# Network access control: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "network access control solution" and as "NAC system", 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/network-access-control/2026-11

**Standing:** Portnox Cloud leads with 46% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Portnox Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/portnox-cloud/index.md) | 46% | 2% | 48 |
| 2 | [PacketFence](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/packetfence/index.md) | 20% | 5% | 22 |
| 3 | [Fortinet FortiNAC](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-fortinac/index.md) | 6% | 16% | 31 |
| 5 | [NordLayer NAC](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/nordlayer-nac/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 18 |
| 7 | [HPE Aruba ClearPass](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hpe-aruba-clearpass/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 17 |
| 8 | [Forescout](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/forescout/index.md) | 2% | 30% | 27 |
| 9 | [Aruba ClearPass](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aruba-clearpass/index.md) | 2% | 33% | 27 |
| 14 | [Cisco Identity Services Engine](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-identity-services-engine/index.md) | 2% | 52% | 58 |
| 15 | [FortiNAC](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinac/index.md) | 0% | 14% | 14 |
| 75 | [Ivanti Policy Secure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ivanti-policy-secure/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 111 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: Fortinet FortiNAC; alternatives Microsoft Entra, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cisco Identity Services Engine; alternatives Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager, Cisco Access Manager, Forescout, InfoExpress EasyNAC
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Cloudflare Access, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, SecureW2 JoinNow
- Perplexity Sonar: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Aruba ClearPass, Cisco Identity Services Engine
- Grok 4.20: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Forescout, HPE Aruba ClearPass
- Mistral Small: OPSWAT MetaAccess, Portnox Cloud; alternatives NordLayer NAC
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Aruba ClearPass, Fortinet FortiNAC
- Llama 4 Maverick: Portnox Cloud; alternatives NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess, PacketFence
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Portnox CLEAR; alternatives Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
- Kimi K2: Portnox CLEAR; alternatives Aruba ClearPass
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Aruba ClearPass, FortiNAC, NordLayer NAC
- MiniMax M2.5: Portnox Cloud; alternatives NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess
- GPT-6 Luna: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Cisco Identity Services Engine, FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Portnox Cloud; alternatives Cisco Identity Services Engine, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, OPSWAT MetaAccess

## Sources the answers cite

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

- portnox.com: 33 answers, 55 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 28 answers, 32 citations
- peerspot.com: 26 answers, 48 citations
- cyberpress.org: 20 answers, 20 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 18 answers, 19 citations
- fortinet.com: 17 answers, 18 citations
- esecurityplanet.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- guideflow.com: 16 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://softwareadvice.com/network-access-control (24 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/nac-solutions-by-business-size (20 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-nac-solutions (18 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/network-access-control-software (16 answers)
- https://peerspot.com/categories/network-access-control-nac (16 answers)
- https://thectoclub.com/tools/best-network-access-control-software (14 answers)
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/network-access-control-solutions (13 answers)
- https://krowdbase.com/best-network-access-control-nac-software (11 answers)
- https://portnox.com/cybersecurity-101/access-control/top-nac-solutions (11 answers)
- https://cloudnuro.ai/blog/top-10-network-access-control-nac-solutions-for-zero-trust-implementation (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Cisco Identity Services Engine: 30 of 58 labels negative. "Avoid solutions like Cisco ISE unless you have dedicated security engineering resources to maintain policy rule sets." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt)
- Aruba ClearPass: 9 of 27 labels negative. "frequently mentioned as a solution to avoid due to its high cost and steep learning curve" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Forescout: 8 of 27 labels negative. "Skip Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, or Forescout unless you have specific needs" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Fortinet FortiNAC: 5 of 31 labels negative. "its legacy software architecture has suffered multiple high-severity unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Portnox Cloud at 46%.

- Portnox Cloud: 35% to 46%, +11. Cleared the floor by 0 points · rank 1 of 111, unchanged.
- Fortinet FortiNAC: 0% to 6%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 21 → 3 of 111.
- PacketFence: 15% to 20%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 111, unchanged.
- NordLayer NAC: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 34 → 5 of 111.
- OPSWAT MetaAccess: 7% to 4%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 4 → 6 of 111.
- HPE Aruba ClearPass: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 22 → 7 of 111.
- Forescout: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 23 → 8 of 111.
- Aruba ClearPass: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 20 → 9 of 111.
- Cisco Identity Services Engine: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 14 of 111.
- FortiNAC: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 24 → 15 of 111.
- Ivanti Policy Secure: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 51 → 75 of 111.

## 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.