Palo Alto · 8 categories · RankedPalo Alto Networks
137Judge labels
16First choices
46Negative labels
12 of 12Models named it
8Categories
September 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table vv2026-09.2, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
28% in Firewalls for enterprise buyers
Rank 5 of 100 in the mid-market standingcriticized challenger
1 of 12 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 29% of its 31 labels there were negative.
By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business109 of 110
0%16 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market5 of 100
2%31 labels
criticized challenger
Enterprise1 of 86
28%40 labels
criticized challenger
In firewalls · 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 Palo Alto 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next-generation firewalls | Network and edge | 2% | 5 of 100 | 29% | 31 | criticized challenger |
| Extended detection and response | Security operations | 0% | 53 of 61 | 60% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Defender XDR at 63% |
| Zero trust network access | Network and edge | 0% | 43 of 71 | 40% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Cloudflare One at 35% |
| Cloud-native application protection | Cloud and infrastructure | 0% | 51 of 57 | 50% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by Wiz at 46% |
| Endpoint protection | IT operations and endpoint | 0% | 28 of 99 | 0% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Defender for Cloud at 22% |
| Attack surface management | Security operations | 0% | 46 of 104 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Intruder at 59% |
| Data loss prevention | Security operations | 0% | 39 of 84 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Purview DLP at 39% |
| DDoS protection | Network and edge | 0% | 25 of 51 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Cloudflare at 93% |
Movement
This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Palo Alto Networks yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.
By model
How each model treated Palo Alto Networks across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 2 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 12 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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
Direct27 labels7
Paraphrase20 labels4
Comparative28 labels19not counted in share
Budget-constrained13 labelsNone
Scale-constrained22 labels5
Negative27 labels3not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative137 labels in all, every segment counted; 16 of the 38 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.
“Palo Alto Networks pioneered the XDR category and remains a dominant force, consistently leading analyst evaluations in detection accuracy and behavioral analytics.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · XDR · comparative prompt · first choice
“Palo Alto is usually favored for deepest application visibility and advanced threat prevention... often positioned as the most feature-rich option” Perplexity Sonar · Firewalls · comparative prompt · first choice
“Palo Alto Networks is usually the best overall choice if you want top-tier security, strong app visibility, and a mature management stack.” GPT-5.4 mini · Firewalls · direct prompt · first choice
“Industry leader with powerful threat detection, AI-driven analytics, cloud-native firewalling (Prisma), and a strong ecosystem” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Firewalls · comparative 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.
“Earned "Caution" in NSS Labs 2025 (lowest security effectiveness at 46.37%, failed critical network/transport-layer evasions)” Grok 4.1 Fast · Firewalls · negative prompt · soft negative
“Highest cost. Both the hardware and the annual subscription renewals are significantly more expensive than competitors.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Firewalls · scale prompt · soft negative
“Leading platforms (like Cortex XDR or Microsoft Defender) require highly specialized, dedicated security engineers” Gemini 3.5 Flash · XDR · negative prompt · soft negative
“some users find Palo Alto’s use cases (like Secure Browser) too narrow for broader network access needs.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · ZTNA · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Palo Alto Networks, over the 137 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Palo Alto Networks was named but was not.
ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. 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 Palo Alto Networks. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 84 of the 137 answers that named Palo Alto Networks and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
fortinet.com36
decryptiondigest.com35
comparitech.com30
paloaltonetworks.com30
cyberpress.org27
checkpoint.com26
gbhackers.com26
cybersecuritynews.com25
gartner.com23
esecurityplanet.com19
277 of the 277 domain citations in answers naming Palo Alto Networks came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Names read as Palo Alto Networks
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Palo Alto Networks; a claim can dispute any of them.
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Access) 3Palo Alto Networks (Cortex XDR) 2Palo Alto Networks (PA-Series) 2Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Cloud) 2Palo Alto Networks (Arbor) 1Palo Alto Networks (Cortex XDR & XSIAM) 1Palo Alto Networks (Cortex Xpanse) 1Palo Alto Networks (PA-300 Series) 1Palo Alto Networks (PA-400/500 series) 1Palo Alto Networks (PA-Series & VM-Series) 1Palo Alto Networks (PA-Series/Prisma) 1Palo Alto Networks (PAN-OS) 1Palo Alto Networks (Prisma) 1Palo Alto Networks (e.g., PA-1410) 1
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