# Endpoint protection: what AI models recommend, September 2026 Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "endpoint protection platform" and as "business antivirus and endpoint security tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/endpoint-protection/2026-09 This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/endpoint-protection/index.md **Standing:** Bitdefender GravityZone (tied with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Cloud) leads with 22% of first choices; verdict contested. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts. ## First-choice share | Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | [Bitdefender GravityZone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone/index.md) | 22% | 0% | 45 | | 2 | [Microsoft Defender for Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-endpoint/index.md) | 22% | 4% | 45 | | 3 | [Microsoft Defender for Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-cloud/index.md) | 22% | 0% | 13 | | 4 | [Sophos Intercept X](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-intercept-x/index.md) | 8% | 6% | 36 | | 5 | [SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity-endpoint/index.md) | 6% | 13% | 31 | | 6 | [CrowdStrike Falcon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon/index.md) | 4% | 21% | 33 | | 7 | [SentinelOne Singularity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 20 | | 8 | [ESET PROTECT](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/eset-protect/index.md) | 4% | 4% | 23 | | 9 | [CrowdStrike](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike/index.md) | 4% | 17% | 18 | | 12 | [Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-cortex-xdr/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 18 | | 13 | [Huntress Managed EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/huntress-managed-edr/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 | | 15 | [Trend Micro Apex One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/trend-micro-apex-one/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 13 | Rank is by share of first choices among all 72 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: Sophos Intercept X; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, Check Point Harmony Endpoint - GPT-5.4 mini: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X - Gemini 3.5 Flash: SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X + Sophos MDR - Perplexity Sonar: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives Cynet 360, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X - Grok 4.20: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives ESET PROTECT, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X - Mistral Small: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint - DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X - Llama 4 Maverick: Bitdefender GravityZone - Qwen 3.7 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X - Kimi K2: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne Singularity - GLM 4.7 FlashX: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, Cynet 360, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint - MiniMax M2.5: Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X ## Sources the answers cite 64 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers: - gbhackers.com: 34 answers, 51 citations - gartner.com: 28 answers, 41 citations - deel.com: 24 answers, 25 citations - cybersecuritynews.com: 21 answers, 26 citations - huntress.com: 19 answers, 28 citations - cyberpress.org: 17 answers, 18 citations - guideflow.com: 16 answers, 16 citations - reddit.com: 13 answers, 27 citations Pages named in the most answers: - https://gbhackers.com/best-business-antivirus-compared (30 answers) - https://deel.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-for-business (24 answers) - https://gbhackers.com/best-edr-solutions-compared (21 answers) - https://gartner.com/reviews/market/endpoint-protection-platforms (18 answers) - https://cyberpress.org/business-antivirus-by-business-size (16 answers) - https://huntress.com/internal-it-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-for-small-businesses (15 answers) - https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-business-antivirus-software (14 answers) - https://guideflow.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-software (13 answers) - https://iru.com/endpoint/compare/endpoint-security-software (12 answers) - https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/kuppingercole-leadership-compass-endpoint-protection-detection-and-response-2024 (10 answers) ## Warned against - CrowdStrike Falcon: 7 of 33 labels negative. "You do *not* need to avoid these industry leaders—they are among the most effective tools on the market. However, you must be cautious about how you deploy and configure them" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) - Kaspersky Endpoint Security: 5 of 6 labels negative. "Kaspersky is the main endpoint protection platform that has been explicitly banned and restricted" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt) - SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint: 4 of 31 labels negative. "Platforms to be cautious about: CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) - Trellix Endpoint Security Suite: 3 of 7 labels negative. "Platforms to be cautious about: ... Trellix (formerly McAfee Enterprise)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) ## Record - Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology - License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.