DDoS protection for enterprise buyers
Asked as “DDoS protection service”, and as “DDoS mitigation provider”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 45 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
CloudflareBy 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.
01The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
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 80% of first choices here, so the chart would put eight 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
Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
AWS Shield10%
5 of 49 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“"Only works with AWS" (e.g., AWS Shield) ... If you rely solely on a single cloud's DDoS service, a cloud-region problem can knock out both your application and its protection” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Nexusguard50%
3 of 6 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Ranked lower in capacity, speed, and cost clarity, making it less suitable for large-scale enterprise needs” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Akamai Prolexic5%
3 of 57 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“Has experienced significant incidents, including a Prolexic Routed 3.0 routing table failure (2021) and Bot Manager false positives” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Azure DDoS Protection9%
3 of 32 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“Native Cloud DDoS Tools Without Advanced Add-Ons (e.g., AWS Shield Standard, Azure DDoS Basic)” Grok 4.1 Fast, 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 806 links across 168 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.
49 answers · 55 citations · 10 models
44 answers · 44 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Flowtriq36 answers · 66 citations · 10 models
25 answers · 34 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
20 answers · 21 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Cloudflare19 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Radware17 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Expert Insights17 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
vendor site · EdgeOne17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 15 citations · 5 models
vendor site · Imperva14 answers · 25 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.
45 answers · 10 models
44 answers · 10 models
25 answers · 8 models
21 answers · 8 models
20 answers · 7 models
17 answers · 8 models
15 answers · 5 models
14 answers · 6 models
14 answers · 8 models
14 answers · 8 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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which DDoS mitigation provider would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade DDoS protection services and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best DDoS protection service for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a DDoS protection service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which DDoS protection services should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5CloudflareCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflareno first choicenothing named
Three alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS ProtectionThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaFour alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Google Cloud Armor, NETSCOUT ArborTwo alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS ProtectionGPT-5.4 miniCloudflareCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflareagainst: AWS Shieldno first choicenothing named
Three alternatives
AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Cloudflare Magic TransitTwo alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, RadwareTwo alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai ProlexicOne alternative
Akamai ProlexicGemini 3.5 FlashCloudflareCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflare, Cloudflare Oneno first choiceagainst: AWS Shield
Five alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, RadwareThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, RadwareFive alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, RadwareTwo alternatives
AWS Shield, Azure DDoS ProtectionPerplexity SonarCloudflareAkamai ProlexicChangedAkamai Prolexic, CloudflareCloudflareno first choicenothing named
Four alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, ImpervaTwo alternatives
Cloudflare, ImpervaSix alternatives
AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva, NETSCOUT Arbor, RadwareTwo alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai ProlexicGrok 4.1 FastCloudflareCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflareagainst: ImpervaAkamai Prolexic, Cloudflare, Impervaagainst: AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, DDoS-Guard, Gcore DDoS Protection, Nexusguard
Two alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaSix alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva, RadwareTwo alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai ProlexicMistral SmallCloudflare, NexusguardAkamai Prolexic, CloudflareChangedCloudflareCloudflareno first choiceagainst: CDNetworks, F5, Nexusguard, Radware
Three alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, NETSCOUT Arbor, RadwareFive alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Gcore, ImpervaDeepSeek V4 FlashCloudflareAkamai ProlexicChangedCloudflareCloudflareagainst: Akamai Prolexicno first choicenothing named
Five alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Google Cloud Armor, ImpervaThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Cloudflare, RadwareSix alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, NETSCOUT Arbor, RadwareThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, FastlyLlama 4 Maverickno first choiceCloudflareChangedCloudflareCloudflareCloudflarenothing named
Three alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, Imperva, RadwareTwo alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS ProtectionThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Cosmic GuardQwen 3.7 FlashCloudflareAkamai ProlexicChangedCloudflareCloudflareagainst: AWS Shield, Azure DDoS ProtectionCloudflareagainst: Gcore
Four alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, Amazon Web Services, Azure DDoS Protection, F5Three alternatives
AWS Shield, Cloudflare, RadwareFive alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, RadwareThree alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, F5, ImpervaThree alternatives
Akamai Prolexic, F5, ImpervaKimi K2CloudflareAkamai Prolexic, CloudflareChangedCloudflareCloudflareagainst: AWS/Azure, FastlyCloudflareagainst: Akamai Prolexic, Cloudflare, Cloudflare Magic Transit, Gcore, Webyne
Three alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaOne alternative
