IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Security operations September 2026 Edition

Email security

Asked as “email security platform”, and as “phishing and email threat protection tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 58 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
31% of first choices, contested.

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.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Defender for Office 36531%9%47endorsed leader
02Abnormal AI12%4%45accepted challenger
03Proofpoint Email Protection10%12%49accepted challenger
04Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration10%8%26accepted challenger
05IRONSCALES9%0%29accepted challenger
06Mimecast Email Security7%13%45accepted challenger
07Barracuda Email Protection7%6%34accepted challenger
08SpamTitan5%7%15accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Cisco Secure Email0%27%11criticized 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.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Microsoft Defender for Office 36531%
02Abnormal AI12%
03Proofpoint Email Protection10%
04Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration10%
05IRONSCALES9%
06Mimecast Email Security7%
07Barracuda Email Protection7%
08SpamTitan5%
09Cisco Secure Email0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
Mimecast Email Security
13%
6 of 45 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“it has experienced security breaches in the past, including a certificate compromise... This has led some organizations to approach Mimecast with caution.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Proofpoint Email Protection
12%
6 of 49 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“Proofpoint is priced and configured for enterprise environments with significant operational complexity... it just may not be suitable for smaller organizations.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
50%
3 of 6 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Barracuda advised affected customers to replace devices. Ongoing exploits via third-party libraries ... have kept it risky.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Cisco Secure Email
27%
3 of 11 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Status: Avoid or Patch Immediately**” GLM 4.7 FlashX, 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

64 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. 846 links across 213 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

43 answers · 49 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Expert Insights29 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Sublime20 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Kaseya19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · IRONSCALES18 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Barracuda16 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Proofpoint15 answers · 23 citations · 6 models
vendor site · Check Point14 answers · 16 citations · 10 models
vendor site · KnowBe412 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Huntress12 answers · 12 citations · 5 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.

