# SASE platforms: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "SASE platform" and as "secure access service edge solution", 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/sase-platforms/2026-11

**Standing:** Cato Networks leads with 30% of first choices; verdict contested. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Cato Networks](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cato-networks/index.md) | 30% | 11% | 36 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-one/index.md) | 28% | 9% | 45 |
| 3 | [Cato SASE Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cato-sase-cloud/index.md) | 11% | 36% | 14 |
| 4 | [Netskope One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/netskope-one/index.md) | 4% | 25% | 44 |
| 5 | [Fortinet FortiSASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-fortisase/index.md) | 2% | 11% | 61 |
| 6 | [Cisco Secure Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-secure-access/index.md) | 2% | 26% | 35 |
| 7 | [Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/zscaler-zero-trust-exchange/index.md) | 2% | 37% | 59 |
| 18 | [Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-prisma-sase/index.md) | 0% | 28% | 43 |
| 19 | [Check Point Harmony SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-harmony-sase/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 22 |
| 21 | [Versa SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/versa-sase/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 60 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: Cato SASE Cloud; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Umbrella, Fortinet FortiSASE
- GPT-5.4 mini: Fortinet FortiSASE; alternatives Cato Networks, Cisco Secure Access, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cato Networks; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE
- Perplexity Sonar: Cato SASE Cloud; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
- Grok 4.20: Cato Networks' Cato SASE Cloud; alternatives Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE
- Mistral Small: Cato Networks; alternatives Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cato Networks; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cato Networks; alternatives Cloudflare One
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cato Networks; alternatives Cloudflare One, Prisma Access, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- Kimi K2: Cato Networks; alternatives Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Secure Access; alternatives Cato Networks, Fortinet FortiSASE, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- MiniMax M2.5: Cato Networks; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Netskope One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- GPT-6 Luna: Cato Networks; alternatives Fortinet FortiSASE, Netskope One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cato Networks Cato SASE Cloud; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Umbrella, Cloudflare One

## Sources the answers cite

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

- sase.cloud: 32 answers, 57 citations
- fortinet.com: 32 answers, 56 citations
- cloudflare.com: 23 answers, 34 citations
- g2.com: 21 answers, 32 citations
- dope.security: 21 answers, 21 citations
- viewpointanalysis.com: 21 answers, 21 citations
- netify.co.uk: 20 answers, 24 citations
- costbench.com: 17 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://dope.security/post/sase-vendors-2026 (21 answers)
- https://sase.cloud/vendors (21 answers)
- https://viewpointanalysis.com/post/sase-software-options-2026 (21 answers)
- https://techrepublic.com/article/secure-access-service-edge-platforms (16 answers)
- https://netify.co.uk/insights/who-are-the-best-rated-sase-vendors (14 answers)
- https://thenetworkdna.com/2026/04/top-5-sase-solution-providers-with.html (14 answers)
- https://cloudsek.com/knowledge-base/sase-solutions (13 answers)
- https://fortinet.com/resources/articles/top-sase-vendors (13 answers)
- https://costbench.com/best/sase-for-mid-market (11 answers)
- https://blog.openvpn.net/best-sase-solution (9 answers)

## Warned against

- Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange: 22 of 59 labels negative. "has a high negative share on the IT AI Recommendation Index, with 62% of labels being negative, and has been known to have outages and latency issues" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE: 12 of 43 labels negative. "What I'd Avoid for Mid-Market - Palo Alto Prisma SASE — Excellent but overkill for mid-sized companies" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Netskope One: 11 of 44 labels negative. "Netskope | Higher-tier pricing with add-ons" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Fortinet FortiSASE: 7 of 61 labels negative. "Users and analysts advise avoiding it due to significant architectural and usability concerns." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Cato Networks at 30%.

- Cato Networks: 35% to 30%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 1 of 60, unchanged.
- Cloudflare One: 33% to 28%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 60, unchanged.
- Fortinet FortiSASE: 6% to 2%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 5 of 60.
- Netskope One: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 4 of 60.
- Cisco Secure Access: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 12 → 6 of 60.
- Check Point Harmony SASE: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 19 of 60.
- Cato SASE Cloud: 10% to 11%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 3 of 60, unchanged.
- Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 7 of 60.
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 18 of 60.
- Versa SASE: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 21 of 60.

## 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.