Cloudflare vs Zscaler

ESET Endpoint Security

GeeTest CAPTCHA

Orca Security

ESET Endpoint Security is a network monitoring solution, which helps businesses manage processes for detecting threats, blocking targeted attacks, preventing data breaches & providing protection against ransomware. It lets users monitor behavior of malicious processes and decloak memory segments.

GeeTest CAPTCHA protects websites, mobile apps, and APIs against malicious bot attacks while ensuring a smooth user experience.

Orca Security is the industry-leading Cloud Security Platform that identifies, prioritizes, and remediates security risks and compliance issues across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Kubernetes. 

Principle

Customer support was timely, effective and easy to use.

Cloudflare protects and accelerates million of website online using a single change to your DNS by offering CDN functionality and advanced security.

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Monitoring

Alerts/Notifications

Anomaly/Malware Detection

Application Management

Cloud Application Security

Compliance Management

Content Management

Dashboard

Data Management

Data Security

DDoS Protection

Diagnostic Tools

Encryption

Endpoint Protection

Firewalls

Global Network

Load Balancing

ML Algorithm Library

Model Training

Performance Metrics

Real-Time Monitoring

Reporting/Analytics

Reverse Proxy

SSL Security

Threat Intelligence

Threat Response

Video Archiving

Vulnerability Scanning

Web-Application Security

Website Analytics

By industry, Cloudflare reviewers are most commonly professionals in information technology and services (19%). The most frequent use case for Cloudflare cited by reviewers is website security (66% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Most users consider Cloudflare’s free plan to deliver excellent value, as they receive many essential features at no cost. Some reviewers find that advanced features and support are costly, and they report pricing can be confusing.

Value for money

The Cloudflare integration most frequently cited by reviewers is WordPress, a website builder product rated 4.8 out of 5 for its integration with Cloudflare.

Integrations

Cloudflare is a website security tool with key features that include DDoS protection, threat response, firewalls, and more.

Cloudflare

Web-based

Google Cloud

Incapsula

Datadog

Business

Enterprise

Slow and impersonal support

I'm not happy with their customer service because they never respond soon enough to help us with problems.

51% of reviewers feel negative about Cloudflare’s customer support. Some users report that support response times are slow, especially for those on lower-tier plans, and that it is difficult to reach a real person via chat or phone. Reviewers say the ticketing system is cumbersome and not ideal for urgent issues, often requiring users to seek help in forums instead. Users mention that support sometimes shifts responsibility back to the customer and that there is a lack of direct, timely assistance during outages or technical problems.

Integrated security and speed

Consultant

A reliable solution for website security and performance, offering strong protection and fast speeds.

Director

An amazing solution offering cost effective and scalable website performance without compromising on security!

95% of reviewers feel positive about Cloudflare’s security and performance enhancements. Reviewers indicate that the platform provides strong protection against cyber threats while simultaneously optimizing website speed and reliability. Users appreciate the combination of advanced security tools, such as DDoS mitigation and filtering, with performance features like caching and traffic optimization. They say these improvements are noticeable in faster loading times and increased peace of mind regarding site safety. Many users value that these benefits are accessible even on the free plan, making it a cost-effective solution.

Global CDN enhances speed

Content Creator

Increase browsing speed: Of course, if the Cloudflare reduces the loads on your site by blocking non-human visits and then distributing the cache copy of your site on several CDN servers in the world, that will make your site faster

95% of reviewers feel positive about Cloudflare’s CDN. Users say the global distribution of content through numerous Points of Presence greatly improves website speed and reliability, especially for high-traffic sites and mobile users. Reviewers appreciate that the CDN reduces server strain, offers robust caching, and includes useful features like free SSL and DDoS protection. They indicate that the free tier is highly valuable for both small and large projects, and many find setup straightforward. Users report that the CDN’s efficiency leads to faster load times and better overall site performance.

It helps me to save my lot of money as it handles DNS management, Provides free SSL certificate, actually it give me enterprise level security and performance My website is [sensitive content hidden]

Lead Developer

Cloudflare is a valuable service to have for your web presence and helps deliver a faster website user experience for our clients, with great features and spam/bot traffic protection.

Specialist

Support Gap for Non-Enterprise Tiers, Complexity and "Dangerous" Settings, False Positives in Security Rules, Centralization Risks ("The Internet's Single Point of Failure"), Billing and Plan Limitations

Software Engineer

Cloudflare has been a great addition to protect our websites from DDoS attacks, as well as providing performance improvements through global content delivery.

