# Endpoint detection and response: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "EDR platform" and as "endpoint detection and response tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/security/endpoint-detection-and-response/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since.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/security/endpoint-detection-and-response/index.md

**Standing:** Microsoft Defender for Endpoint leads with 22% of first choices; verdict contested. 51 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) | 22% | 10% | 42 |
| 2 | [Bitdefender GravityZone EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitdefender-gravityzone-edr/index.md) | 20% | 0% | 42 |
| 3 | [CrowdStrike Falcon Insight](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike-falcon-insight/index.md) | 16% | 17% | 41 |
| 4 | [Huntress Managed EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/huntress-managed-edr/index.md) | 14% | 0% | 34 |
| 5 | [Microsoft Defender for Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-cloud/index.md) | 14% | 0% | 10 |
| 6 | [SentinelOne Singularity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sentinelone-singularity/index.md) | 8% | 16% | 45 |
| 7 | [CrowdStrike](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crowdstrike/index.md) | 6% | 31% | 13 |
| 9 | [Sophos Intercept X](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sophos-intercept-x/index.md) | 0% | 4% | 23 |
| 10 | [Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/palo-alto-networks-cortex-xdr/index.md) | 0% | 11% | 19 |
| 11 | [Cynet](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cynet/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 12 | [Trend Micro](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/trend-micro/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 15 | [ThreatDown EDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/threatdown-edr/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 46 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: Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone EDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- GPT-5.4 mini: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Sophos Intercept X
- Perplexity Sonar: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone EDR, Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X + Sophos MDR
- Grok 4.20: Bitdefender GravityZone EDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Mistral Small: Bitdefender GravityZone EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, SentinelOne Singularity
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Bitdefender GravityZone EDR, Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Llama 4 Maverick: CrowdStrike; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone EDR
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Kimi K2: Bitdefender GravityZone EDR; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone EDR, Cynet, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- MiniMax M2.5: no first choice

## Sources the answers cite

65 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- gbhackers.com: 43 answers, 47 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 33 answers, 35 citations
- cyberpress.org: 31 answers, 31 citations
- huntress.com: 26 answers, 40 citations
- acronis.com: 17 answers, 17 citations
- senseon.io: 17 answers, 17 citations
- learn.g2.com: 15 answers, 19 citations
- kaseya.com: 15 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gbhackers.com/best-edr-solutions-compared (40 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-edr-solutions (33 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/edr-solutions-by-business-size (31 answers)
- https://senseon.io/blog/best-edr-solutions (17 answers)
- https://kaseya.com/blog/best-edr-solutions (15 answers)
- https://huntress.com/edr-guide/best-edr-solutions (14 answers)
- https://acronis.com/en/blog/posts/best-edr-endpoint-detection-and-response-solutions-in-2026 (14 answers)
- https://huntress.com/internal-it-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-for-small-businesses (13 answers)
- https://cnicsolutions.com/cybersecurity-threat-protection/best-endpoint-protection-edr-solutions-for-smbs (12 answers)
- https://consilien.com/news/best-edr-software-smb-2026 (12 answers)

## Warned against

- VMware Carbon Black: 7 of 12 labels negative. "Strongly Avoid or High Caution... High false positives blocking legit apps, integration struggles post-acquisitions, premium pricing without matching value" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- SentinelOne Singularity: 7 of 45 labels negative. "Cautions: Occasional false positives/alert issues, compatibility/migration challenges, less mature ecosystem/threat intel depth, weaker non-Windows support." (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- CrowdStrike Falcon Insight: 7 of 41 labels negative. "Excellent capabilities, but the 2024 outage and testing controversies are valid caution flags for risk-averse environments." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Datto EDR: 4 of 4 labels negative. "MSP reviews describe it as "among the least effective tools"... the high FPR and operational overhead can be a dealbreaker." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative 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.