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

Attack surface management

Asked as “attack surface management platform”, and as “external attack surface monitoring tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 44 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Intruder
Clear leader
59% 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 businessIntruder52%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketIntruder59%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseBitsight21%ContestedStanding →

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
01Intruder59%3%32endorsed leader
02Attaxion11%5%21accepted challenger
03Detectify7%10%29accepted challenger
04Censys ASM5%54%26criticized challenger
05Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management2%23%30accepted challenger
06UpGuard BreachSight2%0%14accepted challenger
07CyCognito2%39%31criticized challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Cortex Xpanse0%56%32criticized challenger
12Bitsight0%39%18criticized challenger
11IBM Randori0%23%13accepted challenger
10Mandiant Attack Surface Management0%20%10accepted challenger
09Wiz0%8%13accepted challenger
08Synack0%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.
Head to head
Intruder vs AttaxionIntruder vs DetectifyAttaxion vs Detectify

One product takes 59% of first choices here, so the chart would put twelve 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. Four products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 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.
Censys ASM
54%
14 of 26 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Platforms to Approach with Caution ... often priced out of reach for mid-market budgets” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt
Cortex Xpanse
56%
18 of 32 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“skip the heavyweight, six-figure enterprise suites (like *Palo Alto Cortex Xpanse*, which is designed for massive SOCs with budgets to match)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
CyCognito
39%
12 of 31 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-focused platforms like Cortex Xpanse or CyCognito unless you have complex multi-entity infrastructure” Kimi K2, direct prompt
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
23%
7 of 30 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Verdict: **Avoid if** your environment isn't heavily Azure-centric. Be cautious even if it is, due to the false-positive workload.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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

65 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. 816 links across 166 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

upguard.com
vendor site · UpGuard37 answers · 50 citations · 10 models
synack.com
vendor site · Synack36 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
gartner.com
27 answers · 47 citations · 8 models
bitsight.com
vendor site · Bitsight27 answers · 34 citations · 11 models
wiz.io
vendor site · Wiz26 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
cyberbench.net
26 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
attaxion.com
vendor site · Attaxion25 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
ionix.io
vendor site · IONIX21 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
paloaltonetworks.com
vendor site · Palo Alto Networks20 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
g2.com
18 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
secpod.com
vendor site · SecPod12 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.

