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 14 → 20 of 93
Microsoft Defender · 1 category · RankedMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
116Judge labels
15First choices
26Negative 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
16% in ASM for enterprise buyers
Rank 3 of 100 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
1 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 18% of its 39 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management →By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business11 of 99
2%28 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market3 of 100
10%39 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise2 of 89
16%47 labels
accepted challenger
In asm · 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack surface management | Security operations | 10% | 3 of 100 | 18% | 39 | accepted challenger | ▲+5Since September 2026: 2% → 7%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management held within the floor in its one category: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · ASM · by segment
Mid-market▲+5Since September 2026: 2% → 7%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
7%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 6 pointsRank 5 → 3 of 98
Enterprise▼−4Since September 2026: 21% → 17%, −4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
17%from 21% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 7 pointsRank 1 → 2 of 81
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASM | 2% | 7% | ▲+5Since September 2026: 2% → 7%, +5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 5 → 3 of 100 |
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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
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
Direct23 labels2
Paraphrase19 labels3
Comparative25 labels3not counted in share
Budget-constrained19 labels9
Scale-constrained7 labels1
Negative23 labelsNone
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative116 labels in all, every segment counted; 15 of the 18 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.
“the best attack surface management (ASM) platform is Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (EASM) if you already use Microsoft 365/E5” GLM 4.7 FlashX · ASM · budget prompt · first choice
“I'd generally recommend Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management as the first tool to evaluate” GPT-5.4 mini · ASM · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“I'd start with Microsoft Defender EASM—especially if you already use Azure or Microsoft security tools.” GPT-6 Luna · ASM · direct prompt · first choice
“CyCognito, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, and Microsoft Defender EASM are strong starting points” DeepSeek V4 Flash · ASM · scale prompt · first choice
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.
“Microsoft’s native ASM is described as tightly integrated with Defender and Azure, so it may be less suitable if you need broad multi-cloud, SaaS, or heterogeneous coverage” Perplexity Sonar · ASM · negative prompt · soft negative
“integrates deeply with Microsoft/Sentinel/Defender; limited third-party integration for non-Microsoft environments.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · ASM · negative prompt · soft negative
“while Microsoft Defender EASM is excellent at passive discovery, its active vulnerability scanning can be lacking” Gemini 3.5 Flash · ASM · negative prompt · soft negative
“High false positives requiring dedicated triage; complex setup (typical Microsoft); needs existing license” Grok 4.20 · ASM · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, over the 116 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, over the 116 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management. 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 116 of the 116 answers that named Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
synack.com58
paloaltonetworks.com57
guideflow.com52
upguard.com48
wiz.io45
cycognito.com37
gartner.com36
g2.com35
attaxion.com34
heimdalsecurity.com33
435 of the 435 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 140 a month (“microsoft defender external attack surface management”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 5 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on Microsoft Defender's site (microsoft.com), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
10%
rank 3 of 100 in ASM
Segment leader
49%
Intruder
- First choices
- 15 across its categories
- Named in
- 116 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 116 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management; a claim can dispute any of them.
Microsoft Defender EASM 26Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (EASM) 4Defender EASM 1Microsoft 1
Follow Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
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
Microsoft Defender is the company behind Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management.ShowHide
The company
Microsoft Defender is the company behind Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from Microsoft Defender
- Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Attack Simulation Training, Microsoft Defender Experts, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Microsoft Defender TI, Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, Microsoft Defender XDR and 12 more
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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management'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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management, 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideMicrosoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is among the products AI models recommend first in Attack surface management 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.