Small business▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 3 of 35, unchanged
AWS · 1 category · RankedAWS Shield
214Judge labels
2First choices
34Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
1Category
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
4% in DDoS for mid-market buyers
Rank 2 of 58 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
2 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 11% of its 62 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of AWS Shield →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business2 of 38
0%83 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market2 of 58
4%62 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise8 of 41
0%66 labels
accepted challenger
In ddos · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named AWS Shield for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DDoS protection | Network and edge | 4% | 2 of 58 | 11% | 62 | accepted challenger | ▲+5Since September 2026: 0% → 5%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, AWS Shield held within the floor in its one category: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · DDoS · by segment
Mid-market▲+5Since September 2026: 0% → 5%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
5%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 6 pointsRank 4 → 2 of 52
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 6 → 8 of 41
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DDoS | 0% | 5% | ▲+5Since September 2026: 0% → 5%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 4 → 2 of 58 |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated AWS Shield across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated AWS Shield across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct45 labels2
Paraphrase32 labelsNone
Comparative42 labelsNone
Budget-constrained44 labelsNone
Scale-constrained22 labelsNone
Negative29 labelsNone
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative214 labels in all, every segment counted; 2 of the 2 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Cloudflare and AWS Shield Advanced are the top choices due to their balance of cost, ease of use, and comprehensive protection” Mistral Small · DDoS · direct prompt · first choice
“If your entire stack is hosted on Amazon Web Services (EC2, Elastic Load Balancing), AWS Shield is the logical choice.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · DDoS · direct prompt · first choice
“If you're on AWS: AWS Shield Advanced (free Standard tier + paid for advanced). Seamless integration but best if heavily cloud-native.” Grok 4.20 · DDoS · paraphrase prompt · alternative
“If you're AWS-based: AWS Shield and Azure DDoS Protection are the strongest choices inside their respective clouds” Claude Haiku 4.5 · DDoS · paraphrase prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“A Budget Trap to Avoid ... Costs a flat $3,000/month with a 1-year commitment, plus data transfer fees.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · DDoS · budget prompt · hard negative
“Options to Avoid on a Limited Budget ... $3,000/month” DeepSeek V4 Flash · DDoS · budget prompt · hard negative
“AWS Shield Standard protects only when used with AWS edge services like CloudFront and Route 53, and Shield Advanced is needed for stronger cost protection” Perplexity Sonar · DDoS · negative prompt · soft negative
“AWS Shield is designed to protect AWS resources ... don't assume the cloud provider's built-in protection covers it.” GPT-6 Luna · DDoS · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as AWS Shield, over the 200 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and AWS Shield was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as AWS Shield, over the 200 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and AWS Shield was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named AWS Shield. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 187 of the 200 answers that named AWS Shield and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
esecurityplanet.com124
radware.com103
cybersecuritynews.com93
flowtriq.com78
indusface.com77
cyberpress.org67
geekflare.com61
sourceforge.net52
cloudflare.com48
expertinsights.com44
747 of the 747 domain citations in answers naming AWS Shield came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where AWS Shield stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where AWS Shield stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 1,000 a month (“aws shield”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 112 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on AWS's site (aws.amazon.com), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
4%
rank 2 of 58 in ddos
Segment leader
82%
Cloudflare
- First choices
- 2 across its categories
- Named in
- 200 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 187 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as AWS Shield
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as AWS Shield; a claim can dispute any of them.
AWS Shield Advanced 18AWS Shield Standard 10AWS Shield (Advanced) 2Shield Advanced 2
Follow AWS Shield
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
AWS is the company behind AWS Shield.ShowHide
The company
AWS is the company behind AWS Shield.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from AWS
- AWS ACM, AWS ACM Private CA, AWS ALB, AWS ALB/ELB, AWS ALB/NLB, AWS API Gateway HTTP APIs, AWS Amazon Aurora, AWS App Runner and 87 more
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Protects networks and applications by analyzing network security configurations and providing managed DDoS protection
- For
- your subscription to AWS Shield Advanced
- Price stated
- AWS Shield Standard is built into the AWS services that you already use for your web applications. There are no additional costs for AWS Shield Standard. With AWS Shield Advanced, you pay a monthly fee of $3,000 per month per organization. In addition, you also pay for AWS Shield Advanced Data Transfer usage fees for AWS resources enabled for advanced protection. During the preview period, AWS Shield network security director will be available at no additional cost. aws.amazon.com/shield/faqs
- Starting price
- 3000 aws.amazon.com/shield/faqs
- Free plan or trial
- AWS Shield Standard has no additional costs; AWS Shield network security director will be available at no additional cost during the preview period aws.amazon.com/shield/faqs
- Certifications
- HIPAA eligible service
- Hosting
- US East (N. Virginia)Europe (Stockholm)Northern VirginiaOhioOregonNorthern CaliforniaMontrealSão Paulo
- Not stated on the pages read
- Integrations, customers
What AWS Shield's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: aws.amazon.com/shield, aws.amazon.com/shield/sla, aws.amazon.com/shield/faqs, aws.amazon.com/shield/pricing, aws.amazon.com/shield/features. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when AWS Shield's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as AWS Shield, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for AWS Shield by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where AWS Shield is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name AWS Shield, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where AWS Shield is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.ShowHide
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where AWS Shield is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideAWS Shield is among the products AI models recommend first in DDoS protection this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.
Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges
Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides
Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer
Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.