# Endpoint protection for small business buyers: 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/endpoint-protection/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Microsoft Defender for Cloud leads with 50% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Microsoft Defender for Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-cloud/index.md) | 50% | 2% | 55 |
| 2 | [Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone-small-business-security/index.md) | 15% | 0% | 14 |
| 3 | [Huntress Managed EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/huntress-managed-edr/index.md) | 11% | 0% | 28 |
| 4 | [Bitdefender GravityZone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone/index.md) | 9% | 5% | 44 |
| 5 | [ESET PROTECT](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/eset-protect/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 26 |
| 6 | [Avast Business](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/avast-business/index.md) | 2% | 18% | 11 |
| 12 | [CrowdStrike Falcon Go](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon-go/index.md) | 0% | 11% | 19 |
| 13 | [Sophos Intercept X](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-intercept-x/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 30 |
| 14 | [SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity-endpoint/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 20 |
| 15 | [SentinelOne Singularity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 16 | [CrowdStrike](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |
| 58 | [CrowdStrike Falcon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon/index.md) | 0% | 67% | 12 |

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: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security, CrowdStrike Falcon Go
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Perplexity Sonar: Bitdefender GravityZone, Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Grok 4.20: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security, SentinelOne Singularity
- Mistral Small: Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security, Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives Avast Business, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security, CrowdStrike Falcon Go, Huntress Managed EDR
- Llama 4 Maverick: Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives Avast Business, Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives ESET Endpoint Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Webroot SecureAnywhere Business
- Kimi K2: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Go, Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CNiC, Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint
- MiniMax M2.5: Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Go, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity 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:

- huntress.com: 44 answers, 55 citations
- gbhackers.com: 38 answers, 48 citations
- cnicsolutions.com: 33 answers, 45 citations
- cyberpress.org: 27 answers, 30 citations
- sentinelone.com: 26 answers, 29 citations
- tekpon.com: 22 answers, 26 citations
- deel.com: 21 answers, 26 citations
- cyberwise.almontsf.com: 20 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://huntress.com/internal-it-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-for-small-businesses (43 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/best-business-antivirus-compared (35 answers)
- https://cnicsolutions.com/cybersecurity-threat-protection/detection-response/best-endpoint-protection-edr-solutions-for-smbs (24 answers)
- https://sentinelone.com/cybersecurity-101/endpoint-security/best-edr-solutions-for-small-business (22 answers)
- https://cnicsolutions.com/cybersecurity-threat-protection/best-endpoint-protection-edr-solutions-for-smbs (21 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/business-antivirus-by-business-size (21 answers)
- https://cyberwise.almontsf.com/best-endpoint-protection-small-business (20 answers)
- https://deel.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-for-business (17 answers)
- https://tekpon.com/insights/security-compliance/cybersecurity/best-endpoint-protection-software-for-business (14 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/best-edr-solutions-compared (13 answers)

## Warned against

- CrowdStrike Falcon: 8 of 12 labels negative. "criticized for a higher false positive rate... can lead to alert fatigue and increased management overhead" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Kaspersky Endpoint Security: 6 of 8 labels negative. "Avoid anything enterprise-only licensed at full scale, pure legacy AV, Kaspersky (for U.S. clients)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Trellix Endpoint Security Suite: 5 of 6 labels negative. "High system resource consumption during scans, complex ePO console... feels like overkill for SMBs" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Sophos Intercept X: 6 of 30 labels negative. "Historically ranks lower than rivals on performance impact and false positives (per AV-Comparatives)." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative 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.