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Index › IT › Network and edge › Firewalls · September 2026 Edition

Next-generation firewalls

Name: AI model recommendations for next-generation firewalls, September 2026 Edition
Creator: Gane
Published: 2026-09-17
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Asked as “next-generation firewall”, and as “enterprise firewall appliance or virtual firewall”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing · first-choice share

74%

Fortinet FortiGate

Clear leader

74Fortinet FortiGate04SonicWall TZ Series04WatchGuard Firebox17others

74% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

Fortinet FortiGate48%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-market

Fortinet FortiGate74%Clear leaderThis page Enterprise

Palo Alto Networks NGFW48%Clear leaderStanding →

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Fortinet FortiGate13%63endorsed leader

WatchGuard Firebox5%20accepted challenger

Palo Alto Networks NGFW18%49accepted challenger

Sophos Firewall9%34accepted challenger

Check Point Quantum6%31accepted challenger

SonicWall50%16criticized challenger

Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Cisco Secure Firewall19%32accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Head to head

Fortinet FortiGate vs WatchGuard Firebox Fortinet FortiGate vs Palo Alto Networks NGFW Fortinet FortiGate vs Sophos Firewall

All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

Fortinet FortiGate vs Check Point Quantum Fortinet FortiGate vs SonicWall WatchGuard Firebox vs Palo Alto Networks NGFW WatchGuard Firebox vs Sophos Firewall WatchGuard Firebox vs Check Point Quantum WatchGuard Firebox vs SonicWall Palo Alto Networks NGFW vs Sophos Firewall Palo Alto Networks NGFW vs Check Point Quantum Palo Alto Networks NGFW vs SonicWall Sophos Firewall vs Check Point Quantum Sophos Firewall vs SonicWall Check Point Quantum vs SonicWall

One product takes 74% of first choices here, so the chart would put six markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. One product carries a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Nine of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

SonicWall

50%

8 of 16 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Critical SSL-VPN vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-40766, CVE-2024-53704) with CVSS scores up to 9.3 ... Consider disabling SSL-VPN if not essential” Kimi K2, negative prompt

Fortinet FortiGate

13%

8 of 63 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“20+ CVEs on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — among the highest for any firewall vendor ... Fortinet and SonicWall currently require the most aggressive hardening” Kimi K2, negative prompt

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

18%

9 of 49 labels negative · 7 of 12 models

“Earned "Caution" in NSS Labs 2025 (lowest security effectiveness at 46.37%, failed critical network/transport-layer evasions)” Grok 4.20, negative prompt

Cisco Secure Firewall

19%

6 of 32 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“and Cisco Firepower (if you value your team's time and sanity)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 884 links across 249 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

cybersecuritynews.com

33 answers · 36 citations · 11 models

comparitech.com

32 answers · 35 citations · 10 models

cyberpress.org

vendor site · CyberPress29 answers · 30 citations · 10 models

fortinet.com

vendor site · Fortinet26 answers · 37 citations · 11 models

checkpoint.com

vendor site · Check Point22 answers · 29 citations · 10 models

reddit.com

17 answers · 27 citations · 8 models

decryptiondigest.com

17 answers · 24 citations · 8 models

gbhackers.com

16 answers · 17 citations · 8 models

esecurityplanet.com

16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models

gartner.com

15 answers · 35 citations · 6 models

paloaltonetworks.com

vendor site · Palo Alto Networks15 answers · 28 citations · 9 models

techtarget.com

14 answers · 16 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall

31 answers · 11 models

cyberpress.org/best-next-generation-firewall-ngfw-solutions-for-every-busin…

29 answers · 10 models

comparitech.com/net-admin/next-gen-firewalls

28 answers · 10 models

esecurityplanet.com/products/top-ngfw

16 answers · 9 models

decryptiondigest.com/blog/enterprise-ngfw-comparison-2026

15 answers · 8 models

gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing

14 answers · 8 models

checkpoint.com/comparison/top-4-ngfw-compared

11 answers · 8 models

guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-ngfw-firewall-platforms-2026

10 answers · 6 models

learn.g2.com/best-firewall-software

10 answers · 7 models

netwisetech.ae/best-ngfw-next-generation-firewalls-solution

10 answers · 7 models

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best next-generation firewall”, “next-generation firewall”, “next-generation firewalls”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.

