IT AI Index
Index › Security operations › MDR › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Managed detection and response for small business buyers

Asked as “MDR service”, and as “managed detection and response provider”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Huntress Managed EDR
Clear leader
88% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

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.
Small businessHuntress Managed EDR88%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response39%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseCrowdStrike Falcon Complete37%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Huntress Managed EDR88%0%53endorsed leader
02Sophos MDR5%2%45accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
06CrowdStrike Falcon Complete0%58%26criticized challenger
05Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response0%42%33criticized challenger
04Expel0%13%15accepted challenger
03Blackpoint Cyber0%0%14accepted 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.
Head to head
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs Huntress Managed EDRArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs Sophos MDRHuntress Managed EDR vs Sophos MDR

One product takes 88% of first choices here, so the chart would put five markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Two products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Twelve of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. 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.
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
58%
15 of 26 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid for Small Business: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
42%
14 of 33 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget ... significantly more expensive” Kimi K2, budget prompt
CrowdStrike
40%
2 of 5 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“Consider CrowdStrike or Secureworks if you're a bit larger... those are often less "small business first" in positioning” GPT-5.4 mini, direct prompt
Expel
13%
2 of 15 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“Top-tier enterprise MDR platforms (such as ReliaQuest or Expel) ... Without a dedicated CISO or security engineer on your staff ... your team will quickly drown in "tool fatigue"” 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

66 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. 693 links across 143 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

gbhackers.com
40 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
consilien.com
vendor site · Consilien36 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
cyberpress.org
33 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
mdrcost.com
31 answers · 36 citations · 10 models
smbsecureguide.com
30 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
cybersecuritynews.com
26 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
mdrproviders.io
21 answers · 36 citations · 7 models
learn.g2.com
19 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
bellatorcyber.com
17 answers · 21 citations · 7 models
huntress.com
vendor site · Huntress16 answers · 30 citations · 8 models
g2.com
12 answers · 17 citations · 6 models
expel.com
vendor site · Expel11 answers · 14 citations · 9 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.

gbhackers.com/best-mdr-services-compared
40 answers · 10 models
consilien.com/news/best-mdr-providers-smb-2026
35 answers · 10 models
cyberpress.org/mdr-services-to-consider
32 answers · 10 models
smbsecureguide.com/endpoint-security/best-mdr-services-for-smbs-2026-roundup
30 answers · 9 models
mdrcost.com/small-business
29 answers · 10 models
cybersecuritynews.com/best-mdr-services
22 answers · 9 models
learn.g2.com/top-mdr-providers
19 answers · 8 models
mdrproviders.io/providers/size/smb
15 answers · 6 models
bellatorcyber.com/blog/mdr-vendor-pricing-comparison
12 answers · 7 models
defendify.com/blog/managed-detection-and-response-providers
10 answers · 6 models

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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which managed detection and response provider would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top MDR services for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best MDR service for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a MDR service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which MDR services should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesCynet, ESET PROTECT MDR
Huntress Managed EDRHeld
One alternativeESET PROTECT MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesCynet 360, Defendify, Expel
Huntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesSophos MDR, Stoic MDR
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniSophos MDR
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender Experts for XDR
against: CrowdStrike, SecureworksSophos MDRHeld
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Four alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Rapid7 MDR, Sophos MDR
Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Completeno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Field Effect MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRHeld
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, RADICL, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, SentinelOne Singularity MDRHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Field Effect MDR, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Field Effect MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Defendify, Sophos MDR
against: Expel, ReliaQuest
Perplexity SonarHuntress Managed EDR
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Expel, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRHeld
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel
Huntress Managed EDR
Four alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, Defendify, Field Effect MDR, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseHuntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesMicrosoft-centric options, Sophos MDR
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastHuntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDRHeld
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDR
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Blackpoint Cyber, Field Effect MDR, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesBlumira, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Red Canary
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response
Mistral SmallHuntress Managed EDRagainst: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDRHuntress Managed EDRHeldHuntress Managed EDR
Five alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel MDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseHuntress Managed EDRno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesExpel, Red Canary, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDRHeld
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Blackpoint Cyber, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, ExpelHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesBlackpoint Cyber, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and ResponseHuntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Responseno first choice
Two alternativesHuntress Managed EDR, Sophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Responseagainst: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Llama 4 MaverickHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Consilien, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRHeldHuntress Managed EDR
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Field Effect MDR, Rapid7 MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDR, Tenable One
Huntress Managed EDRHeld
One alternativeRed Canary
against: CrowdStrikeHuntress Managed EDR
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel MDR, Sophos MDR
Securelayer7
Four alternativesCyberGRi, K7 Computing, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps / Endpoint P2, SentinelOne Singularity MDR
Mendel
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Endgame, Kronos, Orca, Secureworks
nothing named
Kimi K2Huntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesESET PROTECT MDR, Expel, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDRHeld
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, CrowdStrike Falcon GoHuntress Managed EDR
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Blackpoint Cyber, Expel, SentinelOne Singularity MDR, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon CompleteHuntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Red CanaryHuntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Sophos MDR
nothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXHuntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRHeld
Two alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
Nine alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Blackpoint Cyber, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Expel, Field Effect MDR, Ontinue, Red Canary, ReliaQuest GreyMatter, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, CrowdStrike Falcon Completeno first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Huntress Managed EDR
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, ESET PROTECT MDR, Sophos MDR
Huntress Managed EDRHeldHuntress Managed EDR
Two alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response, Sophos MDR
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Microsoft DefenderHuntress Managed EDR
One alternativeSophos MDR
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Responseno 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 10:02yes1311 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:23yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:31yes1321 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:38yes176 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:07yes1211 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:35yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:50yes713 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:30yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:22yes1049 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:31yes915 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:31yes2479 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:32yes515 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:14yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:03yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:48yes1023 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:50yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:33yes2916 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:38yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:51yes615 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:15yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:35no033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:23yes2028 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:14yes2666 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:20yes1064 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:23yes1411 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:17yes69 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:48yes1128 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:18yes1612 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 14:04yes2215 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:49yes58 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:02yes2529 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:18yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:15yes529 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:40yes1028 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:29yes1285 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:46yes926 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:15yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:32yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:01yes1122 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:09yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:43yes2914 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:43yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:56yes712 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:24yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:22no046 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:54yes838 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:54yes10124 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:52yes518 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:36no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:27no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:49yes827 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:26yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:08yes1912 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:43no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:49yes1820 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:49yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:00yes523 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:54yes1019 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:28yes15189 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:38yes516 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:17yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:27no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:06yes2131 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:39yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:17yes1912 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:08yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:12yes1824 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:08yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:27yes1146 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:09yes919 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:39yes1449 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:44yes519 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
Field Effect read as Field Effect MDR
Field Effect (Covalence) read as Field Effect MDR
Huntress read as Huntress Managed EDR
Huntress (Managed EDR) read as Huntress Managed EDR
Microsoft Defender Experts read as Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR
Palo Alto Networks read as Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response
SentinelOne read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
SentinelOne (MTR) read as SentinelOne Singularity MDR
Sophos read as Sophos MDR
Sophos Essentials read as Sophos MDR
Unresolved, counted raw
Blackpoint
CyberGRi
Endgame
K7 Computing
Kronos
Mendel
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps / Endpoint P2
Microsoft-centric options
RADICL
Securelayer7
Stoic MDR
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in security operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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