# Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 183 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/microsoft-defender-external-attack-surface-management/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Intruder: 33
- Attaxion: 15
- Cortex Xpanse: 11
- Bitsight: 5
- Censys ASM: 5
- Detectify: 4

## Attack surface management

**Small business**: 70 of 84 answers did not name Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is #10 of 13 at 2%).

- Intruder: first choice in 17 of those 70
- Attaxion: first choice in 10 of those 70
- Censys ASM: first choice in 5 of those 70
- Detectify: first choice in 3 of those 70
- Halo Security: first choice in 3 of those 70
- UpGuard BreachSight: first choice in 3 of those 70
- Aikido Security: first choice in 2 of those 70
- PortWarden: first choice in 2 of those 70

**Mid-market**: 59 of 84 answers did not name Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is #3 of 12 at 10%).

- Intruder: first choice in 16 of those 59
- Attaxion: first choice in 5 of those 59
- CyCognito: first choice in 3 of those 59
- Cortex Xpanse: first choice in 2 of those 59
- Detectify: first choice in 1 of those 59
- OWASP Amass: first choice in 1 of those 59
- Pentera: first choice in 1 of those 59
- SurfaceLoop: first choice in 1 of those 59

**Enterprise**: 54 of 84 answers did not name Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is #2 of 9 at 16%).

- Cortex Xpanse: first choice in 9 of those 54
- Bitsight: first choice in 5 of those 54
- Palo Alto Networks: first choice in 2 of those 54
- Synack: first choice in 2 of those 54
- Tenable Attack Surface Management: first choice in 2 of those 54
- Wiz: first choice in 2 of those 54
- Bitsight External Attack Surface Management: first choice in 1 of those 54
- CrowdStrike: first choice in 1 of those 54

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.