Company and products	Share	Own site cited	Name searches, Google	AI search demand, est.	Organic visits	Google ads, last 30 days
Fortinet parent site Fortinet FortiGate 74%	74%	179	49,500	2,339
SonicWall sonicwall.com SonicWall TZ Series 4%, SonicWall TZ270 2%, SonicWall 2%, SonicWall NSa Series 0%	9%	50	9,900	2,391	60,229	79
WatchGuard Firebox watchguard.com	4%	53	590	74	19,015	11
Palo Alto Networks parent site Palo Alto Networks NGFW 2%, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series 0%	2%	132	40,500	1,088
Sophos parent site Sophos Firewall 2%	2%	97	18,100	2,046
Check Point parent site Check Point Quantum 2%	2%	89	14,800	4,487
Ubiquiti ubiquiti.com Ubiquiti UniFi 2%	2%	17	9,900	450	15,584 company
FortiGate\u2011VM	2%
Arista NG Firewall arista.com	2%	1			46,898	3
Cisco parent site Cisco Secure Firewall 0%, Cisco Meraki 0%	0%	105	165,000	48,352

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 23 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (checkpoint.com, fortinet.com, paloaltonetworks.com, reddit.com). The first result for “best next-generation firewall” is nomios.nl.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ShowHide

ModelDirect“What is the best next-generation firewall for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which enterprise firewall appliance or virtual firewall would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top next-generation firewalls and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best next-generation firewall for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a next-generation firewall. What should we look at?”Negative“Which next-generation firewalls should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Fortinet FortiGate

One alternative

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos FirewallChanged

Two alternatives

Cisco Meraki MX85-HW, WatchGuard Firebox

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Three alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

SonicWall, Sophos XG

no first choiceagainst: AWS Network Firewall, Arista Edge Threat Management, Azure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall

GPT-5.4 miniPalo Alto Networks NGFW

Two alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Fortinet FortiGate

Check Point QuantumChanged

Four alternatives

Fortinet FortiGate, Juniper SRX Series, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Versa

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Juniper SRX Series

Fortinet FortiGate

One alternative

SonicWall

against: Palo Alto Cloud NGFWno first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashFortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Three alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate

Four alternatives

OPNsense, Sophos Firewall, Ubiquiti UniFi, Zenarmor

against: Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFWFortinet FortiGate

One alternative

Sophos Firewall

against: Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFWagainst: AWS Network Firewall, Cisco Secure Firewall, D-Link, DrayTek, Fortinet FortiGate, Google Cloud Firewall, Huawei NGFW, Kaspersky, Microsoft Azure Firewall, Netgear, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall, Sophos Firewall, TP-Link, ZTE

Perplexity SonarFortinet FortiGate

Three alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall, Sophos Firewall

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGate

Three alternatives

SonicWall TZ Series, WatchGuard Firebox, pfSense

no first choicenothing named

Grok 4.20Fortinet FortiGate

Four alternatives

Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks PA-1400 Series or VM-Series, Sophos Firewall

against: WatchGuard FireboxFortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Three alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGate

Four alternatives

SonicWall TZ270, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox, pfSense/OPNsense

Fortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

against: AWS/GCP/Azure, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall

Mistral SmallFortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

One alternative

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Five alternatives

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall

SonicWall TZ Series, WatchGuard Firebox

One alternative

Sophos Firewall

no first choiceagainst: Cisco ASA, Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFWs

DeepSeek V4 FlashFortinet FortiGate

Five alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Five alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, WatchGuard Firebox

Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Three alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGate

Three alternatives

SonicWall TZ Series, Sophos Firewall, pfSense/OPNsense

Fortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Cisco Secure Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox

against: Palo Alto Networks NGFWagainst: Arista NG Firewall, Cisco Secure Firewall, Forcepoint, Fortinet FortiGate, Hillstone, Huawei NGFW, Sangfor, SonicWall

