# Next-generation firewalls for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "next-generation firewall" and as "enterprise firewall appliance or virtual firewall", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/next-generation-firewalls/2026-11/enterprise

**Standing:** Palo Alto Networks NGFW leads with 44% 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 | [Palo Alto Networks NGFW](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-ngfw/index.md) | 44% | 10% | 62 |
| 2 | [Fortinet FortiGate](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-fortigate/index.md) | 31% | 12% | 72 |
| 4 | [Check Point Quantum](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-quantum/index.md) | 2% | 7% | 56 |
| 11 | [Cisco Secure Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-secure-firewall/index.md) | 0% | 22% | 60 |
| 12 | [Juniper SRX Series](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/juniper-srx-series/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 16 |
| 63 | [Sophos Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-firewall/index.md) | 0% | 47% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 70 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: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate
- GPT-5.4 mini: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Fortinet FortiGate
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall
- Perplexity Sonar: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Cloud NGFW
- Grok 4.20: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Fortinet FortiGate
- Mistral Small: Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Juniper SRX Series
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Fortinet FortiGate
- Llama 4 Maverick: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Next Generation Firewalls, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate
- Kimi K2: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Juniper SRX Series, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- MiniMax M2.5: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Fortinet FortiGate
- GPT-6 Luna: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Fortinet FortiGate
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW

## Sources the answers cite

71 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 13 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- checkpoint.com: 55 answers, 94 citations
- fortinet.com: 49 answers, 99 citations
- paloaltonetworks.com: 28 answers, 44 citations
- juniper.net: 18 answers, 23 citations
- techtarget.com: 18 answers, 22 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 18 answers, 21 citations
- decryptiondigest.com: 14 answers, 16 citations
- gbhackers.com: 14 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://fortinet.com/products/next-generation-firewall (26 answers)
- https://checkpoint.com/comparison/top-4-ngfw-compared (19 answers)
- https://checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/tools-vendors/top-enterprise-firewalls-solutions-in-2026 (18 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall (18 answers)
- https://fortinet.com/products/next-generation-firewall/fortigate-vs-pan (14 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing (14 answers)
- https://paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/next-generation-firewall (12 answers)
- https://techtarget.com/news/Comparison-of-5-top-next-generation-firewall-vendors/836282 (12 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-network-firewalls (11 answers)
- https://wifihotshots.com/manufacturer-comparisons/enterprise-ngfw-platforms (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Cisco Secure Firewall: 13 of 60 labels negative. "Cisco deployments chosen solely for brand or network familiarity... one comparison characterizes Cisco's advanced-threat capability as response-focused." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Fortinet FortiGate: 9 of 72 labels negative. "Fortinet deserves particular scrutiny—not necessarily automatic rejection—because public analyses have highlighted numerous high- and critical-severity vulnerabilities" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks NGFW: 6 of 62 labels negative. "recent NVD entries and CISA-linked advisories show exploitable auth-bypass / file-creation issues that make patch velocity and exposure management critical" (GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt)
- Sophos Firewall: 7 of 15 labels negative. "enterprise architects often find its central management, multi-datacenter policy orchestration ... insufficient for highly distributed enterprise environments" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Palo Alto Networks NGFW at 44%.

- Palo Alto Networks NGFW: 38% to 44%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 1 of 70, unchanged.
- Fortinet FortiGate: 36% to 31%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 70, unchanged.
- Cisco Secure Firewall: 3% to 0%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 5 → 11 of 70.
- Check Point Quantum: 3% to 2%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 4 of 70, unchanged.
- Juniper SRX Series: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 14 → 12 of 70.
- Sophos Firewall: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 17 → 63 of 70.

## 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.