# Zero trust network access for small business 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 a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/zero-trust-network-access/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Cloudflare One leads with 60% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Cloudflare One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-one/index.md) | 60% | 0% | 60 |
| 2 | [Twingate](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/twingate/index.md) | 31% | 5% | 55 |
| 3 | [Tailscale](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/tailscale/index.md) | 4% | 5% | 44 |
| 4 | [OpenVPN CloudConnexa](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openvpn-cloudconnexa/index.md) | 4% | 7% | 14 |
| 5 | [Check Point Harmony SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-harmony-sase/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 34 |
| 6 | [NordLayer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/nordlayer/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 51 | [Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-prisma-access/index.md) | 0% | 93% | 14 |
| 52 | [Zscaler Private Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/zscaler-private-access/index.md) | 0% | 79% | 29 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 52 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; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Microsoft Entra ID + Intune, Twingate
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare One; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler Private Access
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune
- Perplexity Sonar: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, NordLayer, Tailscale
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare One; alternatives OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Twingate
- Mistral Small: OpenVPN CloudConnexa; alternatives Microsoft Entra ID + Intune, NordLayer, Twingate
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Tailscale
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cloudflare One, Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare One; alternatives Cisco Duo, Cisco Umbrella, Microsoft Entra ID, Tailscale
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare One; alternatives Microsoft Entra Private Access, NordLayer, Twingate
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare One; alternatives Microsoft Entra ID + Intune, Twingate
- MiniMax M2.5: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Tailscale

## Sources the answers cite

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

- petronellatech.com: 48 answers, 49 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 45 answers, 46 citations
- cyberpress.org: 39 answers, 44 citations
- meshwg.com: 25 answers, 26 citations
- aimultiple.com: 23 answers, 24 citations
- portnox.com: 22 answers, 24 citations
- itbusinessedge.com: 19 answers, 19 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 17 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://petronellatech.com/blog/zero-trust-vendors-compared-top-10-smbs-2026 (48 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-ztna-solutions (43 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ztna-solutions-by-business-size (34 answers)
- https://meshwg.com/ztna-for-small-business (24 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/ztna-solutions (23 answers)
- https://itbusinessedge.com/security/smb-zero-trust-solutions (19 answers)
- https://portnox.com/cybersecurity-101/zero-trust/who-are-the-best-ztna-providers (17 answers)
- https://saas-expert.com/articles/best-zero-trust-network-access-tools-small-business (16 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-8-zero-trust-network-access-tools (16 answers)
- https://eastbaycyber.com/content/compare-best-zero-trust-network-access-providers-2026 (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Zscaler Private Access: 23 of 29 labels negative. "What to avoid as a small B2B: Enterprise ZTNA suites (Zscaler, Netskope): Powerful but often require professional services and opaque pricing" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access: 13 of 14 labels negative. "Avoid enterprise‑centric, per‑user pricing platforms (Zscaler, Palo Alto, Cisco SASE)" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Netskope Private Access: 6 of 9 labels negative. "What to avoid as a small B2B: Enterprise ZTNA suites (Zscaler, Netskope): ... overkill for most sub-50-person shops." (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Cisco Secure Access: 3 of 4 labels negative. "Expensive add-on ecosystem | Requires stacking multiple Cisco products; complex licensing" (Kimi K2, 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.