ImpervaSix alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Gcore, Imperva, RadwareOne alternative
Akamai ProlexicThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaGLM 4.7 FlashXCloudflareagainst: Nexusguard, RadwareCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflareagainst: Akamai Prolexic, Impervano first choiceagainst: DDoS-Guard
Three alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaSix alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, Imperva, NETSCOUT Arbor, Radware DefenseProSeven alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, CDNetworks, Gcore, Imperva, RadwareTwo alternatives
AWS Shield, Azure DDoS ProtectionMiniMax M2.5CloudflareCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflareno first choiceagainst: AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection, Cloudflare, Google Cloud Armor, Imperva
Six alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, F5, Imperva, RadwareThree alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, ImpervaFour alternatives
AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic, Azure DDoS Protection, ImpervaOne alternative
AWS ShieldBold 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 14:00 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 13:32 | yes | 4 | 6 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 11:47 | yes | 9 | 21 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 09:36 | yes | 20 | 6 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 11:33 | yes | 29 | 15 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 13:19 | yes | 5 | 6 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 11:03 | yes | 8 | 15 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 11:06 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 10:24 | no | 0 | 37 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 10:03 | yes | 9 | 22 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 11:23 | yes | 8 | 131 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 10:51 | no | 0 | 37 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 09:23 | yes | 18 | 10 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 11:45 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 14:10 | yes | 8 | 23 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 14:00 | yes | 20 | 6 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 12:04 | yes | 35 | 16 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 14:06 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 10:57 | yes | 13 | 15 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 13:01 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 12:52 | yes | 5 | 24 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 09:59 | yes | 12 | 21 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 13:23 | yes | 7 | 36 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 13:57 | yes | 5 | 20 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 10:09 | yes | 9 | 10 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 12:44 | yes | 8 | 12 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 11:04 | yes | 14 | 32 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 11:01 | yes | 20 | 8 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 13:35 | yes | 26 | 17 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 10:50 | yes | 5 | 6 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 13:05 | yes | 22 | 29 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 12:42 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 13:58 | yes | 5 | 20 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 09:53 | yes | 10 | 56 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 11:37 | yes | 7 | 114 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 11:58 | yes | 8 | 31 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 09:30 | yes | 18 | 11 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 09:47 | yes | 4 | 6 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 09:57 | yes | 12 | 31 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 13:58 | yes | 20 | 7 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 09:43 | yes | 36 | 17 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 09:41 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 10:08 | yes | 16 | 20 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 13:01 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 13:34 | no | 0 | 42 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 13:17 | yes | 14 | 32 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 10:03 | yes | 24 | 169 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 11:59 | yes | 21 | 63 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 10:31 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 13:29 | no | 0 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 11:55 | no | 0 | 20 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 10:37 | yes | 19 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 11:56 | yes | 17 | 15 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 12:00 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 13:16 | yes | 18 | 24 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 09:23 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 11:57 | yes | 10 | 62 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 11:21 | yes | 18 | 54 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 10:41 | yes | 15 | 59 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 09:59 | no | 0 | 71 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 13:05 | yes | 27 | 22 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 12:49 | no | 0 | 6 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 09:47 | yes | 10 | 30 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 12:05 | yes | 20 | 7 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 12:21 | yes | 21 | 15 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 12:13 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 10:18 | yes | 29 | 33 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 09:44 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 11:41 | yes | 10 | 43 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 10:33 | yes | 25 | 81 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 13:29 | yes | 25 | 131 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 09:57 | yes | 22 | 104 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 (Kona Site Defender) read as Akamai Prolexic
Akamai (Prolexic & App & API Protector) read as Akamai Prolexic
Akamai (Prolexic) read as Akamai Prolexic
Azure DDoS read as Azure DDoS Protection
Google read as Google Cloud Armor
Microsoft read as Azure DDoS Protection
NetScout read as NETSCOUT Arbor
Unresolved, counted raw
NETSCOUT Arbor Edge Defense / Arbor products
Ribbon
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.