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Index › IT › Network and edge › NAC › Portnox Cloud vs PacketFence
Network access control · November 2026 Edition

Portnox Cloud vs PacketFence

Ten of fourteen models named Portnox Cloud first on the direct prompt; zero named PacketFence. Portnox Cloud was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and PacketFence by thirteen and Portnox Cloud carries 48 labels and PacketFence 22, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Portnox Cloud

endorsed leader

Named in one category this edition.

PacketFence

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

First-choice share46%20%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate2%5%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels4822A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Portnox Cloud reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Portnox Cloud vs Fortinet FortiNAC · Portnox Cloud vs NordLayer NAC · Portnox Cloud vs HPE Aruba ClearPass

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

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Portnox CloudFirst choices, of fourteen modelsPacketFence
Direct1001 against PacketFence
Paraphrase100
Comparative00
Budget-constrained111
Scale-constrained40
Negative001 against Portnox Cloud
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, Portnox Cloud and PacketFence were named in the same answer fifty-one times, of the 151 answers naming Portnox Cloud and the 70 naming PacketFence. In those answers PacketFence took the first choice ten times and Portnox Cloud twenty-seven.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Portnox Cloud and PacketFence 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
Portnox Cloud PacketFence first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Portnox Cloud on the left and PacketFence on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Portnox Cloud and PacketFence stood in it.

Portnox Cloud first, PacketFence an alternative

10 of 14 modelsPacketFence was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Gemini 3.5 FlashPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cloudflare Access, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, SecureW2 JoinNow, Twingate
Perplexity SonarPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, Cisco Identity Services Engine
Grok 4.20Portnox Cloud alternatives: Forescout, HPE Aruba ClearPass
Mistral SmallOPSWAT MetaAccess, Portnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC
DeepSeek V4 FlashPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, Fortinet FortiNAC
Llama 4 MaverickPortnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess, PacketFence
GLM 4.7 FlashXPortnox Cloud alternatives: Aruba ClearPass, FortiNAC, NordLayer NAC
MiniMax M2.5Portnox Cloud alternatives: NordLayer NAC, OPSWAT MetaAccess
GPT-6 LunaPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cisco Identity Services Engine, FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
Muse Glimmer 30BPortnox Cloud alternatives: Cisco Identity Services Engine, Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass, OPSWAT MetaAccess, macmon NAC

Neither was the first choice, one was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniCisco Identity Services Engine alternatives: Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager, Cisco Access Manager, Forescout, InfoExpress EasyNAC, Portnox Cloud

Neither was named

3 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Fortinet FortiNAC alternatives: Microsoft Entra, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Qwen 3.7 FlashPortnox CLEAR alternatives: Fortinet FortiNAC, HPE Aruba ClearPass
Kimi K2Portnox CLEAR alternatives: Aruba ClearPass

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
Portnox Cloud leads by twenty-six points.
Portnox Cloud41%#1 of 11
PacketFence16%#2 of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Portnox Cloud leads by twenty-six points.
Portnox Cloud46%#1 of 10
PacketFence20%#2 of 10
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Portnox Cloud leads by fifteen points.
Portnox Cloud18%#2 of 7
PacketFence3%#– of 7
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Portnox Cloud

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

“Portnox has raised several security and usability concerns... Unencrypted RADIUS traffic” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Portnox Cloud appears to be the best overall choice based on its high rating, cloud-native architecture, strong ROI metrics” MiniMax M2.5 · direct prompt · first choice
“Portnox and OPSWAT MetaAccess are the top picks due to their cloud-native approach, ease of use, and scalability” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“Portnox Cloud — The clear front-runner for mid-market. SaaS, agentless, published pricing, deploys in days” DeepSeek V4 Flash · scale prompt · first choice

What 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
Also compared
Portnox Cloud vs Fortinet FortiNACPortnox Cloud vs NordLayer NACPortnox Cloud vs HPE Aruba ClearPassPortnox Cloud vs ForescoutPortnox Cloud vs Aruba ClearPassPortnox Cloud vs Cisco Identity Services EnginePacketFence vs Fortinet FortiNACPacketFence vs NordLayer NACPacketFence vs HPE Aruba ClearPassPacketFence vs ForescoutPacketFence vs Aruba ClearPassPacketFence vs Cisco Identity Services EngineAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full NAC standing

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.