# Endpoint protection for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/endpoint-protection/smb

**Standing:** Microsoft Defender for Cloud leads with 49% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 55 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) | 49% | 2% | 57 |
| 2 | [Sophos Intercept X](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-intercept-x/index.md) | 11% | 9% | 55 |
| 3 | [Bitdefender GravityZone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone/index.md) | 11% | 3% | 37 |
| 4 | [Huntress Managed EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/huntress-managed-edr/index.md) | 5% | 3% | 39 |
| 5 | [Microsoft Defender for Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-endpoint/index.md) | 5% | 40% | 10 |
| 6 | [SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity-endpoint/index.md) | 4% | 30% | 23 |
| 13 | [Avast Business](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/avast-business/index.md) | 2% | 58% | 12 |
| 14 | [ESET PROTECT](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/eset-protect/index.md) | 0% | 3% | 34 |
| 15 | [Acronis Cyber Protect](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/acronis-cyber-protect/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 16 | [SentinelOne Singularity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 15 |
| 17 | [CrowdStrike Falcon Go](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon-go/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |
| 41 | [CrowdStrike Falcon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon/index.md) | 0% | 44% | 32 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 75 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: Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security; alternatives Avast Business, ESET PROTECT, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- GPT-5.4 mini: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon Go, ESET PROTECT, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X
- Perplexity Sonar: Sophos Intercept X; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Grok 4.20: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Mistral Small: Acronis EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives Avast Business, NinjaOne, Sophos Intercept X
- Kimi K2: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Huntress Managed EDR
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, Malwarebytes for Business, SentinelOne Singularity
- MiniMax M2.5: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Sophos Intercept X; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, ESET PROTECT, SentinelOne Singularity
- GPT-6 Luna: Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, Sophos MDR
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Cloud; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon Go, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, SentinelOne Singularity

## Sources the answers cite

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

- huntress.com: 45 answers, 58 citations
- g2.com: 44 answers, 57 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 30 answers, 41 citations
- microsoft.com: 26 answers, 37 citations
- nexcess.com: 24 answers, 24 citations
- techradar.com: 20 answers, 21 citations
- cnicsolutions.com: 17 answers, 17 citations
- techrepublic.com: 16 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://g2.com/categories/endpoint-protection-platforms/small-business (40 answers)
- https://huntress.com/internal-it-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-for-small-businesses (38 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/category/4777-endpoint-protection/small-business (26 answers)
- https://nexcess.com/blog/best-endpoint-security-solutions (24 answers)
- https://microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/endpoint-security/microsoft-defender-business (17 answers)
- https://cnicsolutions.com/cybersecurity-threat-protection/detection-response/best-endpoint-protection-edr-solutions-for-smbs (15 answers)
- https://deel.com/blog/best-endpoint-protection-for-business (14 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-endpoint-security-software (13 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/security/edr-comparison/small-business (11 answers)
- https://huntress.com/endpoint-resilience-guide/best-endpoint-security-software (10 answers)

## Warned against

- CrowdStrike Falcon: 14 of 32 labels negative. "CrowdStrike Falcon and Avast Business are two endpoint protection platforms that some AI models recommend avoiding for small businesses" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Avast Business: 7 of 12 labels negative. "the advice from SMB guides is to avoid: ... Suites that lack coverage you need, e.g. Avast Business's lack of mobile" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint: 7 of 23 labels negative. "vendors such as CrowdStrike Falcon Insight / Falcon Pro, SentinelOne Singularity and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are often cautioned for small businesses without security staff" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Symantec Endpoint Security: 5 of 5 labels negative. "Discontinued products – Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud (SEP Cloud) and Symantec Protection Small Business Edition (SBE) have been discontinued" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Microsoft Defender for Cloud at 49%.

- Huntress Managed EDR: 10% to 5%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 3 → 4 of 75.
- Sophos Intercept X: 7% to 11%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 5 → 2 of 75.
- Bitdefender GravityZone: 13% to 11%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 → 3 of 75.
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: 3% to 5%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 5 of 75.
- SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 6 of 75.
- Avast Business: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 66 → 13 of 75.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud: 50% to 49%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 75, unchanged.
- ESET PROTECT: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 14 of 75.
- Acronis Cyber Protect: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 21 → 15 of 75.
- SentinelOne Singularity: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 14 → 16 of 75.
- CrowdStrike Falcon Go: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 17 of 75.
- CrowdStrike Falcon: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 70 → 41 of 75.

## 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.