IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index IT operations and endpoint Patching › Enterprise September 2026 Edition

Patch management for enterprise buyers

Asked as “patch management tool”, and as “OS and third-party patching solution”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
13% 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.

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
01Microsoft Intune13%12%26accepted challenger
02ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus10%12%34accepted challenger
03Automox10%15%39accepted challenger
04Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management10%12%17accepted challenger
05Tanium8%25%32criticized challenger
06NinjaOne6%23%35accepted challenger
07Patch My PC6%18%11accepted challenger
08Action14%20%25accepted challenger
09Ivanti4%18%17accepted challenger
10Microsoft Configuration Manager4%35%17criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13SolarWinds Patch Manager0%36%11criticized challenger
12HCL BigFix0%25%12criticized challenger
11ManageEngine Endpoint Central0%0%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.

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Microsoft Intune13%
02ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus10%
03Automox10%
04Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management10%
05Tanium8%
06NinjaOne6%
07Patch My PC6%
08Action14%
09Ivanti4%
10Microsoft Configuration Manager4%
11ManageEngine Endpoint Central0%
12HCL BigFix0%
13SolarWinds Patch Manager0%

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.
NinjaOne
23%
8 of 35 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Examples to Avoid:** **Automox**, **Action1**, **NinjaOne**.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Windows Server Update Services
75%
6 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Microsoft officially **deprecated WSUS in September 2024**... **Why to Avoid/Be Cautious:** WSUS was designed for the localized networks of the 2000s.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Tanium
25%
8 of 32 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid quote-only platforms like Tanium and Ivanti if your finance team requires fixed annual budget certainty.” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Microsoft Configuration Manager
35%
6 of 17 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Move away from older on-premise tools (like ConfigMgr/SCCM)” Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 869 links across 205 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

37 answers · 38 citations · 9 models
31 answers · 35 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Expert Insights30 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Heimdal Security27 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Acronis26 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
22 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
20 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · NinjaOne19 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
19 answers · 21 citations · 6 models
vendor site · Motadata19 answers · 19 citations · 7 models
17 answers · 19 citations · 6 models
vendor site · Tanium15 answers · 22 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.

