Small business=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 6 of 42, unchanged
4 categories · RankedNordLayer
74Judge labels
3First choices
2Negative labels
12 / 14Models named it
4Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
3% in ZTNA for mid-market buyers
Rank 4 of 66 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
1 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 11% of its 18 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of NordLayer →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business6 of 46
0%24 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market4 of 66
3%18 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise36 of 47
0%1 label
under the label threshold
In ztna · 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 NordLayer 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero trust network access | Network and edge | 3% | 4 of 66 | 11% | 18 | accepted challenger | ▲+1Since September 2026: 2% → 4%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Network access control | Network and edge | 0% | 36 of 111 | 0% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by Portnox Cloud at 35% | |
| Next-generation firewalls | Network and edge | 0% | 42 of 83 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Fortinet FortiGate at 73% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. |
| SASE platforms | Network and edge | 0% | 22 of 45 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Cato Networks at 35% | ▼−5Since September 2026: 5% → 0%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, NordLayer held within the floor in all four categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · ZTNA · by segment
Mid-market▲+1Since September 2026: 2% → 4%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
4%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 10 pointsRank 5 → 4 of 64
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 42 → 33 of 44
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SASE | 5% | 0% | ▼−5Since September 2026: 5% → 0%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 6 → 22 of 45 |
| ZTNA | 2% | 4% | ▲+1Since September 2026: 2% → 4%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 5 → 4 of 66 |
| NAC | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 36 of 111, unchanged |
| Firewalls | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 42 of 83, 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 NordLayer 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 NordLayer 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 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
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
Direct11 labels1
Paraphrase15 labels1
Comparative14 labels1not counted in share
Budget-constrained19 labelsNone
Scale-constrained8 labels1
Negative7 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative74 labels in all, every segment counted; 3 of the 5 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.
“NordLayer is the safest pick if you want the simplest mid-market VPN replacement with fast onboarding” Perplexity Sonar · ZTNA · direct prompt · first choice
“I'd lean toward Twingate or NordLayer” Kimi K2 · ZTNA · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“A strong option for mid-sized organizations wanting zero trust access controls without extensive infrastructure changes” Claude Haiku 4.5 · ZTNA · direct prompt · alternative
“It works well for small to mid-sized teams that want to move to zero trust without a heavy deployment lift.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · ZTNA · paraphrase prompt · alternative
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.
“More of a "business VPN with ZTNA features" than a pure zero trust architecture” DeepSeek V4 Flash · ZTNA · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Affordable but no robust free tier.” Grok 4.20 · ZTNA · budget prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as NordLayer, over the 74 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and NordLayer was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as NordLayer, over the 74 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and NordLayer 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 NordLayer. 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 73 of the 74 answers that named NordLayer and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
cyberpress.org35
cybersecuritynews.com34
comparitech.com31
petronellatech.com28
guideflow.com26
expertinsights.com24
g2.com24
portnox.com24
en.softonic.com23
sourceforge.net19
268 of the 268 domain citations in answers naming NordLayer came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
nordlayer.com ranks 5 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, NordLayer takes 3% of first choices and Twingate takes 39%.ShowHide
Search and answers
nordlayer.com ranks 5 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, NordLayer takes 3% of first choices and Twingate takes 39%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “ztna solution”
6
Position for “ztna solutions”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 2,900 a month (“nordlayer”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 28 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 136,857 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 17,309 · 1,190 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 6,361
- Paid Google search
- 9 searches its ads show for, about 70 clicks and $985 a month (estimate)
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
3%
rank 4 of 66 in ZTNA
Segment leader
39%
Twingate
- First choices
- 3 across its categories
- Named in
- 74 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 73 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.
What it publishes
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on nordlayer.com
1,200
subdomains included
Content
948
counted in the table below
Documentation
5
Product · Integration
28 · 9
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 436 | undated | DLP, SASE | ||
| Glossary or explainer | 371 | undated | SASE, ZTNA | ||
| Comparison | 68 | undated | SASE, ZTNA | ||
| Case study | 38 | undated | |||
| Report or ebook | 16 | undated | SASE, DLP | ||
| Template or tool | 14 | undated | |||
| Conference or event | 2 | undated | |||
| Webinar or virtual event | 1 | undated | |||
| Podcast or video | 1 | undated | |||
| News or press | 1 | undated |
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page nordlayer.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.
Names read as NordLayer
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as NordLayer; a claim can dispute any of them.
NordLayer ZTNA 2NordLayer / Perimeter 81 1NordLayer by Nord Security 1
Follow NordLayer
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
NordLayer is its own company.ShowHide
The company
NordLayer is its own company.
ShowHideIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Network security platform for business
- For
- business
- Price stated
- Lite $8 user/month; Core $11 user/month; Premium $14 user/month; Enterprise offer from $6 user/month nordlayer.com/pricing
- Starting price
- 8 nordlayer.com/pricing
- Free plan or trial
- 14-day money-back guarantee nordlayer.com/pricing
- Certifications
- ISO 27001 compliantHIPAA compliantSOC 2 compliantPCI-DSS compliantISO 27001SOC 2 Type IHIPAA-compliantSOC 2 Type 2
- Hosting
- 40+ countriesup to 60 countriesover 40+ global locations
- Customers named
- HostingerEldorado.ggCMHASoundCloudRebrandlyDataWalkWhatagraphOmnisend
- Not stated on the pages read
- Integrations
What NordLayer's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: nordlayer.com, nordlayer.com/pricing, trust.nordlayer.com, nordlayer.com/features, nordlayer.com/customers. 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 NordLayer'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 NordLayer, 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 NordLayer by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where NordLayer 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 NordLayer, 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.