IT AI Index
Index Security operations September 2026 Edition

Managed detection and response

Asked as “MDR service”, and as “managed detection and response provider”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
39% 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
02Huntress Managed EDR26%0%38accepted challenger
03Sophos MDR11%0%43accepted challenger
04eSentire11%0%20accepted challenger
05Expel4%4%23accepted challenger
06CrowdStrike Falcon Complete2%12%26accepted challenger
07SentinelOne Singularity MDR2%0%18accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Red Canary0%5%21accepted challenger
09Rapid7 MDR0%0%17accepted challenger
10Ontinue0%0%13accepted 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
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response39%
02Huntress Managed EDR26%
03Sophos MDR11%
04eSentire11%
05Expel4%
06CrowdStrike Falcon Complete2%
07SentinelOne Singularity MDR2%
08Red Canary0%
09Rapid7 MDR0%
10Ontinue0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, 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.
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
14%
6 of 43 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-tier providers** (Arctic Wolf, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Red Canary) on a tight budget” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
12%
3 of 26 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-tier providers** (Arctic Wolf, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Red Canary)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Expel
4%
1 of 23 labels negative · 1 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-tier providers** (Arctic Wolf, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Red Canary)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Red Canary
5%
1 of 21 labels negative · 1 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-tier providers** (Arctic Wolf, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Red Canary)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget 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. 662 links across 164 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

37 answers · 39 citations · 9 models
28 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
27 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Consilien19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 27 citations · 7 models
14 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Huntress13 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
11 answers · 13 citations · 10 models
11 answers · 11 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Expel10 answers · 15 citations · 7 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 MDR service for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which managed detection and response provider would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top MDR services and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best MDR service for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a MDR service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which MDR services should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Two alternativesESET PROTECT MDR, Sophos MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseHeld
Four alternativesCynet 360, Huntress Managed EDR, Rapid7 MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesCynet, Expel, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesEye Security, Sophos MDR
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 minieSentire
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Sophos MDR
ExpelChanged
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft Defender XDR + a managed service partner
no first choice
Six alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Rapid7 MDR, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
ESET PROTECT MDR
Three alternativesBitdefender MDR, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Rapid7 MDR
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSophos MDR
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Huntress Managed EDR, Red Canary
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseChanged
Three alternativesExpel MDR, Red Canary MDR, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Red Canary, Sophos MDR, eSentire
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Sophos MDR
no first choicenothing named
Perplexity SonarArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Four alternativesHuntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
eSentireChanged
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder
no first choiceHuntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Two alternativesSophos MDR, eSentire
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseHeld
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Huntress Managed EDR, Sophos MDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Six alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Huntress Managed EDR, Sophos MDR
Two alternativesExpel, ThreatDown
against: Trellix
Mistral SmallArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, eSentireSophos MDR, eSentireChanged
One alternativeHuntress Managed EDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Seven alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Huntress Managed EDR, Red Canary, Sophos MDR, eSentire
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseChanged
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Sophos MDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Seven alternativesExpel, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR, eSentire
Huntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Red Canary
no first choicenothing named
Llama 4 MaverickArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Six alternativesField Effect MDR, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Rapid7 MDR, deepwatch, eSentire
SentinelOne Singularity MDRChanged
Three alternativesField Effect MDR, Huntress Managed EDR, eSentire
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Two alternativesExpel, Huntress Managed EDR
Huntress Managed EDRno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps / Endpoints, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseChanged
Three alternativesCrowdStrike, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Red Canary, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesBitSight / CyberScore, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CyberGhost
no first choicenothing named
Kimi K2Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Three alternativesRapid7 MDR, Sophos MDR, eSentire
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDRChanged
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Rapid7 MDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Seven alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, Sophos MDR, eSentire
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesESET PROTECT MDR, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Red Canary, eSentire
nothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, eSentire
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Red Canary, Sophos MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseChanged
Seven alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Huntress Managed EDR
Eight alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Critical Start, Expel, Ontinue, Rapid7 MDR, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder, UnderDefense
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesObsidian Ridge, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, eSentire
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDRChanged
One alternativeHuntress Managed EDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, SentinelOne Singularity MDR
Eight alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Cynet, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Rapid7 MDR, Red Canary, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, ESET PROTECT MDR, Sophos MDR
no first choicenothing named
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 09:43yes169 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:56yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:13yes2023 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:20yes197 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:15yes3418 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:56yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:24yes614 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:22yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:40no038 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:58yes923 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:49yes1287 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:04yes1238 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:27yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:52yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:41yes1220 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:00yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:22yes3115 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:25yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:18yes813 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:44yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:46no035 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:15yes821 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:13yes1356 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:25yes524 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:27yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:44yes59 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:21yes1425 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:57yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:22yes1914 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:46yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:34yes1919 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 13:29yes954 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:59yes827 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:25yes625 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:27yes569 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:19yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:56yes511 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:43yes1422 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:10yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:57yes1310 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:17yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 13:12yes1729 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:19yes55 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:51yes1038 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:30yes515 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:24yes1153 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:03yes514 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:26no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:18no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:30yes1324 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:27yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:46yes2011 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:39no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:59yes1521 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:10yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:37no043 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:42yes1534 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:07yes15185 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:50yes516 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:39yes2812 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:54no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:43yes1118 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:38yes197 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:17yes1610 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:21yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:00yes1529 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:04yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:49no046 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:39yes1932 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:03yes1218 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:14yes520 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
Arctic Wolf read as Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon read as CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
ESET read as ESET PROTECT MDR
Field Effect read as Field Effect MDR
Huntress read as Huntress Managed EDR
Microsoft Defender Experts read as Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
Palo Alto Networks (Cortex MDR / Unit 42) read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Palo Alto Networks (Cortex MDR) read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Access / Unit 42) read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Rapid7 read as Rapid7 MDR
SentinelOne read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
Sophos read as Sophos MDR
Sophos Essentials read as Sophos MDR
Unresolved, counted raw
BitSight / CyberScore
Bitdefender MDR
CyberGhost
Eye Security
Kaseya MDR
Microsoft Defender XDR + a managed service partner
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps / Endpoints
Microsoft-native MDR
Obsidian Ridge
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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