Index › Network and edge › September 2026 Edition

DDoS protection

Asked as “DDoS protection service”, and as “DDoS mitigation provider”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Cloudflare

Clear leader

93% of first choices, clear leader.

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 business

Cloudflare89%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-market

Cloudflare93%Clear leaderThis page Enterprise

Cloudflare80%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 mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Cloudflare2%66endorsed leader

Show the nine products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Akamai Prolexic18%50accepted challenger

Azure DDoS Protection14%35accepted challenger

AWS Shield12%59accepted challenger

Google Cloud Armor7%15accepted challenger

Imperva6%36accepted challenger

Radware5%22accepted challenger

Fastly0%14accepted challenger

Sucuri0%13accepted challenger

Flowtriq0%10accepted 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.

One product takes 93% of first choices here, so the chart would put nine markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Zero products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Ten of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Mistral Small and Llama 4 Maverick 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.

DDoS-Guard

100%

7 of 7 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 6 hard negative

“Why to avoid: If you host your legitimate business behind DDoS-Guard, your traffic may be routed through IP addresses that are pre-blocked or blacklisted” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

Akamai Prolexic

18%

9 of 50 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“What to Avoid on a Limited Budget- **Akamai Prolexic:** Starts around **$5,000–$10,000+/month**” Kimi K2, budget prompt

AWS Shield

12%

7 of 59 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“What to Avoid on a Limited Budget ... **AWS Shield Advanced:** ~**$3,000/month**” Kimi K2, budget prompt

Azure DDoS Protection

14%

5 of 35 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“What to Avoid on a Limited Budget ... **Azure DDoS Network Protection:** ~**$2,944/month**” Kimi K2, budget 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

66 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. 725 links across 139 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

flowtriq.com

vendor site · Flowtriq40 answers · 84 citations · 10 models

cybersecuritynews.com

38 answers · 40 citations · 10 models

cyberpress.org

32 answers · 36 citations · 9 models

gartner.com

28 answers · 33 citations · 10 models

esecurityplanet.com

27 answers · 30 citations · 10 models

cloudminister.com

23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models

geekflare.com

21 answers · 21 citations · 8 models

myrasecurity.com

20 answers · 20 citations · 8 models

indusface.com

vendor site · Indusface16 answers · 18 citations · 8 models

radware.com

vendor site · Radware14 answers · 21 citations · 9 models

comparitech.com

13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models

expertinsights.com

vendor site · Expert Insights12 answers · 12 citations · 6 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.

cybersecuritynews.com/ddos-protection-tools

38 answers · 10 models

cyberpress.org/ddos-protection-services-to-consider

31 answers · 9 models

gartner.com/reviews/market/ddos-mitigation-solutions

28 answers · 10 models

esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-…

26 answers · 10 models

cloudminister.com/blog/a-technical-comparison-of-ddos-protection-services-c…

23 answers · 9 models

geekflare.com/cybersecurity/ddos-protection-service

21 answers · 8 models

myrasecurity.com/en/the-10-best-ddos-protection-services

20 answers · 8 models

flowtriq.com/blog/best-cloud-ddos-protection

17 answers · 9 models

flowtriq.com/ddos-protection-facts

17 answers · 9 models

comparitech.com/net-admin/best-ddos-protection-service

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 DDoS protection service for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which DDoS mitigation provider would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top DDoS protection services and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best DDoS protection service for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a DDoS protection service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which DDoS protection services should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Cloudflare

Two alternatives

Flowtriq, Indusface AppTrana

CloudflareHeld

Two alternatives

AWS Shield, Indusface AppTrana

against: Akamai ProlexicCloudflare

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Google Cloud Armor, Radware

Cloudflare

Two alternatives

Indusface AppTrana, Sucuri

no first choiceagainst: Akamai Prolexic, DDoS-Guard, Imperva, Lumen

GPT-5.4 miniCloudflare

Two alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Fastly

CloudflareHeld

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Fastly, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva

Cloudflare

Two alternatives

AWS Shield, Google Cloud Armor

no first choiceagainst: Cloudflare

Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Fastly, Imperva

CloudflareHeld

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Fastly

Cloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Fastly, Google Cloud Armor, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection

Cloudflare

Six alternatives

AWS Shield, AWS WAF, Azure DDoS Protection, Hetzner, OVHcloud, Sucuri

against: AWS Shield, CrowdSec, Fail2banCloudflare

Four alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Fastly, Imperva, Radware

against: DDoS-Guard

Perplexity SonarCloudflare

Four alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Azure/AWS-based protection, Fastly, LevelBlue

CloudflareHeld

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Fastly, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Flowtriq, Sucuri

against: Azure DDoS Protectionno first choiceagainst: AWS, Azure DDoS Protection, Google Cloud Armor, Oracle

Grok 4.1 FastCloudflare

Two alternatives

AWS Shield, Radware Cloud DDoS

against: Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, ImpervaCloudflareHeld

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Gcore, Imperva, Sucuri

against: Akamai ProlexicCloudflare

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Imperva, Radware

against: Akamai ProlexicCloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Gcore, Google Cloud Armor, Sucuri