Owner

Additionally, troubleshooting can be difficult when Cloudflare sits between the user and the origin server, making it harder to pinpoint where issues originate.

I have created my website with lovable.dev it easily integrate with few clicks  and within minustes of Integration my website is launched.

Overall, Cloudflare is a strong choice for small businesses looking for secure and cost-effective DNS management. While there are some setup and troubleshooting challenges, the benefits often outweigh the drawbacks.

One common issue small businesses face with Cloudflare is the initial learning curve when configuring DNS, especially for those without prior experience.

Misconfigured records can lead to website downtime or email delivery issues if not set correctly.

Co-founder

Some features on the website, like receiving a F2A token to access your account also does also not work.

Security assessment engineer

I like the granularity of Cloudflare Web application firewall to add specific rules to block certain characters, payloads, event listeners, html tags, etc.

System engineer

Overall, Cloudflare delivers excellent security and performance enhancements, with its global CDN and DDoS protection being standout features. While there are some challenges with configuration and caching, the user-friendly interface and robust support make it a strong choice for most users.

Infrastructure Engineer

What I liked most about Cloudflare is its robust security features, especially the DDoS protection and SSL/TLS encryption, which significantly enhanced my website's security.

proprietor

no customer service or way to contact anyone at Cloudflare.  very inconsistent with the pages it blocks at a site.

Director of Operations

It’s a dependable platform that adds real value to every site I manage, and I consistently recommend it to anyone serious about website performance and protection.

Head of Engineering

R2 works just fine as a cheap S3 replacement, and cloudflare workers have been handy for cheap compute (PDF generation in our case).

My overall experience with Cloudflare has been amazing, I've used it for setting up my website for music production as well as using it for clients' websites and recommending it to clients because of its ease of use and how much it improves their site.

Head of Digital

Super quick to setup basic spam & bot protection, SSL Certificates and WAF.

Beyond security, the performance improvements are noticeable—faster load times and better overall reliability.

IWAN

months ago i converted all pro subscriptions  to free, this is also neatly indicated in the account that it will change to free on the 27th of the month.... but every month they simply collect and the downgrade is moved one month. And now that I no longer have 1 active domain, they are now charging a pro subscription for 24x

I use Cloudflare for all of my client websites, and it’s been a huge asset.

Cloudflare offers robust security features, improves website performance with its global CDN, provides reliable DDoS protection, and offers easy-to-use management tools.

Production Manager

Bot protection prevents our video streams from being successfully scraped by attackers.

No other prompts or demand for fees everything completed with prompts its sheer magic.

Visiting Lecturer

The Cloudflare has redundancy with existing hosting features, as the network provider of the user has already provided it to them

Wonderful value at $20/month for our traffic level, though rollout took three weeks for our tech staff to implement to perfection.

I love how easy it is to set up and manage DNS on cloudflare and also the amount of functionality including the creation of landing page templates and redirection rules.

It not only provides security, but also improves performance.

Dive Operation Manager

Steep learning curve, and assistance is delayed on troubleshoots for custom firewall rules.

Founder - Owner

My only complaint is really minor: there so many menus that it is easy to navigate, but sometimes I tend to get lost and the fact that they are re-organised often or new services are added, sometime it takes a while to remember where a certain switch or option was

Customer Service Executive

We found the DDoS spikes were causing repeated down time that Cloudflare helped prevent.

Developer

Cloudflare provides excellent security features like DDoS protection and SSL certificates at an affordable price.

Data Scientist

Due to the lack of cloud technology knowledge, there is little issues in managing and understanding the platform in starting due to complexity but later on it is an essential part now.

The global CDN improved load times, and the intuitive dashboard with detailed analytics made management straightforward.

I love that our website is now super fast also that we get automatic protection against stupid bot attacks.

Founder and CEO

We especially use them as our domain registrar for all the sites.

I use cloudflare in my business to manage the DNS for all of my domains.

The website doesn't work right (links on the subscription page don't work, 404 error, etc). and it still says I'm going to be billed for another year.

Experience is quite great because of Cloudflare functionality, services, platform centralized management, and ease of accessing the websites.

Senior Technical Support Engineer

Page loading and performance of the systems improved as well as it timely worked and acted on cache.

