IT AI Index
Index Security operations MDR › Enterprise September 2026 Edition

Managed detection and response for enterprise buyers

Asked as “MDR service”, and as “managed detection and response provider”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 41 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
37% 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 an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01CrowdStrike Falcon Complete37%0%39endorsed leader
02Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response20%3%39accepted challenger
03Red Canary7%5%20accepted challenger
04Expel7%5%19accepted challenger
05Sophos MDR2%0%20accepted challenger
06Huntress Managed EDR2%20%10accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09SentinelOne Singularity MDR0%7%14accepted challenger
07Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response0%0%20accepted challenger
08Rapid7 MDR0%0%17accepted challenger
10SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder0%0%10accepted 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
01CrowdStrike Falcon Complete37%
02Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response20%
03Red Canary7%
04Expel7%
05Sophos MDR2%
06Huntress Managed EDR2%
07Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response0%
08Rapid7 MDR0%
09SentinelOne Singularity MDR0%
10SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder0%

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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.
Huntress Managed EDR
20%
2 of 10 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“such as Huntress or Blackpoint Cyber... makes them a poor fit for a large enterprise” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Blackpoint Cyber
100%
1 of 1 labels negative · 1 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“such as Huntress or Blackpoint Cyber... makes them a poor fit for a large enterprise” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
3%
1 of 39 labels negative · 1 of 12 models
“the total bill scales linearly with headcount – less attractive if you have a massive user base” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
CrowdStrike
11%
1 of 9 labels negative · 1 of 12 models
“such as Microsoft, CrowdStrike, or SentinelOne) that solely manage and monitor their own security stack” Gemini 3.5 Flash, 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. 893 links across 222 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

29 answers · 29 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Huntress27 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Defendify26 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
25 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Palo Alto Networks23 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Rapid721 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
20 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
19 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Expel17 answers · 29 citations · 7 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
14 answers · 30 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 MDR service for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which managed detection and response provider would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade MDR services and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best MDR service for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a MDR service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which MDR services should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, eSentire
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteChanged
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity MDR
CrowdStrike
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Defendify, ESET PROTECT MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel
One alternativeHuntress Managed EDR
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniCrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Rapid7 MDR, SentinelOne Singularity MDR
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHeld
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender Experts for XDR
no first choice
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender Experts for XDR, Rapid7 MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
One alternativeCrowdStrike Falcon Complete
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashExpel MDR, Red Canary
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Rapid7 MDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder
CrowdStrike, ExpelChanged
Three alternativesMicrosoft, Rapid7 MDR, Red Canary
no first choice
Seven alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel MDR, Red Canary, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response, eSentire MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Secureworks Taegis ManagedXDR
no first choiceagainst: Blackpoint Cyber, CrowdStrike, Huntress Managed EDR, Microsoft, SentinelOne Singularity MDR
Perplexity SonarCrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Three alternativesRapid7 MDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder, eSentire
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHeld
Two alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Red Canary
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Managed XSIAM, Rapid7 MDR, SentinelOne Vigilance/Wayfinder MDR, Sophos MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Ontinue
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastCrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel MDR, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHeld
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Palo Alto Networks Cortex/Unit 42 MDR, Sophos MDR
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Red Canary MDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Rapid7 MDR, Red Canary
against: Huntress Managed EDR
no first choicenothing named
Mistral SmallSophos MDR
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike, ReliaQuestChanged
Three alternativesExpel, Red Canary, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Rapid7 MDR
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Rapid7 MDR
against: Expel
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashCrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHeld
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, ReliaQuest, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Nine alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, ESET PROTECT MDR, Mandiant (Google Cloud) Managed Services, Rapid7 MDR, Red Canary MDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response, eSentire
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
no first choicenothing named
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choice
Two alternativesBinary Defense, N-able
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCrowdStrike
Five alternativesExabeam, Mandiant, NetScout, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Tenable
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteChanged
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Secureworks, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Six alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Huntress Managed EDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, Sophos MDR
Arctic Wolf Network, Halo Private Defense
Three alternativesCrowdStrike, Secureworks, Tenable
no first choicenothing named
Kimi K2CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Six alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Mandiant, Rapid7 MDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHeld
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Managed XSIAM 2.0, ReliaQuest GreyMatter, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Five alternativesExpel MDR, Red Canary MDR, SentinelOne Vigilance/Wayfinder MDR, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Red Canary
Two alternativesExpel, ReliaQuest
no first choicenothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
One alternativeExpel
against: Red Canary
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseChanged
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, ESET PROTECT MDR, Rapid7 MDR, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Nine alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Cynet, Expel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Ontinue, Red Canary, SentinelOne Singularity Wayfinder, Sophos MDR, Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Red Canary
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender for CloudArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteChanged
Two alternativesRed Canary, ReliaQuest
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Rapid7 MDR, Sophos MDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
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 11:15yes1610 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:26yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:54yes1824 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:12yes176 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:44yes3418 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:18yes87 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:45yes1716 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:00yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:45no035 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:13yes932 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:51yes32272 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:55yes519 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:20yes139 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:18yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:46yes1224 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:12yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:24yes3514 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:55yes77 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:21yes1822 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:18yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:39no035 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:17yes823 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:29yes17322 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:59yes529 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:32yes1611 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:55yes412 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:50yes1731 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:46yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:15yes2815 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:33yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:04yes918 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:57yes54 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:03yes934 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:10yes1338 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:10yes1285 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:18yes1234 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:38yes189 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:27yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:39yes1927 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:37yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:31yes3418 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:46yes56 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 13:29yes2565 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:01yes106 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:40no040 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:19yes1938 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:47yes35196 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:48yes1667 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:16yes3618 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:50no020 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:54yes428 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:53yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:23yes1813 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:46no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:07yes1924 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:35yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:15no043 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:10yes1440 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:25yes2468 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:05no063 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:43yes3513 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:27no08 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:13yes2826 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:59yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:48yes1613 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:46yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:46yes1725 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:10yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:23yes548 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:41yes2344 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:28yes2877 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:00yes928 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
Huntress read as Huntress Managed EDR
Microsoft Defender Experts read as Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
Palo Alto (Unit 42/ Cortex) read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Palo Alto Networks read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Palo Alto Networks (Cortex) read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Palo Alto Networks (Unit 42 MDR) read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
Rapid7 read as Rapid7 MDR
Rapid7 (Rapid7 MDR) read as Rapid7 MDR
SentinelOne read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
SentinelOne (Singularity MDR) read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
SentinelOne (Wayfinder MDR / Vigilance) read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
SentinelOne (Wayfinder Threat Detection and Response) read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
Sophos read as Sophos MDR
Unresolved, counted raw
Arctic Wolf Network
Cisco Secure
Daylight Security
Halo Private Defense
Mandiant (Google Cloud) Managed Services
Palo Alto Networks Cortex/Unit 42 MDR
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Managed XSIAM
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Managed XSIAM 2.0
Secureworks Taegis ManagedXDR
eSentire MDR
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← GRCPTaaS →