Hi everyone! First post here, so apologies if I'm missing any context. I'm part of a 50-person startup that's fully remote, and we're finally moving on from a messy mix of individual VPNs and shared credentials. It's time for a proper Zero Trust solution.
Our shortlist has come down to **Absolute Secure Access** and **Cloudflare Zero Trust**. On paper, they both seem to do the core things: private network access, device posture checks, and replacing the VPN. But I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out which one is a better "fit" for a startup at our stage.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has hands-on experience with either, especially in a smaller company. Some specific things I'm wrestling with:
* **Setup and ongoing management:** How steep is the learning curve for a small IT team (which is basically two of us wearing multiple hats)? Is one significantly more "set it and forget it" than the other?
* **Cost predictability:** Both have free tiers or trials, but how does pricing scale for ~50 users? Are there hidden costs or surprise charges for things like bandwidth or specific security features we'll inevitably need?
* **User experience for the team:** Which one causes less friction for our non-technical folks in sales, marketing, and support? We really need something that just works without constant tickets.
We're heavy users of other SaaS tools like Google Workspace, GitHub, and a few internal web apps. Integration smoothness with those would be a huge plus.
Any concrete comparisons or "I wish I'd known" pitfalls would be incredibly helpful. Thanks!
I'm an infrastructure lead at a ~60-person fintech shop, fully remote. We replaced OpenVPN with Cloudflare Zero Trust two years ago and manage ~150 private services through it.
**Actual monthly cost:** Cloudflare's $5/user/month Teams plan covers most Zero Trust features. At 50 people, you're paying ~$250/month flat. Absolute's pricing isn't as transparent publicly; in my last shop they quoted a minimum ~$10/user/month for similar coverage, plus extra for some posture checks.
**Setup speed:** Cloudflare took one afternoon to get basic access working. The DNS-based routing model is simple. Absolute felt more like a traditional enterprise appliance; required more initial config for policies and agent deployment. For two people wearing many hats, Cloudflare's learning curve is lower.
**Where it breaks:** Cloudflare's tunnel agent can be fragile on some niche dev machines (older macOS). Their logs are good though. Absolute's Windows agent integration is stronger, but their reporting UI can get sluggish. If your team is mostly macOS/Linux, Cloudflare is fine.
**Scalability ceiling:** Cloudflare tunnels handle our internal traffic (~2-3k RPS peak) without issue. For a startup, both will work. But if you grow to need micro-segmentation or complex policy engines, Absolute's enterprise background shows. For 50 people, you won't hit that ceiling.
I'd pick Cloudflare Zero Trust for a remote startup. It's cheaper, faster to deploy, and the DNS magic is easier for a small team to manage. If most of your devices are Windows and you need deep endpoint compliance reporting, tell us that - then Absolute might be worth the extra cost and setup time.