# Zero trust network access for small business 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 a small B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/network/zero-trust-network-access/smb/

**Standing:** Cloudflare One leads with 51% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudflare One | 51% | 0% | 43 |
| 2 | Twingate | 31% | 5% | 55 |
| 3 | Cloudflare Access | 9% | 0% | 10 |
| 4 | Tailscale | 4% | 2% | 42 |
| 5 | OpenVPN CloudConnexa | 4% | 7% | 14 |
| 6 | Check Point Harmony SASE | 0% | 6% | 34 |
| 7 | NordLayer | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 8 | Zscaler Private Access | 0% | 69% | 16 |
| 9 | Zscaler | 0% | 92% | 12 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Cloudflare Access; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Microsoft Entra + Intune, Twingate
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare Access; alternatives Cisco Secure Access, Fortinet FortiSASE, Zscaler
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare Zero Trust / Access, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune
- Perplexity Sonar: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare Zero Trust / Cloudflare Access, NordLayer, Tailscale
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Cloudflare One; alternatives OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Twingate
- Mistral Small: OpenVPN CloudConnexa; alternatives Microsoft Entra ID with Intune, NordLayer, Twingate
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, Cloudflare One, OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Tailscale
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cloudflare Access, Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare One; alternatives Cisco Duo, Cisco Umbrella, Microsoft Entra ID, Tailscale
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare One; alternatives Microsoft Entra Private Access, NordLayer, Twingate
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare One; alternatives Microsoft Entra ID + Intune, Twingate
- MiniMax M2.5: Twingate; alternatives Check Point Harmony SASE, OpenVPN CloudConnexa, Tailscale

## Sources the answers cite

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

- cybersecuritynews.com: 45 answers, 46 citations
- petronellatech.com: 44 answers, 45 citations
- cyberpress.org: 37 answers, 42 citations
- meshwg.com: 24 answers, 25 citations
- aimultiple.com: 22 answers, 23 citations
- itbusinessedge.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- portnox.com: 17 answers, 19 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 16 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://petronellatech.com/blog/zero-trust-vendors-compared-top-10-smbs-2026 (44 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-ztna-solutions (43 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ztna-solutions-by-business-size (32 answers)
- https://meshwg.com/ztna-for-small-business (23 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/ztna-solutions (22 answers)
- https://itbusinessedge.com/security/smb-zero-trust-solutions (18 answers)
- https://saas-expert.com/articles/best-zero-trust-network-access-tools-small-business (16 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-8-zero-trust-network-access-tools (15 answers)
- https://eastbaycyber.com/content/compare-best-zero-trust-network-access-providers-2026 (12 answers)
- https://portnox.com/cybersecurity-101/zero-trust/who-are-the-best-ztna-providers (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Zscaler: 11 of 12 labels negative. "What to avoid as a small B2B: Enterprise ZTNA suites (Zscaler, Netskope): Powerful but often require professional services and opaque pricing" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access: 7 of 8 labels negative. "Avoid enterprise‑centric, per‑user pricing platforms (Zscaler, Palo Alto, Cisco SASE)" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Zscaler Private Access: 11 of 16 labels negative. "Examples to be cautious of: Zscaler Private Access (ZPA)... Why to avoid them: ... built for Fortune 500 enterprises" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Palo Alto: 6 of 6 labels negative. "Do not buy into expensive enterprise suites like Zscaler or Palo Alto" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget 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.