Director of Research and Development

We found it more reliable than Godaddy for our domain names.

Network Engineer

Significant benefits include the platform's scalability and performance enhancements for apps and websites.

IT Officer

It has a great WAF, security level to protect our site against DDoS. Also, provide lots of rules for us to customize all things and fit with our websites like controlling how to cache and how request is handled.

Assistant Relationship Manager

I’m using cloudflare for 2 years now in using the DNS services to secure my computer and my network in general it’s like using a VPN without using a VPN which helped me to access lots of stuff that wasn’t available in my country of residence.

Marketing Manager

When using their wordpress optimisation features, you never know whether they're conflict with another optimisation plugin.

Creative Director

Cloudflare acts as a CDN, a firewall and also a performance layer for websites as well as protecting our websites from attacks.

Cloudflare has been a reliable tool for boosting website performance and ensuring security.

President

There are some compatibility issues, but difficult to pinpoint

The amazing number of resources and service, even in the free plan!

Websites

DNS Management

Security and Performance

Pricing

Bot Protection

Users report that Cloudflare’s DDoS Protection automatically blocks malicious bots and spam attacks, providing peace of mind and monthly summary reports. Reviewers indicate Cloudflare handles attacks efficiently, alerts security teams, and mitigates threats to keep environments secure. They find setup minimal, with options like reverse proxy and ‘under attack’ mode, and appreciate unmetered protection. Reviewers feel Cloudflare’s DDoS Protection is reliable, industry-leading, and valuable for both small and large websites, with effective detection and mitigation capabilities. Of the 30 Cloudflare users who gave detailed accounts of their use of DDoS Protection, 97% rated this feature as important or highly important.

Firewall Rules

SSL Certificates

Reliability

Among reviewers who comment on Cloudflare's reliability, 44% feel negative. Users say Cloudflare generally works without major problems and resolves issues quickly. However, they report occasional bugs, outages, and difficulties with debugging or compatibility. They find these problems frustrating but note that most issues are fixable.

Training and Learning Curve

Large Enterprises

Freelancers

Small Business

Mid-size Business

Norton AntiVirus

Norton Security is designed to help users protect desktops, mobile devices, and data from hack attempts, malware, ransomware, and unauthorized access. The built-in firewall automatically tracks online traffic across the internet and blocks suspicious activities to secure personal data and files.

WatchGuard Firebox

Firebox firewalls and security services are a foundational component of WatchGuard's Unified Security Platform architecture. They deliver standard protections like IPS, URL filtering, gateway AV, application control, and antispam to advanced features like file sandboxing, DNS filtering, and more.

NordVPN

NordVPN is a VPN cloud security service which encrypts all internet traffic to ensure confidential business data is protected from third parties

Zscaler is a cloud-native security platform offering Zero Trust access, advanced threat protection, and DLP for secure digital transformation. It protects users, apps & data by enabling secure web access, securing cloud apps & preventing cyber threats, all while simplifying IT operations at scale.

Application Security

Authentication

Behavioral Analytics

Data Loss Prevention

Filtering

Intrusion Detection System

Monitoring

Network Security

Policy Management

Remote Monitoring & Management

Risk Alerts

Risk Analysis

Risk Management

Threat Protection

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability Protection

Zscaler

Perimeter 81

Cisco AnyConnect

Essentials Platform

 Zscaler Platform

CISO

What’s least liked: The policy engine and access configurations can be complex to design and implement correctly, especially in hybrid environments with legacy systems.

Associate consultant

I don't have to thing about VPNs or worry about something is secure or not, it handel's everything in background.

Tech Advisor

We went from a VPN application that required users to reauthenticate every 10 hours on a mobile device and every 4 hours on a laptop for security reason, to Zscaler that we can allow users to reauthenticate every 30 days on mobile devices and every 3 days on laptops.

Senior Analyst

similar user interface to the old company proxy ivanti that we used, authentication is simpler than ivanti

Private Access and Internet Security -- once configured and working -- works in the background with no user intervention.  

This is by far the best option for security a company this is 100% remote and using cloud infrastructure to run their business.  

Zscaler gives more security for the organization, while giving users more privacy.

Sales Engineer

Re authentication of the app is required from time to time however it is a quick and simple process.

Cloudflare vs Zscaler Comparison (2026)

Cloudflare

Zscaler

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives