IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Cloud and infrastructure › Container security › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Container and Kubernetes security for small business buyers

Asked as “container security platform”, and as “Kubernetes security tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 64 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Trivy
Contested
28% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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 businessTrivy28%ContestedThis pageMid-marketAqua Security18%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseAqua Security29%ContestedStanding →

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
01Trivy28%4%55accepted challenger
02Kubescape23%0%43accepted challenger
03Falco22%7%54accepted challenger
04Snyk9%3%35accepted challenger
05Snyk Container5%0%12accepted challenger
06SUSE NeuVector3%16%19accepted challenger
07Microsoft Defender for Cloud3%55%11criticized challenger
08Calico2%0%23accepted challenger
09Sysdig Secure2%44%16criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
14Prisma Cloud0%72%32criticized challenger
13Aqua Security0%52%46criticized challenger
12Sysdig0%39%33criticized challenger
10Wiz0%31%26criticized challenger
11Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes0%27%11criticized 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
Aqua Security vs TrivyAqua Security vs Sysdig SecureTrivy vs Sysdig Secure

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
11
12
13
14
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Trivy28%
02Kubescape23%
03Falco22%
04Snyk9%
05Snyk Container5%
06SUSE NeuVector3%
07Microsoft Defender for Cloud3%
08Calico2%
09Sysdig Secure2%
10Wiz0%
11Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes0%
12Sysdig0%
13Aqua Security0%
14Prisma Cloud0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 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.
Aqua Security
52%
24 of 46 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Premium pricing that can feel "heavyweight"... likely unnecessary—and potentially a wasteful investment” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Prisma Cloud
72%
23 of 32 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“While powerful, it is notoriously complex and expensive... for a small business, the sheer volume of alerts and console navigation can overwhelm a lean team.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Sysdig Secure
44%
7 of 16 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Bills per workload/node (can get expensive as you scale)... More suited for organizations with dedicated security staff” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
55%
6 of 11 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“platforms that small businesses should be cautious about or avoid include: 1. Microsoft Defender for Cloud - can be expensive for small to medium businesses.” Llama 4 Maverick, 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

63 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. 693 links across 133 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

