CurrentWare received Capterra's 2024 shortlist award

Zscaler Alternative for Controlling & Monitoring Internet Use

Looking for an easy-to-use Zscaler Internet Access alternative to stop employees from visiting dangerous, inappropriate, and distracting websites?

Both Zscaler and CurrentWare can monitor and control internet use—which should you choose?

We’ll compare both solutions so you can choose the right fit for your company.

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About CurrentWare’s Internet Security Features

With CurrentWare’s web filtering and monitoring solutions, blocking websites and auditing user browsing history is as easy as a few clicks.

CurrentWare extends your organization’s on-site internet usage policies to laptops and computers running outside the corporate network, allowing you to enforce internet use policies for remote workers.

URL Filtering—Block/Allow Specific Sites

Block users from accessing specific websites
Set exceptions for websites you would like to allow or only allow access to specific websites
Create unique internet restriction policies for each group of users or computers

Screenshot of the URL filter from BrowseControl, CurrentWare's web filtering software

Screenshot of category filtering window from BrowseControl web filter. Porn and social media categories blocked.

Category Filtering—Swiftly Block Millions of Websites

Use the web content categorization database to block millions of websites across 100+ URL categories.

Easily block users from accessing social media, porn, games, known virus-infected websites, and more!

“This software was easy to install and customize to our needs. Category Filtering is such a time saver and of course saving time is saving money!”

Scott S, Senior Systems Engineer

Keep a Pulse on
Real-Time Team Activity

View the real-time productivity, active website/application, and availability status of individuals and teams via an at-a-glance dashboard.

Get high-level views of the activity and productivity of individual users and teams
Easily see who is online now, who has gone idle, and who hasn’t logged in today
Dig deeper into user activity with insights into bandwidth usage, web browsing, software usage, and more

CASE STUDY

Shady Maple Transforms Their Productivity With Internet Filtering and Monitoring Software

Being able to identify negative browsing trends and put a stop to them within a couple of hours has meant that our employees are focused on the job almost all of the time. We have become an extremely efficient workforce.

Read Their Story

"When we first saw the employee tracking reports we were totally surprised by some of the behaviors that had gone under the radar" - Kevin Porsche, IT Admin, Shady Maple

Find a Web Security Solution For Your Needs

When to Use CurrentWare’s Alternatives to Zscaler

When to Use Zscaler Internet Access

You’re searching for a cost-effective and easy-to-use filtering solution for blocking and monitoring internet access
You’d like an intuitive and flexible solution for controlling internet access, protecting sensitive data, and monitoring employee computer use
You’d benefit from more granular insights into user activity, including file transfers, internet browsing habits, and software usage trends

You have a large distributed workforce and dedicated system administration staff that will deploy and manage the solution
You want to consolidate multiple advanced network security tools & cloud security software (IPS, CASB, SWG, etc.) into a single Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
You are prepared to allocate considerable budget to a cloud security solution with comprehensive protection against cyber threats for your entire network beyond the benefits of a web filter

Compare CurrentWare vs. Zscaler Features

Compare the key Data Loss Prevention, Web Filtering, and User Activity Monitoring features of Zscaler Internet Access & Zscaler Data Protection vs CurrentWare’s Zscaler alternatives to choose the right fit for your organization

Note: This section compares the employee monitoring and internet security features of Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) & Zscaler Data Protection (CASB/DLP) to CurrentWare’s alternatives to Zscaler. It will not cover their end-user-experience monitoring tool Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) or their zero-trust network access tool Zscaler Secure Private Access (ZPA), which provides secure remote access to private applications.

Internet Security

User Activity Monitoring

✅	URL Filtering	✅
✅	Web Content Category Filtering	✅
❌	SSL Traffic Inspection	✅
✅	Block File Transfers via Cloud Storage	✅
✅	Block File Downloads & Uploads	✅
✅ Endpoint-based	Port Filtering	✅ Network-based
✅	Block Applications	✅
✅	Custom Block Pages	✅
✅	Manage Offsite Users	✅
❌	Antimalware Scanning	✅
✅	Enforce Google SafeSearch	✅
✅	Time-Based Controls	✅

Web Security

This section will compare the web content filtering and web threat protection features of Zscaler Internet Access to CurrentWare.

CurrentWare’s web filter BrowseControl is a fantastic Zscaler Internet Access alternative for controlling employee internet use to improve productivity and mitigate security risks.

CurrentWare has all the features you need to proactively block undesirable websites such as those with adult content and applications such as unauthorized cloud services providers (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) to keep your workforce secure and productive.

If you need advanced threat protection for specific security requirements, Zscaler goes beyond internet filtering and blocks malware with real-time deep analysis of network traffic and comprehensive security solutions including functioning as a cloud access security broker.

