Deception technology · November 2026 Edition
Thinkst Canary vs CounterCraft
Nine of fourteen models named Thinkst Canary first on the direct prompt; one named CounterCraft. Thinkst Canary was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and CounterCraft by eleven and Thinkst Canary carries 48 labels and CounterCraft 20, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
CounterCraft
criticized challengerNamed in one category this edition.
First-choice share56%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate0%25%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#7A position in a field of 16; printed, not drawn.
Labels4820A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Thinkst Canary reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Acalvio ShadowPlex was named alongside these two in ten of the fourteen direct answers. Thinkst Canary vs Canarytokens · Thinkst Canary vs OpenCanary · Thinkst Canary vs HoneyWire
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the deception technology page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Thinkst CanaryFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCounterCraftDirect911 against CounterCraft
Paraphrase120
Comparative10
Budget-constrained503 against CounterCraft
Scale-constrained10
Negative211 against CounterCraft
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Thinkst Canary and CounterCraft were named in the same answer thirty-one times, of the 137 answers naming Thinkst Canary and the 63 naming CounterCraft. In those answers CounterCraft took the first choice zero times and Thinkst Canary fifteen.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Thinkst Canary and CounterCraft stood in it.
| Model | DirectCO | ParaphraseCO | ComparativeCO | Budget-constrainedCO | Scale-constrainedCO | NegativeCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | ||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | CO | ||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | CO | | | | CO | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | CO | CO | CO | |
| Grok 4.20 | | | CO | CO | CO | |
| Mistral Small | | | | |||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | CO | | ||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | CO | |||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | ||||||
| Kimi K2 | | CO | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | CO | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | CO | | | | ||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | |
Thinkst CanaryCO CounterCraft first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Thinkst Canary on the left and CounterCraft on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Thinkst Canary and CounterCraft stood in it.
Thinkst Canary first, CounterCraft not the choice
9 of 14 modelsCounterCraft was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5Thinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Canarytokens, Illusive Networks
Gemini 3.5 FlashThinkst Canary alternatives: Fortinet FortiDeceptor, SentinelOne Singularity Remote Deception / Identity, Tracebit, Zscaler Deception
Perplexity SonarThinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Fidelis Deception, Rapid7 InsightIDR Deception
Grok 4.20Thinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, FortiDeceptor, Illusive Networks, TrapX
Mistral SmallThinkst Canary alternatives: CyberTrap, Zscaler Deception
Llama 4 MaverickThinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Cymulate Deception, Fidelis Deception, Illusive Networks, TrapX DeceptionGrid
GLM 4.7 FlashXThinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex
GPT-6 LunaThinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, FortiDeceptor, Rapid7 InsightIDR Deception
Muse Glimmer 30BThinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Attivo Networks ThreatDefend Deception and Response Platform
CounterCraft first, Thinkst Canary not the choice
1 of 14 modelsThinkst Canary was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.MiniMax M2.5CounterCraft, Fidelis Deception alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Attivo Networks
Neither was the first choice, one was named
1 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.DeepSeek V4 FlashAcalvio ShadowPlex alternatives: SentinelOne Singularity, Thinkst Canary
Neither was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.GPT-5.4 miniLabyrinth Deception Platform alternatives: Cynet, Tracebit
Qwen 3.7 FlashCymulate alternatives: Attivo Networks, Crypt48
Kimi K2Cynet, Tracebit alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Deceptive Bytes
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Thinkst Canary leads by fifty-three points.
Thinkst Canary53%#1 of 15CounterCraft0%#13 of 15
The full small business standing →Mid-marketThe figures above
Thinkst Canary leads by fifty-four points.
Thinkst Canary56%#1 of 16CounterCraft2%#7 of 16
The full mid-market standing →Enterprise
Thinkst Canary leads by twenty points.
Thinkst Canary22%#2 of 13CounterCraft2%#4 of 13
The full enterprise standing →What the models said about Thinkst Canary
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“Thinkst Canary offers the best value for money among paid platforms due to its simplicity, low false positives, and comprehensive coverage.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Thinkst Canary (from Thinkst Applied Research) stands out as the best deception technology platform for most mid-market B2B companies.” Grok 4.20 · direct prompt · first choice
“Excellent signal quality, very easy (Canarytokens are free and powerful), low maintenance. Often the "gold standard" for fidelity.” Grok 4.20 · scale prompt · first choice
What the models said about CounterCraft
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid starting with broad enterprise platforms such as Acalvio, CounterCraft, or Zscaler Deception” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid overly complex enterprise suites like *Acalvio ShadowPlex* or *CounterCraft*” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · hard negative
“often start at thousands of dollars per year ... making them unsuitable for tight budgets” Grok 4.20 · budget prompt · soft negative
“High-interaction decoys, strong across network/endpoint/identity/cloud/OT; praised for threat intel.” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · first choice
“I would recommend Fidelis Security or CounterCraft as the top choices” MiniMax M2.5 · direct prompt · first choice
“Particularly strong for organizations that want deception as part of a broader threat intelligence program” DeepSeek V4 Flash · comparative prompt · alternative
Also compared
Thinkst Canary vs CanarytokensThinkst Canary vs OpenCanaryThinkst Canary vs HoneyWireThinkst Canary vs Acalvio ShadowPlexThinkst Canary vs TracebitThinkst Canary vs Fidelis DeceptionCanarytokens vs CounterCraftOpenCanary vs CounterCraftHoneyWire vs CounterCraftAcalvio ShadowPlex vs CounterCraftTracebit vs CounterCraftCounterCraft vs Fidelis DeceptionAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full deception standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.