# Endpoint protection: 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 a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/endpoint-protection/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/index.md

**Standing:** Microsoft Defender for Endpoint leads with 25% of first choices; verdict contested. 59 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) | 25% | 4% | 46 |
| 2 | [Bitdefender GravityZone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone/index.md) | 20% | 3% | 39 |
| 3 | [Microsoft Defender for Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-cloud/index.md) | 17% | 8% | 12 |
| 4 | [CrowdStrike Falcon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon/index.md) | 12% | 22% | 41 |
| 5 | [Sophos Intercept X](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-intercept-x/index.md) | 5% | 12% | 42 |
| 6 | [SentinelOne Singularity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 25 |
| 7 | [SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity-endpoint/index.md) | 3% | 9% | 22 |
| 8 | [ESET PROTECT](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/eset-protect/index.md) | 2% | 6% | 16 |
| 15 | [Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-cortex-xdr/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 20 |
| 16 | [Huntress Managed EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/huntress-managed-edr/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 13 |
| 73 | [Trend Micro Apex One](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/trend-micro-apex-one/index.md) | 0% | 38% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 79 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, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
- GPT-5.4 mini: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Sophos Intercept X; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- Perplexity Sonar: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Grok 4.20: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Mistral Small: Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Acronis Cyber Protect
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X
- Llama 4 Maverick: Bitdefender GravityZone
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X, Trend Vision One
- Kimi K2: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X
- MiniMax M2.5: Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X
- GPT-6 Luna: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Bitdefender GravityZone, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X

## Sources the answers cite

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

- deel.com: 34 answers, 39 citations
- guideflow.com: 30 answers, 31 citations
- huntress.com: 29 answers, 39 citations
- tekpon.com: 23 answers, 24 citations
- microsoft.com: 22 answers, 33 citations
- sentinelone.com: 21 answers, 39 citations
- iru.com: 21 answers, 21 citations
- techrepublic.com: 20 answers, 25 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://deel.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-for-business (32 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-software (29 answers)
- https://iru.com/endpoint/compare/endpoint-security-software (21 answers)
- https://tekpon.com/insights/security-compliance/cybersecurity/best-endpoint-protection-software-for-business (20 answers)
- https://venn.com/learn/endpoint-security/endpoint-security-solutions (15 answers)
- https://huntress.com/enterprise-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-solutions-compared (13 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-endpoint-security-software (13 answers)
- https://kaseya.com/blog/best-edr-solutions (12 answers)
- https://start.paloaltonetworks.com/gartner-epp-mq (12 answers)
- https://huntress.com/endpoint-resilience-guide/best-endpoint-security-software (11 answers)

## Warned against

- CrowdStrike Falcon: 9 of 41 labels negative. "CrowdStrike Falcon (with significant caveats) ... It's still a strong product, but the outage demonstrated that relying on any single endpoint platform carries systemic risk." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Kaspersky Endpoint Security: 7 of 8 labels negative. "Why to avoid: Because Kaspersky can no longer push threat signature and codebase updates to U.S. endpoints" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Trend Micro Apex One: 5 of 13 labels negative. "Cautious Avoid / Immediate Patch Required ... critical security vulnerabilities that should be immediate red flags" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Sophos Intercept X: 5 of 42 labels negative. "Some platforms like Sophos Endpoint have received complaints about slow performance on older systems and high resource usage affecting productivity" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Bitdefender GravityZone (22%) to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (25%). Margin 4 points, within noise.

- CrowdStrike Falcon: 4% to 12%, +8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 6 → 4 of 76.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud: 22% to 17%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 3 of 76, unchanged.
- Sophos Intercept X: 8% to 4%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 6 of 76.
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: 22% to 25%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 2 → 1 of 76.
- SentinelOne Singularity: 4% to 6%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 5 of 76.
- SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 7 of 76.
- ESET PROTECT: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 of 76, unchanged.
- CrowdStrike: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 of 76, unchanged.
- Bitdefender GravityZone: 22% to 21%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 → 2 of 76.
- Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 14 of 76.
- Huntress Managed EDR: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 15 of 76.
- Trend Micro Apex One: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 61 of 76.

## 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.