Last updated June 2024

User Activity Monitoring

✅	User Activity Reports & Alerts	✅
✅	Live Desktop Screen Viewing	❌
✅	Screenshot Monitoring	❌
✅	Productive vs. Unproductive Time	❌
✅	Software Utilization Tracking	✅
✅	Search Query Reports	❌
✅	User Idle Time Tracking	❌
✅	Monitor Remote Workers	✅
✅	Location Insights	❌
✅	URL Categorization	✅
✅	Audit Local User Logons	❌
✅	Track File Transfers	✅
✅	Track Downloads/Uploads	✅
✅	Stealth Mode Option	❌

User Activity Monitoring

CurrentWare’s user activity monitoring features give you the insights needed to track employee performance, monitor remote workers, and ensure that employees follow acceptable use policies.

While Zscaler does log internet traffic, it falls short as an employee monitoring tool. Their monitoring features are best used to detect and diagnose technical issues, track web security trends, and audit user activity in cloud applications for data security purposes.

CurrentWare’s Zscaler alternatives offer more granular real-time insights into employee web browsing, productivity, and application usage.

Note: Zscaler’s user activity monitoring features in this section are inclusive of Zscaler Internet Access and Zscaler Data Protection

Last updated June 2024

DLP & Cybersecurity

✅	Block Unauthorized Removable Media	✅
✅	Allow Trusted Removable Media	✅
✅	Block File Downloads & Uploads	✅
✅	Block File Transfers to Cloud Storage	✅
✅	Block High-Risk Websites	✅
✅	Block File Transfers	✅
❌	Browser Isolation	✅
❌	Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)	✅
❌	In-Line Content Inspection	✅
❌	Data Fingerprinting	✅
❌	Intrusion Prevention System	✅
✅	App Blacklisting	✅
❌	App Whitelisting	✅
❌	Sandboxing	✅
✅	Track Downloads/Uploads	✅
✅	File Transfer Activity Reports & Alerts	✅

Data Loss Prevention & Cybersecurity

Monitoring and restricting transfers of sensitive data to data egress points such as USB devices, cloud storage services, and more is critical for detecting and preventing insider theft.

CurrentWare’s endpoint data leakage prevention capabilities ensure your sensitive data is safe against insider threats.

In terms of data security, Zscaler’s platform includes a variety of advanced data loss prevention features that are best suited for controlling the flow of data within and between cloud apps.

Zscaler’s endpoint client provides identical DLP capabilities to CurrentWare including removable media control, file transfer blocking, and upload/download tracking.

Last updated June 2024

Setup & Deployment

✅	User & PC-Based Policies	✅
✅	Central Admin Console	✅ Multiple Consoles
✅	Manage Remote Users	✅
✅	Stealth Deployment Option	✅
✅	Client Integrity Protection	✅
✅	On-Premises Deployment	❌
✅ Self-Managed Cloud	Cloud Deployment	✅ Cloud Native
✅	Free Trial	✅
✅	NFR Licenses	✅
✅	Active Directory Integration	✅
✅	Windows	✅
❌	Linux	✅
❌	iOS/Android	✅
❌	MacOS	✅

Setup & Deployment

Thanks to its simple interface and setup process, getting started with CurrentWare is easy—whether or not you’re an experienced system administrator.

Several Zscaler reviews and community comments have noted that the setup and deployment of Zscaler can be incredibly complex and fraught with technical conflicts.

Organizations would benefit from purchasing a Zscaler advanced support plan that includes a technical account manager to help guide their implementation and troubleshoot issues along the way.

That said, CurrentWare is currently only available for the Windows operating system. Companies searching for MacOS web security solutions will benefit from Zscaler’s cross-platform compatibility.

Last updated June 2024

Sales & Support

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM ET, Monday to Friday	Support Availability	24/7
✅	Live Chat Feature	✅
✅	Phone Support	✅
✅	Training Videos	✅
✅	Email Support	✅
✅	Knowledge Base	✅
✅	MSP/Reseller Program	✅
Annual	Contract Type	Annual
English	Languages	English
10	MOQ	50-1000

Customer Support

Even the best Zscaler competitors have to have a reliable technical support team to ensure that its customers get the services they need to integrate the filtering solution.

CurrentWare takes pride in its dedication to customer success, whether you’re just starting your trial or actively using CurrentWare in your network.

Zscaler include a variety of premium support plans that can be purchased for an extra cost. These plans include amenities such as a dedicated technical account manager, 24/7/365 access to support engineers, and a support SLA.

Due to the complexity of configuring and maintaining the Zscaler platform it is recommended that organizations factor in the added costs of premium support in their purchasing decision.

Last updated June 2024

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Zscaler Reviews

Cons of Zscaler

Mixed Reviews

Pros of Zscaler

Costs & Sales Practices

Many Zscaler customers have expressed frustration with how expensive their solutions are. This concern is compounded by reports of questionable sales practices.

