IT AI Index
Index › Security operations › ASM › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Attack surface management for small business buyers

Asked as “attack surface management platform”, and as “external attack surface monitoring tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Intruder
Clear leader
52% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

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 leaderThis pageMid-marketIntruder59%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseBitsight21%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Intruder52%0%53endorsed leader
02runZero10%0%11accepted challenger
03Detectify6%14%43accepted challenger
04bspeka4%0%10accepted challenger
05UpGuard BreachSight4%19%16accepted challenger
06Attaxion2%0%20accepted challenger
07Aikido Security2%8%13accepted challenger
08Censys ASM2%33%15criticized challenger
09Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management2%53%17criticized challenger
10CyCognito2%77%22criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Cortex Xpanse0%100%20criticized 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 52% of first choices here, so the chart would put ten 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. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
Cortex Xpanse
100%
20 of 20 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“you should generally steer clear of the following... **Palo Alto Cortex Xpanse / Mandiant ASM:** Extremely powerful, but built for giant companies.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt
CyCognito
77%
17 of 22 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“one review notes that small businesses should likely steer clear because pricing is not public and could lead to a large bill” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
53%
9 of 17 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Enterprise-heavy tools (e.g., Microsoft Defender EASM, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface) were excluded” Grok 4.1 Fast, comparative prompt
Tenable Attack Surface Management
75%
6 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Purchasing this as a standalone solution for a small business often means missing features found in competitors” Qwen 3.7 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

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. 940 links across 186 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

