# Next-generation firewalls: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "next-generation firewall" and as "enterprise firewall appliance or virtual firewall", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/network/next-generation-firewalls/

**Standing:** Fortinet FortiGate leads with 61% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortinet FortiGate | 61% | 8% | 38 |
| 2 | Fortinet | 9% | 26% | 19 |
| 3 | Palo Alto Networks | 2% | 29% | 31 |
| 4 | Check Point | 2% | 9% | 23 |
| 5 | Sophos Firewall | 2% | 0% | 13 |
| 6 | SonicWall | 2% | 50% | 16 |
| 7 | Cisco Secure Firewall | 0% | 11% | 18 |
| 8 | WatchGuard Firebox | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 9 | Sophos | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 10 | Cisco | 0% | 18% | 11 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks PA-Series
- GPT-5.4 mini: Palo Alto Networks; alternatives Check Point, Fortinet
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks, Sophos Firewall
- Perplexity Sonar: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point Quantum, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Sophos Firewall XGS
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto PA-Series, Sophos Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox
- Mistral Small: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks, Sophos
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Check Point, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks, Sophos XGS
- Llama 4 Maverick: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Sophos Firewall
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Security Firewall, Palo Alto Networks
- Kimi K2: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, SonicWall NSa Series, WatchGuard Firebox
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Sophos XGS
- MiniMax M2.5: Fortinet FortiGate; alternatives Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Sophos Firewall

## Sources the answers cite

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

- comparitech.com: 32 answers, 35 citations
- cyberpress.org: 29 answers, 30 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 28 answers, 30 citations
- fortinet.com: 23 answers, 34 citations
- checkpoint.com: 20 answers, 26 citations
- decryptiondigest.com: 17 answers, 24 citations
- paloaltonetworks.com: 14 answers, 27 citations
- techtarget.com: 14 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cyberpress.org/best-next-generation-firewall-ngfw-solutions-for-every-business-size (29 answers)
- https://comparitech.com/net-admin/next-gen-firewalls (28 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall (26 answers)
- https://decryptiondigest.com/blog/enterprise-ngfw-comparison-2026 (15 answers)
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/top-ngfw (13 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing (11 answers)
- https://checkpoint.com/comparison/top-4-ngfw-compared (10 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-ngfw-firewall-platforms-2026 (10 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-firewall-software (9 answers)
- https://softwarereviews.com/awards/data-quadrant-awards-2024-next-generation-firewall (9 answers)

## Warned against

- SonicWall: 8 of 16 labels negative. "Critical SSL-VPN vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-40766, CVE-2024-53704) with CVSS scores up to 9.3 ... Consider disabling SSL-VPN if not essential" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks: 9 of 31 labels negative. "Earned "Caution" in NSS Labs 2025 (lowest security effectiveness at 46.37%, failed critical network/transport-layer evasions)" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- Fortinet: 5 of 19 labels negative. "20+ CVEs on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — among the highest for any firewall vendor ... Fortinet and SonicWall currently require the most aggressive hardening" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Fortinet FortiGate: 3 of 38 labels negative. "Older models of Fortigate, Palo Alto, and other NGFW devices can become security liabilities if not regularly updated." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.