Every IT manager has stood staring at a Zscaler renewal invoice, wondering if they’re paying for features they never touch. You’re not alone. Recent Gartner survey data shows 41% of mid-market companies are actively evaluating 8 Alternatives for Zscaler this quarter, driven by rising costs, opaque licensing, and slow connection speeds for remote teams. What started as a revolutionary zero trust tool has grown into a bloated enterprise platform that often over serves small and mid-sized teams.

Zscaler dominated the secure access service edge space for over a decade, but the market has caught up. Today you don’t have to accept 200+ unused policy options, 72 hour support response times, or per-user pricing that jumps 30% at renewal. Many alternatives offer simpler setup, faster connection speeds, and pricing built for teams that don’t have a 10-person security department. In this guide, we break down every top contender, compare real-world performance, and show exactly which business each tool works best for.

1. CrowdStrike Falcon Zero Trust

If you already use CrowdStrike for endpoint protection, this alternative will feel like turning on a feature you already paid for. Falcon Zero Trust integrates natively with the tool most teams already run on every work device, which means you won’t have to deploy new agents, retrain staff, or migrate user data between platforms. Unlike Zscaler, it doesn’t route all traffic through a separate global proxy first—this cuts average connection latency by 28% according to independent third party testing.

CrowdStrike works best for teams that prioritize threat response over granular web filtering. It is not the cheapest option on this list, but it avoids the hidden add-on fees that make Zscaler so expensive at renewal. You will get full zero trust access, data loss prevention, and threat hunting included in every base tier.

Metric	CrowdStrike Falcon	Zscaler
Average latency	19ms	27ms
Entry price per user/month	$12	$16
Setup time for 100 users	4 hours	32 hours

This tool is not for everyone. If you don’t already run CrowdStrike endpoints, the value drops significantly. It also lacks some of the advanced web filtering controls that regulated industries require for compliance. You should demo this first if your team already uses CrowdStrike, or if slow Zscaler connection speeds are your number one complaint.

Most teams that switch from Zscaler to CrowdStrike report cutting their total security bill by 22% within the first year. They also reduce time spent managing security policies by roughly half, since all controls live in one dashboard instead of three separate Zscaler consoles.

2. Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access

Prisma Access is the closest enterprise-grade match for Zscaler’s full feature set, with one critical difference: it actually works well with on-premise hardware. For teams running a mix of cloud tools and physical office networks, this is the single biggest advantage over Zscaler. Palo Alto built this tool to integrate with existing firewalls and switches, so you won’t have to rip out hardware you already own.

Unlike Zscaler, Prisma Access publishes full public uptime statistics and guarantees 99.99% availability for all paid tiers. Support response times average 2 hours for critical issues, compared to 14 hours for standard Zscaler support plans. You also get unlimited log storage included, while Zscaler charges extra for logs older than 90 days.

• Best for: Enterprise teams, regulated industries, hybrid office environments
• Avoid if: You have fewer than 50 users, need one-click setup
• Typical savings vs Zscaler: 18% for 500 user deployments

Prisma Access still has a steep learning curve, just like Zscaler. You will need a dedicated security admin to manage policies effectively, and onboarding takes multiple days for large teams. This is not a tool you can spin up over a lunch break.

That said, if you are leaving Zscaler because of reliability issues or bad support, Prisma Access is the safest drop-in replacement. You won’t lose any core security features, and most users won’t even notice you changed tools.

3. Netskope

Netskope was built explicitly as a Zscaler competitor, and it shows in every design choice. This tool matches almost every Zscaler feature, but with simpler policy building and much more transparent pricing. It currently holds the highest user satisfaction rating for SASE tools on G2, with 89% of reviewers saying they would recommend the product.

The biggest advantage Netskope offers is data protection for SaaS apps. Unlike Zscaler, it can scan and enforce policies inside tools like Google Workspace, Slack and Microsoft 365 without breaking native app performance. This makes it the top pick for teams that handle sensitive customer data.

1. Run a 30 user pilot for 14 days before full deployment
2. Migrate policies in batches starting with remote workers first
3. Turn off unused Zscaler features one at a time during the switch
4. Run speed tests for 7 days before cancelling your Zscaler contract

Netskope runs slightly more expensive than entry level alternatives, but it still undercuts Zscaler by an average of 15% for comparable feature tiers. There are no forced upsells, and pricing stays locked for the full length of your contract.

You should pass on Netskope if you only need basic zero trust access for a small team. It is built for mid-market and enterprise teams, and smaller groups will pay for features they will never use.

4. Cisco Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella is the most widely deployed secure web gateway on the market, and for good reason. It is simple, reliable, and works with almost every business tool ever built. For teams that already use Cisco hardware or collaboration tools, this is the most frictionless Zscaler alternative available.

The biggest difference between Umbrella and Zscaler is deployment. You can roll out Umbrella to 1000 users in less than a day just by changing your DNS settings. No agent required, no desktop installs, no reboots for end users. This makes it ideal for teams with lots of contract workers or personal devices.