g2.com
40 answers · 77 citations · 11 models
synack.com
vendor site · Synack40 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
upguard.com
vendor site · UpGuard39 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
cyberbench.net
38 answers · 38 citations · 9 models
attaxion.com
vendor site · Attaxion24 answers · 30 citations · 8 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow19 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
geekflare.com
17 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
intruder.io
vendor site · Intruder16 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
wiz.io
vendor site · Wiz16 answers · 17 citations · 7 models
bspeka.com
vendor site · bspeka15 answers · 24 citations · 7 models
paloaltonetworks.com
vendor site · Palo Alto Networks15 answers · 17 citations · 6 models
gartner.com
14 answers · 19 citations · 9 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
40 answers · 10 models
cyberbench.net/blog/best-easm-platforms-mid-market-2026
38 answers · 9 models
upguard.com/blog/best-attack-surface-management-software-solutions
38 answers · 10 models
g2.com/categories/attack-surface-management/small-business
36 answers · 11 models
attaxion.com/top-external-attack-surface-management-vendors
23 answers · 8 models
guideflow.com/blog/attack-surface-management-software
19 answers · 8 models
geekflare.com/cybersecurity/best-attack-surface-monitoring
16 answers · 8 models
wiz.io/academy/cloud-security/attack-surface-management-tools
15 answers · 7 models
heimdalsecurity.com/blog/best-attack-surface-management-software
13 answers · 8 models
paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/asm-tools-comparison
13 answers · 6 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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which external attack surface monitoring tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top attack surface management platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best attack surface management platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an attack surface management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which attack surface management platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5HostedScan, Intruder
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
no first choiceChangedProject Discovery, Shodan
Two alternativesCensys ASM, Rapid7 InsightVM
against: Qualys CyberSecurity Asset ManagementHostedScan
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, Intruder
no first choiceagainst: Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management
GPT-5.4 miniHackal, WatchGate
Two alternativesVulmon Recon, wye scan
Tenable Attack Surface ManagementChanged
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management, Rapid7 Surface Command
Censys ASM
One alternativeHorizon3 NodeZero
against: Cortex Xpanse, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 InsightVM / InsightCloudSec exposure featuresrunZero
One alternativeCensys ASM
against: Qualys, Tenableno first choiceagainst: Check Point Infinity External Risk Management, Cyble, Detectify, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management, Tenable Nessus, ThingsRecon
Gemini 3.5 FlashIntruder
Two alternativesDetectify, bspeka
against: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Nmap, OWASP Amass, SubfinderIntruderHeld
Two alternativesDetectify, UpGuard BreachSight
against: BitsightIntruder, bspeka
Three alternativesCensys ASM, Detectify, runZero
against: Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitoIntruder, runZero
Four alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, ProjectDiscovery Cloud Platform, reNgine
against: Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitoIntruder
Two alternativesDetectify, UpGuard BreachSight
against: Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, Shodanagainst: Censys ASM, Chaos Client, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, IONIX, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Nmap, OWASP Amass, Team Cymru
Perplexity SonarDetectify
Two alternativesIntruder, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
UpGuard BreachSightChanged
Two alternativesAttack Surface Scan, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
against: Cortex XpanseDetectify, Intruder
Two alternativesCyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
against: Cortex XpanseIntruder, runZero
Two alternativesHostedScan, ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus
against: Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Managementno first choiceagainst: Bishop Fox Cosmos, Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CyCognito, ImmuniWeb Discovery, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Qualys External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 Surface Command, Tenable ASM / Tenable One
Grok 4.1 FastIntruder
Three alternativesDetectify, bspeka, runZero
against: CyCognito, UpGuard BreachSightIntruderHeld
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, PortWarden
Intruder
Two alternativesDetectify, UpGuard BreachSight
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Managementbspeka
Two alternativesIntruder, VeilScan
against: DetectifyIntruder
Four alternativesCyCognito, Detectify, UpGuard BreachSight, Wiz
against: Cortex Xpanseagainst: CloudSEK, Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management, CyCognito, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Rapid7 ASM, Tenable Attack Surface Management, Wiz
Mistral SmallIntruder
Two alternativesAikido Security, Detectify
Detectify, IntruderChanged
Two alternativesExternalSight, UpGuard BreachSight
Intruder, runZero
One alternativeCrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management
against: CyCognitoIntruder, bspeka
One alternativeDetectify
no first choiceagainst: Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CyCognito, IONIX, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Tenable Attack Surface Management
DeepSeek V4 FlashIntruder
Two alternativesDetectify, runZero
against: Aikido SecurityIntruderHeld
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, bspeka
Intruder
Four alternativesAikido Security, Detectify, Halo Security, UpGuard BreachSight
against: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, Mandiant Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface ManagementIntruder
Three alternativesAttack Surface Center, PortWarden, bspeka
against: Detectify, OWASP Amass, OWASP ZAP, ShodanAikido Security, Attack Surface Center, Botnet Securityagainst: CrowdStrike, CyCognito, Palo Altoagainst: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management, CyCognito, Qualys External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 Surface Command, Tenable Attack Surface Management
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface ManagementChanged
Three alternativesBitsight, HostedScan, Intruder
Intruder
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, ThreatScope
Intruder
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, ThreatScope
no first choiceagainst: Censys ASM, Synack
Qwen 3.7 FlashIntruder
Four alternativesAikido Security, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, UpGuard BreachSight, bspeka
IntruderHeld
One alternativeUpGuard BreachSight
Censys ASM
Four alternativesBitsight, CyberHat, Kintaps, Pentera
Intruder
Two alternativesDetectify, Tenable Nessus
against: IBM QRadar, Qualys, Rapid7, TenableCyCognito, Detectify, Intruderagainst: CrowdStrike, Fortinetagainst: Bitsight, Cortex Xpanse, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CyCognito, SecurityScorecard, Synack, Tenable Attack Surface Management
Kimi K2Attaxion, Intruder
Two alternativesAttack Surface Center, PortWarden
against: DetectifyIntruderChanged
Two alternativesAttaxion, Detectify
against: Cortex Xpanse, Rapid7, UpGuard BreachSightIntruder
Four alternativesAikido Security, Attack Surface Center, Attaxion, Detectify
runZero
Three alternativesAttaxion, Intruder, Praetorian Chariot
against: DetectifyIntruder
Two alternativesDetectify, UpGuard BreachSight
against: Cortex Xpanse, CyCognito, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable Attack Surface Management
GLM 4.7 FlashXIntruder
Two alternativesHexiosec, ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus
against: Cortex Xpanse, CyCognitoIntruderHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, UpGuard BreachSight
runZero
Three alternativesCensys ASM, Intruder, PortWarden
Intruder, runZero
Three alternativesDetectify, HostedScan, PortWarden
no first choiceagainst: Bitsight, Censys ASM, Cortex Xpanse, Detectify, IBM Randori, Team Cymru Pure Signal Orbit, Team Cymru Pure Signal Recon, Tenable Attack Surface Management, UpGuard BreachSight
MiniMax M2.5Intruder, UpGuard BreachSightHostedScanChanged
Three alternativesAttaxion, Detectify, Intruder
Intruder, runZero
Three alternativesAttack Surface Center, Attaxion, Detectify
Censys ASM
Three alternativesNmap + script engine, OpenVAS, Shodan
against: Bitsight, RiskRecon, SecurityScorecardno first choiceagainst: CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management, Team Cymru Pure Signal products
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 09:45yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:56yes64 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:36yes1018 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:10yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:21yes4219 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:15yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:13yes1816 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:50yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:48yes835 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:35yes2241 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:26yes23160 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:04yes527 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:03no03 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:31yes57 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:36yes1523 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:25yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:12yes4117 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:15yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:42yes1622 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:49yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:25yes536 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:57yes1926 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:44yes24165 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:54yes2045 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:09yes1042 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:54yes211 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:36yes1530 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:30yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:50yes4119 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:42yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 14:00yes2726 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:48yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:12no049 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:52yes1935 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:02yes24301 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:32yes2339 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:30yes158 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:27yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:26yes2126 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:06yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:10yes4618 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:49yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:16yes1613 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:04yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:14yes1550 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:28yes2037 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:29yes30121 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:14no040 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:31no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:54no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:22yes1325 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:30yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:49yes1811 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:30no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:09yes1824 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:09yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:37yes945 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:10yes1019 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:14yes1450 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:44yes516 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:39yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:08yes510 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:51yes1526 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:30yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:32yes2215 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:58yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:46yes2024 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:32yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:07yes837 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:26yes2853 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:36yes2470 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:51yes836 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
Aikido read as Aikido Security
Attaxion read as Attaxion
BitSight read as Bitsight
Bitsight read as Bitsight
Censys read as Censys ASM
Intruder.io read as Intruder
Mandiant read as Mandiant Attack Surface Management
Nessus Essentials read as Tenable Nessus
Rapid7 Attack Surface Management read as Rapid7 ASM
UpGuard read as UpGuard BreachSight
UpGuard (Breach Risk) read as UpGuard BreachSight
Unresolved, counted raw
Attacker
Bishop Fox ASM
Botnet Security
Check Point Infinity External Risk Management
Cobalt Strike ASM
CyberHat
Faraday
Glasstrail
Hackal
HackerOne ASM
Hexiosec
Horizon3 NodeZero
ImmuniWeb Discovery
Kintaps
Nmap + script engine
Praetorian Chariot
Project Discovery (Nuclei & Subfinder)
Rapid7 InsightVM / InsightCloudSec exposure features
SentinelOne ASM
Spyse
Team Cymru (Pure Signal Recon / Orbit)
Team Cymru Pure Signal Orbit
Team Cymru Pure Signal Recon
Team Cymru Pure Signal products
ThingsRecon
Vulmon Recon
WatchGate
wye scan
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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