Small business▼−8Since September 2026: 12% → 5%, −8 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
5%from 12% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 3 pointsRank 2 → 4 of 52
Cato · 3 categories · RankedCato Networks
129Judge labels
29First choices
19Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
3Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
35% in SASE for mid-market buyers
Rank 1 of 45 in the mid-market standingendorsed leader
11 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 15% of its 40 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Cato Networks →By buyer segmentStrongest at mid-market.
Small business4 of 57
4%27 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market1 of 45
35%40 labels
endorsed leader
Enterprise4 of 48
12%36 labels
accepted challenger
In sase · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Cato Networks for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SASE platforms | Network and edge | 35% | 1 of 45 | 15% | 40 | endorsed leader | ▲+9Since September 2026: 26% → 35%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Zero trust network access | Network and edge | 6% | 3 of 66 | 0% | 14 | accepted challenger | ▼−5Since September 2026: 12% → 7%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| SaaS management platforms | IT operations and endpoint | 0% | 46 of 64 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Torii at 34% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Cato Networks held within the floor in all three categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · SASE · by segment
Mid-market▲+9Since September 2026: 26% → 35%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
35%from 26% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 2 pointsRank 2 → 1 of 43
Enterprise▼−7Since September 2026: 17% → 10%, −7 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
10%from 17% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 4 pointsRank 2 → 4 of 46
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SASE | 26% | 35% | ▲+9Since September 2026: 26% → 35%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 2 → 1 of 45 |
| ZTNA | 12% | 7% | ▼−5Since September 2026: 12% → 7%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 3 of 66, unchanged |
| SaaS management | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 46 of 64, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Cato Networks across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Cato Networks across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Grok 4.20 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Kimi K2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct39 labels17
Paraphrase13 labels3
Comparative24 labels2not counted in share
Budget-constrained14 labels3
Scale-constrained17 labels6
Negative22 labels4not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative129 labels in all, every segment counted; 29 of the 35 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Widely considered the pioneer of true "single-vendor SASE." ... incredibly popular with mid-market companies because of its ease of deployment and low management overhead.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · SASE · scale prompt · first choice
“"For most mid-market teams that want one vendor, one console, and predictable per-site pricing, Cato Networks SASE Cloud is the strongest overall pick."” Muse Glimmer 30B · SASE · direct prompt · first choice
“Cato is widely considered the top choice for mid-market companies that want to replace their legacy firewalls with a single, managed solution.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · SASE · direct prompt · first choice
“Cato Networks — often the best fit for 300–1,000 person companies: single platform, all-inclusive pricing, very manageable” DeepSeek V4 Flash · SASE · scale prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Platform to Approach with Caution: Cato Networks. ... peer reviews consistently highlight a lack of granularity” Qwen 3.7 Flash · SASE · negative prompt · soft negative
“Makes Cato a poor fit for environments that need on-prem inline controls or guaranteed log residency.” Muse Glimmer 30B · SASE · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cato Networks: Some speed/performance issues in user reviews ... licensing/fine-tuning challenges” Grok 4.20 · SASE · negative prompt · soft negative
“Compliance Gaps: Fails 3 of 5 compliance checks in recent testing” GLM 4.7 FlashX · SASE · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Cato Networks, over the 129 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Cato Networks was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Cato Networks, over the 129 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Cato Networks was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Cato Networks. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 122 of the 129 answers that named Cato Networks and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
guideflow.com71
fortinet.com39
catonetworks.comYour site33
techrepublic.com33
sase.checkpoint.com32
netify.co.uk31
esecurityplanet.com30
paloaltonetworks.com30
cloudsek.com28
sase.cloud28
322 of the 355 domain citations in answers naming Cato Networks came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Cato Networks stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Cato Networks stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “sase platform”
4
Position for “sase platforms”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 5,400 a month (“cato networks”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 120 a month
- Its company's site
- catonetworks.com shared with Cato's other products; the figures are the site's
- Organic visits to its site
- about 20,161 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 3,673 · 203 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 6,215
- Paid Google search
- No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
35%
rank 1 of 45 in SASE
First choices
29
across its categories
- Named in
- 129 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 122 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as Cato Networks
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Cato Networks; a claim can dispute any of them.
Cato Networks (Cato SASE Cloud) 4
Follow Cato Networks
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Cato is the company behind Cato Networks.ShowHide
The company
Cato is the company behind Cato Networks.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from Cato
- Cato SASE Cloud, Cato SASE Networks, Cato SD-WAN/SASE
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- The Converged Network and Security Cloud for the AI Era.
- For
- Secure users, AI agents, applications and data — everywhere work happens.
- Integrations claimed
- 100 catonetworks.com
- Certifications
- ISO 27001 CertifiedSOC2 ApprovedGDPR Compliant
- Customers named
- SwissportRedners MarketsCarlsberg GroupO-IFiskars GroupKomax
- Not stated on the pages read
- Price, starting price, free plan or trial, hosting
What Cato Networks's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: catonetworks.com. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Cato Networks's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Cato Networks, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Cato Networks by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Cato Networks is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Cato Networks, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where Cato Networks is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.ShowHide
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where Cato Networks is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideSASE platforms
AI models recommend Cato Networks first in SASE platforms this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.
Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges
Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides
Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer
Zero trust network access
Cato Networks is among the products AI models recommend first in Zero trust network access this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.
Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges
Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides
Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer
Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.