Small business▲+8Since September 2026: 14% → 22%, +8 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
22%from 14% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 3 pointsRank 2 → 1 of 55
Microsoft Defender · 7 categories · RankedMicrosoft Defender XDR
201Judge labels
64First choices
30Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
7Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
44% in XDR for enterprise buyers
Rank 1 of 58 in the mid-market standingendorsed leader
5 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 15% of its 61 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Microsoft Defender XDR →By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business1 of 62
25%47 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market1 of 58
40%61 labels
endorsed leader
Enterprise1 of 58
44%65 labels
endorsed leader
In xdr · 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 XDR 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extended detection and response | Security operations | 40% | 1 of 58 | 15% | 61 | endorsed leader | ▼−25Since September 2026: 63% → 39%, −25 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Identity threat detection and response | Identity and access | 2% | 11 of 105 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Huntress Managed ITDR at 51% | |
| AI security platforms | Security operations | 2% | 14 of 233 | 0% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by SentinelOne Singularity at 11% | |
| Data loss prevention | Security operations | 0% | 40 of 89 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Purview DLP at 46% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. |
| Deception technology | Security operations | 0% | 48 of 94 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Thinkst Canary at 37% | |
| Endpoint detection and response | Security operations | 0% | 21 of 55 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint at 30% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Microsoft 365 management | IT operations and endpoint | 0% | 60 of 149 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by CoreView at 20% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Microsoft Defender XDR moved past the floor in one of seven categories: XDR, −25 points to 39%. It held within the floor in the other six.
Best category · XDR · by segment
Mid-market▼−25Since September 2026: 63% → 39%, −25 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.
39%from 63% in September 2026
Cleared the floor by 14 pointsRank 1 of 53, unchanged
Enterprise▼−5Since September 2026: 48% → 43%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
43%from 48% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 6 pointsRank 1 of 46, unchanged
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XDR | 63% | 39% | ▼−25Since September 2026: 63% → 39%, −25 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked. | Moved past the floor | Rank 1 of 58, unchanged |
| ITDR | 0% | 3% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 3% now. | New this edition | Rank 11 of 105, unchanged |
| AI security | 0% | 2% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now. | New this edition | Rank 14 of 233, unchanged |
| DLP | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 40 of 89, unchanged |
| Deception | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 48 of 94, unchanged |
| EDR | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 23 → 21 of 55 |
| M365 management | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 60 of 149, 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 XDR 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 XDR 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 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.20 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Mistral Small | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 2 | 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
Direct44 labels22
Paraphrase28 labels14
Comparative43 labels18not counted in share
Budget-constrained31 labels22
Scale-constrained18 labels6
Negative37 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative201 labels in all, every segment counted; 64 of the 83 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 Entra ID Protection + Microsoft Defender XDR is the best overall choice due to its integration, ease of use, and scalability” Mistral Small · ITDR · direct prompt · first choice
“Microsoft Defender XDR is the most cost-effective entry into enterprise-grade XDR for organizations already running Microsoft 365.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · XDR · budget prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend starting with Microsoft Defender XDR if you're already in the Microsoft ecosystem, or CrowdStrike Falcon” MiniMax M2.5 · XDR · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“For a company on a tight budget, the best value is usually Microsoft Defender—especially if you already use Microsoft 365.” GPT-6 Luna · XDR · 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.
“it is recommended to avoid buying into the full enterprise-grade Microsoft Defender XDR” Llama 4 Maverick · XDR · negative prompt · hard negative
“Microsoft documents that some Defender TVM tables are not ingested into Microsoft Sentinel, so queries can behave differently across platforms.” GPT-5.4 mini · XDR · negative prompt · soft negative
“its correlation capabilities deteriorate significantly if your environment isn't fully integrated into the Microsoft 365 and Azure ecosystem” Gemini 3.5 Flash · XDR · negative prompt · soft negative
“Be cautious if you’re <300 users, need a clean multi-tenant MSP console, or don’t want to build KQL tuning skills.” Muse Glimmer 30B · XDR · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender XDR, over the 201 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender XDR was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender XDR, over the 201 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender XDR 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 XDR. 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 191 of the 201 answers that named Microsoft Defender XDR and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
paloaltonetworks.com102
expertinsights.com89
sentinelone.com68
gbhackers.com62
g2.com61
aimultiple.com60
cyberpress.org55
coruzant.com54
guideflow.com48
decryptiondigest.com45
644 of the 644 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Defender XDR came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Defender XDR stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Defender XDR 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 xdr”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 62 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
40%
rank 1 of 58 in XDR
First choices
64
across its categories
- Named in
- 201 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 191 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 XDR
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Defender XDR; a claim can dispute any of them.
Microsoft Defender 9Microsoft 5Microsoft 365 Defender 2Microsoft Defender XDR / Sentinel 2Microsoft Defender XDR (Defender for Endpoint) 1Microsoft Defender for Business / Microsoft Defender XDR 1Microsoft Entra ID Protection + Microsoft Defender XDR 1
Follow Microsoft Defender XDR
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 XDR.ShowHide
The company
Microsoft Defender is the company behind Microsoft Defender XDR.
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
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 XDR'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 XDR, 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 XDR by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Microsoft Defender XDR 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 XDR, 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 XDR 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 XDR 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 XDR first in Extended 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
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.