# SASE platforms for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "SASE platform" and as "secure access service edge solution", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/sase-platforms/2026-09/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since.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/sase-platforms/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE leads with 31% of first choices; verdict contested. 42 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-prisma-sase/index.md) | 31% | 14% | 49 |
| 2 | [Cato Networks](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cato-networks/index.md) | 17% | 9% | 35 |
| 3 | [Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/zscaler-zero-trust-exchange/index.md) | 17% | 24% | 58 |
| 4 | [Cato SASE Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cato-sase-cloud/index.md) | 10% | 19% | 16 |
| 5 | [Netskope One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/netskope-one/index.md) | 7% | 11% | 45 |
| 6 | [Cloudflare One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-one/index.md) | 7% | 26% | 34 |
| 7 | [Cisco Secure Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-secure-access/index.md) | 5% | 24% | 25 |
| 8 | [Fortinet FortiSASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-fortisase/index.md) | 2% | 12% | 43 |
| 11 | [Versa SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/versa-sase/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 37 | [Check Point Harmony SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-harmony-sase/index.md) | 0% | 46% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 37 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: Cisco Secure Access; alternatives Cato Networks, Check Point Harmony SASE, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- GPT-5.4 mini: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Cato Networks, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange; alternatives Cato Networks, Fortinet FortiSASE, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
- Perplexity Sonar: Cato Networks; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
- Grok 4.20: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Secure Connect, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
- Mistral Small: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Cato Networks, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Netskope One; alternatives Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
- Llama 4 Maverick: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Cato Networks, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange; alternatives Cato Networks, Netskope One
- Kimi K2: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Cato Networks, Cisco Secure Connect, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- MiniMax M2.5: Cato Networks, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE; alternatives Fortinet FortiSASE

## Sources the answers cite

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

- gartner.com: 35 answers, 42 citations
- fortinet.com: 29 answers, 46 citations
- sase.cloud: 23 answers, 46 citations
- macronetservices.com: 23 answers, 24 citations
- sasecompare.com: 21 answers, 23 citations
- netify.co.uk: 20 answers, 31 citations
- pickmysoft.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- guideflow.com: 18 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/single-vendor-sase (28 answers)
- https://macronetservices.com/sase-leaders-vendors-comparison (23 answers)
- https://pickmysoft.com/blog/best-secure-access-service-edge-sase-platforms (20 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/sase-platform (18 answers)
- https://techrepublic.com/article/secure-access-service-edge-platforms (18 answers)
- https://sasecompare.com/blog/best-sase-providers-2026-comparison-criteria (17 answers)
- https://blog.openvpn.net/best-sase-solution (15 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-sase-platforms-2026 (15 answers)
- https://crn.com/news/security/2024/palo-alto-networks-cato-netskope-top-gartner-s-sase-magic-quadrant-for-2024 (14 answers)
- https://cyberhaven.com/blog/top-sase-solutions (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange: 14 of 58 labels negative. "Scalability/performance issues in reviews: Limited effective PoPs (40-60 despite 150+ claims), regional surcharges, latency from traffic hairpinning" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Cloudflare One: 9 of 34 labels negative. "Cloudflare One | Complex onboarding, steep learning curve, limited features, opaque pricing." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Check Point Harmony SASE: 6 of 13 labels negative. "Check Point SASE | Slow connections, complex management, user‑experience degradation." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Cisco Secure Access: 6 of 25 labels negative. "Cisco — caution if you need a truly unified SASE operating model, because recent Forrester commentary says Cisco still separates management interfaces" (GPT-5.4 mini, 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.