# Endpoint detection and response: 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 a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/security/endpoint-detection-and-response/

**Standing:** Bitdefender GravityZone (tied with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint) leads with 20% of first choices; verdict contested. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bitdefender GravityZone | 20% | 0% | 42 |
| 2 | Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | 20% | 11% | 38 |
| 3 | Huntress Managed EDR | 14% | 0% | 34 |
| 4 | Microsoft Defender for Cloud | 14% | 0% | 10 |
| 5 | CrowdStrike Falcon | 12% | 20% | 35 |
| 6 | SentinelOne Singularity | 8% | 16% | 45 |
| 7 | CrowdStrike | 6% | 31% | 13 |
| 8 | Sophos Intercept X | 0% | 5% | 22 |
| 9 | Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR | 0% | 11% | 19 |
| 10 | Cynet | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 11 | Trend Micro | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 12 | ThreatDown EDR | 0% | 30% | 10 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- GPT-5.4 mini: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: SentinelOne Singularity; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Sophos Intercept X
- Perplexity Sonar: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X + Sophos MDR
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon Insight, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Mistral Small: Bitdefender GravityZone, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Bitdefender GravityZone, Huntress Managed EDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Llama 4 Maverick: CrowdStrike; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X
- Kimi K2: Bitdefender GravityZone; alternatives Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Business / Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CrowdStrike Falcon; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone, Cynet, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- MiniMax M2.5: no first choice

## Sources the answers cite

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

- gbhackers.com: 41 answers, 45 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 32 answers, 33 citations
- cyberpress.org: 31 answers, 31 citations
- huntress.com: 22 answers, 34 citations
- acronis.com: 17 answers, 17 citations
- senseon.io: 15 answers, 15 citations
- cnicsolutions.com: 14 answers, 22 citations
- learn.g2.com: 14 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gbhackers.com/best-edr-solutions-compared (40 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-edr-solutions (32 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/edr-solutions-by-business-size (31 answers)
- https://senseon.io/blog/best-edr-solutions (15 answers)
- https://acronis.com/en/blog/posts/best-edr-endpoint-detection-and-response-solutions-in-2026 (14 answers)
- https://huntress.com/internal-it-cybersecurity-guide/best-endpoint-protection-for-small-businesses (13 answers)
- https://cnicsolutions.com/cybersecurity-threat-protection/best-endpoint-protection-edr-solutions-for-smbs (12 answers)
- https://huntress.com/edr-guide/best-edr-solutions (11 answers)
- https://kaseya.com/blog/best-edr-solutions (11 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-edr-software (11 answers)

## Warned against

- VMware Carbon Black: 7 of 12 labels negative. "Strongly Avoid or High Caution... High false positives blocking legit apps, integration struggles post-acquisitions, premium pricing without matching value" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- SentinelOne Singularity: 7 of 45 labels negative. "Cautions: Occasional false positives/alert issues, compatibility/migration challenges, less mature ecosystem/threat intel depth, weaker non-Windows support." (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- CrowdStrike Falcon: 7 of 35 labels negative. "Excellent capabilities, but the 2024 outage and testing controversies are valid caution flags for risk-averse environments." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Datto EDR: 4 of 4 labels negative. "MSP reviews describe it as "among the least effective tools"... the high FPR and operational overhead can be a dealbreaker." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, 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.