# Endpoint detection and response for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "EDR platform" and as "endpoint detection and response tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/security/endpoint-detection-and-response/enterprise/

**Standing:** CrowdStrike Falcon leads with 43% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 44 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CrowdStrike Falcon | 43% | 16% | 49 |
| 2 | Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | 39% | 7% | 58 |
| 3 | SentinelOne Singularity | 7% | 2% | 59 |
| 4 | Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR | 0% | 9% | 34 |
| 5 | Sophos Intercept X | 0% | 11% | 18 |
| 6 | Trend Micro | 0% | 18% | 17 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Perplexity Sonar: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- Grok 4.1 Fast: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- Mistral Small: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Cynet, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Kimi K2: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- MiniMax M2.5: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Expert, SentinelOne Singularity

## Sources the answers cite

63 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- gbhackers.com: 36 answers, 38 citations
- acronis.com: 33 answers, 35 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 26 answers, 26 citations
- decryptiondigest.com: 23 answers, 27 citations
- cyberpress.org: 23 answers, 23 citations
- sentinelone.com: 16 answers, 22 citations
- techrepublic.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- cipherssecurity.com: 15 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gbhackers.com/best-edr-solutions-compared (36 answers)
- https://acronis.com/en/blog/posts/best-edr-endpoint-detection-and-response-solutions-in-2026 (33 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-edr-solutions (26 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/edr-solutions-by-business-size (23 answers)
- https://decryptiondigest.com/blog/best-edr-platforms-2026 (19 answers)
- https://techrepublic.com/article/best-edr-software (16 answers)
- https://cipherssecurity.com/best-edr-software-enterprises-2026 (14 answers)
- https://cyber-tools.net/blog/sentinelone-vs-crowdstrike-vs-defender-edr-2026 (12 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-10-edr-xdr-platforms-2026 (11 answers)
- https://huntress.com/edr-guide/best-edr-solutions (11 answers)

## Warned against

- CrowdStrike Falcon: 8 of 49 labels negative. "CrowdStrike remains an industry-leading EDR platform, but the catastrophic July 2024 global IT outage... highlighted the immense danger of ring-0 (kernel-level) security software." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Trellix EDR: 4 of 6 labels negative. "it is not considered a leader in the current EDR market ... Enterprises ... may find Trellix lacking" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: 4 of 58 labels negative. "High alert volume requiring significant tuning; heavy reliance on proper GPO configuration; limited without M365 E5" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Datto EDR: 3 of 3 labels negative. "Datto EDR is purpose-built for MSP and SMB environments; organizations with large, dedicated security operations centers ... may find purpose-built enterprise platforms provide a higher ceiling" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative 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, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.