Over the years, we’ve used several secure access solutions for our business, and Zscaler stands out as one of the best for securing internet traffic, whether users are on the LAN or connected via VPN. The UI is friendly and straightforward, making it easy for all our end users to navigate. We’ve been able to get strong value from features like Secure DNS, DLP (Data Loss Prevention), Secure Browsing, and Cloud Sandboxing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Not a major flaw - but we noticed that switching between multiple VPN networks can be cumbersome while Zscaler internet access is enabled. Custom applications using custom encryption might fail to work unless exceptions/exclusions are configured. Pricing is premium! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about Zscaler Internet Access is its true Zero Trust, cloud-native architecture. Unlike traditional hub-and-spoke VPNs or appliance-heavy setups, ZIA provides seamless, high-speed inspection of SSL/TLS traffic without creating network bottlenecks. The inline threat prevention—combining Cloud Firewall, Sandboxing, and DLP—ensures robust protection for users regardless of whether they are working on-premises or remotely. Additionally, the fast peering connections mean end users experience minimal latency while maintaining strict corporate security controls Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Initial Policy Configuration & Fine-Tuning Complexity: Setting up SSL/TLS inspection rules and bypass lists requires careful initial tuning. Overly aggressive SSL decryption can occasionally break legacy client applications or specific developer toolchains (like custom CLI environments or local package managers), requiring explicit bypass rules. Additionally, troubleshooting false positives or blocked traffic sometimes requires navigating multiple logs (NSS/Log Streaming) across different administrative dashboards, which carries a bit of a learning curve Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I’ve been using Zscaler Internet Access in our environment, and what stands out most is how seamlessly it secures internet traffic without relying on traditional perimeter-based security. Its biggest strengths are the robust web filtering, SSL inspection, malware protection, and granular policy controls. It also delivers excellent visibility into internet usage, which makes it easier to spot risky applications and consistently enforce security policies across the organization. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The policy configuration can feel overwhelming during the initial implementation due to the sheer number of available settings. When troubleshooting user-specific access issues, I sometimes have to review multiple logs and policies, which can add time and make it harder to pinpoint the root cause. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best part about Zscaler Internet Access is the elimination of hardware appliances. Because it is a completely cloud-delivered service, it scales effortlessly as our company grows. The deployment was seamless, and it has significantly reduced the time our IT team spends on maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The strictness of the default security filters often leads to a high volume of false positives, occasionally blocking legitimate business websites or developer tools. Requesting and implementing exclusions or bypasses can take too long, which temporarily disrupts employee workflow and creates an influx of support tickets for our helpdesk. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

ZIA is Zscaler’s cloud-native Secure Web Gateway for secure internet and SaaS access. Users connect directly to apps through the cloud with identity- and policy-based access, and overall it provides fast, reliable access.

What I like most is the threat protection, the strong security without added complexity, and the ease of deployment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I occasionally run into latency issues during peak usage. Some users also report low internet speeds and certain sites not opening at all. Even when a site is whitelisted, it sometimes still doesn’t work as expected. When that happens, the error message is usually just “blocked by Zscaler,” without any additional detail to explain what’s being blocked or why. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If you ask me to pinpoint the absolute best thing about Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), it is that it finally killed the "trombone routing" nightmare. For years, we forced remote users and branch offices to route all their web traffic back over expensive MPLS lines or VPNs to a centralized data center just so our physical firewalls could inspect it. ZIA flips this model: it acts as a cloud-native secure web gateway directly at the edge, allowing a user in a coffee shop to connect straight to the internet or their SaaS apps while still getting enterprise-grade inspection.

​Here are the major upsides I rely on in the field:

​Unlimited SSL Inspection: The vast majority of web traffic is encrypted today. If you try to do deep SSL/TLS inspection on a traditional hardware firewall, the CPU will choke. Zscaler’s cloud architecture handles full inline decryption at a massive scale without creating a bottleneck, exposing the malware and data leaks hiding in encrypted traffic.

​Massive Appliance Consolidation: ZIA allows us to walk into a data center and rip out racks of legacy hardware. We consolidate standalone Secure Web Gateways (SWG), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) engines, and malware sandboxes into a single, unified cloud platform.

​AI-Driven "Patient Zero" Protection: Because Zscaler sits between millions of enterprise users and the internet, their global threat intelligence is unmatched. They process over 500 trillion daily threat signals. If their AI-powered sandbox detects a zero-day ransomware payload hitting a machine in Tokyo, that file signature is blocked for every Zscaler customer globally within seconds.

​The biggest upside, It transforms outbound web security from a localized hardware bottleneck into a seamless, invisible layer that actually improves the end-user's digital experience by cutting out the middleman. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The unvarnished reality of Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) is that while it is an incredibly powerful security engine, its fundamental architecture forcing all outbound traffic through a third-party cloud proxy for deep inspection introduces massive operational friction. When you deploy ZIA, you are inherently trading network simplicity for security visibility.

​1. The Physics of the "Middle Hop" Latency

​It is an unavoidable physics problem: every outbound web request your users make must travel from their device, to a Zscaler Enforcement Node (ZEN), get decrypted and inspected, and then travel to the final destination.

​Even with Zscaler's massive global footprint, this round-trip inherently adds latency typically 10 to 50 milliseconds, and noticeably worse if the user is located far from a major Point of Presence (PoP). The most common complaint you will field from the business is that "the internet feels slow," and your IT desk will spend an inordinate amount of time trying to explain that the sluggishness is the security tool operating exactly as designed.

