Small business▼−17Since September 2026: 44% → 28%, −17 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.
28%from 44% in September 2026
Cleared the floor by 6 pointsRank 1 of 56, unchanged
Microsoft Defender · 3 categories · RankedMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
176Judge labels
48First choices
10Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
3Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
32% in Email security for mid-market buyers
Rank 1 of 76 in the mid-market standingendorsed leader
3 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 6% of its 51 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business1 of 66
27%56 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market1 of 76
32%51 labels
endorsed leader
Enterprise2 of 61
29%55 labels
accepted challenger
In email security · 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 for Office 365 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email security | Security operations | 32% | 1 of 76 | 6% | 51 | endorsed leader | ▲+1Since September 2026: 31% → 32%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| AI security platforms | Security operations | 0% | 113 of 233 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by SentinelOne Singularity at 11% | |
| AI SOC agents | Security operations | 0% | 68 of 104 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Dropzone AI at 24% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 held within the floor in all three categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Email security · by segment
Mid-market▲+1Since September 2026: 31% → 32%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
32%from 31% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 10 pointsRank 1 of 71, unchanged
Enterprise▼−9Since September 2026: 38% → 30%, −9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
30%from 38% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 2 pointsRank 2 of 58, unchanged
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email security | 31% | 32% | ▲+1Since September 2026: 31% → 32%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 1 of 76, unchanged |
| AI security | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 113 of 233, unchanged |
| AI SOC agents | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 68 of 104, unchanged |
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 for Office 365 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 for Office 365 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 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Grok 4.20 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Kimi K2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
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
Direct33 labels7
Paraphrase35 labels17
Comparative39 labels11not counted in share
Budget-constrained40 labels22
Scale-constrained18 labels2
Negative11 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative176 labels in all, every segment counted; 48 of the 60 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.
“Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the default choice for most Microsoft-365 shops—it's deeply integrated, cost-effective, and provides a solid baseline.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Email security · comparative prompt · first choice
“Start with what you already have — if you're on Microsoft 365 E5, check if Defender for O365 Plan 2 is already included before paying for a new platform.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Email security · scale prompt · first choice
“Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the most pragmatic starting point—low cost, deep integration, and solid baseline protection.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Email security · direct prompt · first choice
“Bottom line: For most budget-conscious businesses, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 at $2/user/month is the best value” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Email security · budget 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 published comparison, for example, uses different "missed threat" criteria for Defender than for competing gateways, so it shouldn't be treated as a neutral head-to-head ranking.” GPT-6 Luna · Email security · negative prompt · soft negative
“strong execution but limited vision for evolving threats. Complaints include high false positives, poor internal email scanning” Grok 4.20 · Email security · negative prompt · soft negative
“relying *solely* on native cloud email security is a risk for organizations with high threat profiles” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Email security · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender for Office 365, over the 176 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender for Office 365, over the 176 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 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 for Office 365. 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 163 of the 176 answers that named Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
expertinsights.com80
huntress.com71
comparitech.com66
ironscales.com61
proofpoint.com61
kaseya.com60
g2.com54
sublime.security46
gartner.com44
checkpoint.com36
579 of the 579 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Defender for Office 365 came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Defender for Office 365 stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Defender for Office 365 stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 1,600 a month (“microsoft defender for office 365”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 100 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
32%
rank 1 of 76 in email security
First choices
48
across its categories
- Named in
- 176 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 163 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 for Office 365
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Defender for Office 365; a claim can dispute any of them.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Plan 1) 4Microsoft Defender 1Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 1Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (MDO P1) 1Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 1Microsoft Defender for Office 365/Azure Sentinel 1
Follow Microsoft Defender for Office 365
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 for Office 365.ShowHide
The company
Microsoft Defender is the company behind Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
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 External Attack Surface Management, Microsoft Defender TI, Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management and 12 more
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Вградени функции за сигурност за облачната пощенска кутия в Exchange Online, налични и като добавка за локални пощенски кутии в Exchange.
- For
- Kunden mit lokalen Postfächern
- Price stated
- €0.87 потребител/месец, годишно плащане microsoft.com/bg-bg/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection
- Starting price
- €0.87 microsoft.com/bg-bg/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection
- Free plan or trial
- Изпробвайте сега microsoft.com/bg-bg/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection
- Hosting
- réseau mondial de centres de données
- Not stated on the pages read
- Integrations, certifications, customers
What Microsoft Defender for Office 365's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: microsoft.com/bg-bg/microsoft-365/exchange/office-365-message-encryption, microsoft.com/bg-bg/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection, microsoft.com/de-de/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection, microsoft.com/es-es/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection, microsoft.com/fr-fr/microsoft-365/exchange/exchange-email-security-spam-protection. 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 Microsoft Defender for Office 365'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 Office 365, 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 Office 365 by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Microsoft Defender for Office 365 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 Office 365, 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 Office 365 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 for Office 365 is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideAI models recommend Microsoft Defender for Office 365 first in Email security 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.