Every category where a model named Security Onion 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
Network detection and response	Security operations	16%	3 of 102	0%	9	under 10 labels · led by ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer at 21%
SIEM platforms	Security operations	0%	16 of 61	14%	7	under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Sentinel at 38%	=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
OT and IoT security	Security operations	0%	50 of 107	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by Microsoft Defender for IoT at 21%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Security Onion 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 Security Onion 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	0	1	0	0	1
GPT-5.4 mini	0	0	0	0	0
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1	1	0	1	3
Perplexity Sonar	1	0	0	0	1
Grok 4.20	1	0	0	0	1
Mistral Small	0	0	0	0	0
DeepSeek V4 Flash	1	0	0	0	1
Llama 4 Maverick	1	0	0	0	1
Qwen 3.7 Flash	1	1	0	0	2
Kimi K2	0	1	1	0	2
GLM 4.7 FlashX	1	1	0	0	2
MiniMax M2.5	1	0	0	0	1
GPT-6 Luna	1	0	0	0	1
Muse Glimmer 30B	0	1	0	0	1

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

Direct5 labels2

Paraphrase0 labelsNone

Comparative8 labels5not counted in share

Budget-constrained28 labels15

Scale-constrained0 labelsNone

Negative7 labels2not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative48 labels in all, every segment counted; 17 of the 24 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 NDR (Network Detection and Response) platform is Security Onion, a free and open-source solution that's frequently recommended as the top starting point” Grok 4.20 · NDR · budget prompt · first choice

“If you have in-house technical expertise and want near-zero software cost, Security Onion delivers enterprise-grade NDR capabilities” DeepSeek V4 Flash · NDR · budget prompt · first choice

“the best NDR choice is usually Security Onion if you can handle some setup and maintenance yourself, because it is free” Perplexity Sonar · NDR · budget prompt · first choice

“For true zero license cost: Security Onion (DIY) or Zeek/Suricata with a separate analytics platform.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · NDR · 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.

“Avoid these platforms if you have a small, overworked IT or security team.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · SIEM · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Security Onion, over the 48 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Security Onion was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Darktrace27 of 480Not among the top eight

Vectra AI23 of 480Not among the top eight

Corelight Open NDR19 of 480Not among the top eight

ExtraHop RevealX15 of 480Not among the top eight

Blumira13 of 486Not among the top eight

Wazuh12 of 487Not among the top eight

Suricata12 of 480Not among the top eight

Zeek12 of 480Not among the top eight

Cisco Secure Network Analytics11 of 481Not among the top eight

Rapid7 InsightIDR9 of 480Not 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 Security Onion. 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 48 of the 48 answers that named Security Onion and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

comparitech.com33

dupple.com30

g2.com28

us.fitgap.com28

cybersecuritynews.com23

slashdot.org20

sourceforge.net16

devopsschool.com15

zenarmor.com15

myhospitalnow.com14

222 of the 222 domain citations in answers naming Security Onion came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

dupple.com/blog/network-security-monitoring-tools30

comparitech.com/net-admin/network-detection-response-software28

cybersecuritynews.com/best-ndr-solutions22

us.fitgap.com/search/network-detection-and-response-ndr-software/small-business21

g2.com/categories/network-detection-and-response-ndr/small-business18

g2.com/categories/network-detection-and-response-ndr16

zenarmor.com/docs/network-security-tutorials/best-10-network-detection-and-response-ndr-to15

slashdot.org/software/network-detection-and-response-ndr/f-small-business13

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

securityonion.net is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Security Onion takes 16% of first choices and ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer takes 21%.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Position for “ndr platform”

–

not in the top ten

Position for “ndr platforms”

–

not in the top ten

Searches for its name, Google: 3,600 a month (“security onion”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 209 a month
Organic visits to its site: about 2,016 a month
Searches its site ranks for: 247 · 49 in the top three
Sites linking to it: 1,323
Paid Google search: No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none

Ads on Google

None found in Google's ad transparency records for the US

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

16%

rank 3 of 102 in NDR

Segment leader

21%

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer

First choices: 17 across its categories
Named in: 48 answers
Its own site cited: in 48 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.

What it publishes

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Addresses on securityonion.net

1,633

subdomains included

Content

1,630

counted in the table below

Documentation

Product · Integration

0 · 0

Kind	Pages	Last 90 days	Latest	Categories named
Blog	1,585	7	2026-09-11	Logs
Conference or event	41	0	2026-05-18
Case study	2	0	2012-01-01
Webinar or virtual event	1	0	2020-05-01
Report or ebook	1	undated

Most recent

2026-09-11Security onion 330 hotfix 20260911 now blog
2026-09-08Security onion 330 now available blog
2026-09-0109 blog
2026-08-06Registration now open for augusta cyber blog
2026-08-06Security onion documentation printed blog
2026-08-0108 blog

Events in person

Last twelve months

October 24, 2026BSidesAugustaAugusta, US
October 23, 2026Security Onion ConferenceAugusta, US · hosted
October 19, 2026 to October 22, 2026Security Onion 4-day trainingAugusta, US · hosted

As the event pages on securityonion.net state them, read October 5, 2026.

How it is countedHide how it is counted

Every page securityonion.net exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read October 5, 2026.

Follow Security Onion

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

Security Onion is its own company.

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In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: a free and open platform for threat hunting, network security monitoring, and log management
securityonion.net
Price stated: free securityonion.net
Not stated on the pages read: Who it is for, starting price, free plan or trial, integrations, certifications, hosting, customers

What Security Onion's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: securityonion.net. 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 Security Onion'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 Security Onion, 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 Security Onion by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Security Onion 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 Security Onion, 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 Security Onion 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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Security Onion is among the products AI models recommend first in Network 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/security/network-detection-and-response/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/security-onion--network-detection-and-response-wide.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Network 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 Network 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/security/network-detection-and-response/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/security-onion--network-detection-and-response-square.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Network 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 Network 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/security/network-detection-and-response/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/security-onion--network-detection-and-response-compact.svg" alt="Among AI models' top three in Network 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 Network 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.