# Zero trust network access for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "ZTNA solution" and as "zero trust remote access tool to replace a VPN", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/zero-trust-network-access/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This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since.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/zero-trust-network-access/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** Zscaler Private Access leads with 57% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 42 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Zscaler Private Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/zscaler-private-access/index.md) | 57% | 20% | 61 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-one/index.md) | 31% | 4% | 54 |
| 3 | [Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-prisma-access/index.md) | 5% | 14% | 49 |
| 7 | [Fortinet Universal ZTNA](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-universal-ztna/index.md) | 0% | 5% | 19 |
| 8 | [Netskope Private Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/netskope-private-access/index.md) | 0% | 26% | 27 |
| 9 | [Akamai Enterprise Application Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-enterprise-application-access/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 10 | [Twingate](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/twingate/index.md) | 0% | 21% | 19 |
| 16 | [Tailscale](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/tailscale/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 11 |
| 35 | [Check Point Harmony SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-harmony-sase/index.md) | 0% | 40% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 42 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: Cloudflare One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange; alternatives Microsoft Entra Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- GPT-5.4 mini: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare One; alternatives Microsoft Entra Private Access, Netskope Private Access, Twingate, Zscaler Private Access
- Perplexity Sonar: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cato Networks, Cloudflare One, Microsoft Entra Private Access
- Grok 4.20: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Mistral Small: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare One, Fortinet Universal ZTNA
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Microsoft Entra Private Access, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Llama 4 Maverick: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Zero Networks
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Fortinet Universal ZTNA, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Kimi K2: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Netskope ZTNA Next, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- MiniMax M2.5: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Universal ZTNA, Cloudflare One

## Sources the answers cite

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

- portnox.com: 36 answers, 43 citations
- expertinsights.com: 34 answers, 34 citations
- cipherssecurity.com: 29 answers, 31 citations
- aimultiple.com: 29 answers, 29 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 26 answers, 28 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 24 answers, 28 citations
- gartner.com: 22 answers, 35 citations
- venn.com: 19 answers, 25 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-zero-trust-network-access-solutions (34 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/ztna-solutions (29 answers)
- https://cipherssecurity.com/best-ztna-platforms-2026 (28 answers)
- https://portnox.com/cybersecurity-101/zero-trust/who-are-the-best-ztna-providers (26 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-ztna-solutions (23 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-ztna-solutions-2026 (21 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/zero-trust-network-access-software (18 answers)
- https://akamai.com/site/en/documents/analyst-report/2024/kuppingercole-ztna-analyst-report.pdf (14 answers)
- https://petronellatech.com/blog/zero-trust-vendors-compared-top-10-smbs-2026 (13 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/zero-trust-network-access (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Zscaler Private Access: 12 of 61 labels negative. "Authentication bypass via flawed SAML signature validation, allowing forged tokens... complaints about unsuitability for large-scale deployments." (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access: 7 of 49 labels negative. "they layer on costs tied to data egress, bandwidth consumption, regional routing, and traffic inspection volume" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Check Point Harmony SASE: 6 of 15 labels negative. "Hard-coded encryption keys exposing customer data in logs, plus authentication bypasses and privilege escalation risks." (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Netskope Private Access: 7 of 27 labels negative. "Cross-tenant vulnerabilities enabling compromise via leaked enrollment tokens. Lacks consistent innovation in some areas per Gartner critiques." (Grok 4.20, 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.