The best? Guile, Poison, and Dhalsim, in no particular order. They can all also rushdown though. If you want zoning only, then you'll have to go with Sagat. Menat is a bit weird, but I guess that you could also call her a "pure" zoner.

Doesn't seem right that poison is one of the best zoners while also having her damage output but here we are.

Strong: Guile, Poison

Strong but difficult to play: Dhalsim, Menat

Can be good but has some MU issues: Sagat, FANG, Nash

Guile pison and sim

Guile, Poison, Dhalsim, Menat and Sagat are the best zoners in the game. Then there are those who can zone just fine if you want to but they are not to be doing it all the time. Nash, Gill and Urien with VS2 are examples of such characters.

Centrio & Shang are pretty powerful zoners.

Jade, Robocop, and Skarlet all have pretty strong zoning as well.

Jade is a pretty good zoner, i played against one today and i couldn't get close.

Cetrion, Shang, Robocop.

Cetrion.

Cetrion Shang Robocop and skarlet are all good zoners, prob ranked in that order

Edit: also jade

Luke is the best character in the game but Dhalsim is the best zoner simply because his toolkit invalidates all other zoning toolkits and makes a lot of other anti-zoning tools more difficult to use in the same way Poison, Menat, and Abigail do; long range strikes. Who the best zoner is will depend entirely on how you want to judge zoning strength because Luke, Dhalsim, Poison, and Menat all have different enough strengths that can be valued over the others.

All the zoners are pretty good in this game

The top tier choices are definitely Poison, Dhalsim (you can be both zoner and rush down all at once), and Guile. Then maybe Rose. Otherwise obvious choice of Sagat but he has a lot of crappy drawbacks. Technically you could consider Ryu a zoner but it's arguable Lukes fireball is better so you might as well just play Luke in that case. You could also play Menat for something a little different since it's kinda like a cross between Poison & fireball chars.

Menat, easy.

Poison

Guile, his defense is so good people give him a title of zoner. But he's no JP or Dhalsim

Chun li. She gives mad Kazumi vibes

It sounds like you're describing Chun-Li? Or at the very least, you're describing Justin Wong, and he's always played Chun-Li.

She has a projectile, but it's not really the core of her gameplan so much as a single useful tool. Her main attributes are having really good buttons, and having a really fast normal walk speed (especially her backwalk speed).

honda, just turtle and headbutt

Maybe Ryu if you don’t want to play Guile or JP. He’s not a zoner, but yes has a Hadoken. However of the shotos, he’s typically the more defensive option.

Ferry and Metera are currently the undisputed best traditional zoners in this patch, with Versusia being the best unorthodox zoner.

That said, most of the zoners this patch are really sick. All three of those characters are considered top characters. I think Eustace is also getting more representation at high level.

Probably Metera.

Other zoners can't beat her from full screen. Ultimate arrow beats every other projectile I've tried. Ultimate butterfly also so strong everyone has to respect it or risk eating big damage.

Above average mobility with short hop and double jump. 5L is very good for being fast, low, disjointed hitbox.

Metera is seen as really strong this patch. I believe she is considered the best pure zoner in the game at the moment, not 100% sure, though.

Metera

Most of the zoners are pretty good now, its only really Vikala who still sucks. Metera and Ferry are the most 'pure zoner' types in the game and they're both very strong, though I'd also bring up Lowain as a more unconventional zoner who is pretty good at the moment and has some real bullshit (bonewheel is one of the best ult skills in the game) as well as the ability to gimmick people to death.

Dhalsim is and always was THE anti zoner character, his whole kit is designed around being the only one allowed to zone and anyone else that tried will get their shit pushed in, even since ST dhalsim will lose a traditional fireball war with most of the cast and struggles too keep some characters out that other zoners can keep out for free , what makes dhalsim so strong in nearly every game is that he gets to nullify every other zoner from doing what they do when you pick him

JP is ironically the best anti-zoner. Triglav's existence wards zoners off from throwing excessive projectiles.

But if you want an anti-zoner who is not themselves a zoner, Cammy and Kim like the others have said.

I was on classic marisa and tried modern Cammy. It took a while getting used to the weird controls, but now I'm doing much better against JP and Guile with Modern Cammy, so that's definitely my recommendation.

Cammy / Kimberly are the best anti-zoners atm.

Alternatively you could also pick Dhalsim, he does insanely well into JP and vs other Dhalsim, well it would be a mirror match.

Just know that picking those characters wont make you automatically win vs zoners, you will still have to put in the work.

A.K.I. stocks are at an all time high

https://preview.redd.it/juvembjz3fnf1.jpeg?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=739d55450dfaf4611f7b78eda7e68b7bf9bd236b

Broly from DBFZ is somehow the best grappler and the best zoner at the same time. His Ki-Blasts are very fast, they come out at great angles both on the ground and in the air. Additionally, his normals are huge, his medium, heavy attacks and special attacks are armored and he spits damage like crazy.

In my time playing hftf i've never heard someone call petshop a zoner, I can kinda see it, but what he does with icicle break, which of course can deny a third of the screen, works much better if he uses it offensively.

He could zone you with icicle break and his other specials, but he lacks chip on most of his moves and they don't cover a lot of options.

He unlocks his full potential when randomly dashes (he has an 8-way dash) and does 2a along with icicle break, it's the thing he's famous for. He also has more complex mixups with it, so calling him a zoner feels wrong to me.

You really end up forgetting the bird is a zoner when the most broken thing that avian fucker does is unblockables.

At least I give them credit for how difficult efficient soul fist usage is, and her zoning only truly becomes oppressive with assists

This is a really good answer

And make sense in a game we're most of the character being zonners

Zodd vs Luthor is still the funniest matchup I've ever seen. Probably the only actual 10-0 matchup I've ever watched happen in tournament

That depends on what you think makes them the "best". Do you mean who excels purely at zoning, or do you mean which character who can be played as a zoner is considered the best (as in highest tier)?

Megaman's varied projectiles make his zoning very strong, but he can suffer close up.

Snake's grenade game, ledge trapping, and easy kill confirm definitely make him very strong, though a large part of his play is blowing himself up with his opponent rather than strictly walling them out.

Young link has great projectiles, and a very solid combo game.

For an atypical pick, Duck Hunt duo's projectiles have crazy potential.

Of these characters, snake is generally considered the highest tier, but is probably the worst of them at purely zoning. Granted he can still do it well, it's just that the others can arguably zone better.

Snake?

Snake is the best Zoner. I would say that other characters like Megaman might have better zoning abilities, but Snake is just a better character

Villager

Maybe Megaman

Cammy! I can play her defensively, I can play her fast and oppressive, she isn’t super technical but to me her combos are pretty fun to do. Also the most important reason is that she’s really cute

Urien for sure. I'm just trying to do diabolical setplay once I get aegis and doing charge moves is fun.

In sf6 i think it’s AKI. In other games it’s vega.

Always the king!