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

SOAR platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “SOAR platform”, and as “security orchestration and automated response tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Tines
Clear leader
49% 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 businessTines49%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketTines47%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseCortex XSOAR40%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
01Tines49%4%47endorsed leader
02Rapid7 InsightConnect7%5%19accepted challenger
03Splunk SOAR7%60%45criticized challenger
04Shuffle5%4%23accepted challenger
05Microsoft Sentinel5%19%21accepted challenger
06Torq2%30%23criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08IBM QRadar SOAR0%80%10criticized challenger
09Cortex XSOAR0%77%39criticized challenger
07Swimlane0%50%16criticized 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
Tines vs Rapid7 InsightConnectTines vs ShuffleRapid7 InsightConnect vs Shuffle

One product takes 49% of first choices here, so the chart would put eight 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. Five products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, 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.
Splunk SOAR
60%
27 of 45 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“Major enterprise platforms like **Cortex XSOAR**, **Splunk SOAR**, and **Swimlane** are excellent but generally **overkill and overpriced** for a small B2B company” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
Cortex XSOAR
77%
30 of 39 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 15 hard negative
“avoid the "enterprise giants" (like Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, or IBM QRadar SOAR)—they are far too heavy and expensive” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
Torq
30%
7 of 23 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid for Tight Budgets: ... or Torq (~$20K+/year starters, quote-only)” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
IBM QRadar SOAR
80%
8 of 10 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“legacy-heavy solutions designed for global compliance and massive scale... notoriously difficult to deploy quickly” Qwen 3.7 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. 938 links across 184 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

paloaltonetworks.com
vendor site · Palo Alto Networks42 answers · 43 citations · 11 models
aimultiple.com
33 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
gartner.com
32 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
comparitech.com
32 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
blinkops.com
vendor site · BlinkOps29 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
g2.com
19 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
soarpricing.com
18 answers · 34 citations · 6 models
exabeam.com
vendor site · Exabeam17 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
getapp.com
17 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
tech-insider.org
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
myhospitalnow.com
15 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
swimlane.com
vendor site · Swimlane14 answers · 19 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.

paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/soar-tools-comparison
41 answers · 11 models
aimultiple.com/top-soar-platforms
33 answers · 10 models
comparitech.com/net-admin/best-soar-software
32 answers · 9 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/security-orchestration-automation-and-response-s…
31 answers · 10 models
blinkops.com/blog/soar-platforms
29 answers · 9 models
tech-insider.org/torq-vs-tines-vs-cortex-xsiam-2026
17 answers · 8 models
soarpricing.com/
16 answers · 5 models
getapp.com/all-software/security-orchestration-automation-and-response-soar…
14 answers · 7 models
slashdot.org/software/security-orchestration-automation-and-response-soar/f…
14 answers · 7 models
cloudsek.com/knowledge-base/best-soar-platforms
12 answers · 8 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 SOAR platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which security orchestration and automated response tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top SOAR platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SOAR platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a SOAR platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which SOAR platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Tines
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect
no first choiceChanged
Three alternativesCortex XSOAR, Rapid7 InsightConnect, Splunk SOAR
Tines
Three alternativesRapid7 InsightConnect, Shuffle, Torq
Tines
Three alternativesShuffle, StackStorm, TheHive with Cortex
no first choiceagainst: ArcSight SOAR, Splunk SOAR
GPT-5.4 miniSplunk SOAR
One alternativeCortex XSOAR
Splunk SOARHeld
Two alternativesFortiSOAR, Tines
Tines
Four alternativesCortex XSOAR, Google Security Operations SOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOAR
Splunk SOAR
One alternativeIBM QRadar SOAR
no first choiceagainst: Cortex XSOAR, FortiSOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOAR
Gemini 3.5 FlashTines
Three alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel + Logic Apps, Shuffle, Torq
against: Cortex XSOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOARTinesHeld
Three alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel + Logic Apps, Shuffle, Torq
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARTines
Three alternativesBlinkOps, Shuffle, Torq
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARTines
Three alternativesShuffle, Tracecat, n8n
Tines
Five alternativesBlinkOps, Make, Microsoft Sentinel + Logic Apps, Shuffle, Zapier
against: Cortex XSOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOARagainst: Cortex XSOAR, FortiSOAR, Google Security Operations SOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane Turbine, Tines, Torq
Perplexity SonarManageEngine Log360
Two alternativesProofpoint Threat Response, Splunk SOAR
ManageEngine Log360Held
Four alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect, Splunk SOAR, Tines
Tines, Torq
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Splunk SOAR
against: Cortex XSOARManageEngine Log360
One alternativeRapid7 InsightConnect
no first choiceagainst: Cortex XSIAM, Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane Turbine, Torq
Grok 4.1 FastTines
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, ORNA
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARManageEngine Log360Changed
One alternativeBlumira
against: Cortex XSOAR, SwimlaneShuffle, Tines
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane, TorqTines
Two alternativesManageEngine Log360, Shuffle
against: Cortex XSOAR, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk SOAR, Torqno first choiceagainst: Cortex XSOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane
Mistral SmallTines
One alternativeCortex XSOAR
SIRPChangedTines, Torq
Two alternativesSplunk SOAR, TheHive
against: Swimlane TurbineBlumira, Tines
One alternativeManageEngine Log360
no first choice
Three alternativesD3 Security Smart SOAR, Google Security Operations SOAR, TheHive
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARagainst: Microsoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect
DeepSeek V4 FlashTines
One alternativeShuffle
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, SwimlaneTinesHeld
Two alternativesSIRP, Shuffle
against: Cortex XSOAR, TorqTines
Three alternativesShuffle, Swimlane, Torq
Tracecat
Three alternativesShuffle, StackStorm, n8n
Tines
Four alternativesBlinkOps, Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane, Tines
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceMicrosoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect, Tines
Two alternativesFortiSOAR, LogRhythm Axon
no first choiceagainst: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR
Qwen 3.7 FlashTines
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, SwimlaneTinesHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, ServiceNow Security Operations
Tines
Three alternativesD3 Security Smart SOAR, Tracecat, n8n
against: IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOARShuffle, Wazuh
Three alternativesAzure Logic Apps, Microsoft Power Automate, TheHive + Cortex
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARno first choiceagainst: Cortex XSOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, Splunk SOAR
Kimi K2Tines
Three alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect, Shuffle
TinesHeld
Two alternativesRapid7 InsightIDR/InsightConnect, Shuffle
against: Cortex XSOAR, D3 Security Smart SOAR, Splunk SOAR, SwimlaneTines
Two alternativesRapid7 InsightConnect, Shuffle
against: Splunk SOARShuffle, Tines
Three alternativesBlumira, TheHive + Cortex, Torq
Tines, Torq
Two alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, Splunk SOAR
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR
GLM 4.7 FlashXBlumira
Three alternativesD3 Security Smart SOAR, Swimlane, Tines
against: Cortex XSOARORNAChanged
Two alternativesFortiSOAR, Tines
no first choiceBlumira
Three alternativesOpenCTI, Splunk SOAR, Tines
no first choiceagainst: Cortex XSOARagainst: Cortex XSOAR, FortiSOAR, Google Security Operations SOAR, IBM QRadar SOAR, ManageEngine Log360, Splunk SOAR, Swimlane, Torq, XSIAM
MiniMax M2.5Microsoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightConnect
One alternativeSwimlane
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARRapid7 InsightConnectChanged
One alternativeSIRP
against: Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOARTines
Four alternativesCyware, D3 Security Smart SOAR, Rapid7 InsightConnect, Swimlane Turbine
against: Huginn, Shuffle, n8nTines
Three alternativesMicrosoft Sentinel, UnderDefense MAXI, Wazuh
against: Torqno first choiceagainst: Cortex XSOAR, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk SOAR
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 11:37yes96 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:08yes24 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:14yes1622 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:52yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:03yes3519 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:46yes1010 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:35yes1918 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:49yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:59yes2098 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:39yes2551 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:27yes27165 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:45yes519 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:14no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:26yes65 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:54yes818 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:20yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:41yes3220 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:43yes56 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:51yes2519 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:49yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:08yes988 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:14yes1244 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:17yes2249 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:22yes858 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:27yes2814 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:33yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:52yes1636 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:52yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:25yes3917 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:32yes2916 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:32yes2323 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:58yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:25yes1044 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:53yes1564 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:03yes1460 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:55yes821 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:07yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:04yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:59yes2022 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:17yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:31yes4319 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:58yes87 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:19yes1012 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:39yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:32no044 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:52yes920 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:23yes32103 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:37yes1340 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:58no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:58no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:03yes623 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:49yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:36yes1710 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:41no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:23yes1017 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:23yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:28no036 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:43yes1027 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:54yes1545 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:42yes517 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:07yes1616 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:32yes58 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:10yes18204 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:37yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:24yes4018 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:27yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:34yes2826 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:50yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:19yes1048 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:11yes2335 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:57yes2554 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:57yes1035 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
D3 read as D3 Security Smart SOAR
D3 Security read as D3 Security Smart SOAR
Google Chronicle read as Google Security Operations SOAR
Google Security Operations read as Google Security Operations SOAR
Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR read as Cortex XSOAR
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR read as Cortex XSOAR
Palo Alto Networks' Cortex XSOAR read as Cortex XSOAR
Splunk read as Splunk SOAR
Unresolved, counted raw
CyberArk Covisix
Microsoft Sentinel / Defender Fusion
Proofpoint Threat Response
Rapid7 InsightIDR/InsightConnect
UnderDefense MAXI
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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