# Endpoint protection for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "endpoint protection platform" and as "business antivirus and endpoint security tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/endpoint-protection/2026-10/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/operations/endpoint-protection/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** Microsoft Defender for Endpoint leads with 44% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Microsoft Defender for Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-endpoint/index.md) | 44% | 5% | 65 |
| 2 | [CrowdStrike Falcon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon/index.md) | 35% | 13% | 60 |
| 3 | [SentinelOne Singularity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity/index.md) | 7% | 8% | 39 |
| 5 | [CrowdStrike](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike/index.md) | 4% | 33% | 12 |
| 6 | [Bitdefender GravityZone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone/index.md) | 2% | 14% | 21 |
| 8 | [Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-cortex-xdr/index.md) | 0% | 3% | 36 |
| 9 | [Sophos Intercept X](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-intercept-x/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 31 |
| 10 | [SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity-endpoint/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 26 |
| 12 | [Trend Micro Apex One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/trend-micro-apex-one/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 43 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; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint
- GPT-5.4 mini: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, Sophos Intercept X
- Perplexity Sonar: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint
- Grok 4.20: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- Mistral Small: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, ESET PROTECT, Sophos Intercept X
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Llama 4 Maverick: Microsoft Defender, SentinelOne Singularity
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Trend Micro Apex One
- Kimi K2: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint
- MiniMax M2.5: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Trend Vision One
- GPT-6 Luna: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, Sophos Intercept X
- Muse Glimmer 30B: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Check Point Harmony Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X

## 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:

- huntress.com: 41 answers, 58 citations
- guideflow.com: 35 answers, 36 citations
- sentinelone.com: 28 answers, 55 citations
- crowdstrike.com: 28 answers, 50 citations
- microsoft.com: 27 answers, 33 citations
- techradar.com: 22 answers, 22 citations
- deel.com: 20 answers, 24 citations
- iru.com: 20 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://guideflow.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-software (35 answers)
- https://huntress.com/enterprise-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-solutions-compared (32 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-endpoint-security-software (20 answers)
- https://huntress.com/endpoint-resilience-guide/best-endpoint-security-software (19 answers)
- https://iru.com/endpoint/compare/endpoint-security-software (19 answers)
- https://deel.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-for-business (18 answers)
- https://venn.com/learn/endpoint-security/endpoint-security-solutions (18 answers)
- https://start.paloaltonetworks.com/gartner-epp-mq (15 answers)
- https://axis-intelligence.com/best-endpoint-security-solutions-2026 (14 answers)
- https://pcmag.com/picks/the-best-hosted-endpoint-protection-and-security-software (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Symantec Endpoint Security: 7 of 9 labels negative. "Scalability is raised as an area requiring work in larger deployments... platform migration causing problems for some organizations." (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)
- CrowdStrike Falcon: 8 of 60 labels negative. "While CrowdStrike remains a market leader, its high cost at scale and occasional stability problems are noted by enterprise users" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Trellix Endpoint Security Suite: 5 of 8 labels negative. "Legacy challenges make this a questionable choice for new enterprise deployments" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Avast Business: 4 of 4 labels negative. "Lack of mobile coverage and unclear pricing makes it a poor fit for large, heterogeneous enterprises." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint at 41%.

- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: 46% to 41%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 1 of 43, unchanged.
- CrowdStrike Falcon: 30% to 35%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 43, unchanged.
- Bitdefender GravityZone: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 12 → 6 of 43.
- SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 10 of 43.
- CrowdStrike: 5% to 4%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 4 → 5 of 43.
- SentinelOne Singularity: 9% to 9%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 3 of 43, unchanged.
- Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 8 of 43.
- Sophos Intercept X: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 9 of 43.
- Trend Micro Apex One: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 11 of 43.
- ESET PROTECT: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 14 → 22 of 43.
- Trellix Endpoint Security Suite: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 55 → 41 of 43.

## 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.