# DDoS protection: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 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/2026-11

**Standing:** Cloudflare leads with 94% of first choices; verdict consensus. 48 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) | 94% | 3% | 68 |
| 2 | [Akamai Prolexic](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-prolexic/index.md) | 4% | 23% | 48 |
| 3 | [AWS Shield](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-shield/index.md) | 2% | 11% | 63 |
| 4 | [Imperva DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/imperva-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 5% | 40 |
| 5 | [Radware Cloud DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/radware-cloud-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 32 |
| 6 | [Google Cloud Armor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-armor/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 16 |
| 7 | [Azure DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 26% | 31 |
| 8 | [Fastly DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fastly-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 16 |
| 60 | [DDoS-Guard](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ddos-guard/index.md) | 0% | 80% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 60 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; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Cloudflare Magic Transit
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva DDoS Protection
- Perplexity Sonar: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Gcore DDoS Protection, Imperva DDoS Protection
- Mistral Small: Cloudflare; alternatives Akamai Prolexic, Imperva DDoS Protection
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives Imperva DDoS Protection
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cloudflare
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Imperva DDoS Protection
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, IO River
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare; alternatives Imperva DDoS Protection, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection
- MiniMax M2.5: Cloudflare; alternatives Akamai Prolexic, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection
- GPT-6 Luna: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Cloudflare Magic Transit
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Imperva DDoS Protection

## Sources the answers cite

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

- cloudflare.com: 25 answers, 58 citations
- radware.com: 24 answers, 43 citations
- myrasecurity.com: 23 answers, 23 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 20 answers, 24 citations
- esecurityplanet.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- fastly.com: 18 answers, 19 citations
- imperva.com: 16 answers, 22 citations
- geekflare.com: 16 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://myrasecurity.com/en/the-10-best-ddos-protection-services (23 answers)
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-vendors (20 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/cybersecurity/ddos-protection-service (16 answers)
- https://softwaretestinghelp.com/best-ddos-protection-services (16 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/web-security/top-distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-defense-solutions (15 answers)
- https://radware.com/cyberpedia/ddos-attacks/reliable-ddos-protection-providers-for-online-businesses (15 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/ddos-protection (15 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/products/ddos (12 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/ddos-protection-tools (12 answers)
- https://fastly.com/blog/best-ddos-mitigation-providers-2025-2026 (12 answers)

## Warned against

- DDoS-Guard: 8 of 10 labels negative. "Multiple complaints on Trustpilot (overall ~2.0/5 rating) highlight issues like assigning Russian IP addresses... Avoid if you're in regions sensitive to Russian infrastructure ties" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Akamai Prolexic: 11 of 48 labels negative. "avoid enterprise services such as Akamai Prolexic, Imperva, or dedicated Radware deployments" (Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt)
- Azure DDoS Protection: 8 of 31 labels negative. "Some services like Azure DDoS Protection have limited granular configuration options for tuning attack response and lack manual override features" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)
- AWS Shield: 7 of 63 labels negative. "Avoid *AWS Shield Advanced*, as it costs a minimum of $3,000/month." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Cloudflare at 94%.

- Cloudflare: 82% to 94%, +12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 60, unchanged.
- Akamai Prolexic: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 9 → 2 of 60.
- AWS Shield: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 → 3 of 60.
- Imperva DDoS Protection: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 3 → 4 of 60.
- Radware Cloud DDoS Protection: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 5 of 60.
- Google Cloud Armor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 6 of 60.
- Azure DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 7 of 60.
- Fastly DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 14 → 8 of 60.
- Gcore DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 13 of 60.
- Sucuri: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 17 of 60.
- DDoS-Guard: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 58 → 60 of 60.

## Record

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