PacketFence vs NordLayer NAC
Zero of fourteen models named PacketFence first on the direct prompt; zero named NordLayer NAC. PacketFence was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and NordLayer NAC by ten and PacketFence carries 22 labels and NordLayer NAC 18, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
NordLayer NAC
accepted challengerNamed in one category this edition.
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 network access control page.
By framing
PacketFenceFirst choices, of fourteen modelsNordLayer NACAcross every category in the November 2026 Edition, PacketFence and NordLayer NAC were named in the same answer twenty-three times, of the 70 answers naming PacketFence and the 52 naming NordLayer NAC. In those answers NordLayer NAC took the first choice one time and PacketFence eight.
Every model, every framing
| Model | DirectNN | ParaphraseNN | ComparativeNN | Budget-constrainedNN | Scale-constrainedNN | NegativeNN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | |||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | |||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | |||||
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.20 | | NN | NN | |||
| Mistral Small | NN | NN | NN | |||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | |||||
| Llama 4 Maverick | NN | NN | ||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | NN | |||||
| Kimi K2 | NN | |||||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | NN | NN | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | NN | | ||||
| GPT-6 Luna | | |||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | |
PacketFenceNN NordLayer NAC first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, PacketFence on the left and NordLayer NAC on the right.The direct prompt
Neither was the first choice, one was named
4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
10 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.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
PacketFence16%#2 of 11PacketFence20%#2 of 10PacketFence3%#– of 7What the models said about PacketFence
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“Self-hosting shifts licensing savings into implementation and support effort” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · soft negative
“Best Overall Open-Source Option: PacketFence ... If you have an in-house IT engineer comfortable with Linux, start with PacketFence.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Tightest budget, technical staff available: PacketFence self-hosted free + optional paid support. Best cost, higher operational effort.” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“The best network access control solution for a company with a limited budget is PacketFence, as it is free to use” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about NordLayer NAC
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“Cloud-Native SaaS | Portnox, NordLayer, Mist (Juniper) | "Set it and forget it." Lower OpEx, easier to manage” Qwen 3.7 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“For the most budget-conscious organizations, NordLayer and PacketFence are the best choices.” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice
“Combines NAC-like access control with VPN and threat protection in a user-friendly cloud platform” Grok 4.20 · budget prompt · alternative
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.