# Fortinet FortiGate vs Cisco Secure Firewall: which do AI models recommend for firewalls, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Next-generation firewalls. Fourteen of fourteen models named Fortinet FortiGate first on the direct prompt; zero named Cisco Secure Firewall. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/network/next-generation-firewalls/fortinet-fortigate-vs-cisco-secure-firewall/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiGate | 73% | #1 of 8 | 10% | 68 | 14 of 14 |
| Cisco Secure Firewall | 2% | #4 of 8 | 25% | 40 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Claude Haiku 4.5: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series)
- GPT-5.4 mini: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Check Point Quantum, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NGFW)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall)
- Perplexity Sonar: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Sophos Firewall)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox)
- Mistral Small: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Sophos Firewall)
- Llama 4 Maverick: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Cisco Secure Firewalls, Palo Alto Networks' PA-Series)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Check Point Harmony Edge / Infinity, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series)
- Kimi K2: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Cisco Meraki MX, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, SonicWall NSa Series, Sophos XG, WatchGuard Firebox)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos Firewall)
- MiniMax M2.5: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Palo Alto Networks NGFW, Sophos Firewall)
- GPT-6 Luna: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks NGFW)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: fortinet fortigate first (first choices: Fortinet FortiGate) (alternatives: Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, SonicWall Gen 7, Sophos Firewall)

## What the models said about Fortinet FortiGate

- ""20+ CVEs on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — among the highest for any firewall vendor"; Caution rating" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Avoid: SonicWall ..., Fortinet (due to high CVE count)" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Fortinet FortiGate/FortiOS deployments where SSL-VPN or other exposed services remain enabled without tight patching and monitoring" (GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "Fortinet FortiGate: Top-rated for value, performance, scalability (Gartner Customers' Choice 5x). Great for mid-market; integrated Fabric ecosystem." (Grok 4.1 Fast, scale prompt, first choice)
- "For most enterprises the shortlist starts with Fortinet FortiGate (best price-performance) and Palo Alto Networks (deepest application control)." (Muse Glimmer 30B, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "Most mid-market B2B companies will find Fortinet FortiGate or Sophos Firewall to be the best fit, with Fortinet offering the best value" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Cisco Secure Firewall

- "Cisco failed one critical TCP-segmentation evasion, reducing its exploit-evasion resistance to 40 percent" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Avoid Cisco if you do not have a dedicated, highly trained Cisco administrator on staff." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Cisco Secure Firewall shows performance degradation when multiple security features are simultaneously enabled and typically falls below Fortinet and Palo Alto at equivalent price points" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "Consider vendors like Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, or Cisco that have proven mid-market solutions" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, scale prompt, first choice)
- "If your organization's infrastructure is already built entirely on Cisco switches, routers, and identity services, choose Cisco" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, alternative)
- "Choose Cisco if you already rely heavily on Cisco infrastructure and want advanced traffic-analysis features." (Perplexity Sonar, comparative prompt, alternative)

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. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.