IT AI Index
Index › Network and edge › ZTNA › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Zero trust network access for enterprise buyers

Asked as “ZTNA solution”, and as “zero trust remote access tool to replace a VPN”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Zscaler Private Access
Clear leader
50% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessCloudflare One51%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketCloudflare One35%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseZscaler Private Access50%Clear leaderThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Zscaler Private Access50%14%49endorsed leader
02Cloudflare One21%4%27accepted challenger
03Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access5%12%40accepted challenger
04Zscaler5%45%11criticized challenger
05Cloudflare Access2%0%13accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Check Point Harmony SASE0%40%15criticized challenger
09Netskope0%30%10criticized challenger
10Tailscale0%27%11criticized challenger
06Netskope Private Access0%24%17accepted challenger
07Twingate0%21%19accepted challenger
08Fortinet0%9%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Cloudflare One vs TwingateCloudflare One vs Cato NetworksTwingate vs Cato Networks

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Zscaler Private Access50%
02Cloudflare One21%
03Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access5%
04Zscaler5%
05Cloudflare Access2%
06Netskope Private Access0%
07Twingate0%
08Fortinet0%
09Netskope0%
10Tailscale0%
11Check Point Harmony SASE0%

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Qwen 3.7 Flash and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Zscaler Private Access
14%
7 of 49 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Authentication bypass via flawed SAML signature validation, allowing forged tokens... complaints about unsuitability for large-scale deployments.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Check Point Harmony SASE
40%
6 of 15 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Hard-coded encryption keys exposing customer data in logs, plus authentication bypasses and privilege escalation risks.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
12%
5 of 40 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“they layer on costs tied to data egress, bandwidth consumption, regional routing, and traffic inspection volume” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Netskope Private Access
24%
4 of 17 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Cross-tenant vulnerabilities enabling compromise via leaked enrollment tokens. Lacks consistent innovation in some areas per Gartner critiques.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

