Every category where a model named Sophos Firewall 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
Next-generation firewalls	Network and edge	4%	2 of 83	3%	35	accepted challenger	▲+2Since September 2026: 2% → 5%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.

Movement

Since September 2026, Sophos Firewall held within the floor in its one category: no change cleared 11 points.

Best category · Firewalls · by segment

Small business▼−3Since September 2026: 15% → 12%, −3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.

12%from 15% in September 2026

Inside the floor by 8 pointsRank 3 → 2 of 87

Mid-market▲+2Since September 2026: 2% → 5%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.

5%from 2% in September 2026

Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 4 → 2 of 73

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 10 → 14 of 70

All categories · Mid-market

Category	September 2026	Now	Change	Reading	Rank
Firewalls	2%	5%	▲+2Since September 2026: 2% → 5%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.	Within noise	Rank 4 → 2 of 83

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 Sophos Firewall 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	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	0	1	0	0	1
GPT-5.4 mini	0	1	0	0	1
Gemini 3.5 Flash	0	5	0	1	6
Perplexity Sonar	0	2	0	0	2
Grok 4.20	0	1	1	0	2
Mistral Small	0	2	1	0	3
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	2	1	0	3
Llama 4 Maverick	1	1	0	0	2
Qwen 3.7 Flash	0	1	1	0	2
Kimi K2	0	0	2	0	2
GLM 4.7 FlashX	1	2	0	0	3
MiniMax M2.5	0	1	1	0	2
GPT-6 Luna	0	1	0	0	1
Muse Glimmer 30B	0	5	0	0	5

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

Direct19 labels4

Paraphrase15 labels3

Comparative25 labels4not counted in share

Budget-constrained10 labels2

Scale-constrained13 labelsNone

Negative12 labels3not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative94 labels in all, every segment counted; 9 of the 16 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.

“The best next-generation firewall for a company with a limited budget is Untangle NG Firewall (Arista) or Sophos Firewall.” Llama 4 Maverick · Firewalls · budget prompt · first choice

“Most mid-market B2B companies will find Fortinet FortiGate or Sophos Firewall to be the best fit” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Firewalls · direct prompt · first choice

“consolidates IPS, web filtering, application control, VPN, and sandboxing into a single appliance, suitable for mid-sized organizations and SMBs” Llama 4 Maverick · Firewalls · paraphrase prompt · alternative

“A good option for mid-sized businesses seeking an all-in-one solution with strong management and reporting features.” Mistral Small · Firewalls · direct 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.

“Avoid SMB UTMs (Sophos, Barracuda) if you have a high-throughput environment” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Firewalls · negative prompt · hard negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Sophos Firewall, over the 94 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Sophos Firewall was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Fortinet FortiGate84 of 9450Compare →

Palo Alto Networks NGFW47 of 9410Compare →

Cisco Secure Firewall40 of 940Compare →

WatchGuard Firebox38 of 949Not among the top eight

Check Point Quantum29 of 942Not among the top eight

SonicWall17 of 940Not among the top eight

SonicWall TZ Series11 of 940Not among the top eight

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series9 of 943Not among the top eight

Ubiquiti UniFi9 of 940Not among the top eight

Cisco Meraki MX8 of 941Not 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 Sophos Firewall. 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 88 of the 94 answers that named Sophos Firewall and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

cyberpress.org47

fortinet.com45

cybersecuritynews.com41

comparitech.com35

checkpoint.com34

learn.g2.com33

gbhackers.com28

cisco.com26

it-ai-index.com26

paloaltonetworks.com22

337 of the 337 domain citations in answers naming Sophos Firewall came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

cyberpress.org/best-next-generation-firewall-ngfw-solutions-for-every-business-size45

cybersecuritynews.com/best-next-generation-firewall39

learn.g2.com/best-firewall-software31

gbhackers.com/ngfw-solutions-compared-features-pricing25

comparitech.com/net-admin/best-small-business-firewalls20

expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-network-firewalls20

perkinssecurity.com/index-9.html18

comparitech.com/net-admin/next-gen-firewalls17

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

Where Sophos Firewall stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Searches for its name, Google: 1,600 a month (“sophos firewall”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 155 a month
Its own site: It sits on Sophos's site (sophos.com), so there are no site figures for it alone

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

rank 2 of 83 in firewalls

Segment leader

73%

Fortinet FortiGate

First choices: 9 across its categories
Named in: 94 answers
Its own site cited: in 88 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 Sophos Firewall

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Sophos Firewall; a claim can dispute any of them.

Sophos 9Sophos (XGS Series) 3Sophos Firewall XGS 3Sophos XGS 2Sophos XGS (entry models) 1Sophos XGS Series 1Sophos XGS Series (XGS 87 or 107) 1

Follow Sophos Firewall

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

Sophos is the company behind Sophos Firewall.

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On record

Company records

Also from Sophos: Sophos Central, Sophos Email, Sophos Endpoint, Sophos Endpoint / Intercept X, Sophos Firewall XGS, Sophos ITDR, Sophos Intercept X, Sophos Intercept X + Sophos MDR and 15 more

In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: a next-generation firewall platform that provides advanced threat protection using deep learning AI, intrusion prevention, web protection, application control, and synchronized security with Sophos endpoint products.
sophos.com/en-us/marketplace/sophos-xgs-firewall
For: reti aziendali
sophos.com/it-it/resources/sophos-firewall-solution-brief
Price stated: for no extra charge sophos.com/it-it/partner-news/sophos-firewall-v21-5-dns-protection
Free plan or trial: participating in the Early Access Program sophos.com/it-it/partner-news/sophos-firewall-v21-5-dns-protection
Certifications: benchmark CISNIST
Not stated on the pages read: Starting price, integrations, hosting, customers

What Sophos Firewall's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: sophos.com/en-us/marketplace/sophos-xgs-firewall, sophos.com/it-it/resources/sophos-firewall-solution-brief, sophos.com/it-it/partner-news/sophos-firewall-v21-5-dns-protection, sophos.com/it-it/partner-news/sophos-firewall-configuration-viewer, sophos.com/it-it/partner-news/optimize-your-sophos-firewall-security. 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 Sophos Firewall'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 Sophos Firewall, 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 Sophos Firewall by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Sophos Firewall 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 Sophos Firewall, 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 Sophos Firewall 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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Sophos Firewall is among the products AI models recommend first in Next-generation firewalls 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/next-generation-firewalls/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/sophos-firewall--next-generation-firewalls-wide.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Next-generation firewalls, 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 Next-generation firewalls standing, where the claim can be checked.

Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/next-generation-firewalls/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/sophos-firewall--next-generation-firewalls-square.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Next-generation firewalls, 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 Next-generation firewalls standing, where the claim can be checked.

Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/next-generation-firewalls/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/sophos-firewall--next-generation-firewalls-compact.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Next-generation firewalls, 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 Next-generation firewalls 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.