synack.com/blog/best-attack-surface-management-tools
36 answers · 10 models
upguard.com/blog/best-attack-surface-management-software-solutions
36 answers · 10 models
cyberbench.net/blog/best-easm-platforms-mid-market-2026
26 answers · 9 models
bitsight.com/guides/best-external-attack-surface-management-platforms-for-g…
25 answers · 10 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/external-attack-surface-management
24 answers · 7 models
attaxion.com/top-external-attack-surface-management-vendors
22 answers · 9 models
wiz.io/academy/cloud-security/attack-surface-management-tools
22 answers · 8 models
guideflow.com/blog/attack-surface-management-software
17 answers · 8 models
ionix.io/writing-center/best-attack-surface-management-tools-in-2026-a-buye…
17 answers · 9 models
paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/asm-tools-comparison
15 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 attack surface management platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which external attack surface monitoring tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top attack surface management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best attack surface management platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an attack surface management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which attack surface management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Intruder
Three alternativesCyCognito, Hadrian, UpGuard BreachSight
IntruderHeld
Two alternativesDetectify, Halo Security
Bitsight
One alternativeWiz
Attaxion
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
against: Open-Source Toolsno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniRapid7 Surface Command
Three alternativesBitsight, Cortex Xpanse, Tenable Attack Surface Management
CyCognitoChanged
Three alternativesCensys ASM, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 Surface Command
Cortex Xpanse
Five alternativesBitsight, Censys ASM, CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Tenable Attack Surface Management
Censys ASM, Intruderagainst: Aikido Security, Wizno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashIntruder
Three alternativesCyCognito, Detectify, runZero
against: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface ManagementDetectifyChanged
Three alternativesAttaxion, Intruder, UpGuard BreachSight
against: Cortex Xpanseno first choice
Seven alternativesCensys ASM, CyCognito, IONIX, Palo Alto Networks, Synack, Wiz, watchTowr
Attaxion
Four alternativesOASM, ProjectDiscovery Cloud Platform, reNgine, runZero
against: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface ManagementHalo Security, Intruder
Six alternativesCrowdStrike, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender, Rapid7, Tenable, runZero
against: Cortex Xpanseagainst: Check Point Infinity, Cortex Xpanse, Cyberint, Cyclops, Intrigue, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender, RiskIQ
Perplexity SonarIntruder
Two alternativesAttaxion, ThreatScope
UpGuard BreachSightChanged
Four alternativesAttaxion, IONIX, Intruder, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
no first choiceagainst: Censys ASMIntruder
Three alternativesDetectify, HostedScan, runZero
no first choiceagainst: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, Detectify, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Tenable Attack Surface Management
Grok 4.1 FastIntruder
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 Exposure Command, UpGuard BreachSight
against: Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon SurfaceIntruderHeld
Two alternativesAttaxion, Detectify
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface ManagementCortex Xpanse, Tenable
Six alternativesCensys ASM, CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management, CyCognito, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Qualys, Rapid7
Intruder
Four alternativesMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, OWASP Amass, OpenVAS, Sn1per Community Edition
no first choiceagainst: Censys ASM, CloudSEK BeVigil, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Tenable Attack Surface Management
Mistral SmallIntruder
Two alternativesAttaxion, Detectify
against: Cortex XpanseIntruderHeld
Two alternativesAttaxion, Detectify
Synack
Eight alternativesCortex Xpanse, CyCognito, Detectify, IBM Randori, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management, UpGuard BreachSight
against: Censys ASMIntruder, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
One alternativeRapid7
no first choiceagainst: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse
DeepSeek V4 FlashIntruder
Four alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 ASM
against: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitoIntruderHeld
Two alternativesAttaxion, Detectify
against: CyCognito, Cyble Vision, IBM Randori, IONIXCyCognito
Ten alternativesAxonius, Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, IBM Randori, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Qualys External Attack Surface Management, Tenable Attack Surface Management, runZero
Intruder
Four alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, runZero
against: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitoCensys ASM
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Wiz
against: Cortex Xpanseagainst: Attaxion, Censys ASM, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceIntruderChanged
Three alternativesDetectify, ThreatScope, UpGuard BreachSight
no first choiceAttaxion, Detectify, Intruderno first choiceagainst: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
Qwen 3.7 FlashCisco Vulnerability Management
Three alternativesCensys ASM, Drata, Vanta
against: PenteraRedTeam.ioChanged
Four alternativesBitsight, Rapid7 InsightVM, SecurityScorecard, Sploitus
Tenable Vulnerability Management
Four alternativesBitsight, CyCognito, Rapid7, Zecurium
against: NetSparkerIntruder
Four alternativesAttack Surface Scan, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Shodan, runZero
no first choiceagainst: Bitsight, Censys ASM, Detectify, Intruder, Mandiant Attack Surface Management
Kimi K2Intruder
Two alternativesCensys ASM, Detectify
against: Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitoAttaxion, IntruderChanged
One alternativeDetectify
against: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, IBM Randorino first choiceagainst: Censys ASMAttaxion
Six alternativesAttack Surface Center, Intruder, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, OASM, OWASP Amass, ThreatScope
no first choicenothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXIntruder
Four alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Patrowl
against: Rapid7 InsightVM + EASMIntruderHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, UpGuard BreachSight
against: CyCognito, DetectifySynack
Four alternativesBitsight, SecPod SanerNow, UpGuard BreachSight, Wiz
against: Censys ASMCriminal IP ASM
Ten alternativesAttack Surface Center, Attaxion, Detectify, Intruder, Nuclei, OWASP Amass, OWASP ZAP, Sn1per Community Edition, Subfinder, Wappalyzer
against: Censys ASMno first choiceagainst: Censys ASM, Tenable
MiniMax M2.5Intruder
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, ThreatScope
against: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, IBM RandoriDetectify, IntruderChangedagainst: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitono first choice
Nine alternativesCensys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, IBM Randori, IONIX, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, SecPod SanerNow, Synack
Intruder
One alternativerunZero
against: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitono 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 12:24yes1310 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:41yes412 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:38yes1022 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:53yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:38yes3716 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:07yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:42yes1416 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:03yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:39no040 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:01yes825 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:43yes1257 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:04yes821 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:45yes149 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:20yes47 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:48yes2021 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:07yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:11yes3116 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:11yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:57yes1215 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:55yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:40no040 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:44yes1633 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:31yes2463 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:22yes517 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:46yes1912 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:30yes810 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:46yes1429 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:10yes2012 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:44yes2614 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:22yes811 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:54yes1733 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:44yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:33no037 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:01yes1934 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:28yes1233 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:15yes1434 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:35yes1210 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:17yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:58yes2424 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:34yes2016 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:57yes3320 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:30yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:55yes712 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:58yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:13yes942 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:27yes1933 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:59yes1528 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:35yes918 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:34no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:42no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:47yes1225 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:39yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:30yes910 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:18no012 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 13:51yes2475 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:54yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:28no035 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:05yes567 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:41yes1184 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:53yes1019 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:32yes178 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:58yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:57yes2126 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:43yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:20yes3922 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:06yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:50yes2438 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:44yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:28yes531 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:40yes2739 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:15yes22177 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:57yes1639 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
Attaxion read as Attaxion
BitSight read as Bitsight
Bitsight read as Bitsight
Censys read as Censys ASM
CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure read as CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management
Intruder.io read as Intruder
Mandiant read as Mandiant Attack Surface Management
Qualys Community read as Qualys Community Edition
UpGuard read as UpGuard BreachSight
UpGuard (Breach Risk) read as UpGuard BreachSight
UpGuard Breach Risk read as UpGuard BreachSight
Unresolved, counted raw
BuiltWith
Check Point Infinity
CloudSEK BeVigil
Criminal IP ASM
Cyclops
Falcon
Findomain
Hackrate
Hadrian
IntelliBreach
Intrigue
Knock
NetSparker
Open-Source Tools
Patrowl
Rapid7 InsightVM + EASM
RedTeam.io
Reflectiz
Sploitus
Sublist3r
The ProjectDiscovery Open-Source Suite (Subfinder + httpx + Nuclei)
TrustedSite
Wappalyzer (fork)
Zecurium (Zycada)
bspeka/Attaxion Starter
watchTowr
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in security operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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