# DDoS protection for small business buyers: 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/ddos-protection/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Cloudflare leads with 100% of first choices; verdict consensus. 50 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) | 100% | 1% | 76 |
| 2 | [AWS Shield](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-shield/index.md) | 0% | 19% | 83 |
| 3 | [Sucuri](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sucuri/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 45 |
| 4 | [Azure DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 18 |
| 6 | [Google Cloud Armor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-armor/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 7 | [Fastly DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fastly-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 12 |
| 8 | [Flowtriq](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/flowtriq/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 29 | [Imperva DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/imperva-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 46% | 28 |
| 37 | [Radware Cloud DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/radware-cloud-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 62% | 16 |
| 38 | [Akamai Prolexic](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-prolexic/index.md) | 0% | 74% | 38 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 38 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 Indusface AppTrana, Sucuri
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives Indusface AppTrana, Sucuri
- Perplexity Sonar: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Fastly DDoS Protection, Sucuri
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Gcore DDoS Protection, Imperva DDoS Protection, Sucuri
- Mistral Small: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Sucuri
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Sucuri
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Sucuri
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, DMIT.io
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Sucuri
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Imperva DDoS Protection, Sucuri
- MiniMax M2.5: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Sucuri
- GPT-6 Luna: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Free and Pro
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield

## Sources the answers cite

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

- esecurityplanet.com: 52 answers, 58 citations
- indusface.com: 47 answers, 57 citations
- geekflare.com: 45 answers, 45 citations
- cyberpress.org: 39 answers, 49 citations
- flowtriq.com: 38 answers, 75 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 33 answers, 35 citations
- sourceforge.net: 30 answers, 34 citations
- radware.com: 29 answers, 54 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-vendors (52 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/cybersecurity/ddos-protection-service (45 answers)
- https://indusface.com/blog/best-ddos-protection-software (35 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/ddos-protection-tools (33 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ddos-protection-services-to-consider (29 answers)
- https://flowtriq.com/blog/best-cloud-ddos-protection (22 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/ddos-protection (22 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/plans (19 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ddos-protection-solutions (19 answers)
- https://radware.com/cyberpedia/ddospedia/ddos-mitigation-services (19 answers)

## Warned against

- Akamai Prolexic: 28 of 38 labels negative. "Avoid over-paying – services like Akamai Prolexic, Radware, and F5 are excellent for massive enterprises but are rarely justified for a small team." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Radware Cloud DDoS Protection: 10 of 16 labels negative. "High Cost: The licensing model and managed services represent a significant cost, which often deters small and medium-sized enterprises" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Imperva DDoS Protection: 13 of 28 labels negative. "Radware / Imperva: ... steep price tags and complex configuration requirements that a small IT team cannot maintain effectively" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- AWS Shield: 16 of 83 labels negative. "Why avoid: Unless your business is entirely hosted on AWS and generating significant revenue, the cost-to-benefit ratio for a small business is terrible." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Cloudflare at 100%.

- Cloudflare: 89% to 100%, +11. Cleared the floor by 0 points · rank 1 of 35, unchanged.
- Gcore DDoS Protection: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 2 → 8 of 35.
- Sucuri: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 2 of 35.
- AWS Shield: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 3 of 35, unchanged.
- Azure DDoS Protection: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 of 35, unchanged.
- Google Cloud Armor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 6 of 35.
- Fastly DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 7 of 35.
- Flowtriq: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 9 of 35.
- Imperva DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 34 → 20 of 35.
- Radware Cloud DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 36 → 34 of 35.
- Akamai Prolexic: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 37 → 35 of 35.

## 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.