# Next-generation firewalls for small business 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 a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/next-generation-firewalls/2026-11/smb

**Standing:** Fortinet FortiGate leads with 72% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 57 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) | 72% | 6% | 65 |
| 2 | [Sophos Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-firewall/index.md) | 7% | 4% | 51 |
| 3 | [WatchGuard Firebox](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/watchguard-firebox/index.md) | 5% | 3% | 39 |
| 4 | [SonicWall TZ Series](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sonicwall-tz-series/index.md) | 2% | 14% | 22 |
| 11 | [pfSense](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/pfsense/index.md) | 2% | 50% | 16 |
| 12 | [Palo Alto Networks NGFW](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-ngfw/index.md) | 2% | 56% | 43 |
| 13 | Cisco Meraki MX | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 91 | [SonicWall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sonicwall/index.md) | 0% | 54% | 13 |
| 92 | [Cisco Secure Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-secure-firewall/index.md) | 0% | 52% | 21 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 93 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: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall TZ Series
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Meraki, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- Perplexity Sonar: WatchGuard Firebox; alternatives Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall
- Grok 4.20: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum Spark, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, SonicWall TZ Series, WatchGuard Firebox
- Mistral Small: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives SonicWall, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox
- Llama 4 Maverick: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall; alternatives WatchGuard Firebox
- Kimi K2: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Netgate 2100 pfSense+, SonicWall TZ Series, Sophos Firewall
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, WatchGuard Firebox, Zyxel USG FLEX H Series
- MiniMax M2.5: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Cisco Umbrella, OPNsense, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- GPT-6 Luna: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives FortiGate 90G, Sophos Firewall
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox

## Sources the answers cite

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

- fortinet.com: 47 answers, 70 citations
- cyberpress.org: 24 answers, 26 citations
- reddit.com: 20 answers, 34 citations
- gane.ai/index: 20 answers, 20 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 17 answers, 19 citations
- enterprisenetworkingplanet.com: 17 answers, 17 citations
- cisco.com: 15 answers, 29 citations
- hummingbirdnetworks.com: 13 answers, 13 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://fortinet.com/solutions/small-business/firewall (31 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/best-next-generation-firewall-ngfw-solutions-for-every-business-size (24 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/network/next-generation-firewalls/smb (19 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall (17 answers)
- https://enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/guides/best-firewalls-for-small-medium-business (17 answers)
- https://hummingbirdnetworks.com/articles/next-gen-firewall-buyers-guide (13 answers)
- https://fortinet.com/products/network-firewall-pricing (9 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing (9 answers)
- https://capterra.com/firewall-software/s/small-businesses (8 answers)
- https://corporatearmor.com/best-sme-firewall-recommendation-for-2025-secure-your-business-today (8 answers)

## Warned against

- Palo Alto Networks NGFW: 24 of 43 labels negative. "Alternatives to Avoid for Tight Budgets: Palo Alto or full Cisco Firepower can exceed $2,000+ easily with licensing" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Cisco Secure Firewall: 11 of 21 labels negative. "Often criticized for being overly complex and "bloated" for small businesses... it may be more than you need and result in unnecessary overhead." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- SonicWall: 7 of 13 labels negative. "System instability – reported sluggishness and frequent issues after upgrades/patches" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- pfSense: 8 of 16 labels negative. "Avoid entry-level consumer firewalls (e.g., basic pfSense without enterprise support) for B2B" (Grok 4.20, direct prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Fortinet FortiGate at 72%.

- Fortinet FortiGate: 51% to 72%, +21. Cleared the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 93, unchanged.
- WatchGuard Firebox: 12% to 5%, −7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 3 of 93, unchanged.
- Sophos Firewall: 12% to 7%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 93, unchanged.
- Cisco Meraki MX: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 13 of 93.
- Ubiquiti UniFi: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 15 of 93.
- SonicWall: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 17 → 91 of 93.
- SonicWall TZ Series: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 4 of 93, unchanged.
- pfSense: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 11 of 93.
- Palo Alto Networks NGFW: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 18 → 12 of 93.
- Cisco Secure Firewall: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 80 → 92 of 93.

## 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.