# SD-WAN for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "SD-WAN platform" and as "software-defined WAN solution", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/sd-wan/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/sd-wan/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Cisco Meraki SD-WAN leads with 42% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 53 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Cisco Meraki SD-WAN](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-meraki-sd-wan/index.md) | 42% | 11% | 65 |
| 2 | [Fortinet Secure SD-WAN](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-secure-sd-wan/index.md) | 26% | 7% | 61 |
| 3 | [Peplink](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/peplink/index.md) | 6% | 0% | 15 |
| 5 | [Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cisco-catalyst-sd-wan/index.md) | 6% | 58% | 31 |
| 6 | [Cato SASE Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cato-sase-cloud/index.md) | 2% | 12% | 24 |
| 16 | [HPE Aruba EdgeConnect](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hpe-aruba-edgeconnect/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 11 |
| 65 | [VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/vmware-velocloud-sd-wan/index.md) | 0% | 43% | 35 |
| 69 | [Versa Secure SD-WAN](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/versa-secure-sd-wan/index.md) | 0% | 47% | 19 |
| 70 | [Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-prisma-sd-wan/index.md) | 0% | 57% | 28 |

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: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN; alternatives Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Peplink, Ubiquiti UniFi
- Perplexity Sonar: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Bigleaf Networks, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
- Grok 4.20: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Bigleaf Networks, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
- Mistral Small: Cisco; alternatives Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Cradlepoint, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN; alternatives Ecessa
- Kimi K2: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Cato SASE Cloud, FortiGate SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cisco SD‑WAN; alternatives Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiSD‑WAN, Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
- MiniMax M2.5: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiSecure SD-WAN; alternatives VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WAN
- GPT-6 Luna: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN; alternatives Cisco SD-WAN Viptela, FortiGate SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN

## Sources the answers cite

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

- us.fitgap.com: 44 answers, 54 citations
- guideflow.com: 38 answers, 38 citations
- g2.com: 37 answers, 66 citations
- fortinet.com: 32 answers, 46 citations
- sequentur.com: 28 answers, 28 citations
- cisco.com: 27 answers, 36 citations
- interfacesystems.com: 25 answers, 25 citations
- reddit.com: 22 answers, 41 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://us.fitgap.com/search/sd-wan-solutions/small-business (43 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/sd-wan-software (38 answers)
- https://sequentur.com/sd-wan-for-small-business-is-it-worth-it (28 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/sd-wan/small-business (27 answers)
- https://interfacesystems.com/blog/top-sd-wan-vendors (25 answers)
- https://fortinet.com/solutions/small-business/security-sd-wan (22 answers)
- https://costbench.com/best/sd-wan-for-small-business (21 answers)
- https://thectoclub.com/tools/best-sd-wan-solutions (20 answers)
- https://stlpartners.com/articles/network-innovation/sd-wan-providers (19 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/sd-wan (18 answers)

## Warned against

- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: 18 of 31 labels negative. "True enterprise SD-WAN platforms (like Cisco Viptela or Palo Alto Prisma) are far too expensive and complex for small businesses." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN: 16 of 28 labels negative. "Why to avoid: Premium-priced enterprise platform... still cost-prohibitive for most small businesses" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN: 15 of 35 labels negative. "Named together with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN/Viptela and Palo Alto Prisma as heavy enterprise tools to avoid for SMBs" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Versa Secure SD-WAN: 9 of 19 labels negative. "Small businesses should avoid or be cautious about SD-WAN platforms designed for large enterprises, such as Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Versa Networks, and VMware SD-WAN" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN at 39%.

- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: 10% to 4%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 4 → 5 of 68.
- Fortinet Secure SD-WAN: 31% to 28%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 2 of 68, unchanged.
- Peplink: 10% to 7%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 of 68, unchanged.
- Ubiquiti UniFi: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 4 of 68.
- Cato SASE Cloud: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 10 → 6 of 68.
- Cisco Meraki SD-WAN: 40% to 39%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 68, unchanged.
- HPE Aruba EdgeConnect: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 38 → 15 of 68.
- Aryaka: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 17 of 68.
- VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 51 → 63 of 68.
- Versa Secure SD-WAN: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 45 → 67 of 68.
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 49 → 68 of 68.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.