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 email security platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which phishing and email threat protection tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top email security platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best email security platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an email security platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which email security platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Barracuda Email Protection
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
against: Proofpoint Email Protection
IRONSCALESChanged
Two alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Sophos Email
Barracuda Email Protection
Five alternativesAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection, Sophos Email
SpamTitan
Two alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365
no first choiceagainst: Proofpoint Email Protection, Salesloft Drift
GPT-5.4 miniMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
One alternativeProofpoint Email Protection
Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint Threat ProtectionChangedno first choice
Seven alternativesAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Cisco Secure Email, Darktrace, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Three alternativesCheck Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Google Workspace, Proofpoint Email Protection
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
Three alternativesIRONSCALES, Sophos Email, Sublime Security
Check Point Harmony Email & CollaborationChanged
One alternativeIRONSCALES
against: Abnormal AI, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
no first choice
Six alternativesAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection, Sublime Security
Sublime Security
Four alternativesCheck Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, SpamTitan
against: Abnormal AI
Abnormal AI, Check Point Harmony, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
Four alternativesIRONSCALES, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection, Sublime Security
against: AOL, Apple iCloud Mail, Cisco Secure Email, Gmail, Google Workspace, Hushmail, Microsoft 365 EOP, Outlook, Skiff Mail, Symantec Email Security.cloud, Trellix, Yahoo
Perplexity SonarMimecast Email Security
One alternativeProofpoint Email Protection
Microsoft Defender for Office 365Changed
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Protection
no first choiceMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Two alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, SpamTitan
no first choiceagainst: AOL Mail, Barracuda Email Protection, Gmail, Outlook/Microsoft, Yahoo Mail
Grok 4.1 FastMimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Protection
against: Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint Email ProtectionChanged
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Mimecast Email Security
Proofpoint Email Protection
Four alternativesAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Proofpoint Email Protection, SpamTitan
no first choice
Six alternativesAbnormal AI, Cloudflare, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection, Trend Micro
against: AppRiver, Barracuda Email Security Gateway, FortiMail, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, SonicWall, Sophos Email, Yahoo Mail/AOL
Mistral SmallBarracuda Email Protection, Proofpoint Email Protection
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Mimecast Email Security
Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email ProtectionChanged
Four alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Cisco Secure Email, Microsoft Defender for Office 365
no first choiceCheck Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, SpamTitan
no first choiceagainst: Barracuda Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security
DeepSeek V4 FlashAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint Email Protection
IRONSCALES, Microsoft Defender for Office 365Changed
One alternativeAbnormal AI
Proofpoint Email Protection
Five alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Google Workspace, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Security Gateway, Proofpoint Email Protection, SpamTitan
Abnormal AI
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security
against: Proofpoint Email Protection
against: Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security, SpamTitan
Llama 4 MaverickBarracuda Email Protection
Three alternativesIRONSCALES, Proofpoint Email Protection, SpamTitan
TrustmiChanged
One alternativeControlD
no first choiceMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
One alternativeAcronis Cyber Protect
no first choiceagainst: AOL Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo Mail, iCloud Mail
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Four alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
Proofpoint Email ProtectionChanged
Three alternativesKnowBe4, Red Sift, Vade Secure
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Five alternativesAbnormal AI, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
Microsoft Defender for Office 365, SpamTitan
Two alternativesProofpoint Email Protection, Sophos Email
Abnormal AI
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Proofpoint Email Protection, Valimail
against: Mimecast Email Security
against: McAfee Total Protection, Windows Defender standalone
Kimi K2Abnormal AI, IRONSCALES
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security
against: Proofpoint Email Protection
Abnormal AI, Barracuda Email ProtectionChanged
Two alternativesKnowBe4, Mimecast Email Security
Abnormal AI, IRONSCALES, Material Securityagainst: Microsoft Defender for Office 365Microsoft Defender for Office 365, SpamTitan
Two alternativesProofpoint Email Protection, Trustifi
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Three alternativesAbnormal AI, Google Workspace, Material
against: Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Cisco Secure Email, Libraesva Email Security Gateway, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
GLM 4.7 FlashXMimecast Email Security
Four alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Protection, Egress, IRONSCALES
Microsoft Defender for Office 365Changed
Three alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
Abnormal AI
Five alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Egress, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security, Proofpoint Email Protection
Google Workspace, Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Three alternativesProofpoint Email Protection, Sophos Email, SpamTitan
no first choiceagainst: Bitdefender Email Security, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Cisco Secure Email, Libraesva Email Security Gateway, Mimecast Email Security
MiniMax M2.5Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint Email Protection
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Mimecast Email Security
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALESChanged
Two alternativesAbnormal AI, Barracuda Email Protection
Proofpoint Email Protection
Four alternativesBarracuda Email Protection, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Mimecast Email Security, Sublime Security
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Four alternativesCloudflare Area 1, ESET Mail Security, Google Workspace, SpamTitan
no first choiceagainst: Darktrace, Microsoft
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 11:20yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:46yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:39yes1728 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:14yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:22yes2412 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:28yes87 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:21yes2726 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:11yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:13yes840 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:18yes2063 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:38yes4180 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:19yes517 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:02yes1613 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:25yes26 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:02yes1623 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:58yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:45yes2010 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:58yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:40yes1015 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:55yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:43yes1042 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:45yes1022 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:55yes1016 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:22yes834 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:44yes1410 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:03yes711 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:14yes2223 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:39yes1811 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:30yes2913 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:29yes910 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:51yes1831 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:59yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:15yes521 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:57yes924 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:07yes29130 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:01yes1028 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:46yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:06no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:51yes1920 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:27yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:24yes3715 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:24yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:37yes813 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:04yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:03yes1054 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:40yes1535 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:17yes13179 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:35no011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:01no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:16no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:18yes1125 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:26yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:03yes2414 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:24no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:12yes1525 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 14:06yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:40no043 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:38yes1072 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:10yes14101 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:37yes510 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:03yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:31no06 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:34yes1724 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:59yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:53yes4017 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:44yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:02yes2942 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:29yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:27no042 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:47yes3047 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:04yes3138 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:51yes1429 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
Abnormal read as Abnormal AI
Barracuda read as Barracuda Email Protection
Barracuda Email read as Barracuda Email Protection
Check Point read as Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
Check Point (Avanan) read as Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
Check Point Harmony Email read as Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration
Cisco read as Cisco Secure Email
Google Workspace Security read as Google Workspace
Google Workspace security read as Google Workspace
Microsoft Defender read as Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Mimecast read as Mimecast Email Security
Proofpoint read as Proofpoint Email Protection
Proofpoint Essentials read as Proofpoint Email Protection
Sophos read as Sophos Email
TitanHQ read as SpamTitan
Unresolved, counted raw
AOL
AppRiver
Apple iCloud Mail
Bitdefender Email Security
Cloudflare Area 1
ControlD
ESET Mail Security
Google Workspace Advanced Protection
Hotmail
Hushmail
Material
McAfee Total Protection
Microsoft 365 EOP
Microsoft Outlook
Outlook
Outlook/Microsoft
Proofpoint Threat Protection
Red Sift
Salesloft Drift
Skiff Mail
Skyhigh / IronPort (Cisco)
Trend Micro Email Security
Trustmi
Vade Secure
Windows Defender standalone
Yahoo Mail/AOL
iCloud Mail
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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