Cloudflare

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Imperva, Radware

against: Cosmic Guard, DDoS-Guard, Path.net

Mistral SmallLevelBlue

Two alternatives

AWS Shield, Radware Cloud DDoS Protection

CloudflareChanged

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection

Cloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

One alternative

Flowtriq

no first choiceagainst: Project Shield

DeepSeek V4 FlashCloudflare

Five alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, Radware, Sucuri

against: AWS ShieldCloudflareHeld

One alternative

AWS Shield

against: Akamai ProlexicCloudflare

Six alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

Two alternatives

AWS Shield, Google Cloud Armor

against: AWS ShieldCloudflare

Two alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Imperva

against: Cyro Host, DDoS-Guard, Hyperfilter, OVH, Voxility

Llama 4 MaverickLevelBlueCloudflareChanged

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Radware

no first choiceCloudflare

One alternative

Sucuri

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashCloudflare

Three alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Fastly, Imperva

against: AWS Shield, Azure DDoS ProtectionCloudflareHeld

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, F5, Imperva, Palo Alto Networks

Cloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, AWS WAF, Akamai Prolexic, F5 NGINX, Imperva

Cloudflare

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Sucuri

against: AWS Shieldno first choiceagainst: Cosmic Guard, DDoS-Guard, Path.net

Kimi K2Cloudflare

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, Radware

against: Akamai ProlexicCloudflareHeld

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Fastly, Imperva

Cloudflare

Five alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

Two alternatives

AWS Shield, Flowtriq

against: AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, NETSCOUT Arbor, RadwareCloudflare

Four alternatives

Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, Radware

against: AWS Shieldagainst: DDoS-Guard

GLM 4.7 FlashXCloudflare

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection

CloudflareHeld

Seven alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, NETSCOUT Arbor, Radware, Vercara

Cloudflare

Six alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva, Radware, Sucuri

Cloudflare

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Flowtriq

Cloudflare, EdgeOne

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Imperva

against: BackConnect, Cosmic Guard, DDoS-Guard

MiniMax M2.5Cloudflare

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Imperva, Radware

CloudflareHeld

Three alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Flowtriq

Cloudflare

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Imperva, Radware

Cloudflare

Six alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Flowtriq, Google Cloud Armor, Project Shield, Sucuri

Cloudflare

Four alternatives

AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Link11, Radware

against: Akamai Prolexicnothing named

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.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 10:15	yes	9	8 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 13:45	yes	4	8 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 09:23	yes	16	24 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 12:56	yes	19	7 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 12:37	yes	31	18 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:37	yes	13	9 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 13:05	yes	16	17 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 12:52	yes	7	3 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 11:42	yes	7	38 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:56	yes	13	38 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 12:03	yes	9	90 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 13:53	yes	9	32 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 11:50	yes	17	10 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 11:08	yes	3	5 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 11:58	yes	11	21 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 13:39	yes	20	5 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 10:30	yes	14	10 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 09:56	yes	5	5 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 10:46	yes	9	12 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 13:15	yes	5	3 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:15	no	0	45 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 14:02	yes	11	20 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 12:23	yes	9	21 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 10:23	yes	9	39 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 11:15	yes	9	9 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 12:46	yes	6	8 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 10:17	yes	14	19 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 12:18	yes	20	8 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 10:08	yes	16	14 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 09:28	yes	5	8 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 11:29	yes	14	27 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 12:51	yes	5	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 14:01	no	0	20 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:33	yes	8	26 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 13:48	yes	15	65 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 09:37	yes	5	18 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 10:43	yes	9	9 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 13:23	yes	3	5 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 12:11	yes	19	23 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 10:00	yes	20	6 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 14:08	yes	13	9 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:53	yes	5	4 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 14:09	yes	9	24 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 13:42	yes	5	3 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 13:28	yes	5	20 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:34	yes	11	48 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 13:45	yes	12	58 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 11:56	yes	5	19 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 13:11	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 10:07	no	0	9 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 11:02	yes	8	27 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 10:25	yes	20	8 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 10:41	yes	12	12 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:03	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 12:12	yes	17	28 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 09:54	yes	5	5 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 14:02	yes	5	35 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 11:00	yes	9	55 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 13:42	yes	9	158 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 13:35	yes	5	28 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 14:10	yes	30	11 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 10:38	yes	4	6 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 11:16	yes	20	25 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 13:19	yes	20	7 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 11:02	yes	34	18 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:09	yes	5	6 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 11:40	yes	18	17 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 13:24	yes	5	3 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:54	yes	30	84 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 10:52	yes	25	52 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 10:48	yes	33	56 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 13:50	no	0	7 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

Akamai read as Akamai Prolexic

Akamai (Prolexic) read as Akamai Prolexic

Azure read as Azure DDoS Protection

Azure DDoS read as Azure DDoS Protection

Azure DDoS (Basic) read as Azure DDoS Protection

GCP read as Google Cloud Armor

Unresolved, counted raw

Azure/AWS-based protection

BackConnect (BackConnect Security, Inc.)

Cyro Host

LiquidWeb

Myra Security

StormWall

Voxility

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

DDoS protection

By buyer segment

01The standing

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in network and edge