Every category where a model named PacketFence 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
Network access control	Network and edge	15%	2 of 111	0%	10	accepted challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for PacketFence yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment and per category, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated PacketFence across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

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Model	First choice	Mention	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	0	0	0
GPT-5.4 mini	0	0	0
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1	0	1
Perplexity Sonar	0	0	0
Grok 4.1 Fast	1	1	2
Mistral Small	0	0	0
DeepSeek V4 Flash	2	0	2
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	0
Qwen 3.7 Flash	1	0	1
Kimi K2	1	0	1
GLM 4.7 FlashX	1	0	1
MiniMax M2.5	0	0	0
GPT-6 Luna	1	0	1
Muse Glimmer 30B	1	0	1

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

Direct2 labelsNone

Paraphrase1 labelNone

Comparative6 labelsNone

Budget-constrained20 labels17

Scale-constrained2 labelsNone

Negative7 labels1not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative38 labels in all, every segment counted; 17 of the 18 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.

“a well-configured open-source PacketFence or a modern zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solution beats any legacy appliance” DeepSeek V4 Flash · NAC · negative prompt · first choice

“PacketFence offers the best value as it provides enterprise-grade NAC features completely free” Qwen 3.7 Flash · NAC · budget prompt · first choice

“I'd recommend starting with PacketFence (self-hosted) if you have some technical expertise” Kimi K2 · NAC · budget prompt · first choice

“PacketFence stands out as the top recommendation for a company with a limited budget.” Grok 4.1 Fast · NAC · budget 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.

No model argued against it.

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as PacketFence, over the 37 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and PacketFence was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Portnox Cloud23 of 377Compare →

Aruba ClearPass19 of 371Compare →

Cisco ISE15 of 370Compare →

Forescout11 of 370Not among the top eight

Cisco Identity Services Engine7 of 372Not among the top eight

FortiNAC7 of 370Not among the top eight

Fortinet FortiNAC7 of 370Not among the top eight

Genian NAC6 of 370Not among the top eight

NordLayer6 of 370Not among the top eight

Ubiquiti UniFi5 of 371Not among the top eight

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 PacketFence. 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 35 of the 37 answers that named PacketFence and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

cyberpress.org23

thectoclub.com19

capterra.com17

geekflare.com17

us.fitgap.com17

esecurityplanet.com16

portnox.com15

peerspot.com13

sourceforge.net13

comparitech.com12

162 of the 162 domain citations in answers naming PacketFence came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

cyberpress.org/nac-solutions-by-business-size23

thectoclub.com/tools/best-network-access-control-software19

geekflare.com/cybersecurity/best-nac-software17

capterra.com/network-access-control-software/s/small-businesses15

esecurityplanet.com/products/network-access-control-solutions15

us.fitgap.com/search/network-access-control-software/small-business14

comparitech.com/net-admin/network-access-control-software12

packetfence.org/index.html10

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

packetfence.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, PacketFence takes 15% of first choices and Portnox Cloud takes 35%.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Position for “network access control solution”

–

not in the top ten

Position for “network access control solutions”

–

not in the top ten

Searches for its name, Google: 720 a month (“packetfence”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 4 a month
Organic visits to its site: about 298 a month
Searches its site ranks for: 64 · 4 in the top three
Sites linking to it: 910
Paid Google search: No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none

Ads on Google

None found in Google's ad transparency records for the US

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

15%

rank 2 of 111 in NAC

Segment leader

35%

Portnox Cloud

First choices: 17 across its categories
Named in: 37 answers
Its own site cited: in 35 of the answers that named it

Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read October 5, 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

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Addresses on packetfence.com

207

subdomains included

Content

110

counted in the table below

Documentation

Product · Integration

0 · 0

Kind	Pages	Last 90 days	Latest	Categories named
News or press	108	1	2026-08-25	NAC
Webinar or virtual event	1	undated
Conference or event	1	undated

Most recent

2026-08-252026 news or press
2025-10-272025 news or press
2024-09-062024 news or press
2023-08-092023 news or press
2022-11-222022 news or press
2021-10-282021 news or press

How it is countedHide how it is counted

Every page packetfence.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 October 5, 2026.

Follow PacketFence

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

PacketFence is its own company.

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In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: Enterprise NAC for network security, device compliance, and guest access. Cloud or self-hosted.
packetfence.com
For: campuses, hospitals, and global enterprises
packetfence.com
Price stated: Predictable OPEX with no hidden costs; Free software • Optional support packages; consumption pricing packetfence.com
Starting price: 0 packetfence.com/pricing
Free plan or trial: Limited Time: 30-Day Extended Trial; Start Free with PacketFence Cloud; No credit card required • Full enterprise features • Cancel anytime packetfence.com
Customers named: SavoyeCalvert HallCuriaNTW SolutionsLafayette College ITSCosun Shared Service Centre ICTHollins UniversityInfraops
Not stated on the pages read: Integrations, certifications, hosting

What PacketFence's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: packetfence.com, packetfence.com/pricing, packetfence.com/tags/compliance. 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 PacketFence'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 PacketFence, 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 PacketFence by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where PacketFence 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 PacketFence, 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 PacketFence is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.

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PacketFence is among the products AI models recommend first in Network access control 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

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/network-access-control/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/packetfence--network-access-control-wide.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Network access control, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="320" height="104"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Network access control standing, where the claim can be checked.

Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/network-access-control/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/packetfence--network-access-control-square.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Network access control, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="240" height="240"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Network access control standing, where the claim can be checked.

Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/network-access-control/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/packetfence--network-access-control-compact.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Network access control, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="200" height="56"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Network access control standing, where the claim can be checked.

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.