# Zero trust network access for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "ZTNA solution" and as "zero trust remote access tool to replace a VPN", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/network/zero-trust-network-access/enterprise/

**Standing:** Zscaler Private Access leads with 50% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 42 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zscaler Private Access | 50% | 14% | 49 |
| 2 | Cloudflare One | 21% | 4% | 27 |
| 3 | Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access | 5% | 12% | 40 |
| 4 | Zscaler | 5% | 45% | 11 |
| 5 | Cloudflare Access | 2% | 0% | 13 |
| 6 | Netskope Private Access | 0% | 24% | 17 |
| 7 | Twingate | 0% | 21% | 19 |
| 8 | Fortinet | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 9 | Netskope | 0% | 30% | 10 |
| 10 | Tailscale | 0% | 27% | 11 |
| 11 | Check Point Harmony SASE | 0% | 40% | 15 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Cloudflare One, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange; alternatives Microsoft Entra Internet Access + Private Access, Palo Alto Networks
- GPT-5.4 mini: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare One / Cloudflare Access; alternatives Microsoft Entra Private Access, Netskope Private Access, Twingate, Zscaler Private Access
- Perplexity Sonar: Zscaler Private Access / Zero Trust Exchange; alternatives Cato Networks, Cloudflare Zero Trust / Access, Microsoft Entra Internet Access + Private Access
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare Access, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Mistral Small: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Cloudflare Access, Fortinet Universal ZTNA
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Microsoft Entra Private Access / Internet Access, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- Llama 4 Maverick: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Zero Networks
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Zscaler; alternatives Cloudflare One, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks
- Kimi K2: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Netskope ZTNA Next, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Cloudflare One, Netskope Private Access, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
- MiniMax M2.5: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Zscaler Private Access; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cisco Universal ZTNA, Cloudflare Access

## Sources the answers cite

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

- expertinsights.com: 34 answers, 34 citations
- portnox.com: 31 answers, 38 citations
- cipherssecurity.com: 29 answers, 31 citations
- aimultiple.com: 29 answers, 29 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 25 answers, 27 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 24 answers, 28 citations
- gartner.com: 19 answers, 31 citations
- guideflow.com: 18 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

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

## Warned against

- Zscaler Private Access: 7 of 49 labels 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: 6 of 15 labels 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: 5 of 40 labels negative. "they layer on costs tied to data egress, bandwidth consumption, regional routing, and traffic inspection volume" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Netskope Private Access: 4 of 17 labels 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)

## 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.