# Next-generation firewalls: 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 mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/next-generation-firewalls

**Standing:** Fortinet FortiGate leads with 71% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 52 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) | 71% | 13% | 69 |
| 2 | [Palo Alto Networks NGFW](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-ngfw/index.md) | 8% | 20% | 59 |
| 3 | [pfSense](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/pfsense/index.md) | 4% | 20% | 10 |
| 4 | [Sophos Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-firewall/index.md) | 2% | 4% | 47 |
| 12 | [SonicWall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sonicwall/index.md) | 2% | 40% | 20 |
| 13 | [Check Point Quantum](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-quantum/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 40 |
| 14 | [Cisco Secure Firewall](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-secure-firewall/index.md) | 0% | 28% | 50 |
| 15 | [WatchGuard Firebox](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/watchguard-firebox/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 15 |
| 16 | [Juniper SRX Series](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/juniper-srx-series/index.md) | 0% | 14% | 14 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 78 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: Palo Alto Networks NGFW; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Perplexity Sonar: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Grok 4.20: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, Check Point Quantum NGFW, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- Mistral Small: Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- Llama 4 Maverick: Fortinet FortiGate
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- Kimi K2: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Fortinet FortiGate
- MiniMax M2.5: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall
- GPT-6 Luna: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox

## Sources the answers cite

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

- fortinet.com: 37 answers, 54 citations
- checkpoint.com: 27 answers, 33 citations
- cyberpress.org: 16 answers, 16 citations
- reddit.com: 15 answers, 36 citations
- comparitech.com: 15 answers, 15 citations
- cisco.com: 14 answers, 16 citations
- paloaltonetworks.com: 13 answers, 16 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 13 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://comparitech.com/net-admin/next-gen-firewalls (15 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/best-next-generation-firewall-ngfw-solutions-for-every-business-size (14 answers)
- https://checkpoint.com/comparison/top-4-ngfw-compared (12 answers)
- https://fortinet.com/products/next-generation-firewall (12 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall (11 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-ngfw-firewall-platforms-2026 (11 answers)
- https://softwarereviews.com/awards/data-quadrant-awards-2024-next-generation-firewall (11 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing (10 answers)
- https://hpe.com/us/en/what-is/next-gen-firewall.html (9 answers)
- https://version-2.com/en/2024/09/10-best-network-firewall-solutions-for-businesses (9 answers)

## Warned against

- Cisco Secure Firewall: 14 of 50 labels negative. "Avoid high-end like Palo Alto or full Cisco Secure Firewall unless scaled down" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Fortinet FortiGate: 9 of 69 labels negative. "Multiple critical vulnerabilities exploited in the wild (CVE-2024-21762, CVE-2023-27997)" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)
- SonicWall: 8 of 20 labels negative. "Avoid: SonicWall devices running older firmware versions that are known to be unpatched (particularly the SMA 100 series)." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks NGFW: 12 of 59 labels negative. "Avoid high-end like Palo Alto or full Cisco Secure Firewall unless scaled down" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Fortinet FortiGate at 71%.

- Palo Alto Networks NGFW: 2% to 8%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 3 → 2 of 78.
- pfSense: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 61 → 3 of 78.
- Fortinet FortiGate: 73% to 71%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 1 of 78, unchanged.
- Sophos Firewall: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 → 4 of 78.
- SonicWall: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 77 → 12 of 78.
- Cisco Secure Firewall: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 14 of 78.
- Check Point Quantum: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 13 of 78.
- WatchGuard Firebox: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 16 → 15 of 78.
- Juniper SRX Series: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 17 → 16 of 78.

## 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.