We compared Zscaler Internet Access and FortiSASE across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: Zscaler Internet Access offers a wide range of features, such as threat prevention, cloud sandbox security, and data loss prevention. FortiSASE is highly regarded for its convenience, stability, scalability, and user-friendly interface.
Room for Improvement: Zscaler Internet Access could enhance training, reporting, and API documentation. Users also requested a VPN and multi-factor authentication. FortiSASE should improve mobile device coverage, endpoint solution, and security during connection loss.
Ease of Deployment: Users had varied experiences with Zscaler's setup process, which could take a few days or several weeks. Some users found it easy, while others needed professional services or training. FortiSASE's initial setup is considered complex and involves deploying devices on-premises and on the cloud.
Service and Support: Zscaler Internet Access receives positive feedback for their customer service, which is described as professional and knowledgeable. However, some users reported communication challenges. FortiSASE's customer service is considered satisfactory. Users say that support promptly addresses issues and a team has expertise in their field.
Pricing: Users had mixed opinions about the cost of Zscaler Internet Access, which some reviewers find expensive compared to traditional solutions. FortiSASE is considered affordable, and Fortinet offers discounts for education users. It also reduces the cost of FortiGate firewalls and offers a more convenient budgeting approach.
ROI: Zscaler Internet Access provides cost savings by eliminating the need for on-site equipment and data centers. FortiSASE lowers initial purchase expenses and requires minimal training.
Comparison Results: Zscaler Internet Access is easy to use, scalable, and provides strong security. It allows users to consolidate security solutions. However, it requires professional services or training for setup and has room for improvement in reporting. FortiSASE simplifies management by consolidating everything into one platform and offers reliable support. It has an affordable pricing model and eliminates the need for certain firewalls, resulting in cost savings. However, its initial setup can be complex, and it does not cover mobile devices.
"The protection offered by the product is the most valuable feature. It detects vulnerabilities or traps on our users' phones and then prompts them to clean up their devices. Tools we used previously would only discover, which required us to gather information on the backend, so Lookout is a welcome upgrade."
"On the outside, the main differentiation is because Lookout ingest. They have ingested basically all of the apps for the last ten years and all the versions of all the apps, and we have that in a corporate database that allows us to do very large-scale machine learning and analysis on that data set. That's not something that any of the competitors really have the capability to do because they don't have access to the data set. A lot of the apps you can no longer get them because that version of the app is five or six years old, and it just doesn't exist anywhere anymore, except within our infrastructure. So, the ability to have that very rich dataset and learn from that dataset is a real differentiator."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable features are the antivirus as a whole, the anti-malware, and all of the protection features that scan our enterprise devices."
"The integration with the company's existing security infrastructure enhanced our security posture since it was a straightforward process."
"Deep packet inspection is easier to deploy in the FortiSASE environment. It's much simpler to configure one-touch deployment. It was considerably more convoluted to get that to work using FortiClient. All that processing horsepower is happening in Fortinet's cloud infrastructure, reducing the load on our local routers and on-prem FortiGate firewalls."
"I feel that it is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"The product can scale."
"The solution is easy to deploy and simple to manage."
"The users are at different locations, and Zscaler helps us to put the organization's central security controls on these roaming users."
"The policies are very intuitive and easy to configure, with very little possibility of messing things up."
"The VPN is valuable, as the whole technology is very different from a traditional VPN."
"Zscaler Web Security protects our users in remote locations from internet threats - even if they are not connected to our network."
"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."
"Whether you are in a hotel somewhere, or in Africa, it does not matter. You will get the Zscaler protection presence anywhere."
"The cloud proxy and integration are some of the key features. Since there is cloud waste, we can quickly provision it and start working on the configuration. On top of that, they have added a few more features. They have integrated CASB, and file sandboxing is part of it."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Lookout was moving into the SSE space. And so their work on SecureWeb Gateway and SD-WAN is still sort of evolving."
"We just submitted an enhancement request reflecting the main area we want to see improvement in; the APIs. Currently, we're able to build dashboards, but it's somewhat backward because we use our MDM API to create them. Lookout should provide API to customers so we can query our data and use it in our cloud, and this is the only outstanding area for improvement with the product right now."
"The stability depends on the service from where you access it. Because sometimes, the place you are in, you have Gateway. You don't have Gateway. The gateway is overutilized. At the end, you need to go through their gateways. And this is the key point here. You have a tracking point. If it's not well orchestrated, and it scales up as you add more to the existing team, you will suffer"
"From the analysis that we've done, they do seem to be maybe a step behind in trying to enter the market with a new solution. But when they do pick up, they do come out with some good products."
"FortiSASE is a work in progress. One area where there is room for improvement is the ability to use FortiSASE on an endpoint that doesn't have the client on it. Other solutions do that by building a VPN tunnel from their on-prem router into the SASE environment. FortiSASE doesn't have that feature yet, but it is on the roadmap for Q3 of this year. I've seen it in their development environment."
"Some of the solution's back-end connectivity and visibility are not robust and could be improved."
"The GUI and connectivity, along with the support offered, are some of the areas of concern in the product where improvements are required."
"Security and support are two areas with certain shortcomings in the product where improvements are required."
"They need to have more concise or precise ways to come up with the return on investment for convincing or presenting this to customers."
"Zscaler Internet Access could improve by adding a VPN feature."
"In terms of usage, here in the GCC, it's still growing a growing market, so the combination of DLP, data leak prevention, to a certain extent is fine. But what it requires is user-based access or role-based access. The solution needs to grow into that, which definitely takes time. There's not an easy way to integrate it, when you have a cloud-based solution."
"We'd like for them to include some sort of antivirus tool."
"Zscaler should continue to make the user interface better. They should also improve the backup network and continue to expand it so that it can handle larger numbers of customers."
"It needs better integration with other applications. It takes a fair amount of regular activity to apply the by-passes because it is very strict in its restrictions and frequently you have to go in and open things up to allow the workforce to work."
"They block Zscaler IPs when the traffic origin is from Zscaler IPs. They've been blocked by certain government organizations so the end users are not able to visit those websites unless we ask them to unblock those IP. This is a bit problematic."
"It also needs better integration with other applications as well. There are some restrictions."
"The solution is expensive. They recently revised the pricing and packaging. Some of our existing customers have been asking for alternate solutions for a lower price."
FortiSASE is ranked 14th in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) with 5 reviews while Zscaler Internet Access is ranked 2nd in Secure Web Gateways (SWG) with 46 reviews. FortiSASE is rated 7.4, while Zscaler Internet Access is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of FortiSASE writes "An easy to deploy and simple to manage solution that can be used for remote worker access". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Zscaler Internet Access writes "Provides integrated CASB and file sandboxing but could be less expensive ". FortiSASE is most compared with Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks, Cisco Umbrella, Cato SASE Cloud Platform, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange and Netskope , whereas Zscaler Internet Access is most compared with Cisco Umbrella, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Netskope , Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway. See our FortiSASE vs. Zscaler Internet Access report.
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.