# Deception technology for small business 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 a small 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/smb/ **Standing:** Thinkst Canary leads with 30% of first choices; verdict contested. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts. ## First-choice share | # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Thinkst Canary | 30% | 8% | 38 | | 2 | OpenCanary | 18% | 5% | 21 | | 3 | HoneyWire | 10% | 5% | 19 | | 4 | Trapster | 6% | 7% | 15 | | 5 | Morphisec | 2% | 8% | 12 | | 6 | Tracebit | 0% | 8% | 12 | | 7 | Cowrie | 0% | 15% | 13 | | 8 | T-Pot | 0% | 50% | 16 | | 9 | Acalvio ShadowPlex | 0% | 61% | 18 | ## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt - Claude Haiku 4.5: SentinelOne Singularity Hologram; alternatives Deceptive Bytes, FortiDeceptor, Thinkst Canary - GPT-5.4 mini: Labyrinth Cyber Deception Platform; alternatives Cynet, Morphisec - Gemini 3.5 Flash: Thinkst Canary; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Deception, Cynet 360 AutoXDR, Labyrinth Cyber Deception Platform, SentinelOne Singularity - Perplexity Sonar: Thinkst Canary; alternatives Baits - Grok 4.1 Fast: Thinkst Canary; alternatives HoneyWire, Tracebit - Mistral Small: HoneyWire; alternatives Attivo Networks, Cymulate - DeepSeek V4 Flash: Trapster; alternatives HoneyWire, Morphisec - Llama 4 Maverick: HoneyWire; alternatives Trapster - Qwen 3.7 Flash: Canarytools; alternatives Armbear, Project Canarytokens, Tenable - Kimi K2: Thinkst Canary; alternatives Acalvio ShadowPlex, Morphisec, Proofpoint Shadow, T-Pot - GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cynet, HoneyWire; alternatives Lupovis, SentinelOne Singularity Identity, Smokescreen - MiniMax M2.5: no first choice - GPT-6 Luna: Thinkst Canary; alternatives OpenCanary - Muse Glimmer 30B: Defused, Trapster; alternatives Cynet All-in-One Cybersecurity Platform ## Sources the answers cite 76 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers: - sourceforge.net: 45 answers, 83 citations - guideflow.com: 34 answers, 34 citations - devopsschool.com: 33 answers, 34 citations - slashdot.org: 30 answers, 38 citations - expertinsights.com: 28 answers, 28 citations - us.fitgap.com: 25 answers, 29 citations - acalvio.com: 22 answers, 33 citations - trustradius.com: 22 answers, 31 citations Pages named in the most answers: - https://sourceforge.net/software/deception-technology/for-small-business (36 answers) - https://devopsschool.com/blog/top-10-deception-technology-tools-features-pros-cons-comparison (33 answers) - https://sourceforge.net/software/deception-technology (30 answers) - https://slashdot.org/software/deception-technology/f-small-business (29 answers) - https://expertinsights.com/network-security/best-deception-technology-companies (28 answers) - https://guideflow.com/blog/deception-technology-software (24 answers) - https://us.fitgap.com/search/deception-technology-software/small-business (22 answers) - https://canary.tools/ (19 answers) - https://linkedin.com/pulse/cyber-deception-technology-cisos-guide-choosing-right-anand-akela-zbmlc (19 answers) - https://scmgalaxy.com/tutorials/top-10-deception-technology-tools-features-pros-cons-comparison (18 answers) ## Warned against - T-Pot: 8 of 16 labels negative. "Why to avoid: While "free" open-source software is tempting, self-hosting a honeypot on a production network is incredibly risky." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) - Acalvio ShadowPlex: 11 of 18 labels negative. "you should avoid heavy enterprise-grade deception platforms (such as Acalvio ShadowPlex or SentinelOne Attivo)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt) - Illusive Networks: 5 of 6 labels negative. "What to avoid: Enterprise solutions like Acalvio ShadowPlex or Illusive Networks" (Kimi K2, budget prompt) - FortiDeceptor: 5 of 7 labels negative. "platforms like Acalvio or FortiDeceptor may be more appropriate, but they appear better suited to larger or more complex environments" (Perplexity Sonar, direct 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.