Aruba ESP vs VMware SASE

Compared 18% of the time

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform vs VMware SASE

Compared 6% of the time

FortiSASE vs VMware SASE

Compared 6% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs VMware SASE

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware SASE Competitors

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 4% of the time

Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 3% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 3% of the time

NetFoundry Platform vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

Compared 2% of the time

More Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2026

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

October 2026

Download VMware SASE product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform

October 2026

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform report

Download Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

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

Overview

iboss is the Zero Trust SASE platform that gives organizations complete visibility and governance over their AI, data, and applications through one unified platform, one console, one policy engine, and one data lake.

Your endpoints may already stop malware. Your data and application activity can still be invisible. iboss decrypts and understands every connection, then turns that signal into answers security leaders can act on.

The platform leads with three capabilities in this order: AI Security and Visibility, Data Security and Visibility, and App Visibility and Control. Zero Trust Network Access, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN sit underneath as the access fabric that carries those three. Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

- AI Security and Visibility: conversation capture, shadow-AI discovery, AI DLP, and agent governance across Claude, Co-Work, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, and emerging services.

- Data Security and Visibility: full SSL/TLS decryption, deep content inspection, MIP label compliance, and one-click compliance reporting.

- App Visibility and Control: signatureless CASB, dual risk scoring, in-app controls, and SSPM for major SaaS.

- Containerized Zero Trust SASE: dedicated containers, isolated SSL keys, one console, one policy engine, one data lake.

- Access fabric: ZTNA, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN under the same platform.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

- Complete visibility over AI, data, and applications from one platform instead of separate point tools.

- Encrypted traffic is inspected by default so data decisions use content and context together.

- Shadow SaaS and new web tools appear as they are used, with enforceable controls in one console.

- Native data sovereignty through dedicated containers, in-region inspection, and per-customer SSL key custody.

- Scale proven in published materials: 10M+ users, 100+ countries, 150B+ transactions, 2.5B+ threats blocked.

Economic buyers are CISOs, CIOs, and VPs of Security. Champions include security architects, network and infrastructure leaders, SecOps, and GRC. Primary segments: enterprise and business, financial services, government (including FedRAMP Gov Cloud), healthcare, manufacturing, legal and professional services, retail and hospitality, and MSP/MSSP partners. Education, including K-12, is one vertical among these.

iboss

VMware SASE seamlessly integrates networking and security in a cloud-based framework, ensuring efficient and secure connectivity for modern enterprises.

VMware SASE caters to distributed businesses by combining SD-WAN capabilities with robust security protocols. As organizations evolve, maintaining secure and reliable network connectivity becomes critical. VMware SASE addresses this with its intelligent use of cloud-native solutions, supporting uninterrupted connection while reducing complexities.

What are the most important features of VMware SASE?

SD-WAN Integration: Offers flexible and reliable network access through smart SD-WAN technologies.
Zero Trust Security: Implements a stringent security approach, verifying users and devices before granting access.
Cloud Access Security Broker: Ensures safe cloud application usage by monitoring and controlling security policies.
Edge Network Intelligence: Provides insights into network performance and helps optimize resource allocation.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces total cost of ownership by consolidating networking and security services.
Improved Connectivity: Enhances network performance leading to a better user experience.
Enhanced Security: Proactively protects against threats, minimizing risk exposure.
Scalability: Adapts to changing demands, allowing seamless growth.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, VMware SASE has been implemented to ensure compliance with strict data security regulations while maintaining high-speed connectivity. Retail sectors leverage it to boost customer experience by ensuring secure and reliable connections across branches.

Broadcom

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange enhances security with seamless cloud-based connectivity and VPN-less operation, offering integration with multiple identity providers and advanced security features, suitable for remote work environments.

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange provides secure, adaptive connectivity without traditional VPNs, allowing organizations to replace legacy systems and bolster remote work security. The platform offers cloud-based protection, single sign-on, dynamic URL categorization, and scalable solutions. While advanced security features like DLP and threat protection enhance data protection, users may face issues with speed, connectivity, and some customization options. Integration challenges, latency due to multi-tenant hosting, reporting delays, and licensing costs require consideration. It supports secure internet access and private application security, ensuring traffic control and data compliance.

What are the key features of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange?

VPN-less Connectivity: Enables secure remote access without traditional VPNs.
Cloud-based Security: Offers scalable protection utilizing cloud infrastructure.
Single Sign-On: Integrates with multiple identity providers for streamlined access.
Dynamic URL Categorization: Provides real-time URL filtering to enhance security.
Advanced Threat Protection: Detects and mitigates sophisticated threats effectively.
Customizable Policies: Allows tailored security protocols to fit unique requirements.
Comprehensive DLP: Protects sensitive data through robust data loss prevention.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with cloud services and applications.

What are the benefits of using Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange?

Enhanced Security: Delivers consistent protection regardless of user location.
Improved Compliance: Ensures adherence to data protection regulations.
Streamlined Access: Simplifies connectivity to private and cloud applications.
Scalability: Supports expanding organizational demands with cloud scalability.
Real-time Visibility: Provides instant insights into security incidents and network traffic.

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange is deployed across industries to secure remote access and enforce zero trust principles. Organizations in finance, healthcare, and technology sectors utilize it for secure internet access and visibility into cloud applications, enhancing performance and compliance in dynamic environments.

Zscaler

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.

Information Not Available

Siemens, AutoNation, GE, NOV

Buyer's Guide

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

October 2026

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, Zscaler and others in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). Updated: October 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) vendors.

We monitor all Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) 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.