# DDoS protection: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "DDoS protection service" and as "DDoS mitigation provider", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/ddos-protection/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/ddos-protection/index.md

**Standing:** Cloudflare leads with 82% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Cloudflare](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare/index.md) | 82% | 6% | 69 |
| 2 | [AWS Shield](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-shield/index.md) | 4% | 11% | 62 |
| 3 | [Imperva DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/imperva-ddos-protection/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 43 |
| 4 | [Radware Cloud DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/radware-cloud-ddos-protection/index.md) | 2% | 6% | 33 |
| 9 | [Akamai Prolexic](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-prolexic/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 44 |
| 10 | [Azure DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 18% | 22 |
| 11 | [Google Cloud Armor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-armor/index.md) | 0% | 19% | 16 |
| 12 | [Sucuri](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sucuri/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 15 | [Gcore DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/gcore-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 58 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Cloudflare; alternatives Imperva DDoS Protection, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection, Vercara
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare Business or Cloudflare Contract; alternatives AWS Shield
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Fastly DDoS Protection, Imperva DDoS Protection
- Perplexity Sonar: LevelBlue; alternatives Cloudflare, Imperva DDoS Protection
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Imperva DDoS Protection, Radware DefensePro
- Mistral Small: AWS Shield, Cloudflare; alternatives Nexusguard, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva DDoS Protection
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: AWS Shield, Cloudflare; alternatives Imperva DDoS Protection, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare; alternatives Imperva DDoS Protection
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic
- MiniMax M2.5: Cloudflare Magic Transit; alternatives AWS Shield, Imperva DDoS Protection, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection
- GPT-6 Luna: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Magic Transit
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cloudflare, Imperva DDoS Protection, Imperva Incapsula; alternatives Radware Cloud DDoS Protection

## Sources the answers cite

74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- esecurityplanet.com: 53 answers, 63 citations
- radware.com: 46 answers, 106 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 37 answers, 39 citations
- indusface.com: 26 answers, 31 citations
- flowtriq.com: 25 answers, 57 citations
- cyberpress.org: 21 answers, 25 citations
- expertinsights.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- myrasecurity.com: 20 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-vendors (53 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/ddos-protection-tools (37 answers)
- https://radware.com/cyberpedia/ddospedia/ddos-mitigation-services (31 answers)
- https://indusface.com/blog/best-ddos-protection-software (24 answers)
- https://radware.com/cyberpedia/ddospedia/ddos-mitigation-providers (21 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/web-security/top-distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-defense-solutions (20 answers)
- https://myrasecurity.com/en/the-10-best-ddos-protection-services (20 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/cybersecurity/ddos-protection-service (19 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ddos-protection-services-to-consider (16 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ddos-protection-software (15 answers)

## Warned against

- Akamai Prolexic: 13 of 44 labels negative. "Providers to Skip for This Use Case - Akamai Prolexic — Excellent technology but enterprise-first pricing and complexity" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt)
- AWS Shield: 7 of 62 labels negative. "A Budget Trap to Avoid ... Costs a flat $3,000/month with a 1-year commitment, plus data transfer fees." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- DDoS-Guard: 5 of 7 labels negative. ""Stay away from them; at best, you will simply lose $100."  Multiple user-review sites report serious service and policy concerns." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Azure DDoS Protection: 4 of 22 labels negative. "Azure DDoS Protection is primarily for Azure public IPs and virtual networks rather than unrelated internet hosts" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Cloudflare at 84%.

- Cloudflare: 93% to 84%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 1 of 52, unchanged.
- AWS Shield: 0% to 5%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 4 → 2 of 52.
- Radware Cloud DDoS Protection: 0% to 3%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 7 → 3 of 52.
- Imperva DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 7 of 52.
- Azure DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 of 52, unchanged.
- Akamai Prolexic: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 9 of 52.
- Google Cloud Armor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 10 of 52.
- Sucuri: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 11 of 52.
- Flowtriq: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 of 52, unchanged.
- Fastly DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 16 of 52.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.