SD-WAN · October 2026 Edition
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Nine of fourteen models named Fortinet Secure SD-WAN first on the direct prompt; zero named Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. Fortinet Secure SD-WAN was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN by thirteen and Fortinet Secure SD-WAN carries 64 labels and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN 40, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share50%10%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate3%32%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels6440A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Cato SASE Cloud was named alongside these two in nine of the fourteen direct answers. Fortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cisco Meraki SD-WAN · Fortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cato SASE Cloud · Fortinet Secure SD-WAN vs HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
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 SD-WAN page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Fortinet Secure SD-WANFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Direct901 against Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Paraphrase611 against Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Comparative11
Budget-constrained93
Scale-constrained201 against Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Negative302 against Fortinet Secure SD-WAN · 10 against Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN were named in the same answer 107 times, of the 186 answers naming Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and the 134 naming Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. In those answers Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN took the first choice twenty-seven times and Fortinet Secure SD-WAN thirty.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | | |
| 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 | | | | |
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN on the left and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Fortinet Secure SD-WAN and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN stood in it.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN first, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN an alternative
9 of 14 modelsCisco Catalyst SD-WAN was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniFortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Gemini 3.5 FlashFortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN
Perplexity SonarFortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Grok 4.20Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
DeepSeek V4 FlashCato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
Qwen 3.7 FlashCisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN
Kimi K2Fortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
GPT-6 LunaFortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
Muse Glimmer 30BCisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, FatPipe SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Claude Haiku 4.5Cato SASE Cloud alternatives: Aryaka, Comcast Business, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, MetTel, Windstream
Mistral SmallHPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN alternatives: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
GLM 4.7 FlashXCato SASE Cloud alternatives: Barracuda SecureEdge SD-WAN, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
MiniMax M2.5HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN alternatives: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
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
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN leads by twenty-one points.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN26%#2 of 9Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN6%#4 of 9Mid-marketThe figures above
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN leads by forty points.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN50%#1 of 10Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN10%#3 of 10Enterprise
The order flips: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN leads at enterprise.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN50%#1 of 9Fortinet Secure SD-WAN28%#2 of 9What the models said about Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.
“Requires more configuration expertise for advanced features, has a larger upfront learning curve, higher hardware footprint” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“warns about vendor lock-in and limited third-party integrations” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is frequently highlighted as the "budget champion,"... If you need both networking and security in one, Fortinet may be the best fit.” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice
“Fortinet Secure SD-WAN (Best Overall Value & Security Integration) ... widely considered the market leader for mid-market organizations” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“If your primary goal is consolidating security and networking onto a single cost-effective firewall appliance, choose Fortinet.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
What the models said about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Some network engineers advise avoiding it entirely ("wouldn't recommend Viptela to my worst enemy")” MiniMax M2.5 · negative prompt · hard negative
“Several industry sources now advise against Viptela, citing declining quality and poor support” Mistral Small · negative prompt · hard negative
“one Reddit user advises against exploring Viptela” Llama 4 Maverick · negative prompt · hard negative
“Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: An enterprise-grade software-defined WAN platform that simplifies wide-area networking across distributed environments.” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Cisco SD-WAN: A cloud-managed or on-premise solution that offers comprehensive routing, security, and policy control” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“the best SD-WAN choice is often Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela), because it is listed as the lowest-cost option” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · first choice
Also compared
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cisco Meraki SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cato SASE CloudFortinet Secure SD-WAN vs HPE Aruba EdgeConnectFortinet Secure SD-WAN vs VMware VeloCloud SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANCisco Meraki SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Cato SASE CloudCisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs HPE Aruba EdgeConnectCisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs VMware VeloCloud SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANAll twenty-one head-to-head pages and the full SD-WAN standing
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.