​2. The SSL Inspection and PAC File Burden

​To get value out of ZIA's Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and advanced malware sandboxing, you must enable full inline SSL/TLS inspection. This breaks things constantly.

​Any application utilizing certificate pinning, non-standard web protocols, or custom developer scripts will outright fail because the application will reject Zscaler's man-in-the-middle certificate. To fix this, your network engineers have to meticulously maintain bypass lists. In complex "no-default route" environments, this means managing massive, fragile Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC) files. If a PAC file fails to load correctly when a user moves off the corporate network, their internet access completely breaks.

​3. Heavy Endpoint DLP Footprint

​While Zscaler is "cloud-native," protecting data effectively often requires the Zscaler Client Connector (ZCC) to run the endpoint DLP module. This agent can be surprisingly heavy. In the field, it is notorious for causing memory leaks, pinning CPU usage to 100%, and causing bizarre application conflicts (like DLL issues in Microsoft Excel). Furthermore, ZIA's DLP is strictly focused on data in transit; it lacks a dedicated endpoint agent for scanning offline data-at-rest or local USB file transfers, leaving a blind spot you usually have to fill with a secondary tool.

​4. Admin Console Sluggishness

​For a premium enterprise product, the administrative interface can be remarkably slow and disjointed. It is a frequent complaint among security operators that the admin console can take minutes to load certain policy pages or run complex traffic reports. When you are actively trying to troubleshoot a dropped connection or tune a highly complex Data Loss Prevention rule to stop false positives, sitting and waiting for the UI to render is deeply frustrating.

​5. Licensing Complexity and Renewal Shock

​Zscaler does not publish a clean, flat pricing model; everything is modular. A massive pain point for IT leadership is the "tier jump." You might deploy on a standard "Business" tier, only to realize six months later that your architecture requires specific advanced SSL inspection or DLP features locked behind the "Transformation" tier. Because of this modular structure, organizations frequently face jarring 35%+ price hikes during contract renewals.

​Ultimately, ZIA is highly effective at stopping threats, but keeping it running smoothly requires a dedicated engineering team just to tune the exceptions, manage the proxy configurations, and field the helpdesk tickets it generates. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about Zscaler Internet Access is its ability to provide secure and fast internet access while protecting users from web-based threats. The web filtering, cloud firewall, malware protection, and SSL inspection features help maintain a strong security posture without significantly impacting user experience. I also like the centralized policy management, which makes it easy to enforce consistent internet security across the organization. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The initial setup and policy configuration can be complex, especially for organisations with large or hybrid environments. Troubleshooting blocked applications or websites may also require careful policy tuning, and there can be occasional latency depending on the user's location or network conditions. Additionally, the licensing cost may be a consideration for smaller organisations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Zscaler for secure VPN connectivity to access my company network and work applications. The UI is simple, and it’s easy to check whether I’m connected. It usually runs quietly in the background without interrupting my work, and the connection is reliable with good performance. It also works well with the applications I use every day. Automatic security checks and intelligent access controls help protect my connection without requiring extra steps from me. Overall, it makes my remote work easier, improves productivity, and provides good value for secure access. Setup and onboarding are straightforward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes Zscaler takes a little longer to connect or reconnect when I’m switching networks. When there’s a connection issue, the error messages aren’t very clear, so it can be difficult to know whether the problem is with Zscaler, my internet, or the company network. It would help if it provided better connection details and simpler troubleshooting steps. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about Zscaler Internet Access is its cloud-native, Zero Trust approach to securing internet access. It provides secure, policy-based access from any location without relying on traditional VPNs. Features like URL filtering, SSL inspection, cloud firewall, and centralized policy management improve security, simplify administration, and enhance visibility while delivering a seamless user experience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One drawback of Zscaler Internet Access is that troubleshooting can be challenging because traffic is inspected and routed through the cloud, making it harder to quickly identify the root cause of connectivity issues. SSL inspection may also cause compatibility issues with some applications if not configured properly. Additionally, creating and managing complex policies requires a good understanding of the platform, and policy changes can sometimes take time to validate and test. Overall, these are manageable with proper planning and administration. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) is how it delivers exceptional performance through fast, direct-to-cloud connectivity and seamless SSL decryption, all while remaining virtually invisible to employees via a lightweight, frictionless end-user UI/UX. The platform features robust, ecosystem-wide integrations with our existing IdP and EDR tools (such as Okta and CrowdStrike), allowing us to seamlessly leverage ZIA's advanced AI and threat intelligence for proactive zero-day sandboxing and automated data protection. While the initial onboarding and support phase requires strategic planning to transition away from legacy routing, ZIA's premium pricing ultimately delivers a massive ROI by completely consolidating our security stack, eliminating costly hardware maintenance, and drastically reducing administrative overhead. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike most about Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) is the steep learning curve and fragmented nature of the admin UI/UX, which makes complex policy management cumbersome. While its security capabilities are strong, the deep SSL inspection frequently breaks proprietary or legacy applications, requiring tedious configuration bypasses that impact operational performance. Additionally, the initial onboarding is highly complex, and standard customer support can be slow to resolve intricate routing issues. Finally, ZIA sits at a very premium pricing point; the licensing feels rigid, and advanced AI and threat intelligence modules require expensive add-on tiers, making the total cost of ownership quite high." Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.