AI Indexes
IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Developer platform › September 2026 Edition

Application shielding

Asked as “app shielding tool”, and as “runtime application self-protection for mobile apps”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each. Added to the September 2026 Edition; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
33%
Contested · Approov 8%
33Appdome08Approov06Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard53others

33% of first choices, contested.

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.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Appdome33%8%48endorsed leader
02Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard6%14%36accepted challenger
03LIAPP6%0%10accepted challenger
04AppSealing4%10%10accepted challenger
05DoveRunner AppSealing4%10%10accepted challenger
06Promon SHIELD2%13%31accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07Verimatrix Application Shielding0%25%12criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

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
L03
04
05
06
07
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Appdome33%
02Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard6%
03LIAPP6%
04AppSealing4%
05DoveRunner AppSealing4%
06Promon SHIELD2%
07Verimatrix Application Shielding0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
14%
5 of 36 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget - **Guardsquare DexGuard/iXGuard** ... typically very expensive” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Appdome
8%
4 of 48 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“its build limit model can become restrictive in high-frequency CI/CD environments... may not align well with all development workflows and can become costly” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Promon SHIELD
13%
4 of 31 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget - ... **Promon SHIELD**: Enterprise-grade but require "contact for pricing"” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Verimatrix Application Shielding
25%
3 of 12 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid overkill like Verimatrix (binary-heavy enterprise)” Grok 4.1 Fast, direct prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1099 links across 203 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · G257 answers · 135 citations · 12 models
vendor site · SourceForge34 answers · 63 citations · 10 models
31 answers · 36 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Luciq31 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
28 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Promon26 answers · 36 citations · 11 models
vendor site · ZipDo.co25 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
24 answers · 28 citations · 11 models
vendor site · PreEmptive24 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
vendor site · FitGap23 answers · 30 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Softwaresuggest22 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Guardsquare21 answers · 33 citations · 11 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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “app shielding tool”, “app shielding tools”, “best app shielding tool”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Appdome appdome.com33%148590117,127$4432
Approov approov.io8%3114001,7458
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard guardsquare.com6%10305,88145
LIAPP6%402
Talsec talsec.app
Talsec freeRASP 4%, Talsec 2%
6%9
AppSealing appsealing.com4%2730210
AppTego apptego.com4%3200
DoveRunner AppSealing doverunner.com4%46059,0440
Zimperium zimperium.com
Zimperium 2%, Zimperium MAPS 2%
4%231,3004914,6562
Promon SHIELD promon.io2%847012,40314

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 16 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (g2.com, gartner.com, preemptive.com, sourceforge.net). The first result for “app shielding tool” is g2.com.

