# DNS filtering: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "DNS filtering service" and as "DNS security solution", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/dns-filtering/2026-11

**Standing:** DNSFilter leads with 52% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 56 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [DNSFilter](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/dnsfilter/index.md) | 52% | 5% | 55 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-gateway/index.md) | 16% | 2% | 43 |
| 3 | [Cisco Umbrella](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-umbrella/index.md) | 14% | 26% | 58 |
| 5 | [NextDNS](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/nextdns/index.md) | 2% | 17% | 36 |
| 6 | [Control D](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/control-d/index.md) | 2% | 10% | 29 |
| 8 | [Quad9](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/quad9/index.md) | 0% | 16% | 38 |
| 9 | [AdGuard DNS](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/adguard-dns/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 20 |
| 10 | [WebTitan](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/webtitan/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 12 |
| 11 | [CleanBrowsing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cleanbrowsing/index.md) | 0% | 14% | 14 |
| 16 | [Cloudflare](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare/index.md) | 0% | 33% | 12 |
| 73 | [OpenDNS](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/opendns/index.md) | 0% | 54% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 74 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare Gateway, DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Gateway
- Perplexity Sonar: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway, WebTitan
- Grok 4.20: DNSFilter; alternatives Cloudflare Gateway, Control D
- Mistral Small: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway, Control D
- Llama 4 Maverick: DNSFilter
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cisco Umbrella, DNSFilter; alternatives Cloudflare Gateway, FortiGuard
- Kimi K2: DNSFilter; alternatives Cloudflare Gateway
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: DNSFilter; alternatives Cloudflare Gateway, Control D
- MiniMax M2.5: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella, Control D
- GPT-6 Luna: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway
- Muse Glimmer 30B: DNSFilter; alternatives Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway

## Sources the answers cite

72 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- dnsfilter.com: 44 answers, 71 citations
- powerdmarc.com: 30 answers, 31 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 25 answers, 29 citations
- sourceforge.net: 22 answers, 33 citations
- controld.com: 19 answers, 27 citations
- developers.cloudflare.com: 17 answers, 21 citations
- routersecurity.org: 16 answers, 20 citations
- dope.security: 14 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://dnsfilter.com/ (29 answers)
- https://powerdmarc.com/best-dns-security-solutions (23 answers)
- https://routersecurity.org/DNS.providers.php (16 answers)
- https://simplyit.biz/resources/best-dns-filtering-small-business-2026 (14 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-dns-filtering-solutions-2026 (13 answers)
- https://comparitech.com/net-admin/dns-filtering-tools (12 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/dns-filtering/for-mid-size-business (12 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/dns-security/for-mid-size-business (11 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-dns-security-solutions (10 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/web-security/the-top-dns-web-filtering-platforms-for-businesses (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Cisco Umbrella: 15 of 58 labels negative. "Unless you're already a Cisco shop, I'd avoid starting with a legacy product being phased out." (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Google Public DNS: 8 of 8 labels negative. "I truly doubt they would share such a valuable opportunity, no matter what they claim. And you can actually take action: *Avoid using it.*" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- NextDNS: 6 of 36 labels negative. "if logging/analytics are left enabled the provider can retain query history, device identifiers and custom lists... a privacy risk for users who want no history" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- OpenDNS: 7 of 13 labels negative. "Avoid free/public options (e.g., Quad9, OpenDNS basic) for B2B" (Grok 4.20, paraphrase prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: DNSFilter at 52%.

- DNSFilter: 59% to 52%, −7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 1 of 74, unchanged.
- Cloudflare Gateway: 22% to 16%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 2 of 74, unchanged.
- Cisco Umbrella: 8% to 14%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 3 of 74, unchanged.
- WebTitan: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 10 of 74.
- NextDNS: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 5 of 74.
- Control D: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 6 of 74.
- Quad9: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 8 of 74.
- AdGuard DNS: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 9 of 74.
- CleanBrowsing: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 11 of 74.
- Cloudflare: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 16 of 74.
- OpenDNS: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 17 → 73 of 74.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.