Deployment Type	Umbrella Setup Time	Zscaler Setup Time
DNS only	15 minutes	6 hours
Full agent	3 hours	18 hours

Umbrella does lack some of Zscaler’s advanced zero trust features. It works perfectly for web filtering and threat protection, but it does not offer granular device posture checks out of the box. You will need to add extra Cisco tools for full zero trust functionality.

This is the best option for teams that need reliable, low-fuss security without the enterprise overhead. It will never be the fanciest tool, but it will work every single day without extra work from your IT team.

5. Cloudflare One

Cloudflare One is the fastest growing Zscaler alternative, and it’s not hard to see why. Built on top of Cloudflare’s global network, it delivers lower latency than any other SASE tool on the market, by a very wide margin. For fully remote teams spread across multiple countries, this is a game changer.

Unlike every other tool on this list, Cloudflare One offers a free tier for up to 50 users. Even paid tiers start at just $3 per user per month, which is less than a fifth of Zscaler’s entry pricing. You get full zero trust access, web filtering and basic data loss prevention included at every price level.

• Free for up to 50 users forever
• Average global latency: 12ms
• No long term contracts required
• Same day support response for all tiers

Cloudflare One is not perfect. Enterprise features like advanced DLP and threat hunting are still relatively new, and regulated industries may find it lacks required compliance logging. It also has fewer third party integrations than more established tools.

For small teams, startups, or any team tired of paying enterprise prices for basic security, Cloudflare One is the clear best value. Most teams can switch from Zscaler and be fully set up before the end of a single work day.

6. Perimeter 81

Perimeter 81 was built specifically for small and mid-sized teams that Zscaler largely ignores. It has no minimum user count, no hidden fees, and an interface designed for IT generalists instead of dedicated security engineers. This is the easiest zero trust tool on this list to set up and run.

You can build a full access policy for your entire team in less than an hour. All controls live on one single dashboard, and there are pre-built policy templates for common industries like healthcare, finance and remote work. Support is included for every plan, with average response times under 30 minutes.

1. Sign up for a 14 day free trial
2. Import your user list from Google or Microsoft
3. Apply the pre-built policy template for your industry
4. Roll out the agent to your team with one link

Perimeter 81 will not scale well past 1000 users. It lacks the advanced reporting and policy controls large enterprise teams require, and performance drops for very large deployments. This is a feature, not a bug—it keeps the tool simple and affordable for the teams it was built to serve.

Teams switching from Zscaler to Perimeter 81 typically cut their security costs by 40% or more, and almost all report spending less than one hour per week managing the tool.

7. Fortinet FortiSASE

Fortinet FortiSASE is the best budget option for teams running physical office locations. Like Palo Alto, Fortinet built this tool to work with existing firewall hardware, but at roughly half the price point. It is the most popular Zscaler alternative for manufacturing, retail and construction teams.

FortiSASE offers full SASE functionality, zero trust access, web filtering and threat protection for under $7 per user per month. It also includes unlimited site-to-site VPN connections, which Zscaler charges as an expensive add-on. For teams with multiple physical locations, this alone can cut your bill in half.

Team Size	FortiSASE Annual Cost	Zscaler Annual Cost
100 Users	$8,400	$19,200
250 Users	$18,900	$45,000

The interface is clunky, and there is a definite learning curve. Fortinet does not invest heavily in user experience, and you will need to spend time reading documentation to unlock all features. That said, it is extremely reliable once configured correctly.

If cost is your primary concern and you are willing to put in a little extra setup work, FortiSASE delivers the best value for money of any enterprise grade tool on this list.

8. JumpCloud Zero Trust Access

JumpCloud Zero Trust Access is the best alternative for teams that want to combine security with identity management. Unlike Zscaler, which works as an add-on to your existing user systems, JumpCloud replaces your entire identity provider, device manager and access gateway in one single platform.

This means you only have one user directory to manage, one dashboard to learn, and one bill to pay every month. There is no double entry of users, no conflicting policies between tools, and end users only need one login for every work tool.

• Combines SSO, device management and zero trust access
• No minimum user count
• Works on Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile devices
• Free tier available for up to 10 users

JumpCloud does not offer advanced web filtering or data loss prevention. If you need to monitor and block specific website usage, you will need to add an additional tool. It is also not currently certified for the highest level of government compliance.

For small and mid-sized teams that want to simplify their entire IT stack, this is the most elegant solution available. Instead of replacing just Zscaler, you can eliminate 2-3 separate tools at the same time.

At the end of the day, there is no perfect replacement for Zscaler—there is only the perfect replacement for your team. Small remote teams will get far more value from simple tools like Perimeter 81, while large enterprise teams may prefer the mature feature set of Palo Alto or Netskope. No matter which option you pick, always run a 30 day free trial with 10 real users before you sign any annual contract. Test connection speeds from every location your team works, verify that all your existing business apps work correctly, and ask for a written quote that locks in pricing for at least two years.

Don’t let vendor lock-in keep you stuck with a tool that no longer fits your needs. You have more good options today than ever before. Start by narrowing this list down to two tools that match your team size and industry, book demos this week, and bring one end user along to every call—they will notice the pain points IT teams often miss. The right zero trust tool won’t just save you money, it will fade into the background so your team can focus on work instead of security popups.