Every category where a model named Windows Server Update Services 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
Patch management	IT operations and endpoint	2%	12 of 87	59%	17	criticized challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Windows Server Update Services yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Windows Server Update Services across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

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

Direct1 labelNone

Paraphrase7 labelsNone

Comparative1 labelNone

Budget-constrained10 labels1

Scale-constrained2 labelsNone

Negative17 labelsNone

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative38 labels in all, every segment counted; 1 of the 1 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.

“WSUS for Windows environments is hard to beat—it's free and integrates directly with Windows infrastructure” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Patching · budget prompt · first choice

“if you're already invested in Microsoft ecosystems, WSUS or Windows Update for Business might be sufficient” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Patching · paraphrase prompt · alternative

“Need Basic Patches Only | Microsoft WSUS | If you already run Microsoft Server/Windows environments” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Patching · budget prompt · alternative

“Built-in tools like WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) or Intune handle OS patching reliably” Grok 4.1 Fast · Patching · paraphrase prompt · alternative

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.

“WSUS has limitations including Windows-only infrastructure, manual catalog management, limited automation, lack of native support for many third-party vendors” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Patching · negative prompt · hard negative

“Microsoft is officially deprecating WSUS. ... requires significant maintenance, has poor third-party support” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Patching · budget prompt · hard negative

“Microsoft officially announced in September 2024 that WSUS is deprecated with no new features planned.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Patching · negative prompt · hard negative

“Why avoid: WSUS is not a security tool—it's a basic patch distribution service.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Patching · negative prompt · hard negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Windows Server Update Services, over the 38 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Windows Server Update Services was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Action120 of 3816Not in the top three

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus20 of 385Not in the top three

Automox19 of 385Not in the top three

Microsoft Intune17 of 381Not in the top three

NinjaOne15 of 384Not in the top three

Microsoft Configuration Manager15 of 380Not in the top three

PDQ Deploy & Inventory10 of 380Not in the top three

Atera9 of 380Not in the top three

Patch My PC7 of 380Not in the top three

Tanium6 of 381Not in the top three

A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. 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 Windows Server Update Services. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 27 of the 38 answers that named Windows Server Update Services and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

heimdalsecurity.com19

acronis.com18

expertinsights.com16

motadata.com16

cyberpress.org13

gbhackers.com12

ninjaone.com12

pdq.com11

manageengine.com9

reddit.com9

135 of the 135 domain citations in answers naming Windows Server Update Services came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

acronis.com/en/blog/posts/best-patch-management-software-and-tools-202618

expertinsights.com/it-management/the-top-patch-management-software-for-business15

motadata.com/blog/best-patch-management-software15

cyberpress.org/patch-management-by-business-size-213

gbhackers.com/best-patch-management-compared-212

heimdalsecurity.com/blog/automated-patch-management-software10

pdq.com/blog/best-patch-management-tools9

ninjaone.com/blog/best-patch-management-software8

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as Windows Server Update Services

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Windows Server Update Services; a claim can dispute any of them.

WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) 6Microsoft WSUS 4Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3WSUS 2Microsoft WSUS/Windows Update for Business 1WSUS + Winget 1

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 Windows Server Update Services'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 Windows Server Update Services, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at windows.net is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.

Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.