cyberpress.org
49 answers · 69 citations · 10 models
gbhackers.com
44 answers · 49 citations · 10 models
cybersecuritynews.com
38 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights23 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
softwareadvice.com
20 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
ox.security
18 answers · 28 citations · 8 models
g2.com
18 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
portainer.io
vendor site · Portainer17 answers · 17 citations · 7 models
sentinelone.com
vendor site · SentinelOne16 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
checkmarx.com
vendor site · Checkmarx15 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
decryptiondigest.com
14 answers · 14 citations · 9 models
getapp.com
13 answers · 15 citations · 7 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/container-security-by-business-size-2
42 answers · 10 models
gbhackers.com/best-container-security-compared
35 answers · 10 models
cybersecuritynews.com/best-container-security-tools
25 answers · 10 models
expertinsights.com/application-security/the-top-container-security-tools
21 answers · 9 models
softwareadvice.com/container-security
20 answers · 8 models
g2.com/categories/container-security-tools/small-business
16 answers · 10 models
ox.security/blog/container-security-tools-2026
16 answers · 8 models
cyberpress.org/cwpp-solutions-by-business-size-2
14 answers · 9 models
cybersecuritynews.com/best-container-security-tools/amp
14 answers · 6 models
decryptiondigest.com/blog/guide-finding-best-container-security-tools
14 answers · 9 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 container security platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which Kubernetes security tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top container security platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best container security platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a container security platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which container security platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Snyk
Six alternativesAqua Security, Calico, Falco, Kubescape, Portainer, Trivy
Falco, KubescapeChanged
One alternativeTrivy
Falco, Trivy
Three alternativesAqua Security, Snyk, Sysdig
SUSE NeuVector
One alternativeTrivy
no first choiceagainst: Anchore, Aqua Security, Falco, Trivy
GPT-5.4 miniSysdig Secure
Two alternativesAmazon ECR scanning, Anchore
against: Aqua SecurityTrivyChanged
Two alternativesKube-bench, Kyverno
Sysdig Secure
Three alternativesAqua Security, Falco, Lacework
against: Prisma CloudSnyk
Two alternativesSysdig, Wiz
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSnyk Container
Five alternativesAqua Security, Datadog Cloud Security Management, Orca Security, Trivy, Wiz
KubescapeChanged
Two alternativesDatadog Cloud Security Management, Trivy
against: Cilium/Tetragon, Falco, SysdigTrivy
Four alternativesAikido Security, Docker Scout, Falco, Snyk Container
against: Prisma Cloud, Sysdig, WizFalco, Trivy
Four alternativesGrype, Kubescape, SUSE NeuVector, Snyk Container
against: CrowdStrike, Prisma Cloud, WizAikido Security, Snyk
Five alternativesDocker Scout, Falco, Kubescape, Sysdig, Trivy
against: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Wizagainst: Aqua Security, Check Point CloudGuard, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Falco, Open Policy Agent, Prisma Cloud, Qualys, SUSE NeuVector, Sysdig Secure, Tenable, Wiz
Perplexity SonarMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Snyk Container
Three alternativesAqua Security, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
KubescapeChanged
Two alternativesFalco, Sysdig
Trivy
Four alternativesOrca, Snyk, Sysdig, Wiz
against: Aqua SecurityTrivy
Four alternativesFalco, Kubescape, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Snyk
against: SUSE NeuVector, Sysdigno first choiceagainst: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
Grok 4.1 FastTrivy
Six alternativesCalico, Falco, Kubescape, SUSE NeuVector, Snyk, Sysdig Secure
against: Aqua Security, Prisma CloudKubescapeChanged
Two alternativesFalco, Trivy
against: Prisma Cloud, SysdigFalco, Kubescape, Trivy
One alternativeSnyk
against: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig SecureTrivy
Two alternativesFalco, Kubescape
against: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Snyk Free Tier, Sysdigno first choice
Three alternativesAqua Security, Snyk, Sysdig
against: Prisma Cloudagainst: Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, Sysdig
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Five alternativesCalico, Falco, Kubescape, SUSE NeuVector, Trivy
Kube-bench, TrivyChanged
Two alternativesFalco, Starboard
Trivy
Six alternativesAikido Security, Falco, Kubescape, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, Snyk Container, Sysdig Secure
against: Aqua Security, Prisma CloudFalco, Trivy
Three alternativesKubescape, Microsoft Defender for Containers, Snyk
no first choiceagainst: Falco, SUSE NeuVector, Trivy
DeepSeek V4 FlashTrivy
Five alternativesFalco, Harbor, Kubescape, Snyk, TigerGate
against: Aqua Security, Sysdig, WizFalco, KubescapeChanged
Four alternativesAqua Security, Fairwinds, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, Sysdig
Trivy
Three alternativesFalco, Kubescape, Snyk
against: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig, WizSUSE NeuVector, Trivy
Four alternativesCalico, Falco, Kubescape, Snyk
against: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, SysdigFalco, Kubescape, Trivy
Five alternativesAqua Security, Harbor, Kyverno, Snyk, Sysdig
against: Wizagainst: Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Snyk, Sysdig Secure
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceFalco, KubescapeChanged
One alternativeAikido Security
no first choiceTrivy
Three alternativesCalico, Falco, Kubescape
no first choiceagainst: Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Qwen 3.7 FlashSnyk
Five alternativesAWS Security Hub / Amazon ECR Scan, Google Securing Assets, Kubescape, Microsoft Defender for Containers, Trivy
against: Aqua Security, SysdigKubescapeChanged
Three alternativesFalco, Snyk, Wiz
Snyk
Two alternativesTrivy, Wiz
against: SysdigSnyk
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, SUSE NeuVector
against: Aqua Security, Prisma CloudSnyk
One alternativeTrivy
against: Sysdigagainst: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Qualys, Sysdig, Tenable
Kimi K2Snyk Container, Trivy
Six alternativesAqua Security, Calico, Falco, Kubescape, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, Sysdig
KubescapeChanged
Three alternativesARMO Platform, Falco, Trivy
Snyk Container
Six alternativesAikido Security, Aqua Security, Docker Scout, Falco, Sysdig, Trivy
Falco, Kubescape, Trivy
Five alternativesCalico, Cilium, Harbor, SUSE NeuVector, Snyk Container
Falco, Trivy
Four alternativesAikido Security, Calico, Kubescape, Snyk
against: Aqua Securityagainst: Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, Sysdig Secure
GLM 4.7 FlashXCalico, Falco, Kubescape, Trivy
Three alternativesAqua Security, Snyk Container, Sysdig Secure
against: Prisma CloudFalco, KubescapeChanged
Four alternativesAqua Security, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig, Trivy
Falco, Trivy
Six alternativesCalico, Cloudanix, Kubescape, OX Security, SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, Snyk
against: Aqua Security, Sysdig SecureFalco, Kubescape, Trivy
Three alternativesCalico, Snyk, Syft/Grype
against: Aqua Security, Prisma Cloudno first choiceagainst: Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable
MiniMax M2.5Falco, Kubescape, Trivy
Five alternativesAqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Containers, SUSE NeuVector, Snyk, Sysdig
Falco, KubescapeChangedTrivy
Four alternativesFalco, Kubescape, Snyk Container, Wiz
Falco, Trivy
Two alternativesSUSE NeuVector, Snyk
no first choiceagainst: Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig Secure
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 13:17yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:49yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:31yes823 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:05yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:29yes3415 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:22yes109 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:48yes1717 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:55yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:23no039 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:50yes822 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:06yes1151 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:10yes642 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:09yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:41no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:49yes722 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:12yes196 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:28yes1814 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:17no04 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:00yes817 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:05yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:14yes557 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:32yes1328 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:28yes12208 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:04yes558 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:49yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:48yes410 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:10yes1926 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:45yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:36yes3321 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:23yes711 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:29yes1518 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:44yes54 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:20no044 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:01yes861 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:20yes1349 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:02yes1234 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:27yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:11yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:03yes823 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:43yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:03yes2315 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:50yes77 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:33yes1317 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:00yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:53yes533 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:09yes727 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:23yes1182 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:29yes1340 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:46no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:17no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:32yes625 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:56yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:47yes1814 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:16no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:21yes1419 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:08yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:05no042 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:01yes1734 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:01yes1384 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:54yes515 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:05yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:48no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:38yes2323 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:43yes1912 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:58yes2315 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:25yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:40yes2531 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:46yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:16yes547 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:47yes1228 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:55yes1791 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:57yes1254 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
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Cloud) read as Prisma Cloud
Rapid7 read as Rapid7 InsightVM
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security (ACS) read as Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes
SentinelOne read as SentinelOne Singularity
Unresolved, counted raw
AWS Security Hub / Amazon ECR Scan
Amazon ECR scanning
Checoscan
Docker Hub
Google Securing Assets (GCP)
Starboard (by Aqua Security)
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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