67 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 988 links across 221 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights34 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
portnox.com
vendor site · Portnox31 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
cipherssecurity.com
29 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
aimultiple.com
29 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
cybersecuritynews.com
25 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
guptadeepak.com
24 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
gartner.com
19 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
akamai.com
vendor site · Akamai16 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
cloudflare.com
vendor site · Cloudflare15 answers · 25 citations · 7 models
venn.com
15 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
decryptiondigest.com
14 answers · 16 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-zero-trust-network-access-solut…
34 answers · 10 models
aimultiple.com/ztna-solutions
29 answers · 9 models
cipherssecurity.com/best-ztna-platforms-2026
28 answers · 9 models
cybersecuritynews.com/best-ztna-solutions
22 answers · 10 models
portnox.com/cybersecurity-101/zero-trust/who-are-the-best-ztna-providers
22 answers · 9 models
guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-ztna-solutions-2026
21 answers · 9 models
guideflow.com/blog/zero-trust-network-access-software
18 answers · 9 models
akamai.com/site/en/documents/analyst-report/2024/kuppingercole-ztna-analyst…
14 answers · 6 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/zero-trust-network-access
12 answers · 7 models
zendikt.com/category/ztna-software
12 answers · 7 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best ZTNA solution for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which zero trust remote access tool to replace a VPN would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade ZTNA solutions and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ZTNA solution for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a ZTNA solution. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ZTNA solutions should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cloudflare One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra Internet Access + Private Access, Palo Alto Networks
Cloudflare OneChanged
Six alternativesFortinet Universal ZTNA, Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) + Conditional Access, Okta, Okta Access Gateway, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform
Five alternativesAkamai Enterprise Application Access, Cloudflare Access, Fortinet Universal ZTNA, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access
against: Check Point Harmony SASEKitecyberagainst: Zscaler Private Accessno first choiceagainst: Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access
GPT-5.4 miniZscaler Private Access
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Cloudflare Zero Trust / Cloudflare AccessChanged
Two alternativesPalo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access
Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Cloudflare Access
One alternativeTailscale
against: Zscaler Private Accessno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare One / Cloudflare Access
Four alternativesMicrosoft Entra Private Access, Netskope Private Access, Twingate, Zscaler Private Access
Cloudflare One, Zscaler Private AccessChanged
Three alternativesNetskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Twingate
no first choiceCloudflare One
Three alternativesFortinet FortiClient, Tailscale, Twingate
against: Check Point Harmony SASE, Palo Alto Networks, Zscalerno first choice
Six alternativesBanyan Security, Cloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Tailscale, Twingate, Zscaler Private Access
against: Check Point Harmony SASE, Netskope, Zscaler
Perplexity SonarZscaler Private Access / Zero Trust Exchange
Three alternativesCato Networks, Cloudflare Zero Trust / Access, Microsoft Entra Internet Access + Private Access
Zscaler Private AccessChanged
Four alternativesCloudflare Access / Cloudflare One, Okta, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Twingate
Zscaler Private Access
Five alternativesCisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Access / Cloudflare Zero Trust, Fortinet Universal ZTNA, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Cloudflare Access / Cloudflare Zero Trust
One alternativeZscaler Private Access
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Accessno first choiceagainst: Check Point Harmony SASE, NordLayer, Tailscale
Grok 4.1 FastZscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCloudflare Access, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private AccessHeld
Three alternativesCloudflare One/Access, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Netskope Private Access, Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesAkamai Enterprise Application Access, Cloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private Accessagainst: Cisco Duo, Cloudflare One, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma AccessZscaler Private Access
Four alternativesCloudflare One/Access, Netskope Private Access, Okta, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
against: Check Point Harmony SASE, Juniper, Microsoft Entra ID, Netskope Private Access, Proofpoint, Twingate, Zscaler Private Access
Mistral SmallPalo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Access, Fortinet Universal ZTNA
Zscaler Private AccessChanged
Three alternativesCitrix Secure Private Access, Cloudflare Access, Twingate
Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCloudflare Access, Fortinet FortiClient, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private Access
Two alternativesAkamai Enterprise Application Access, Cloudflare One
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashZscaler Private Access
Four alternativesCloudflare One, Microsoft Entra Private Access / Internet Access, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private AccessHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
against: Tailscale, TwingateNetskope Private Access, Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCloudflare Access / Zero Trust, Microsoft Entra Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Cloudflare One
One alternativeNetskope
against: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscalerno first choiceagainst: Barracuda, Cloudflare, HashiCorp Boundary, OpenZiti, Tailscale, Twingate
Llama 4 MaverickZscaler Private Access
Two alternativesOpenVPN CloudConnexa, Zero Networks
Zscaler Private AccessHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashZscaler
Four alternativesCloudflare One, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks
Zscaler Private AccessChanged
Three alternativesCloudflare Access, Microsoft, Twingate
Zscaler Private Access
Five alternativesAppgate SDP, Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare One, Fortinet FortiClient, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
against: Netskope Private AccessCloudflare One
One alternativeTwingate
against: Palo Alto, Zscalerno first choice
Four alternativesFortinet, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler
against: Netskope, Zscaler
Kimi K2Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Netskope ZTNA Next, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private AccessHeld
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler
Six alternativesAkamai, Cisco, Cloudflare, Fortinet, Microsoft, Netskope
Cloudflare One, Microsoft Entra Private Accessagainst: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private AccessZscaler
Three alternativesCloudflare, Microsoft, Palo Alto
nothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXZscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private AccessHeld
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Zscaler Private Access
Nine alternativesAkamai Enterprise Application Access, Cato Networks SASE Cloud, Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Access, Fortinet FortiClient, Netskope Private Access, Okta Access Gateway, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Cloudflare One
One alternativeZscaler Private Access
against: NordLayer, Twingateno first choiceagainst: Check Point Harmony SASE, Fortinet, Netskope, Zscaler Private Access
MiniMax M2.5Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCheck Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Universal ZTNA, Cloudflare Access
no first choiceChangedZscaler Private Access
Three alternativesCloudflare One, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Cloudflare One
One alternativeMicrosoft Entra Private Access
against: Zscaler Private AccessZscaler Private Access
Two alternativesCloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
nothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:23yes1310 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:11yes27 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:01yes1727 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:27yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:53yes3714 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:52yes1311 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:04yes2320 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:30yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:05yes1034 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:30yes1832 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:49yes3542 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:58yes933 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:32no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:04yes26 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:57yes1222 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:03yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:07yes3514 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:19yes1312 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:38yes1917 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:06yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:07yes542 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:05yes1528 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:28yes30183 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:10no042 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:21yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:04yes812 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:10yes2627 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:33yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:33yes3615 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:04yes1213 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:58yes2223 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:02yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:09yes527 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:37yes2381 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:45yes19199 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:56yes1027 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:38yes1811 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:10yes57 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:49yes1830 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:59yes208 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:22yes4321 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:56yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:38yes1920 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:51yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:21yes546 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:39yes1946 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:46yes30246 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:24yes13108 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:59yes2516 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:31no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:08yes830 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:46yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:22yes1510 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:51no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:12yes2028 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:06yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:12no044 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:43yes2851 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:42yes15126 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:17yes522 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:57yes1914 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:54yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:30yes2126 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:10yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:07yes2212 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:44yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:37yes2434 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:11yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:59yes1459 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:30yes2747 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:19yes25167 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:20yes929 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Check Point read as Check Point Harmony SASE
Check Point Harmony (formerly Perimeter 81) read as Check Point Harmony SASE
Microsoft Entra read as Microsoft Entra ID
Unresolved, counted raw
Cisco Universal ZTNA
Citrix Secure Private Access
Cloudflare Access / Zero Trust
Fortinet FortiNAC/FortiClient
Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) + Conditional Access
Microsoft Entra Private Access / Internet Access
Netskope ZTNA Next
Zscaler Private Access / Zero Trust Exchange
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in network and edge

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← WAFASM →