# Zero trust network access: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "ZTNA solution" and as "zero trust remote access tool to replace a VPN", 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/zero-trust-network-access/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/zero-trust-network-access/index.md

**Standing:** Twingate leads with 39% of first choices; verdict contested. 64 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Twingate](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/twingate/index.md) | 39% | 2% | 44 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-one/index.md) | 38% | 4% | 56 |
| 3 | [Cato Networks](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cato-networks/index.md) | 6% | 0% | 14 |
| 4 | [NordLayer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/nordlayer/index.md) | 3% | 11% | 18 |
| 5 | [OpenVPN CloudConnexa](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openvpn-cloudconnexa/index.md) | 3% | 0% | 11 |
| 6 | [Zscaler Private Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/zscaler-private-access/index.md) | 3% | 45% | 51 |
| 7 | [Tailscale](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/tailscale/index.md) | 2% | 24% | 25 |
| 8 | [Check Point Harmony SASE](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/check-point-harmony-sase/index.md) | 2% | 33% | 30 |
| 9 | [Netskope Private Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/netskope-private-access/index.md) | 2% | 36% | 25 |
| 14 | [Fortinet Universal ZTNA](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fortinet-universal-ztna/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 17 |
| 22 | [Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-prisma-access/index.md) | 0% | 42% | 26 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 67 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 Networks, Twingate; alternatives Cloudflare One, NordLayer
- GPT-5.4 mini: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Netskope One SSE, Prisma Access
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Twingate; alternatives Cato Networks, Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, Microsoft Entra Private Access
- Perplexity Sonar: Cloudflare One, NordLayer; alternatives Cato Networks, Cisco Secure Access, Portnox
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare One, Twingate; alternatives Cato Networks, Microsoft Entra Private Access, OpenVPN CloudConnexa
- Mistral Small: Check Point Harmony SASE, Netskope Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Twingate, Zscaler Private Access
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare One, Twingate; alternatives Cato Networks, Check Point Harmony SASE, NordLayer
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cato Networks; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, OpenVPN CloudConnexa
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Twingate; alternatives Cloudflare One, Fortinet Universal ZTNA
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare One, Twingate; alternatives Cato Networks, Netskope Private Access, NordLayer, Zscaler Private Access
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cato Networks; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiZTNA
- MiniMax M2.5: Cato Networks, Cloudflare One; alternatives Axis Security, Banyan Security, OpenVPN CloudConnexa
- GPT-6 Luna: Cloudflare One; alternatives Microsoft Entra Private Access, Twingate
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cloudflare One, Twingate; alternatives Cato Networks, Check Point Harmony SASE, Fortinet Universal ZTNA

## Sources the answers cite

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

- cybersecuritynews.com: 32 answers, 35 citations
- cyberpress.org: 27 answers, 28 citations
- portnox.com: 25 answers, 31 citations
- zendikt.com: 25 answers, 26 citations
- expertinsights.com: 24 answers, 26 citations
- petronellatech.com: 21 answers, 21 citations
- venn.com: 20 answers, 23 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 19 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-ztna-solutions (32 answers)
- https://zendikt.com/category/ztna-software (24 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ztna-solutions-by-business-size (23 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-zero-trust-network-access-solutions (23 answers)
- https://petronellatech.com/blog/zero-trust-vendors-compared-top-10-smbs-2026 (21 answers)
- https://portnox.com/cybersecurity-101/zero-trust/who-are-the-best-ztna-providers (20 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-8-zero-trust-network-access-tools (19 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/zero-trust-network-access-software (18 answers)
- https://venn.com/learn/zero-trust/zero-trust-solutions (15 answers)
- https://akamai.com/site/en/documents/analyst-report/2024/kuppingercole-ztna-analyst-report.pdf (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Zscaler Private Access: 23 of 51 labels negative. "Avoid Zscaler for mid-market: It's powerful but designed for Fortune 500 scale—complex, expensive, and often overkill" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Check Point Harmony SASE: 10 of 30 labels negative. "Avoid or delay: Any vendor from the DEF CON research until you verify their remediation is architectural, not just patched" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Netskope Private Access: 9 of 25 labels negative. "Netskope - Several serious issues were disclosed: Authentication bypass in IdP enrollment (CVE-2024-7401)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access: 11 of 26 labels negative. "Skip for Now ... overkill and overpriced for a mid-sized company" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Cloudflare One (42%) to Twingate (40%). Margin 7 points, within noise.

- Twingate: 28% to 40%, +12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 2 → 1 of 65.
- Cloudflare One: 42% to 33%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 1 → 2 of 65.
- OpenVPN CloudConnexa: 10% to 4%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 4 → 5 of 65.
- Cato Networks: 12% to 7%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 3 of 65, unchanged.
- NordLayer: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 4 of 65.
- Zscaler Private Access: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 of 65, unchanged.
- Tailscale: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 7 of 65.
- Netskope Private Access: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 16 → 11 of 65.
- Check Point Harmony SASE: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 8 of 65.
- Fortinet Universal ZTNA: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 14 of 65.
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 53 of 65.

## 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.