Fortra ZTNA vs Pomerium

Fortra ZTNA provides secure remote access to private applications and helps protect their data. It makes access decisions using user, device, and data context, so authorized people can reach only approved applications. An endpoint client monitors device posture and reports changes for access adjustments. The product can hide applications from the network, monitor traffic for lateral movement, and discover private applications to help organizations onboard them from an existing VPN. Private applications may be hosted in AWS, Azure, or GCP. Agent-based access supports browser and thick-client applications, while web applications can be accessed without an agent. Additional protections include digital rights management and data loss prevention policies, as well as inspection and blocking of files identified as infected with malware. Fortra describes a unified proxy architecture shared across its ZTNA, secure web gateway, and CASB offerings, with shared policies and monitoring. The product supports hybrid deployment and lists web as its supported platform. It is paid, has no free plan, and pricing is available on request.

Pomerium is an open-source identity-aware proxy for controlling access to internal applications, servers, services, and workloads without requiring VPN client software. It checks identity, device state, and request context before granting access, and authenticates through identity providers that support OpenID Connect. Listed access scenarios include HTTP, MCP, SSH, gRPC, TCP, and UDP; supported app protocols also include HTTPS, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, and WebSocket. Pomerium removes its authentication cookies before forwarding requests upstream, and sensitive databroker data is encrypted at rest. Downstream TLS has a minimum of TLS 1.2. Deployment options include Linux and macOS binaries, packages, Docker images, source builds, and desktop clients for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The free Personal plan lists 10 users, 10 routes, five policies, and two service accounts. Business costs $7.00 per month, billed annually, and lists limits of 1,000 users, 100 routes, 100 policies, and 20 service accounts. A free trial is also listed.