Network access control · RankedPacketFence
PacketFence is an open-source network access control (NAC) product · packetfence.com ↗
Strongest at mid-market. Thin evidence at enterprise: nine labels.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Portnox Cloud is first at 41%.
Portnox Cloud is first at 46%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Cisco Identity Services Engine is first at 39%.
Why models recommend it
“Best Overall Open-Source Option: PacketFence ... If you have an in-house IT engineer comfortable with Linux, start with PacketFence.”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Tightest budget, technical staff available: PacketFence self-hosted free + optional paid support. Best cost, higher operational effort.”Muse Glimmer 30B · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“The best network access control solution for a company with a limited budget is PacketFence, as it is free to use”Llama 4 Maverick · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“the best NAC choice is usually PacketFence if you have some in-house Linux/networking skill”GPT-5.4 mini · Budget-constrained question · first choice
What gives them pause
“Self-hosting shifts licensing savings into implementation and support effort”Perplexity Sonar · Direct question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as PacketFence, over the 70 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | 27 | Compare → | |
| 39 | 8 | Compare → | |
| 33 | 1 | Compare → | |
| 25 | 0 | Compare → | |
| 23 | 1 | Compare → | |
| 21 | 0 | Compare → | |
| 15 | 1 | View → | |
| 13 | 0 | View → | |
| 12 | 0 | View → | |
| 9 | 1 | View → |
What the models named instead of PacketFence →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on PacketFence's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- campuses, hospitals, and global enterprises
- Price stated
- Predictable OPEX with no hidden costs; Free software • Optional support packages; consumption pricing
- Starting price
- 0
- Free plan or trial
- Limited Time: 30-Day Extended Trial; Start Free with PacketFence Cloud; No credit card required • Full enterprise features • Cancel anytime
- Customers named
- Savoye, Calvert Hall, Curia, NTW Solutions, Lafayette College ITS, Cosun Shared Service Centre ICT, Hollins University, Infraops
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 64 of the 70 answers that named PacketFence and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
218 of the 268 domain citations in answers naming PacketFence came from a third party's page. Twenty-six were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-11 to 2026-10 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| News or press | 108 | 1 | 2026-08-25 | NAC | |
| Webinar or virtual event | 1 | undated | |||
| Conference or event | 1 | undated |
Most recent
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page packetfence.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read October 5, 2026.