# Deception technology for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "deception technology platform" and as "honeypot and decoy tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/security/deception-technology/enterprise/

**Standing:** Acalvio ShadowPlex leads with 47% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 49 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acalvio ShadowPlex | 47% | 2% | 50 |
| 2 | Thinkst Canary | 10% | 8% | 25 |
| 3 | Zscaler Deception | 6% | 25% | 24 |
| 4 | SentinelOne Singularity | 4% | 16% | 19 |
| 5 | CounterCraft | 2% | 18% | 17 |
| 6 | Fidelis Deception | 2% | 22% | 18 |
| 7 | Illusive Networks | 2% | 28% | 18 |
| 8 | FortiDeceptor | 0% | 16% | 19 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Illusive; alternatives FortiDeceptor, Smokescreen, Tracebit
- GPT-5.4 mini: Acalvio ShadowPlex; alternatives Thinkst Canary
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Tracebit; alternatives Acalvio ShadowPlex, Proofpoint, SentinelOne Singularity, Thinkst Canary
- Perplexity Sonar: Acalvio ShadowPlex; alternatives Zscaler Deception
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Acalvio ShadowPlex; alternatives Fortinet FortiDeceptor, SentinelOne Singularity Hologram
- Mistral Small: Acalvio ShadowPlex; alternatives CounterCraft, SentinelOne Singularity Hologram
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Acalvio ShadowPlex; alternatives FortiDeceptor, Illusive Networks, Proofpoint Shadow, SentinelOne Singularity
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Fidelis Deception
- Kimi K2: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Attivo Networks ThreatDefend, SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives Fidelis Deception, Zscaler Deception
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Attivo Networks ThreatDefend; alternatives Cynet, FortiDeceptor, Illusive Networks, TrapX Security
- MiniMax M2.5: no first choice
- GPT-6 Luna: Acalvio ShadowPlex; alternatives FortiDeceptor, Proofpoint Shadow, Thinkst Canary
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Attivo Networks – now SentinelOne Singularity Deception; alternatives Acalvio ShadowPlex, Illusive Networks

## Sources the answers cite

78 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- acalvio.com: 56 answers, 141 citations
- expertinsights.com: 40 answers, 40 citations
- guideflow.com: 36 answers, 38 citations
- linkedin.com: 34 answers, 44 citations
- myhospitalnow.com: 21 answers, 32 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- fidelissecurity.com: 19 answers, 28 citations
- us.fitgap.com: 19 answers, 22 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/network-security/best-deception-technology-companies (40 answers)
- https://acalvio.com/preemptive-security/competitive-intelligence-cyber-deception (36 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/deception-technology-software (34 answers)
- https://linkedin.com/pulse/cyber-deception-technology-cisos-guide-choosing-right-anand-akela-zbmlc (32 answers)
- https://acalvio.com/agentic-ai-security/deception-technology-solutions-an-enterprise-buyers-framework-for-2026 (23 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-honeypots-deception-tools-2026 (19 answers)
- https://acalvio.com/agentic-ai-security/deception-technology-buyers-guide-10-selection-criteria (15 answers)
- https://acalvio.com/resources/guide/acalvio-cyber-deception-buyers-guide (13 answers)
- https://us.fitgap.com/search/deception-technology-software (13 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/deception-tools (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Proofpoint Shadow: 5 of 9 labels negative. "making standalone cost less transparent" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Zscaler Deception: 6 of 24 labels negative. "if your environment is multi-vendor or heavily integrated with other XDR/SIEM/SOAR platforms, verify that the integration depth and data flow meet your operational requirements" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Illusive Networks: 5 of 18 labels negative. "Illusive Networks / Proofpoint Deceptions Everywhere is the classic per-user example... total cost grows linearly with headcount/endpoint growth and is penalizing for large companies." (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)
- CounterCraft: 3 of 17 labels negative. "$200,000/year minimum on AWS Marketplace — very high entry cost and quote-based pricing" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.