7 categories · RankedMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is an endpoint security product from Microsoft, categorized under endpoint protection and endpoint detection and response · microsoft.com ↗
Leads at enterprise. Ranked 5 of 75 for small business buyers.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is first at 49%.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is first at 25%. 4 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Ranked first. Next is CrowdStrike Falcon at 34%.
Why models recommend it
“If you're a Microsoft shop, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint may already be partially bundled with E5 or Business Premium licenses. At $3–$5/user/month it's often the most cost-effective starting point.”DeepSeek V4 Flash · Scale-constrained question · first choice
“For most mid-market B2B companies with limited security teams, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint or Seceon aiXDR-PMax would be the strongest starting points.”MiniMax M2.5 · Direct question · first choice
“Defender is usually the most natural choice because it connects closely with Intune, Entra ID, Microsoft Sentinel, and Microsoft 365 security workflows.”Perplexity Sonar · Comparative question · first choice
“Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Bitdefender GravityZone EDR are top choices due to their balance of cost, effectiveness, and ease of use”Mistral Small · Direct question · first choice
What gives them pause
“many companies depend on a single provider like CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender or SentinelOne, and that "banking on, or consolidating services with a single provider can create downstream risk"”Muse Glimmer 30B · Negative question · warning
“While leading enterprise EDRs (CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne, Palo Alto Cortex XDR) are highly effective, you must evaluate vendor operational maturity.”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Negative question · warning
“Unmanaged Microsoft Defender for Endpoint or basic SentinelOne deployments: Strong tools can still fail if nobody monitors and responds to alerts.”Perplexity Sonar · Negative question · warning
“it's frequently called out in red team circles for bypasses using common LOLBins... Avoid as a standalone if your org has heavy custom tooling”Grok 4.20 · Negative question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, over the 324 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 208 | 24 | Compare → | |
| 146 | 7 | Compare → | |
| 119 | 43 | Compare → | |
| 117 | 1 | View → | |
| 114 | 27 | Compare → | |
| 59 | 8 | Compare → | |
| 52 | 1 | View → | |
| 51 | 1 | Compare → | |
| 44 | 1 | Compare → | |
| 36 | 5 | View → |
What the models named instead of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's own site, not checked by Gane.
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 264 of the 324 answers that named Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
448 of the 586 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Defender for Endpoint came from a third party's page. Forty-seven were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 9 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Grok 4.20 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Mistral Small | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 14 |
| Kimi K2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 9 |