What users are saying about
30 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.9 out of 100
Based on 30 reviews and ratings
49 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.5 out of 100
Based on 49 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
Firewall

8.5
Cisco Secure Firewall
85%

Zscaler Internet Access
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Cisco Secure Firewall ranks higher in 11/11 features
Cisco Secure Firewall ranks higher in 11/11 features
Identification Technologies

7.9
79%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Visualization Tools

7.7
77%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Content Inspection

9.4
94%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Policy-based Controls

8.8
88%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP

7.2
72%
13 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Firewall Management Console

8.9
89%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Reporting and Logging

8.4
84%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
VPN

9.4
94%
12 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
High Availability

9.9
99%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Stateful Inspection

9.3
93%
14 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Proxy Server

7.2
72%
12 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cisco Secure Firewall is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
- Zscaler Internet Access is rated higher in 2 areas: Usability, Support Rating
Likelihood to Recommend

9.4
Cisco Secure Firewall
94%
14 Ratings

8.7
Zscaler Internet Access
87%
16 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

Cisco Secure Firewall
N/A
0 Ratings

9.0
Zscaler Internet Access
90%
1 Rating
Usability

8.0
Cisco Secure Firewall
80%
1 Rating

9.0
Zscaler Internet Access
90%
1 Rating
Support Rating

7.9
Cisco Secure Firewall
79%
6 Ratings

8.1
Zscaler Internet Access
81%
8 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco Secure Firewall
If you are already using [a] Cisco product like the Cisco ASA Series and you need more security on layer 7 then you can upgrade with firepower. This is well suited for middle and big organizations. If your company deals with credit card information then you should buy this firewall. It provides you all the features to stop any type of advanced attack on your organization
project lead
DashClicksInformation Technology & Services, 51-200 employees
Zscaler Internet Access
[Zscaler Internet Access] is very well suited for scenarios where one is looking for hassle free internet and network connection. It ensures that your users can connect to any networks and they will be secure. Additional plus is ability to deploy Zscaler client to your company smartphones - this gives complete network protection. We only encounter a few issues with Zscaler Internet Access (mainly false-positives) but these were promptly resolve by the vendor.
Chief Information Officer
Polcom GroupConstruction, 501-1000 employees
Pros
Cisco Secure Firewall
- Updates with the HA Pair are incredibly easy and automated
- FMC with Firepowers provide a single place to view information about devices and connections
- Tedious policy changes can be staged during the working hours and then deployed in one click after hours

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 201-500 employeesZscaler Internet Access
- 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.

Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology
Computer & Network Security Company, 11-50 employeesCons
Cisco Secure Firewall
- 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.
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Colorado DenverHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees
Zscaler Internet Access
- 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.
Associate Consultant
Tata Consultancy ServicesInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees
Pricing Details
Cisco Secure Firewall
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Zscaler Internet Access
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cisco Secure Firewall
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Zscaler Internet Access
Zscaler Internet Access 9.0
Based on 1 answer
The overall conclusion of the review is good. Zscalar have some limitations which will surely resolved in the updates provided by company from time to time. The best part is that it doesnt reduce the speed of internet.
Manager Key Accounts- International Business
Dabur India LimitedImport & Export, 5001-10,000 employees
Usability
Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco Secure Firewall 8.0
Based on 1 answer
It's overall very great, however the Management Console needs updating to fix the slowness of policy and rule deployments.
AVP Network Security Team Lead
East West BankFinancial Services, 1001-5000 employees
Zscaler Internet Access
Zscaler Internet Access 9.0
Based on 1 answer
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.
Associate Consultant
Tata Consultancy ServicesInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees
Support Rating
Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco Secure Firewall 7.9
Based on 6 answers
Cisco support is not at all suitable for this product, at least. It takes a long for them to help us with our server issues. A lot of the time, the customer support person keeps on redirecting calls to another person. They need to be well versed with the terminologies of the product they are supporting us with. Support needs a lot of improvement. Cisco Fire Linux OS, the operating system behind Cisco Firepower NGFW (formerly Sourcefire), also doesn't receive regular patches. In short, average customer service.
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Colorado DenverHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees
Zscaler Internet Access
Zscaler Internet Access 8.1
Based on 8 answers
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.
IT Network Specialist
Central Electric Power CooperativeUtilities, 51-200 employees
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Secure Firewall
pfsence is a very complicated firewall and there is lots of documentation available on Cisco website for help. The configuration is very difficult and less documentation available. Cisco Secure Firewall provides us all the security features in low cost and this is very easy to configure firewall.
Sr Team Leader
Dish TVInformation Technology & Services, 1001-5000 employees
Zscaler Internet Access
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).

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employeesReturn on Investment
Cisco Secure Firewall
- This product is great for inspection and normal firewall controls.
- If there's a bug in it, it can take a lot of resource time to chase it and work around it.
- Deciphering which data is useful has taken a bit of time and trimming.
Network Systems Administrator
Johnson County LibraryLibraries, 201-500 employees
Zscaler Internet Access
- 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.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Oil & Energy Company, 10,001+ employees