Llama 4 MaverickFortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, WatchGuard Firebox

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Juniper SRX Series

Arista NG Firewall, SonicWall

Three alternatives

Firewalla Purple SE, Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard Firebox

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashFortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Cisco Security Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Three alternatives

Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Intercept X Firewall

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGate

One alternative

SonicWall

against: Arista NG Firewallno first choice

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall

against: Palo Alto Networks NGFWagainst: Alcatel-Lucent, Check Point Gaia/CNS, Cisco ASA, F5 Advanced WAF, Fortinet FG-200/FG-100 Legacy Series, Imperva Incapsula, SonicWall, Sophos Firewall, Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch/Firewall

Kimi K2Fortinet FortiGate

Three alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall NSa Series, WatchGuard Firebox

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, SonicWall NSa Series

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Three alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate, SonicWall TZ Series

Three alternatives

OPNsense, WatchGuard Firebox, pfSense

Fortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

against: Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall

GLM 4.7 FlashXFortinet FortiGate

Three alternatives

Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

against: SonicWall TZ SeriesFortiGate\u2011VM, Fortinet FortiGateChanged

Three alternatives

Check Point Harmony SASE, Fortinet FortiSASE, WatchGuard Firebox

against: Sophos FirewallFortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Five alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Huawei NGFW, Sophos Firewall, Zscaler Internet Access

Ubiquiti UniFi

Three alternatives

Fortinet FortiGate, SonicWall TZ370 / TZ470, WatchGuard Firebox

against: Cisco Meraki MX67no first choiceagainst: Cisco Secure Firewall, Forcepoint NGFW, Fortinet FortiGate, SonicWall

MiniMax M2.5Fortinet FortiGate

Two alternatives

Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

Fortinet FortiGateHeld

Four alternatives

Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Five alternatives

Cato Networks, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall, Zscaler Internet Access

SonicWall TZ270, WatchGuard Firebox

Two alternatives

Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall

no first choiceagainst: Fortinet FortiGate, Hillstone, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 13:24	yes	9	11 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 10:45	yes	3	7 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 13:54	yes	7	21 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 14:06	yes	18	7 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.20	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex` (asked for `grok-4.20-non-reasoning`; the API answered as this version)	2026-09-17 10:31	yes	35	18 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 14:12	yes	5	4 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 13:03	yes	8	11 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 12:32	yes	5	2 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 11:48	yes	5	23 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 10:38	yes	15	32 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 13:44	yes	13	76 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 14:01	yes	5	35 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 11:05	yes	18	12 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 09:36	yes	1	5 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 12:11	yes	8	25 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 11:43	yes	20	5 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.20	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex` (asked for `grok-4.20-non-reasoning`; the API answered as this version)	2026-09-17 09:37	yes	33	17 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:36	yes	9	5 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 10:40	yes	14	18 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 10:22	yes	5	2 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 11:31	no	0	37 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:03	yes	15	29 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 14:03	yes	18	60 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 10:49	yes	5	28 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 12:21	yes	17	11 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 10:09	yes	7	7 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 10:24	yes	18	27 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 10:01	yes	20	9 s
Comparative	Grok 4.20	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex` (asked for `grok-4.20-non-reasoning`; the API answered as this version)	2026-09-17 13:26	yes	20	19 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 12:11	yes	9	7 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 13:07	yes	19	43 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 10:55	yes	5	3 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:36	no	0	39 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 12:11	yes	9	29 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 09:57	yes	29	48 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 11:38	yes	5	19 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 11:11	yes	18	10 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 13:34	yes	3	5 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 10:42	yes	11	19 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 11:02	yes	19	6 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.20	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex` (asked for `grok-4.20-non-reasoning`; the API answered as this version)	2026-09-17 09:25	yes	46	20 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 13:02	yes	5	4 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 11:57	yes	14	14 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 14:01	yes	5	3 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:07	yes	5	35 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 10:20	yes	15	37 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 10:18	yes	15	129 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 12:57	yes	5	26 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 12:46	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 12:11	no	0	11 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 12:45	yes	9	30 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 12:52	yes	20	8 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.20	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex` (asked for `grok-4.20-non-reasoning`; the API answered as this version)	2026-09-17 10:36	yes	19	13 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:23	no	0	8 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 10:19	yes	14	17 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 14:14	yes	5	3 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:30	yes	5	34 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:04	yes	15	29 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 12:18	no	0	54 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 13:52	yes	5	16 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 10:32	yes	18	9 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 12:56	no	0	2 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 11:46	yes	19	26 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 10:16	yes	20	7 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.20	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex` (asked for `grok-4.20-non-reasoning`; the API answered as this version)	2026-09-17 10:05	yes	40	17 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:37	yes	5	6 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 13:54	yes	25	67 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 09:32	yes	5	4 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 11:14	no	0	49 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 11:21	yes	29	45 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 14:08	yes	28	50 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 13:35	yes	10	34 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

