# Source Defense vs Feroot PaymentGuard: which do AI models recommend for client-side protection, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Client-side protection. One of fourteen models named Source Defense first on the direct prompt; zero named Feroot PaymentGuard. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/security/client-side-protection/source-defense-vs-feroot-paymentguard/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source Defense | 4% | #4 of 8 | 27% | 26 | 11 of 14 |
| Feroot PaymentGuard | 4% | #5 of 8 | 20% | 20 | 9 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Kimi K2: source defense first (first choices: Source Defense, c/side) (alternatives: Cloudflare Page Shield, Feroot Security)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Imperva Client-Side Protection) (alternatives: Akamai Client-Side Protection, Jscrambler Webpage Integrity, Source Defense)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: neither first, one named (first choices: Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security) (alternatives: Bitdefender GravityZone EDR, Imperva Client-Side Protection, Source Defense)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: F5 Distributed Cloud Client-Side Defense) (alternatives: Feroot Security Inspector, Imperva Client-Side Protection)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither named (first choices: Cloudflare Client-Side Security) (alternatives: Reflectiz, Report URI, c/side)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither named (first choices: Akamai Client-Side Protection & Compliance) (alternatives: Jscrambler Webpage Integrity, cside)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: Akamai Client-Side Protection & Compliance, Jscrambler Webpage Integrity)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither named (first choices: Reflectiz, cside) (alternatives: Cloudflare's Client-Side Security)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named (first choices: Akamai Client-Side Protection & Compliance, Jscrambler Client-Side Protection and Compliance Platform)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: CrowdStrike Falcon) (alternatives: Akamai Client-Side Protection, Imperva Client-Side Protection, Jscrambler Webpage Integrity, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: Jscrambler Webpage Integrity) (alternatives: Akamai Client-Side Protection & Compliance, Cloudflare Page Shield, Imperva Client-Side Protection)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither named (first choices: Bitdefender GravityZone) (alternatives: CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither named (first choices: Sophos MDR Complete) (alternatives: Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Cloud)

## What the models said about Source Defense

- "solutions from vendors like JScrambler, Reflectiz, Source Defense, and Human Security ... often fail to block the majority of sophisticated e-skimming attacks" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "Popular vendors include Human Security, SourceDefense, JScrambler, and Reflectiz. ... JS agents detect behavior after a script has already executed." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "you do not need to pay $15,000+ per year for enterprise-grade solutions (like Akamai, Jscrambler, or Source Defense)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt, soft negative)
- "Choose In-Browser Runtime Agents (Source Defense / HUMAN) if you operate a high-volume checkout or login page and want *active prevention*" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "I'd recommend starting with c/side (free tier) or Source Defense Essentials ($98/month)" (Kimi K2, direct prompt, first choice)
- "I'd start with Source Defense's PCI Compliance product for a mid-sized B2B company" (GPT-6 Luna, paraphrase prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Feroot PaymentGuard

- "Tools to Avoid on a Tight Budget - Reflectiz, Feroot, DomDog, Jscrambler" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "Avoid: Enterprise solutions like Akamai, Imperva, or Feroot" (Kimi K2, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "A caveat: its synthetic crawler can be bypassed by attackers who serve clean scripts to bots and malicious ones to real users." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt, soft negative)
- "Use client-side protection tools that provide active blocking and real-time monitoring (e.g., Feroot, Human Security)" (Mistral Small, negative prompt, first choice)
- "If you want a single practical pick, Feroot PaymentGuard is a strong fit because it is described as low-overhead" (Perplexity Sonar, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "I recommend Reflectiz or Feroot as your primary tools" (Mistral Small, paraphrase prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.