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DNS filtering · November 2026 Edition

DNSFilter vs Cloudflare Gateway

Thirteen of fourteen models named DNSFilter first on the direct prompt; one named Cloudflare Gateway. Both were named by all fourteen models and DNSFilter carries 55 labels and Cloudflare Gateway 43, so the shares are not directly comparable.

DNSFilter

endorsed leader

Named in one category this edition.

Cloudflare Gateway

accepted challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

First-choice share52%16%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate5%2%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels5543A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, DNSFilter reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Cisco Umbrella was named alongside these two in eight of the fourteen direct answers. DNSFilter vs Cisco Umbrella · DNSFilter vs NextDNS · DNSFilter vs Control D

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the DNS filtering page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
DNSFilterFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCloudflare Gateway
Direct131
Paraphrase801 against Cloudflare Gateway
Comparative511 against DNSFilter
Budget-constrained46
Scale-constrained42
Negative002 against DNSFilter
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, DNSFilter and Cloudflare Gateway were named in the same answer 125 times, of the 172 answers naming DNSFilter and the 147 naming Cloudflare Gateway. In those answers Cloudflare Gateway took the first choice twenty-four times and DNSFilter forty-five.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where DNSFilter and Cloudflare Gateway stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
DNSFilter Cloudflare Gateway first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, DNSFilter on the left and Cloudflare Gateway on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where DNSFilter and Cloudflare Gateway stood in it.

Both were the first choice

1 of 14 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.
GPT-5.4 miniCloudflare Gateway, DNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella

DNSFilter first, Cloudflare Gateway an alternative

12 of 14 modelsCloudflare Gateway was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Gemini 3.5 FlashDNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Gateway
Perplexity SonarDNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway, WebTitan
Grok 4.20DNSFilter alternatives: Cloudflare Gateway, Control D
Mistral SmallDNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway
DeepSeek V4 FlashDNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway, Control D
Llama 4 MaverickDNSFilter
Qwen 3.7 FlashCisco Umbrella, DNSFilter alternatives: Cloudflare Gateway, FortiGuard
Kimi K2DNSFilter alternatives: Cloudflare Gateway
GLM 4.7 FlashXDNSFilter alternatives: Cloudflare Gateway, Control D
MiniMax M2.5DNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella, Control D
GPT-6 LunaDNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway
Muse Glimmer 30BDNSFilter alternatives: Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare Gateway

Neither was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
DNSFilter leads by nineteen points.
DNSFilter40%#1 of 9
Cloudflare Gateway21%#2 of 9
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
DNSFilter leads by thirty-six points.
DNSFilter52%#1 of 11
Cloudflare Gateway16%#2 of 11
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
DNSFilter leads by eleven points.
DNSFilter22%#2 of 10
Cloudflare Gateway11%#3 of 10
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about DNSFilter

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.

“The biggest warnings are around DNSFilter's agent reliability” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“reviews mention recurring complaints about support, pricing, misconfigurations, and occasional outages or false positives” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative
“I'd verify current packaging/features before choosing it.” GPT-5.4 mini · comparative prompt · soft negative
“DNSFilter: Very popular for mid-market. High-performance threat detection using AI/ML, easy to deploy, fast global network, excellent pricing transparency.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“Best for: Companies seeking pure, high-performance DNS layer protection with straightforward pricing and excellent MSP/partner channel support.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“For most mid-sized B2B companies, I recommend starting with DNSFilter due to its purpose-built design for your size” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · first choice

What the models said about Cloudflare Gateway

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.

“though I didn’t see as strong a DNS-security-first positioning in the sources I checked as compared with Cisco and Infoblox” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“my default recommendation is Cloudflare Gateway if you want the best overall balance of security, scalability, and broader zero-trust capabilities” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
“If you have almost no budget, start with Cloudflare Gateway (free for 50 users) or Quad9 (completely free).” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
“Best value / SMB & MSP options are commonly cited as Cloudflare Gateway and DNSFilter for fast, transparent pricing” Muse Glimmer 30B · scale prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.