ZS vs CRWD Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
ZS is the category leader in cloud-native zero trust network security, while CRWD is the category leader in cloud-native endpoint security, both pursuing platform expansion strategies with premium valuations reflecting high growth expectations. Both have weathered notable execution challenges while maintaining strong underlying growth.
ZS vs CRWD compares two category-leading, cloud-native cybersecurity platform companies addressing different but increasingly overlapping security domains: network access versus endpoint protection.
CRWD holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. CRWD has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+120.61% vs -29.34%), though ZS has the better forward P/E setup (40.07x vs 131.85x for CRWD). CRWD leads on both revenue growth (25.80%) and operating margin (-2.26%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for ZS (+7.95%) than for CRWD (+4.20%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want exposure to the zero trust network security category leader
- Believe Zscaler's platform expansion will drive durable growth
- Are comfortable with a premium valuation tied to sustained high growth
- Want exposure to the cloud-native endpoint security category leader
- Value CrowdStrike's strong free cash flow generation alongside high growth
- Believe the company has addressed concerns from its past outage incident
| Metric | ZS | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 52.1 | 66.5 |
| AI ranki | #411 | #66 |
| Latest closei | $197.47 | $245.70 |
| 1M returni | +6.34% | +15.40% |
| 6M returni | +27.07% | +129.53% |
| 1Y returni | -29.34% | +120.61% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ZS | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $6.78K (-32.2%) started 2025-09-18 | $19.55K (+95.5%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $7.31K (-26.9%) started 2021-09-20 | $38.16K (+281.6%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $59.84K (+498.4%) started 2018-03-16 | $169.45K (+1594.5%) started 2019-06-12 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | ZS | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $29.79B | $223.63B |
| Trailing P/Ei | N/A | 5460.00 |
| Forward P/Ei | 40.07 | 131.85 |
| Price/Salesi | 8.60 | 42.86 |
| EV/Revenuei | 8.86 | 40.67 |
| Analyst targeti | $198.88 | $227.58 |
| Target upsidei | +7.95% | +4.20% |
| Metric | ZS | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 25.40% | 25.80% |
| Earnings growthi | N/A | N/A |
| EPS growthi | N/A | N/A |
| FCF margini | +34.94% | +36.98% |
| Operating margini | -3.28% | -2.26% |
| Profit margini | -2.44% | 0.83% |
| ROIC proxyi | -3.71% | 1.46% |
| Return on equityi | -3.71% | 1.46% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 0.92 | 1.23 |
| Debt/equityi | 78.94 | 15.96 |
| Current ratioi | 1.86 | 1.57 |
| Quick ratioi | 1.72 | 1.37 |
Over the past year, ZS and CRWD have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.70), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | ZS | CRWD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -32.17% | +95.53% |
| CAGRi | -32.19% | +95.67% | |
| Volatilityi | 65.16% | 54.31% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.32 | 1.42 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.41 | 2.36 | |
| Max drawdowni | 64.89% | 37.18% | |
| Current drawdowni | 41.28% | 0.00% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 40.73% | 12.00% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 45.58% | 15.61% | |
| Max daily dropi | 31.52% | 9.85% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 27.87% | 18.46% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -26.86% | +281.58% |
| CAGRi | -6.07% | +30.75% | |
| Volatilityi | 57.51% | 437.39% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.11 | 1.14 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.14 | 4.32 | |
| Max drawdowni | 76.41% | 74.94% | |
| Current drawdowni | 46.45% | 18.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 46.43% | 47.88% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 49.53% | 52.04% | |
| Max daily dropi | 31.52% | 74.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 34.63% | 74.83% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +498.39% | +1594.48% |
| CAGRi | +23.40% | +47.59% | |
| Volatilityi | 58.43% | 364.37% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.58 | 1.01 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.84 | 3.74 | |
| Max drawdowni | 76.41% | 74.94% | |
| Current drawdowni | 46.45% | 18.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 33.43% | 38.68% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 40.23% | 45.38% | |
| Max daily dropi | 31.52% | 74.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 34.63% | 74.83% |
| Category | ZS | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Zscaler, Inc. | CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Infrastructure | Software - Infrastructure |
| Core business | Zscaler provides cloud-native zero trust network security, routing and inspecting enterprise internet traffic through its cloud security platform rather than traditional on-premises hardware appliances. | CrowdStrike provides cloud-native endpoint and cloud security through its Falcon platform, using AI-powered threat detection to protect devices, cloud workloads, and identities from cyberattacks. |
| Investor focus | Investors track Zscaler's billings growth, large customer (greater than $1 million ARR) expansion, and adoption of newer platform modules beyond its core zero trust exchange. | Investors track CrowdStrike's net new ARR growth, module adoption rate per customer (cross-selling additional Falcon platform modules), and free cash flow margin expansion. |
- Pioneer and category leader in cloud-native zero trust network security
- Asset-light, highly scalable cloud architecture supports strong gross margins
- Expanding platform with newer products in data protection and AI security
- Category-leading position in cloud-native endpoint detection and response
- Strong platform expansion with high module attach rates driving net retention
- Robust free cash flow generation despite continued high growth investment
- High valuation reflects elevated growth expectations that must be sustained
- Faces growing competition from both legacy vendors and other cloud security pure-plays
- Profitability on a GAAP basis has lagged revenue growth
- High-profile 2024 outage incident raised questions about software update and testing processes
- Premium valuation requires sustained high growth to justify
- Increasing competition from Microsoft and other endpoint security vendors
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