IT AI Index
Index › Cloud and infrastructure › CNAPP › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Cloud-native application protection for small business buyers

Asked as “CNAPP”, and as “cloud-native application protection platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Clear leader
46% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessMicrosoft Defender for Cloud46%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketWiz46%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseWiz49%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Defender for Cloud46%7%61endorsed leader
02Aikido Security25%0%32accepted challenger
03Wiz8%43%49criticized challenger
04Falco2%0%18accepted challenger
05Sweet Security2%6%18accepted challenger
06Prowler2%0%16accepted challenger
07Orca Security2%29%34criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Prisma Cloud0%76%25criticized challenger
09Orca0%31%16criticized challenger
08Sysdig0%18%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for CloudWiz vs Orca SecurityMicrosoft Defender for Cloud vs Orca Security

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Microsoft Defender for Cloud46%
02Aikido Security25%
03Wiz8%
04Falco2%
05Sweet Security2%
06Prowler2%
07Orca Security2%
08Sysdig0%
09Orca0%
10Prisma Cloud0%

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Prisma Cloud
76%
19 of 25 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“This is the one most consistently flagged as a poor fit for small businesses... Be most cautious with Prisma Cloud (cost, complexity, opaque pricing)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Wiz
43%
21 of 49 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Avoid Wiz/Orca/Prisma unless you have specific compliance or multi-cloud-at-scale requirements that justify the enterprise price.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
Orca Security
29%
10 of 34 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Like Wiz, minimum viable spend is too high; better as a "graduate" option after free tools” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
67%
6 of 9 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“For a small business not already invested in that vendor's broader stack, this is usually a trap.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 822 links across 154 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

cyberpress.org
45 answers · 64 citations · 10 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights36 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
gbhackers.com
33 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
aikido.dev
vendor site · Aikido31 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
sourceforge.net
vendor site · SourceForge30 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
cybersecuritynews.com
29 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
cipherssecurity.com
21 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
startupstash.com
21 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
g2.com
20 answers · 37 citations · 7 models
wiz.io
vendor site · Wiz18 answers · 20 citations · 6 models
pt.aikido.dev
vendor site · Aikido18 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
microsoft.com
vendor site · Microsoft14 answers · 19 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