Complexity, Bugs & Conflicts

Zscaler’s integration into existing IT infrastructure can pose challenges, especially for organizations with complex systems.

Customer Support

The documentation provided by Zscaler can be complex and challenging to comprehend. Unfortunately, Zscaler reviews have noted that their customer support is lacking as well.

Zscaler has been consistently screwing their customers recently, and has been caught inflating the number of licenses on multiple occasions…

…ZScaler has been losing customers and their sales teams have been aggressively pushing customers to buy more licenses…

…Management over there at ZScaler does not give a single crap about screwing their customers, and it’s only about the numbers for them.

Source: Comment on /r/Zscaler, 2023

The Zscaler sales team was an absolute nightmare to deal with.

They were incredibly pushy, didn’t listen to what we asked, tried going around myself and my boss when we said we were also evaluating Netskope, and then tried to dictate to us what we should/could evaluate in the POC.

Getting pricing and even a demo out of them was difficult. The whole experience just left a sour taste in my mouth, and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

Source: Comment on /r/cybersecurity/, 2022

Zscaler Internet Access is a complex structured product, with many features hidden behind various subscription paywalls. To get all the features your company needs, you may be paying for features it doesn’t as well.

Source: G2 Review, 2023

ZCC [Zscaler Client Connector] is trash, it was a disaster, our daily work is always about ZScaler. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. The SSL Inspection of ZScaler ZCC is a nightmare to troubleshoot; Telephony Tool/voice app doesn’t work as expected, having a lot of intermittent issues.

Source: Comment on /r/sysadmin, 2024

If you are a company in the business of making software, keep this product away from your software developers. Far, far away.

It does not play nice with many software development tools, even once you go through the pain of adding their root certificate in all the right places.

Source: Capterra Review, 2021

Works if you’re very cloud focused, tons of other companies doing ZTNA way better without a reliance on a vendor data center/PoP.

SWG is decent if you’re okay with agents. Support is seriously lacking. Don’t even think about ZS if you’re running anything OT/ICS.

I mostly hear complaints around performance since you’re sharing a PoP [Point of Presence] with thousands of other customers.

When I used ZS previously I’d lose 500Mbps of bandwidth due to their processing, just trying to hit a SaaS app that ZS “directly peers with”.

Recently, one of [my] customers told me that once they rolled out ZS to their manufacturing lines, they saw thousands of IPs start to hit their previously airgapped systems, all from the shared PoP

Source: Comment on /r/sysadmin, 2024

I have spent hours and even days interacting with Zscaler support, often with no solution ever found.

After spending months fighting frequent issues that came up, I finally threw my hands in the air and left my company.

Source: Capterra Review, 2021

Support is incredibly terrible. Unhelpful and wastes a lot of time. I really can’t emphasize enough how frustrating the support was. I ended up just finding my own workarounds 90% of the time, after spending hours and hours on the line with support…

Source: Capterra Review, 2021

We’ve had nothing but problems, it’s been months and they haven’t fixed them.

All routing works, but not to M365 or Azure AD?

Support has you generate the same logs every call and they say they review them, but they don’t.

Maybe we’re a 1 off, but I would avoid in the future.

Source: Comment on /r/sysadmin, 2020

End-User Experience

As an end user of it, I hate it.

For the first year or so that we had it, HTTP connections would just time out a few times an hour.

That problem seems to be solved but it slows things down so much that sometimes I google problems on my phone’s cell connection because it’s faster.

Source: Comment on /r/sysadmin/, 2020

I don’t manage or administer Zscaler, we have a dedicated team but as an end user I’ve had 0 issues.

Source: Comment on /r/sysadmin/, 2020

From the end user perspective, I don’t think there is anything great about Zscaler. It sometimes can completely hinder your ability to do work.

If you’re an employer looking at this for an option, know that because of Zscaler, your team may not be able to access their work without IT support for long periods of time.

Source: G2 Review, 2023

Zscaler works in the background and does not interfere with normal user operations. It does so consistently, wherever the individual works in the world

Source: Trust Radius Review, 2018

Breadth of Capabilities

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

Source: Capterra Review, 2023

Sysadmin perspective: It’s pretty great, a bit of work to roll out and tweak things and hopefully you have a good setup resource from Zscaler.

If set up correctly, it’s more secure than a VPN and provides more security for your users and insight into issues they may be having.

Source: Comment on /r/sysadmin, 2024

Zscaler helps me browse the internet safely, without having me worry whether a particular website may be malicious or not.

It has helped me prevent data loss and data theft due to the blacklisting of potentially dangerous websites and also provided me warnings in case of suspicious websites.

Source: Capterra Review, 2024

It can integrate with a lot of products as per the need like we can Integrate it with SIEM solution for exporting logs, or can integrate with IDPs to authenticate users.

Source: Capterra Review, 2023