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Category-scoped readings

Barracuda CloudGen read as Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Cato read as Cato Networks Network Firewall

Check Point read as Check Point Quantum

Check Point (Quantum) read as Check Point Quantum

Check Point (Spark/ThreatRadar) read as Check Point Quantum

Check Point NGFW read as Check Point Quantum

Cisco read as Cisco Secure Firewall

Cisco (ASA/FTD) read as Cisco Secure Firewall

Cisco (Firescale/Firepower) read as Cisco Secure Firewall

Cisco (Secure Firewall) read as Cisco Secure Firewall

Cisco Firepower read as Cisco Secure Firewall

Cisco Firepower (e.g., 2130) read as Cisco Secure Firewall

Fortinet read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet (FortiGate & FortiGate-VM) read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet (FortiGate) read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet (FortiOS) read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate 30E / 40F read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate 40F Hardware read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate 60F read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate 90G read as Fortinet FortiGate

Fortinet FortiGate NGFW read as Fortinet FortiGate

Huawei read as Huawei NGFW

Huawei (USG) read as Huawei NGFW

Juniper read as Juniper SRX Series

Juniper (SRX) read as Juniper SRX Series

Juniper SRX read as Juniper SRX Series

Palo Alto read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (PA-300 Series) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (PA-400/500 series) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (PA-Series & VM-Series) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (PA-Series) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (PA-Series/Prisma) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (PAN-OS) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks (e.g., PA-1410) read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks PA‑Series read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Networks Security NGFW read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

Palo Alto PA-Series read as Palo Alto Networks NGFW

SonicWall TZ read as SonicWall TZ Series

Sophos read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos (XG Firewall) read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos (XGS Series) read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos (XGS) read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos Firewall XGS read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos XGS read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos XGS 87 read as Sophos Firewall

Sophos XGS Series read as Sophos Firewall

Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM Pro) read as Ubiquiti UniFi

Untangle NG Firewall (Arista) read as Arista NG Firewall

Untangle NG Firewall (Virtual Edition) read as Arista NG Firewall

WatchGuard read as WatchGuard Firebox

WatchGuard Firebox T25 read as WatchGuard Firebox

WatchGuard Firebox T45 read as WatchGuard Firebox

Zscaler read as Zscaler Internet Access

Unresolved, counted raw

Alcatel-Lucent (ALC)

Arista Edge Threat Management (NGFW)

Check Point Gaia/CNS

Cisco Meraki MX85-HW

Cisco Security Firewall

Cloud-native firewalls (AWS/Azure native)

DrayTek

Firewalla Purple SE

FortiGate\u2011VM

Fortinet FG-200/FG-100 Legacy Series

Google Cloud Firewall

Huawei USG

Juniper Networks NGFW

Palo Alto Cloud NGFW

Palo Alto Networks PA-1400 Series or VM-Series

SonicWall TZ370 / TZ470

Sophos Intercept X Firewall

Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch/Firewall

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Next-generation firewalls

By buyer segment

The standing

One product takes 74% of first choices here, so the chart would put six markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. One product carries a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

Search against answers

How they answered

The record

Normalization in this category

Also in network and edge