# Next-generation firewalls: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "next-generation firewall" and as "enterprise firewall appliance or virtual firewall", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/next-generation-firewalls/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/next-generation-firewalls/index.md

**Standing:** Fortinet FortiGate leads with 74% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Fortinet FortiGate](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-fortigate/index.md) | 74% | 13% | 63 |
| 2 | [WatchGuard Firebox](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/watchguard-firebox/index.md) | 4% | 5% | 20 |
| 4 | [Palo Alto Networks NGFW](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-ngfw/index.md) | 2% | 18% | 49 |
| 5 | [Sophos Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-firewall/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 34 |
| 6 | [Check Point Quantum](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-quantum/index.md) | 2% | 6% | 31 |
| 11 | [SonicWall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sonicwall/index.md) | 2% | 50% | 16 |
| 12 | [Cisco Secure Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-secure-firewall/index.md) | 0% | 19% | 32 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 69 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 FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- GPT-5.4 mini: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Fortinet FortiGate
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Perplexity Sonar: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Grok 4.20: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox
- Mistral Small: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Llama 4 Maverick: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Security Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- Kimi K2: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall NSa Series, WatchGuard Firebox
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- MiniMax M2.5: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall

## Sources the answers cite

64 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- cybersecuritynews.com: 33 answers, 36 citations
- comparitech.com: 32 answers, 35 citations
- cyberpress.org: 29 answers, 30 citations
- fortinet.com: 26 answers, 37 citations
- checkpoint.com: 22 answers, 29 citations
- reddit.com: 17 answers, 27 citations
- decryptiondigest.com: 17 answers, 24 citations
- gbhackers.com: 16 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall (31 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/best-next-generation-firewall-ngfw-solutions-for-every-business-size (29 answers)
- https://comparitech.com/net-admin/next-gen-firewalls (28 answers)
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/top-ngfw (16 answers)
- https://decryptiondigest.com/blog/enterprise-ngfw-comparison-2026 (15 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing (14 answers)
- https://checkpoint.com/comparison/top-4-ngfw-compared (11 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-ngfw-firewall-platforms-2026 (10 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-firewall-software (10 answers)
- https://netwisetech.ae/best-ngfw-next-generation-firewalls-solution (10 answers)

## Warned against

- SonicWall: 8 of 16 labels 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: 8 of 63 labels 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: 9 of 49 labels negative. "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: 6 of 32 labels negative. "and Cisco Firepower (if you value your team's time and sanity)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.