Zscaler and Bowtie both deliver SASE capabilities: ZTNA, secure web gateway, policy enforcement and more. The difference is where the infrastructure lives, who controls the data path, and what sits in the middle.
Architecture
Both platforms require VMs on customer infrastructure. Zscaler's ZPA App Connectors deploy inside customer networks and create outbound tunnels to Zscaler's cloud. The Zscaler cloud then brokers connections between users and those connectors, applying inspection and policy in transit. Traffic flows: client → Zscaler cloud → connector → application.
Bowtie controllers also deploy as VMs on customer infrastructure, but they are the complete platform. Client devices create WireGuard tunnels directly to controllers. Policy enforcement, DNS resolution, and access logging all happen at the controller. There is no vendor cloud in the connection path. Traffic flows: client → controller → application.
Bowtie's control plane uses CRDTs (Automerge) for state synchronization across controllers. Each controller holds a complete copy of policy and operates independently during network partitions.
Data path
With Zscaler, traffic transits Zscaler's cloud infrastructure between client and connector. DNS queries, browsing patterns, private application access, and SSL-decrypted traffic are visible to Zscaler's platform. This enables Zscaler's inline inspection capabilities.
With Bowtie, traffic goes directly from client to controller. Network telemetry, DNS queries, and access logs remain on customer-owned infrastructure. Bowtie as a company has no access to customer traffic or metadata because it never leaves the customer's environment.
Compliance model
Because Zscaler processes customer traffic in their cloud, they must obtain certifications like FedRAMP, which governs cloud service providers handling federal data. This is a requirement imposed by their architecture, not an optional credential.
Bowtie's architecture sidesteps this requirement entirely. Since controllers run on customer-owned infrastructure and no data transits a vendor cloud, there is no cloud service provider in the data path that requires FedRAMP authorization. The customer's own infrastructure is what gets assessed under their existing authorization frameworks (ATO, CMMC, ITAR). This can simplify procurement in federal and defense environments where adding a new cloud service provider to the data path introduces additional authorization overhead.
Resilience
Zscaler distributes traffic across their global PoP network. If a specific PoP experiences an issue, traffic can reroute to other data centers. However, customer-side App Connectors depend on Zscaler's cloud to broker new connections, so a broader cloud disruption affects all customers relying on that infrastructure.
Bowtie controllers operate independently. A failure in one controller doesn't affect others. During network partitions between controllers, each continues enforcing policy and reconciles state when connectivity returns. Since Bowtie clients connect directly to controllers with no intermediary, there is no shared infrastructure that creates correlated failure risk across customers.
Pricing
Zscaler pricing is quote-based. Public data points from G-Cloud pricing sheets and third-party analyses suggest bundled packages range from roughly $225 to $375+ per user annually, depending on tier and feature set.
Bowtie Essentials is $11/user/month ($132/year). This includes ZTNA, SWG, Fabric (site-to-site), and SSO. There is no per-controller charge.
Where Zscaler has advantages
Zscaler offers a broader feature set that extends beyond core SASE. Their platform includes data loss prevention (DLP), cloud access security broker (CASB), sandboxing, and digital experience monitoring (ZDX). Organizations that need these capabilities in a single platform have fewer options to evaluate.
Zscaler also benefits from a large threat intelligence dataset built from processing traffic across thousands of enterprise customers. More data generally means better detection models.
In procurement, Zscaler is a known quantity. They have established reseller channels, existing contract vehicles in federal and enterprise procurement, and brand recognition that can shorten sales cycles. For organizations where getting a new vendor approved is the hardest part of deployment, this matters.
Comparison
Summary
Zscaler is a strong choice for organizations that need a broad cloud-delivered security platform with DLP, CASB, sandboxing, and an established procurement footprint. Bowtie fits organizations that need their security infrastructure and network telemetry to remain on infrastructure they own, with no vendor cloud in the data path.