How 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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best app shielding tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which runtime application self-protection for mobile apps would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top app shielding tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best app shielding tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an app shielding tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which app shielding tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5DoveRunner Mobile App Shielding
Three alternativesAppSealing, Appdome, Zimperium MAPS
AppdomeChanged
Three alternativesDoveRunner AppSealing, Promon SHIELD, Zimperium Mobile Application Protection Suite
no first choiceLIAPP
Four alternativesApp Protector by ASEE, JSDefender, XopProtector, Zimperium MAPS
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniAppdome
Three alternativesApproov, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Zimperium MAPS
Approov, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuardChanged
One alternativeiXGuard
against: Android, Apple
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Two alternativesAppdome, Verimatrix Code Shield / XTD
Appdomeagainst: Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuardno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashApproov
Three alternativesAppdome, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Talsec
AppdomeChanged
Three alternativesApproov, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Pradeo
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Five alternativesAppdome, Approov, Jscrambler, Promon SHIELD, Zimperium
AppSealing, ProGuard/R8
Three alternativesLIAPP, Obfuscator.io, Talsec freeRASP
against: Arxan, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD
no first choicenothing named
Perplexity SonarZimperium MAPS
Four alternativesAppdome, ByteHide Shield, DexGuard, LIAPP
Approov, OneSpanChanged
Two alternativesAppdome, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
no first choiceAppTego
One alternativeAppSealing
against: Appdome, DexGuard
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastAppdome
Two alternativesDexGuard, Zimperium zShield / MAPS
against: Digital.ai Application Protection, Verimatrix Application Shielding
AppdomeHeld
Two alternativesGuardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Zimperium MAPS
Appdome
Five alternativesAppSealing, Digital.ai Application Protection, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD, Verimatrix Application Shielding
DoveRunner AppSealing
One alternativeProGuard/R8
against: DexGuard, SHIELD, iXGuard
no first choiceagainst: Appdome, Cloudflare Application Security, OneSpan
Mistral SmallDigital.ai Application Protection, DoveRunner AppSealing
Two alternativesSeclron Mobile Security Suite, Skyhigh Security Service Edge
Appdome, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuardChanged
One alternativeContrast Security
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Two alternativesDigital.ai Application Protection, Promon App Shield
Quixxi SHIELD
One alternativeDoveRunner AppSealing
no first choiceagainst: Appdome, OneSpan, Zimperium Mobile Application Protection Suite
DeepSeek V4 FlashAppdome
Two alternativesAppTego, LIAPP
against: Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD
AppdomeHeld
Three alternativesDoveRunner AppSealing, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Five alternativesAppdome, Jscrambler, PreEmptive Dotfuscator, Promon SHIELD, Zimperium
AppSealing, LIAPPagainst: Jscrambler, ProGuard/R8, iOS native obfuscationno first choice
Six alternativesAppdome, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Jscrambler, Promon SHIELD, Verimatrix Application Shielding, Zimperium
against: APP SHIELDING, Appdome, Bangcle, DexProtector
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceDoveRunner Mobile App SecurityChangedno first choiceFreedom
Two alternativesNowSecure, Quokka
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashAppknox
Two alternativesAppdome, Jscrambler
AppdomeChanged
Two alternativesGuardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD
Appdome
Two alternativesFyde, Protego
against: IronSource, MobSF
Google Play App Signing, R8 Code Shrinking and Obfuscation
Four alternativesHackshield, Mobile Security Framework, Obfuscapk, Protego
against: Verimatrix Application Shielding
no first choiceagainst: Android APK Protector, Code Shield
Kimi K2Appdome
Three alternativesDoveRunner Mobile App Shielding, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD
Approov, TalsecChanged
Two alternativesAppdome, OneSpan
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Six alternativesAppdome, Digital.ai Application Protection, PreEmptive Dotfuscator, Promon SHIELD, Verimatrix Application Shielding, Zimperium Mobile Application Protection Suite
freeRASP
Two alternativesLIAPP, MobSF
against: Guardsquare AppSweep, Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD
Appdome, Zimperium
Two alternativesPromon SHIELD, Verimatrix Application Shielding
against: AppSealing, Cloudflare's free tier WAF, Promon SHIELD
GLM 4.7 FlashXGuardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Two alternativesAppdome, Jscrambler
against: Zimperium MAPS
AppdomeChanged
Three alternativesGuardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, MASTG Android RASP, Promon SHIELD
DexGuard
Four alternativesAppdome, PreEmptive Dotfuscator, Promon SHIELD, Zimperium Mobile Application Protection Suite
AppTego
Three alternativesObfuscapk, ProGuard, R8
against: DashO, DoveRunner AppSealing
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Appdome
Three alternativesGuardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard, Promon SHIELD, Zimperium
AppdomeHeld
Two alternativesDelledox RASP SDK, Talsec
Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Four alternativesAppdome, Digital.ai Application Protection, Promon SHIELD, Zimperium Mobile Application Protection Suite
LIAPP
Three alternativesAppSealing, Cloudflare Application Security, PreEmptive Protection Dotfuscator
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The 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-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:08yes169 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:38yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:36yes1736 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:19yes163 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:35yes2110 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:30yes126 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:06yes1927 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:52yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:10yes2077 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:41yes1622 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:58yes2540 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:55yes1877 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:54yes1810 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:28yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:12yes823 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:07yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:31yes2110 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:40yes2411 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:20yes2444 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:54yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:29yes1025 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:03yes2427 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:41yes1923 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:47yes520 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:54yes1710 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:42yes59 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:36yes2133 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:41yes154 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:54yes1510 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:55yes1010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:11yes2144 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:12yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:24no031 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:44yes1633 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:42yes1873 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:07yes1334 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:37yes179 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:41yes76 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:57yes1222 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:24yes142 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:33yes229 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:54yes156 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:24yes2439 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:26yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:44no037 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:35yes2031 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:05yes2280 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:08yes2144 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:58no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:59no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:48yes826 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:24yes164 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:58yes1810 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:16no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:04yes2348 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:08yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:15no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:42yes2434 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:16yes1048 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:54yes1019 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:38yes99 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:12yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:18yes1530 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:40yes143 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:17yes197 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:34yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:40yes2430 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:04yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:31no031 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:19yes2531 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:51yes2421 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:12yes1823 s

Normalization in this category

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

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Cloudflare read as Cloudflare Application Security
Digital.ai (ex-Arxan) read as Digital.ai Application Protection
Digital.ai (formerly Arxan) read as Digital.ai Application Protection
DoveRunner read as DoveRunner AppSealing
DoveRunner (Mobile App Shielding) read as DoveRunner AppSealing
DoveRunner (formerly AppSealing) read as DoveRunner AppSealing
Doverunner read as DoveRunner AppSealing
GuardSquare DexGuard read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare (DexGuard & iXGuard) read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare (DexGuard + iXGuard + ThreatCast) read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare (DexGuard + iXGuard) read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare (DexGuard for Android, iXGuard for iOS) read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare (DexGuard/iXGuard) read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare AppShielding / DexGuard / iXGuard read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
Guardsquare/DexGuard read as Guardsquare DexGuard / iXGuard
PreEmptive read as PreEmptive Dotfuscator
PreEmptive (Dotfuscator, DashO, JSDefender) read as PreEmptive Dotfuscator
PreEmptive (Dotfuscator/Protection for .NET & Java) read as PreEmptive Dotfuscator
Promon read as Promon SHIELD
Promon Shield for Mobile read as Promon SHIELD
Verimatrix read as Verimatrix Application Shielding
Unresolved, counted raw
APP SHIELDING
Android
Android APK Protector
App Protector by ASEE
Apple
Bangcle
Cloudflare's free tier WAF
Code Shield
Digital.ai App Protection
DoveRunner Mobile App Security
DoveRunner Mobile App Shielding, formerly AppSealing
Freedom
Frida
Fyde
Google Play App Signing
GuardSquare's DexGuard/iXGuard
Guardsquare AppSweep
Guardsquare’s DexGuard and iXGuard
Hackshield
IronSource (by Check Point)
JSDefender
JailMonkey
MASTG Android RASP
Mobile Security Framework (MobSF)
PreEmptive Protection Dotfuscator
R8 Code Shrinking and Obfuscation (Android)
SHIELD
Security Master
Skyhigh Security Service Edge
Swift Strip (iOS)
Vault - Hide Pics & Videos, App Lock, Free Backup
Verimatrix Code Shield / XTD
iOS native obfuscation
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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