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

**Standing:** Cloudflare leads with 100% 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) | 100% | 1% | 75 |
| 2 | [AWS Shield](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-shield/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 69 |
| 3 | [Sucuri](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sucuri/index.md) | 0% | 3% | 32 |
| 4 | [Google Cloud Armor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-armor/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 15 |
| 5 | [Imperva DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/imperva-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 31 |
| 6 | [Azure DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 15 |
| 7 | [Fastly DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fastly-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 40 | [Radware Cloud DDoS Protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/radware-cloud-ddos-protection/index.md) | 0% | 36% | 25 |
| 58 | [Akamai Prolexic](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-prolexic/index.md) | 0% | 76% | 42 |

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 AWS Shield, Sucuri
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Google Cloud Armor, Magic Transit
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, AWS WAF, Bunny.net, Sucuri
- Perplexity Sonar: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Indusface AppTrana, Sucuri
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Imperva DDoS Protection, Link11, Myra Security
- Mistral Small: Cloudflare
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Sucuri
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cloudflare
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, CHEQ
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Imperva DDoS Protection
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare; alternatives Akamai Prolexic, Imperva DDoS Protection
- MiniMax M2.5: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, AWS WAF
- GPT-6 Luna: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, AWS WAF
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cloudflare; alternatives AWS Shield, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva Incapsula, Sucuri

## Sources the answers cite

72 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 13 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- softwareadvice.com: 38 answers, 43 citations
- geekflare.com: 31 answers, 31 citations
- sourceforge.net: 30 answers, 32 citations
- cloudflare.com: 22 answers, 52 citations
- g2.com: 21 answers, 26 citations
- myrasecurity.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- getapp.com: 19 answers, 19 citations
- developers.cloudflare.com: 16 answers, 33 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://softwareadvice.com/ddos-protection/small-business (37 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/cybersecurity/ddos-protection-service (31 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/ddos-protection/for-small-business (30 answers)
- https://myrasecurity.com/en/the-10-best-ddos-protection-services (20 answers)
- https://getapp.com/all-software/ddos-protection/org/small-business (19 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/ddos-protection/small-business (16 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/application-services/products/ddos-for-web (14 answers)
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-vendors (14 answers)
- https://fastly.com/blog/best-ddos-mitigation-providers-2025-2026 (14 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/network/ddos-protection/smb (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Akamai Prolexic: 32 of 42 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: 9 of 25 labels negative. "criticized and considered not suitable for small businesses, with a custom pricing model that might be too expensive" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- AWS Shield: 12 of 69 labels negative. "Top-tier enterprise cloud mitigation services, such as AWS Shield Advanced (which requires a $3,000/month baseline fee plus usage costs)... Why to avoid:" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Imperva DDoS Protection: 9 of 31 labels negative. "enterprise-dedicated scrubbing networks like Akamai Prolexic or Imperva Enterprise... Why to avoid:" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

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

- Cloudflare: 100% to 100%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 1 of 58, unchanged.
- AWS Shield: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 2 of 58, unchanged.
- Sucuri: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 3 of 58, unchanged.
- Google Cloud Armor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 4 of 58.
- Imperva DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 29 → 5 of 58.
- Azure DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 4 → 6 of 58.
- Fastly DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 of 58, unchanged.
- Flowtriq: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 23 of 58.
- Radware Cloud DDoS Protection: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 37 → 40 of 58.
- Akamai Prolexic: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 38 → 58 of 58.

## 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.