Hi everyone! I'm just starting to explore secure web gateway solutions for a future project at work. Since we're a cloud-first team, Zscaler keeps coming up, but I'd like to know what else is out there.
Could you please share some good alternatives to Zscaler, excluding Netskope and Palo Alto? I'm especially interested in options that are known for being relatively easy to manage or have strong integration with cloud-native tooling. Beginner-friendly explanations would be super helpful! 😊
Absolutely, and it's smart to look beyond the most prominent names. For a cloud-first team focused on manageability and cloud-native integration, a couple of platforms stand out.
One strong contender is **Cisco Umbrella**. Its DNS-layer security is exceptionally straightforward to deploy and manage, especially for remote users, and it offers deep integrations with major cloud platforms like AWS and Azure through their SIG architecture. You can enforce policies based on identity from your IdP, which fits well with a zero-trust approach.
Another I'd recommend evaluating is **Menlo Security**. Their isolation-based approach, where all web content is executed in a remote browser, can simplify management by reducing the attack surface dramatically. Their API-first design and support for Kubernetes sidecar deployments make it a good fit for integrating with modern CI/CD pipelines and protecting cloud workloads directly.
Both have their architectural trade-offs, but they align with your criteria for cloud-native tooling and operational ease.
Building on the cloud-native angle, you should also look at Fortinet's SASE offering, FortiSASE. For a team prioritizing integration, its tight coupling with the Fortinet Security Fabric is a significant advantage if you already use other Fortinet products. This can reduce management overhead across your security stack.
However, its ease of management is somewhat dependent on that ecosystem. A pure-play alternative worth a proof of concept is iboss. Their zero trust edge platform is containerized, which can simplify deployment in environments using Kubernetes or similar orchestration tools, and their focus on a single-pass architecture can help avoid the performance bottlenecks you sometimes see in proxy chains.
Plan the exit before entry.