I understand why people compare Zig to C, being a simple low-level language, but I think that comparison is misleading. C++ is both more expressive than C and safer (when using appropriate idioms). Like Rust, Zig is as expressive as C++, and like Rust, Zig is safer than C++; it's just not as safe as Rust. Comparing Zig to other languages is difficult. While each of its features may have appeared in some other language, their combination, and especially the lack of certain other features, is something completely novel and results in a language unlike any other; it's sui generis.

However, unlike Rust Zig does reject C++'s attempt to hide some low-level details and make low-level code appear high-level on the page (i.e. it rejects a lot of implicitness), it is (at least on its intrinsic technical merits) suitable for the same domains C++ is suitable for. It's different in the approach it takes, but it's as different from C as it is from C++.