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Zscaler sells cloud-based security software that checks and filters internet traffic for businesses so their employees can work safely from anywhere.
Zscaler is a cybersecurity company that acts as a security checkpoint between a company's employees and the internet. Instead of routing traffic through a traditional on-site security appliance, Zscaler runs its checking in the cloud. When an employee opens a website or clicks a link, the traffic passes through Zscaler's network first, which inspects it for malware, blocks dangerous sites, and enforces the company's rules before anything reaches the user.
The core product is called Zero Trust Exchange, a cloud platform that connects users to applications directly and securely. It is built on the idea that nobody should be trusted automatically just because they are inside the corporate network. Every request gets checked. That model became especially valuable as work moved out of offices and onto laptops, phones, and home internet connections. Customers include large enterprises and governments, and they pay through subscription fees based on the number of users and the modules they buy. Zscaler competes with legacy firewall and networking vendors and other cloud security players, including Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, and Fortinet. Its pitch is that it can inspect traffic without sending it back through a corporate data center, which saves money and speeds things up. The company was founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry, who had already built and sold several security firms. It went public in 2018 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
The business runs on recurring subscriptions, so revenue tends to be predictable and builds over time. It reported annual revenue of roughly $1.7 billion in its fiscal 2023 year and has kept growing quickly. A large share of that money goes back into sales, marketing, and research rather than dividends. Zscaler has also been expanding into adjacent areas like securing traffic between applications and using artificial intelligence to spot threats, bets that could widen its reach but also put it in more direct competition with bigger rivals.
Saved answer · last researched 28 Oct 2026