cyberpress.org/cnapp-platforms-by-business-size-2
38 answers · 10 models
expertinsights.com/application-security/the-top-cloud-native-application-pr…
33 answers · 10 models
gbhackers.com/best-cnapp-compared
32 answers · 9 models
aikido.dev/blog/top-cloud-native-application-protection-platforms-cnapp
30 answers · 10 models
sourceforge.net/software/cloud-native-application-protection-platforms-cnap…
28 answers · 10 models
cybersecuritynews.com/best-cnapp-platforms
27 answers · 8 models
cyberpress.org/cnapp-platforms-by-business-size-2?amp=1
24 answers · 8 models
startupstash.com/top-cloud-native-application-protection-platforms
21 answers · 9 models
pt.aikido.dev/blog/top-cloud-native-application-protection-platforms-cnapp
18 answers · 6 models
cipherssecurity.com/cnapp-buyers-guide-2026
13 answers · 7 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best CNAPP for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which cloud-native application protection platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top CNAPPs for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best CNAPP for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a CNAPP. What should we look at?”Negative“Which CNAPPs should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5CloudMatos, Lightspin
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Zscaler Posture Control
Aqua Security, SnykChangedagainst: Prisma CloudWiz
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Sysdig, Tenable Cloud Security
Falco, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
Five alternativesOrca, Rapid7 InsightCloudSec, Sweet Security, Sysdig, Wiz
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniOrca Security, Wiz
One alternativeCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Microsoft Defender for CloudChanged
Two alternativesOrca Security, Uptycs
Wiz
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud
Tenable One Cloud Exposure / CNAPP
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Wiz
no first choiceagainst: Aqua Security
Gemini 3.5 FlashAikido Security
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Wiz
Aikido SecurityHeld
Two alternativesOrca Security, Wiz
Aikido Security
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prowler
against: WizAikido Security
Six alternativesCyscale, Deepfence ThreatMapper, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler, Trivy, vul.ninja
against: Orca, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, WizAikido Security, Snyk
Two alternativesAWS Security Hub, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
against: Orca, Prisma Cloud, Wizagainst: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
Perplexity SonarAikido Security
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: WizAikido SecurityHeld
One alternativeOrca Security
against: Microsoft Defender for CloudWiz
Five alternativesAikido Security, Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Sysdig
Aikido Security
Four alternativesAWS GuardDuty/Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Wizno first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAikido Security, Falco, Trivy
against: Orca Security, Sweet SecurityMicrosoft Defender for CloudHeld
One alternativeAikido Security
against: Aqua Security, Orca Security, Sysdig Secure, WizAikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesOrca Security, Sysdig, Wiz
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Prisma CloudMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Six alternativesAikido Security, Cloudanix, Falco, Fidelis Halo Cloud Secure, Prowler, Trivy
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, WizWiz
Four alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, SentinelOne Singularity
against: Aqua Security, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig, Wiz
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesAikido Security, Runecast
no first choiceChangedAikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesOrca Security, Sweet Security, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFalco, Orca, Prowler, Sweet Security
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub + GuardDuty, Falco, Prowler, Sysdig
against: Orca, Prisma Cloud, WizAikido SecurityChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
against: Orca Security, WizAikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesSweet Security, Upwind
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, WizAikido Security
Two alternativesCloudaware, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
against: Orca, Prisma Cloud, WizMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Sweet Security
Two alternativesOrca, Wiz
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Rapid7 InsightCloudSec, Tenable Cloud Security, Wiz, Zscaler
Llama 4 MaverickMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesFalco, Prowler, Runecast
Microsoft Defender for CloudHeld
One alternativeSysdig
no first choiceMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Six alternativesAmazon GuardDuty, Falco, Google Security Command Center, Orca, Prowler, Sweet Security
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashAikido Security
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Wiz
against: Prisma CloudWizChanged
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Snyk
Wiz
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Snyk
against: Palo Alto NetworksMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Five alternativesAWS Security Hub, Falco, Qualys, Snyk, Wiz
against: Datadog, Prisma Cloudno first choiceagainst: Check Point CloudGuard, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks
Kimi K2Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesAikido Security, Orca Security
Aikido SecurityChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, WizAikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFalco, Sweet Security, Trivy, Upwind
against: Aqua Security, Orca Security, Sysdig, WizMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesFalco, Prowler, Trivy
against: FortiCNAPP, Orca, Prisma Cloud, WizMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesOrca, Wiz
against: Prisma Cloudagainst: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
GLM 4.7 FlashXMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAikido Security, Orca Security, Sweet Security
against: Prisma Cloud, WizMicrosoft Defender for CloudHeld
One alternativeOrca Security
against: Prisma Cloud, WizAikido Security
Five alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Sysdig, Uptycs, Wiz
Aikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ten alternativesCheckov, Cloudanix, DefectDojo, Falco, Fidelis Halo Cloud Secure, KICS, Open Policy Agent, Tetragon, TigerGate, Trivy
no first choiceagainst: Prisma Cloudagainst: Cloudflare, FortiCNAPP, Prisma Cloud, Skyhigh Security, Wiz
MiniMax M2.5Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFortiCNAPP, Prisma Cloud, Runecast, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for CloudHeld
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, FortiCNAPP, Orca Security
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAikido Security, Orca Security, Sweet Security
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFalco, Orca Security, Prowler, Sweet Security
Wiz
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca, Prisma Cloud
against: Check Point CloudGuard, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:41yes179 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:11yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:51yes1827 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:44yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:50yes3117 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:51yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:49yes1318 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:45yes55 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:45yes1332 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:45yes827 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:00yes23180 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:55yes1018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:41no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:55yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:30yes1125 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:56yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:07yes3517 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:18no02 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:40yes1318 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:51yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:09no037 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:51yes2234 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:37yes24142 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:28yes1329 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:37yes911 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:49yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:29yes1832 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:26yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:53yes1714 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:10yes910 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:27yes2629 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:35yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:26no043 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:47yes1247 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:42yes15132 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:54yes1043 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:28yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:52yes37 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:37yes2125 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:53yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:45yes2816 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:53yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:06yes1617 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:54yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:27no048 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:37yes2444 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:26yes1882 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:34yes531 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:58yes99 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:46no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:12yes827 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:54yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:35yes1811 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:30no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:36yes819 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:38yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:03no040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:52yes1441 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:35yes1453 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:11yes527 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:09yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:49yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:05yes1423 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:23yes2020 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:20yes2215 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:55yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:02yes2728 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:05yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:13yes1075 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:01yes2768 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:36yes33108 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:10yes1433 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Aikido read as Aikido Security
Aqua read as Aqua Security
Check Point (CloudGuard) read as Check Point CloudGuard
CrowdStrike Falcon read as CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud read as CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Lacework read as FortiCNAPP
Lacework / FortiCNAPP read as FortiCNAPP
Rapid7 read as Rapid7 InsightCloudSec
Rapid7 (InsightCloudSec) read as Rapid7 InsightCloudSec
Tenable read as Tenable Cloud Security
Unresolved, counted raw
CloudMatos
Lightspin
PureSecurity
StackHawk
Sweet
Tenable One Cloud Exposure / CNAPP
vul.ninja
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in cloud and infrastructure

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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