Every category where a model named Microsoft Defender for Identity 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
Identity threat detection and response	Identity and access	14%	2 of 105	8%	38	accepted challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Microsoft Defender for Identity yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment and per category, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Microsoft Defender for Identity across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

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Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	1	3	0	1	5
GPT-5.4 mini	2	1	1	0	4
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1	3	0	1	5
Perplexity Sonar	0	1	0	0	1
Grok 4.1 Fast	1	4	0	0	5
Mistral Small	0	0	1	0	1
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	2	0	0	2
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	0	0	0
Qwen 3.7 Flash	1	1	0	0	2
Kimi K2	2	1	0	0	3
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	3	0	1	4
MiniMax M2.5	0	0	0	0	0
GPT-6 Luna	1	1	0	0	2
Muse Glimmer 30B	1	3	0	0	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

Direct18 labels6

Paraphrase27 labels10

Comparative19 labels6not counted in share

Budget-constrained24 labels12

Scale-constrained12 labels3

Negative17 labels1not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative117 labels in all, every segment counted; 31 of the 38 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.

“Look to CrowdStrike Falcon Identity or Microsoft Defender for Identity. The integration of endpoint telemetry and identity logs provides a powerful, consolidated investigation workflow.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · ITDR · comparative prompt · first choice

“Microsoft Defender for Identity is the natural choice for M365 E5 customers, providing no-additional-cost ITDR with native Defender XDR integration” Claude Haiku 4.5 · ITDR · paraphrase prompt · first choice

“The "Zero Incremental Cost" Option: Microsoft Defender for Identity ... This is the highest ROI move you can make for a $0 incremental spend.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · ITDR · budget prompt · first choice

“Microsoft 365 E5 already in place and want minimal add-on cost → start with Defender for Identity / Entra ID Protection.” Muse Glimmer 30B · ITDR · paraphrase 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.

“Reviewers report heavy alert noise during onboarding that requires real tuning time and limited value outside Microsoft-centric environments, with rigid customization.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · ITDR · negative prompt · soft negative

“is top-tier for Active Directory and Entra ID, but if your enterprise also uses Okta, Ping, or AWS IAM, Microsoft's native tools will leave major visibility gaps.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · ITDR · negative prompt · soft negative

“Microsoft Defender for Identity users report that false positives on cloud-side detections require ongoing tuning effort and AD expertise” GLM 4.7 FlashX · ITDR · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender for Identity, over the 117 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender for Identity was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Huntress Managed ITDR69 of 11746Compare →

CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection52 of 1178Not among the top eight

Silverfort ITDR52 of 1172Compare →

Sophos ITDR27 of 1171Compare →

Semperis Directory Services Protector24 of 1170Not among the top eight

SentinelOne Singularity Identity23 of 1170Not among the top eight

Okta Identity Threat Protection20 of 1170Compare →

CrowdStrike19 of 1170Not among the top eight

SentinelOne16 of 1170Not among the top eight

Push Security15 of 1171Not among the top eight

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 for Identity. 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 108 of the 117 answers that named Microsoft Defender for Identity and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

huntress.com75

gbhackers.com61

cybersecuritynews.com57

expertinsights.com55

cynet.com53

g2.com40

breachsense.com37

gartner.com35

startwithidentity.com35

cyberpress.org31

479 of the 479 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Defender for Identity came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

huntress.com/itdr-guide/best-itdr-vendors66

gbhackers.com/itdr-solutions-compared-features-pricing60

expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-identity-threat-detection-and-re53

cynet.com/security-foundations/identity-security/itdr-vendors52

cybersecuritynews.com/best-identity-threat-detection-and-response-solutions45

breachsense.com/blog/itdr-tools37

gartner.com/reviews/market/identity-threat-detection-and-response-itdr30

startupstash.com/top-identity-threat-detection-and-response-platforms28

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

Where Microsoft Defender for Identity stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Searches for its name, Google: 590 a month (“microsoft defender for identity”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 36 a month
Its own site: It sits on Microsoft's site (microsoft.com), so there are no site figures for it alone

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

14%

rank 2 of 105 in ITDR

Segment leader

51%

Huntress Managed ITDR

First choices: 31 across its categories
Named in: 117 answers
Its own site cited: in 108 of the answers that named it

Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read October 5, 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 for Identity

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Defender for Identity; a claim can dispute any of them.

Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI) 3Microsoft Defender for Identity (Microsoft ITDR) 1Microsoft Defender for Identity (Standalone) 1

Follow Microsoft Defender for Identity

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 is the company behind Microsoft Defender for Identity.

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On record

Company records

Also from Microsoft: Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft 365 Administration, Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft 365 Compliance Center, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 DSC and 164 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 for Identity'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 for Identity, 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 for Identity by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Microsoft Defender for Identity 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 for Identity, 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 for Identity is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.

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Microsoft Defender for Identity is among the products AI models recommend first in Identity threat detection and response 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

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/identity/identity-threat-detection-and-response/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/microsoft-defender-for-identity--identity-threat-detection-and-response-wide.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Identity threat detection and response, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="320" height="104"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Identity threat detection and response standing, where the claim can be checked.

Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/identity/identity-threat-detection-and-response/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/microsoft-defender-for-identity--identity-threat-detection-and-response-square.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Identity threat detection and response, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="240" height="240"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Identity threat detection and response standing, where the claim can be checked.

Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/identity/identity-threat-detection-and-response/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/microsoft-defender-for-identity--identity-threat-detection-and-response-compact.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Identity threat detection and response, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="200" height="56"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Identity threat detection and response standing, where the claim can be checked.

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.