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Deception technology · October 2026 Edition

Thinkst Canary vs OpenCanary

Three of fourteen models named Thinkst Canary first on the direct prompt; zero named OpenCanary. Thinkst Canary was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and OpenCanary by ten and Thinkst Canary carries 40 labels and OpenCanary 17, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Thinkst Canary

endorsed leader

Named in one category this edition.

OpenCanary

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

First-choice share37%4%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.

Negative rate5%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.

Rank in category#1#4A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.

Labels4017A count; the two differ.

The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Thinkst Canary reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Acalvio ShadowPlex was named alongside these two in nine of the fourteen direct answers. Thinkst Canary vs Acalvio ShadowPlex · Thinkst Canary vs Tracebit · Thinkst Canary vs Fortinet FortiDeceptor

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; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the deception technology page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.

Thinkst CanaryFirst choices, of fourteen modelsOpenCanary

Direct30

Paraphrase110

Comparative00

Budget-constrained222 against Thinkst Canary

Scale-constrained10

Negative00

Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Thinkst Canary and OpenCanary were named in the same answer thirty-two times, of the 103 answers naming Thinkst Canary and the 40 naming OpenCanary. In those answers OpenCanary took the first choice six times and Thinkst Canary seventeen.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Thinkst Canary and OpenCanary stood in it.

Model	ParaphraseOP	Budget-constrainedOP
Claude Haiku 4.5		OP
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash	OP	OP
Perplexity Sonar	OP	OP
Grok 4.1 Fast	OP	OP
Mistral Small	OP
DeepSeek V4 Flash	OP	OP
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2		OP
GLM 4.7 FlashX		OP
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna	OP	OP
Muse Glimmer 30B		OP

Thinkst CanaryOP OpenCanary

first choice

named as an alternative

argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Thinkst Canary on the left and OpenCanary on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Thinkst Canary and OpenCanary stood in it.

Thinkst Canary first, OpenCanary not the choice

3 of 14 modelsOpenCanary was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.

GPT-5.4 miniThinkst Canary alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex

Gemini 3.5 FlashThinkst Canary alternatives: SentinelOne Singularity Hologram, Tracebit

Kimi K2Thinkst Canary alternatives: TrapEye, Trapster

Neither was the first choice, one was named

5 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.

Claude Haiku 4.5Deceptive Bytes alternatives: Acalvio 360 Deception, Illusive, Thinkst Canary

Perplexity SonarAcalvio ShadowPlex alternatives: Fortinet FortiDeceptor, Thinkst Canary

Grok 4.1 FastAcalvio ShadowPlex alternatives: Fortinet FortiDeceptor, Thinkst Canary

GPT-6 LunaTracebit alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Thinkst Canary, Zscaler Deception

Muse Glimmer 30BFortinet FortiDeceptor, Rapid7 Incident Command alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Proofpoint, Thinkst Canary

Neither was named

6 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.

Mistral SmallAcalvio ShadowPlex, Attivo Networks ThreatDefend

DeepSeek V4 FlashTracebit alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Fidelis Deception, FortiDeceptor

Llama 4 Maverickno first choice

Qwen 3.7 FlashHoneypot.io alternatives: Attivo Networks, Cymulate, Microsoft Defender XDR

GLM 4.7 FlashXRapid7 InsightIDR alternatives: Acalvio ShadowPlex, Fortinet FortiDeceptor

MiniMax M2.5Acalvio ShadowPlex, Illusive Networks

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.

Small business

Thinkst Canary leads by twelve points.

Thinkst Canary#1 of 9

OpenCanary#2 of 9

The full small business standing →

Mid-marketThe figures above

Thinkst Canary leads by thirty-three points.

Thinkst Canary#1 of 11

OpenCanary#4 of 11

The full mid-market standing →

Enterprise

Thinkst Canary leads by ten points.

Thinkst Canary#2 of 8

OpenCanary#– of 8

The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Thinkst Canary

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.

“But pricier than open-source—avoid if truly limited.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · soft negative

“Too expensive for most small budgets” GLM 4.7 FlashX · budget prompt · soft negative

“For most mid-sized B2B companies with a small SOC, start with Thinkst Canary for quick, high-confidence alerts and low operational overhead” Muse Glimmer 30B · paraphrase prompt · first choice

“Lightweight / Token-Centric Deception (e.g., Thinkst Canary, Tracebit) ... Best For: Mid-market companies with small teams.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice

“Thinkst Canary offers a very low entry price, making it an excellent choice for budget-conscious organizations.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about OpenCanary

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“Start with Canarytokens.org (free) + OpenCanary (free)” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice

“For a genuinely limited budget, start with OpenCanary.” GPT-6 Luna · budget prompt · first choice

“Another strong open-source option is OpenCanary, also from Thinkst, which is free and supports multiple protocols.” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · alternative

Also compared

Thinkst Canary vs Acalvio ShadowPlex Thinkst Canary vs Tracebit Thinkst Canary vs Fortinet FortiDeceptor Thinkst Canary vs T-Pot Thinkst Canary vs Illusive Networks Acalvio ShadowPlex vs OpenCanary Tracebit vs OpenCanary OpenCanary vs Fortinet FortiDeceptor OpenCanary vs T-Pot OpenCanary vs Illusive Networks All twenty-one head-to-head pages and the full deception standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.