Cloudflare Gateway vs NextDNS
Three of fourteen models named Cloudflare Gateway first on the direct prompt; zero named NextDNS. Cloudflare Gateway was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and NextDNS by thirteen and Cloudflare Gateway carries 48 labels and NextDNS 27, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the DNS filtering page.
By framing
Cloudflare GatewayFirst choices, of fourteen modelsNextDNS
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Cloudflare Gateway and NextDNS were named in the same answer forty times, of the 144 answers naming Cloudflare Gateway and the 68 naming NextDNS. In those answers NextDNS took the first choice three times and Cloudflare Gateway eleven.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | |||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | |||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | ||||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
Cloudflare Gateway NextDNS first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Cloudflare Gateway on the left and NextDNS on the right.The direct prompt
Cloudflare Gateway first, NextDNS not the choice
3 of 14 modelsNextDNS was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
9 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Cloudflare Gateway16%#2 of 8NextDNS0%#7 of 8Cloudflare Gateway22%#2 of 9NextDNS2%#5 of 9Cloudflare Gateway4%#3 of 7NextDNS0%#– of 7What the models said about Cloudflare Gateway
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“powerful but come with cautionary notes” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“I'd suggest starting with Cloudflare Gateway if you want free tier flexibility, or Control D if you want predictable low-cost pricing” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“The Best Overall Balance: Cloudflare Gateway ... If you want speed and cost-efficiency, go with Cloudflare Gateway.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“Cloudflare is currently the market leader in this space... If yes, Cloudflare is usually the superior choice” Qwen 3.7 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about NextDNS
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“NextDNS/AdGuard: Highly customizable (ads/trackers/parental), but free tiers have query limits” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · soft negative
“NextDNS's free plan should not be relied upon for critical filtering applications” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Browser Secure DNS Can Bypass NextDNS and Pi-hole: How to Check and Fix It” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative
“NextDNS is usually the best value if you mainly want DNS filtering and easy policy control” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
“NextDNS is often considered the most flexible option for tech-savvy users.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“NextDNS – best for privacy-focused users needing advanced DNS controls” Muse Glimmer 30B · comparative prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.