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 patch management tool for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which OS and third-party patching solution would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade patch management tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best patch management tool 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 patch management tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which patch management tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceAutomox, Ivanti Neurons for Patch ManagementChangedManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne
One alternativeAutomox
against: Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management
PDQ Connect
Three alternativesAdaptiva OneSite Patch, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Tanium Patch
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniMicrosoft Intune + Windows Autopatch
Two alternativesIvanti, Tanium Patch
Microsoft Intune + Enterprise App Management, Patch My PCChanged
Two alternativesIvanti, Jamf
no first choiceManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
One alternativeWindows Autopatch
no first choiceagainst: Azure Update Manager, Group Policy, Microsoft Intune, Windows Autopatch
Gemini 3.5 FlashAutomox
Six alternativesAction1, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Microsoft Intune, Patch My PC, Tanium
Microsoft Intune + Windows Autopatch, Patch My PCChanged
Two alternativesAutomox, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management
Tanium
Six alternativesAction1, Automox, HCL BigFix, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, NinjaOne
Microsoft Intune
Four alternativesAction1, NinjaOne, PDQ Deploy & Inventory, Patch My PC
no first choiceagainst: Broadcom / Symantec ITMS, Chocolatey, Jamf, Kaseya VSA, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Red Hat Satellite, SolarWinds Patch Manager, Windows Server Update Services, Winget
Perplexity SonarAction1
Four alternativesAutomox, HCL BigFix, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management / Ivanti Security Controls, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
Microsoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft IntuneChanged
One alternativeRHEL/Ubuntu-focused tooling
Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne
Six alternativesAction1, Automox, HCL BigFix, Qualys, Rapid7 InsightVM, Tanium
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
One alternativeAction1
against: Ivanti, NinjaOne
no first choiceagainst: Ivanti Security Controls / Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Qualys patch/remediation workflows, Windows Server Update Services
Grok 4.1 FastTanium
Four alternativesHCL BigFix, Ivanti, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune
Ivanti Neurons for Patch ManagementChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Intune, Patch My PC
against: Automox, NinjaOne
Microsoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune
Five alternativesHCL BigFix, Ivanti, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne, Tanium
against: Action1, Automox, SolarWinds Patch Manager
Microsoft Intune
Two alternativesManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne
against: Atera, Tanium
JetPatch, NinjaOne
Four alternativesAction1, Automox, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune
against: Action1, Automox, Heimdal, KACE, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne, PDQ Deploy & Inventory, Patch My PC, SolarWinds Patch Manager, Syxsense, WSUS Offline Update, Windows Server Update Services
Mistral SmallTanium
Four alternativesAutomox, ManageEngine, NinjaOne, SolarWinds Patch Manager
Action1Changed
Three alternativesIvanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne
Action1
Five alternativesAutomox, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, NinjaOne, Tanium
Ivanti, ManageEngineno first choiceagainst: Atera, LogMeIn Resolve
DeepSeek V4 FlashIvanti
Four alternativesAutomox, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft, Qualys
Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Microsoft Intune, Windows AutopatchChanged
Four alternativesJamf, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Tanium, Windows Update for Business
against: Automox, NinjaOne, Windows Server Update Services
Tanium
Six alternativesAutomox, HCL BigFix, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine, Qualys, ServiceNow
against: Action1, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune, NinjaOne
Automox, Microsoft Intune
One alternativeManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
against: HCL BigFix, Ivanti, Tanium
Automox
Four alternativesManageEngine, Microsoft Intune/MECM, NinjaOne, Qualys
against: HCL BigFix, Tanium
against: Automox, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Kaseya VSA, Microsoft Intune, SolarWinds Patch Manager, Windows Autopatch, Windows Server Update Services
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceAutomoxChanged
Two alternativesManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Splashtop
no first choiceNinjaOne
Three alternativesAction1, Automox, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
no first choiceagainst: ManageEngine
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune
Four alternativesIvanti Neurons for Unification, Jamf, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Qualys VMDR
Patch My PCChanged
Three alternativesManageEngine Endpoint Central, Microsoft Intune, NinjaOne
against: Microsoft Configuration Manager, Windows Update
Tanium
Five alternativesAutomox, Ivanti, Kandji, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, NinjaOne
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
Two alternativesAutomox, Microsoft Intune
no first choiceagainst: Action1, Automox, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Configuration Manager, NinjaOne
Kimi K2Ivanti Patch for Endpoint Manager
Two alternativesManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune/SCCM
against: Tanium
Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Tanium PatchChanged
Two alternativesManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune + Windows Autopatch
no first choice
Seven alternativesAutomox, HCL BigFix, Ivanti Endpoint Manager, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune, Tanium
Microsoft Intune / Configuration Manager
Three alternativesAutomox, ManageEngine Endpoint Central / Patch Manager Plus, Patch My PC
against: HCL BigFix, Ivanti Neurons, NinjaOne, Tanium
no first choiceagainst: Taniumagainst: Action1, Ivanti, Kaseya VSA, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Patch My PC, SolarWinds, Windows Server Update Services
GLM 4.7 FlashXTanium
Four alternativesAction1, Automox, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, NinjaOne
Azure Update Manager, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, Windows AutopatchChangedno first choice
Seven alternativesAction1, Automox, Ivanti Endpoint Manager, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Microsoft Intune / Configuration Manager, NinjaOne, Tanium
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
Two alternativesAutomox, NinjaOne
against: Tanium
no first choiceagainst: Atera, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Qualys Patch Management, WSUS / Windows Auto Update
MiniMax M2.5Tanium
Four alternativesIvanti, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, NinjaOne
NinjaOne, PDQ ConnectChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Intune, Patch My PC
no first choice
Eight alternativesAction1, Automox, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune, NinjaOne, Tanium
Atera
Two alternativesManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, PatchPilot
against: NinjaOne, Tanium
no first choicenothing 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.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:13no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:59yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:04yes1624 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:15yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:18yes3917 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:40yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:42yes917 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:32yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:49no033 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:51yes1025 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:40yes1171 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:53yes1232 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:33no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:01yes56 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:18yes1921 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:10yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:36yes2114 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:50yes105 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:17yes2829 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:03yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:25no041 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:35yes1436 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:58yes1834 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:35yes1056 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:15yes1812 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:27yes612 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:58yes1829 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:10yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:35yes2916 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:56yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:38yes2329 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:07yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:38yes527 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:30yes1346 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:43yes944 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:09yes938 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:47yes1610 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:54yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:57yes1324 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:10yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:43yes3719 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:35yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:13yes1720 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:48yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:13yes545 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:06yes1377 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:23yes30184 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:05yes2177 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:19yes1815 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:46yes310 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:20no018 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:36yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:42yes1918 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:48no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:20yes1921 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:12yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:30no037 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:36yes1833 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:34yes2585 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:04no078 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:37yes2712 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:02yes36 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:43yes2124 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:21yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:59yes1914 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:50yes139 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 14:15yes2728 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:09yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:30yes529 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:28yes2543 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:14yes2245 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:20yes1749 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
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM / Intune) read as Microsoft Configuration Manager
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM/MECM) read as Microsoft Configuration Manager
SCCM read as Microsoft Configuration Manager
Unresolved, counted raw
Adaptiva
Adaptiva OneSite
Adaptiva OneSite Patch
Broadcom / Symantec ITMS (Altiris)
Group Policy
Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management / Ivanti Security Controls
Ivanti Neurons for Unification
Ivanti Patch for Endpoint Manager
Ivanti Security Controls / Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management
ManageEngine Patch Connect Plus
Microsoft Intune + ConfigMgr
Microsoft Intune + Enterprise App Management
Microsoft Intune + WUfB & Windows Autopatch
Microsoft Intune/MECM
Microsoft Update Management/WSUS
PatchPilot
Qualys Patch Management
Qualys patch/remediation workflows
Quest KACE SMA
RHEL/Ubuntu-focused tooling
Shavlik
WSUS / Windows Auto Update
WSUS Offline Update
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← ObservabilityRMM →