Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Zscaler Internet Access

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Secure Firewall
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Cisco Firepower NGFW) is a firewall product that integrates with other Cisco security offerings. It provides Advanced Malware protection, including sandboxing environments and DDoS mitigation. Cisco also offers a Next Generation Intrusion Prevention System, which provides security across cloud environments using techniques like internal network segmentation. The firewall can be managed locally, remotely, and via the cloud. The product is scalable to the scope of…N/A
Zscaler Internet Access
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Zscaler Internet Access is delivered as a security stack as a service from the cloud, and is designed to eliminate the cost and complexity of traditional secure web gateway approaches, and provide easily scaled protection to all offices or users, regardless of location, and minimize network and appliance infrastructure.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Secure Firewall
7.5
62 Ratings
12% below category average
Zscaler Internet Access
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies7.654 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools6.556 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection7.656 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.159 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP7.551 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console7.459 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.060 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN7.852 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability7.857 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.056 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server6.734 Ratings00 Ratings
Identity Management
Comparison of Identity Management features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Secure Firewall
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
8.0
1 Ratings
15% below category average
Multi-Factor Authentication00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Endpoint Security
Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Secure Firewall
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
8.0
1 Ratings
7% below category average
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Threat Intelligence
Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Secure Firewall
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
8.4
1 Ratings
1% above category average
Network Analytics00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Threat Recognition00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Vulnerability Classification00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Automated Alerts and Reporting00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Threat Analysis00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Threat Intelligence Reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Automated Threat Identification00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Zero Trust Security
Comparison of Zero Trust Security features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Secure Firewall
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
8.6
1 Ratings
3% below category average
Continuous Verification00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Secure Web Gateways00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Network Flow Control00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Network Traffic Analysis00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Segmentation Leveraging00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Admin Access Control00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Network Data Encryption00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Network Topology Mapping00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
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Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Small Businesses
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Score 9.2 out of 10
ThreatLocker
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Score 8.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(62 ratings)
8.6
(16 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.6
(21 ratings)
8.1
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Secure FirewallZscaler Internet Access
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Sometimes it is really hard to handle. There are so many bugs especially when it comes to ACL or HA creation. Sometimes the Cisco Secure Firewall just needs a restart in order to work but that shouldn't be like that in our environment the Cisco Secure Firewall is the heart of the network and if the Cisco Secure Firewall is down the whole branch is down, for that we need a more reliable product.
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Zscaler
Zscaler Internet Access is an internet tunnel that pairs with the network adapter to secure traffic between servers and workstations. It can refresh policies automatically and log intrusions but does not broadcast intrusions. Cloud-based Zscaler Internet Access is easy to deploy and scale, with no hardware or software needed. In a hybrid model, Zscaler Internet Access performs some security functions on-premises and others in the cloud, allowing organizations to keep infrastructure. There is a slight learning curve from VPN and appliance architecture to this paradigm.
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Pros
Cisco
  • How the firewall works well is normally the firewall is protecting the secure network for the internal network to prevent the attack from external network. normally for the ISP customer, we usually filter the firewall polices only for the server farm, server farm because normally in ISP is the customer doesn't want to be filtered. So only for the server farm, they need the firewall for the enterprise like banking and for the DDoS attack, like the malware attack, something like that. And then sometimes it's some customer in ISPalso, they got the many DDoS attack and then they are using the public ip. When there are using the public ip, they need to protect their ip. So they need to use the firewall. So the firewall is essentially needed. many attackers and many, many things, terrible things have been to the network which has large impact..
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Zscaler
  • Zscaler completely moved away from the traditional firewall setup to a hosted firewall solution. We don't have to worry about the hardware failing or maintaining it as part of our service plan compared to our on-premise firewall. Zscaler has a lot of data centres across the world where they are maintaining their solutions so mobile consultants will always be close to one of their data centres.
  • Rolling out Zscaler solutions to our end customers' computers is actually pretty easy and hassle-free. As part of onboarding of new employees we can set up the Zscaler solution and push it to our end users' machines and get them connected to the cloud solutions.
  • Zscaler does proper market research on the latest emerging threats and they keep their firewall patched and updated to the latest versions so the security team does not have to worry about keeping the firewall updated.
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Cons
Cisco
  • The UI in Cisco Firepower formerly Sourcefire) is complicated and entirely redundant. A lot of these features are not useful, and therefore, it can be removed from the main window.
  • The interface is very slow, with each operation taking a lot of time. Searching through the logs takes too much time.
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Zscaler
  • Chat or email support is not available. Only option is to either call them or raise a ticket by logging into their website.
  • Pricing is not transparent and quote based.
  • Access to websites is a little too slow with Zscaler monitoring on.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
It works really well. We can do most anything we want or need to with it, and you don’t have to have a doctorate or multiple certs to necessarily figure it out. The thing that would probably have to happen to make us switch would be if we just got priced out - Cisco’s more powerful and higher bandwidth models cost a pretty penny.
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Zscaler
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
Solution is highly effective, offers a lot of features with constant improvements and additions of new features over time. It's relatively easy to get familiar with the system, especially if transitioning from adaptive security appliances. If this is not the case, as for learnability there's a learning curve but once learned it is relatively easy to remember the details about the system even after a period of non-use
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Zscaler
Zscaler is a mandatory solution required by almost every large organization with a workforce working remotely or using cloud-based apps. Its deployment is relatively easy and it keeps on working in the background without actively bothering the user. Apart from a few weird messages which a user is unable to comprehend, Zscaler is able to provide fast and safe access to the internet and other external applications.
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
We have had really good success with Cisco Secure Firewall when it comes to availability. Even when we’ve had temporary issues with one appliance or the other, or with the Firewall Management Center, it has stayed up and defended our network diligently. We even had an issue where the licensing got disabled for multiple days, and it kept spinning like a top
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Zscaler
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
Customer service has been great. TAC has been mostly able to identify and fix problems that we may have and have been very responsive. If for some reason something isn't fixed right away, they have been adamant on staying with us and working the issues out before things get escalated up the chain.
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Zscaler
I cannot give a fair rating for this as I have not had to contact Zscaler support. There was one time we had to contact them because we needed to check if they were having issues on their end. Our ISP was actually the problem but support seemed very friendly.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
In the beginning transition from Adaptive Security Appliance to Cisco Secure Firewall did not look like the best choice. Solution was new, there were a lot of bugs and unsupported features and the actual execution in the form of configuration via Firepower Management Center was extremely slow. Compare configuring a feature via CLI on ASA in a manner of seconds (copy/paste) to deployment via FMC to Secure Firewall which took approx. 10 mins (no exaggeration). Today, situation is a bit different, overall solution looks much more stable and faster then it was but there's still room for improvement.
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Zscaler
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We use the FMC as a virtual machine, it combines administration, monitoring and can be used perfectly for error analysis. There are restrictions due to administration without the FMC, so we decided on the FMC as the central administration.
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Zscaler
Zscaler Intenet Access proved to be superior and the difference for us was the speed of policy delivery since your policy is applied in a web console and is effective in a matter of seconds. Another point to congratulate the solution is its compatibility with different platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, and iOS).
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Cisco Secure Firewall has provided a single management interface for all of our devices.
  • We have had issues implementing 1010 in HA where a site was using a dynamic IP previously.
  • Lack of DHCP options has slowed deployment to our smaller sites.
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Zscaler
  • ROI is there and it is safeguarding the data and user access to net.
  • Being a cloud based can be scaled up when required.
  • Third parties can be allowed based on the company IT policies (Clients or Vendors etc.) for business perspective.
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ScreenShots