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Comparing Cloudflare vs. Zscaler

Which better fuels transformation?

Don’t lock yourself out of your own future. Cloudflare helps you move quickly and nimbly as the future of networking evolves.

Simple deployment, network resiliency, and quick innovation provide a stronger foundation for true transformation of networking, security, and applications.

Three reasons customers choose Cloudflare over Zscaler

Simpler, more flexible architecture

Cloudflare customers value a uniform and composable platform for easy setup and operations. They do not want piecemeal services that lead to a more time-consuming, error-prone experience.

Trusted, secure connectivity

The Cloudflare global network is built with end-to-end traffic automation for reliability and performance that customers trust. No one wants manual connectivity to many cloud networks that forces security tradeoffs.

Faster, future-proof innovation

Cloudflare is architected to integrate innovations into the same network that customers use to evolve fast. No one wants new services bolted on or stagnating adoption of new standards that delays their future.

Pick an architecture designed for the future of networking

When choosing Cloudflare over Zscaler, you will benefit from a network built to run every edge service on every server — globally. We bring the entire network to the cloud and enable Zero Trust with single-pass inspection, quickly connecting users, devices, workloads, offices, clouds, data centers, and resources, wherever they are located. It is easy to deploy and run, so you can take control and start modernizing your environment at your desired pace, without needing an infinite IT budget, a parade of expensive POCs, and multiple complex deployments to get there.

Fast-track your journey to secure, any-to-any connectivity

Illustration of Cloudflare's journey to secure connectivity
Is the deployment simple enough?

While Zero Trust principles remain the same across providers, implementation and ROI vary widely. Cloudflare uniformly connects and secures end-to-end using one network and control plane to provide a better experience for both your IT practitioners and end users.

  • Who would pick siloed services as a first choice? No one. That is why all Cloudflare on-ramps and edge services actually work together.
  • Don’t wait weeks on white-glove support to start adoption. Our services platform is composable, so in just minutes and hours you are solving real use cases.
  • Avoid bloated virtual machine deployment logistics. Speed setup time with software-only connectors and one-time integrations.
Illustration of Cloudflare's journey to secure connectivity

Only a better Internet can consistently protect your business

Illustration of map marked with locations
Is the network resilient enough?

Today, roughly 20% of all websites are routed through the Cloudflare network — using the same proxies that deliver Zero Trust for your business. Our end-to-end traffic automation ensures reliable and scalable network connectivity with consistent protection from any location.

  • Security should not feel like a puzzle. Every edge service is built to run in every network location, available to every customer.
  • We feature a 100% uptime SLA for paid plans that only an Anycast architecture can deliver. Other vendors cannot just add this to their platform later.
  • Direct private interconnects keep your traffic away from the public Internet. This should be non-negotiable, but Zscaler does not offer it.
Illustration of map marked with locations

Relentlessly stay ahead of modern business needs to secure your future

Diagram of IPv6 connections protected by Cloudflare but not Zscaler
Is the pace of innovation fast enough?

Our future-proof architecture helps us build and ship very quickly — something we have established a solid reputation around. Check out our blog for proof! Pick a customer-led, agile provider with a lightning-fast rate of change to innovate new networking, security, and application capabilities.

  • We have one composable, developer-friendly cloud platform — not multiple fragmented clouds — that is extensible with any future edge service.
  • We achieve rapid, native adoption of new Internet and security standards.
  • Our history of technical prowess and growth speaks for itself, and our foundation provides extreme optionality.
Diagram of IPv6 connections protected by Cloudflare but not Zscaler

Adopt Zero Trust & SASE at your own pace



Cloudflare
Zscaler

Deployment Simplicity

On-ramps and services
Composable and work together
Many run separate from others

Security and connectivity
End-to-end: User/workload-to-app plus WAN and apps
Limited: User/workload-to-app only

Network and control plane
Uniform, one network, one control plane
AWS/Azure-augmented network, many control planes

Setup requirements
Often clientless, VM-free software, one-time integrations
Often clients, VM sizing logistics, repeated integrations

Network Resiliency

Global connectivity
Yes: Anycast architecture
No: Active/active local termination

Bypass public Internet
Yes: Private interconnects per customer to Cloudflare network
No: Private service VMs bypass Zscaler cloud, not the Internet

Network location availability
Every location available to every customer
Only a subset of locations available to every customer

Service availability
Every edge service built to run in every network location
Each service runs in a subset of network locations

Innovation Velocity

Cloud-native architecture
One cloud platform with uniform edge service availability
Many clouds with fragmented service availability

Developer-friendly platform
Composable and extensible with any future edge service
Bolted on for too long, loosely integrated years later

New Internet and security standards
Rapidly adopted, often contribute to designing them
Some introduced years later

ZTNA and SWG development
Built in four and two years, respectively
Built in six and 14 years, respectively

Resources

Comparison Brief: Cloudflare vs. Zscaler

Share with your teams the details on how Cloudflare stacks up.

Which better fuels transformation?

Download comparison brief
PDF: Cloudflare vs. Zscaler Deep Dive

37 comparison criteria are organized into five groups: Internet-native network platform, cloud-native service platform, services to adopt a SASE architecture, services to extend Zero Trust, SSE, SASE, and beyond (the current definitions of these market trends), and network on-ramps.

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PDF: Cloudflare Zero Trust

Cloudflare Zero Trust is a security platform that increases visibility, eliminates complexity, and reduces risks as remote and office users connect to applications and the Internet. In a single-pass architecture, traffic is verified, filtered, inspected, and isolated from threats.

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PDF: Cloudflare One

Cloudflare’s SASE platform, Cloudflare One, is a Zero Trust network-as-a-service built on a single, unified Internet-native network platform. It places identity-based security controls, firewall, WAN-as-a-Service and more close to users everywhere on Earth, helping them quickly and securely connect to any enterprise resource.

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