AEO Rankings · Security

AEO for endpoint detection and response software: AI search visibility ranking

By monitoraeo Last updated August 05, 2026 Refreshed every 90 days

How AI search engines rank endpoint detection and response software by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured quarterly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Endpoint detection and response platforms used to monitor endpoints, investigate threats, contain attacks, and automate response across devices and workloads. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

12%

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When buyers ask AI engines about Endpoint detection and response software, SentinelOne is frequently mentioned as the leader in the field. With a visibility rate of 62.5%, SentinelOne stands out among its competitors. Other top brands often cited include Microsoft Defender and CrowdStrike. These brands are consistently recognized for their strong performance and innovation in the security sector.

The rankings of Endpoint detection and response software brands are heavily influenced by sources like youtube.com, gartner.com, and other industry-heavy blogs such as huntress.com. These platforms frequently update content, providing AI engines with fresh insights. The presence of sentinelone.com in this mix further emphasizes the brand's reputation and thought leadership in its domain.

For buyers evaluating these software options, AI engines place significant value on recent reviews and third-party validations drawn from top domain authorities. When considering this list, aim to explore recent user feedback and expert analyses on aggregator sites. This ensures a well-rounded understanding of each brand's capabilities and potential fit for your security needs.

At a glance

Category leader SentinelOne 62% visibility · named in 5 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand SentinelOne 38% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in endpoint detection and response software

Top cited domain youtube.com Referenced by AI across the endpoint detection and response software query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 62pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 13 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this category

SentinelOne and Microsoft Defender share the top rank with identical visibility scores of 62.5% and citation rates of 37.5%, both well above the category average visibility of 11.9%. CrowdStrike sits just behind at 50% visibility but drops to zero citations, meaning the gap between first and third is effectively larger than raw visibility numbers suggest. Below rank three, scores fall sharply, with Huntress at 25% and Palo Alto Cortex XDR at 12.5%, confirming a steep concentration of AI presence among a small cluster of brands.

CrowdStrike presents the clearest divergence between being named and being trusted as a source: it appears in half of all AI responses but receives zero citations. Huntress shows the inverse pattern, with a citation rate of 37.5% that outperforms its 25% visibility score, suggesting AI is using Huntress as a reference source even when not foregrounding the brand. Palo Alto Cortex XDR similarly punches above its visibility weight on citations, at 25% citations against only 12.5% visibility, reinforcing that named mentions and sourced references do not move in lockstep here.

Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in this dataset without exception, indicating the audit is anchored almost entirely on that single surface. Among cited external sources, Gartner and YouTube appear alongside vendor domains such as huntress.com, sentinelone.com, and paloaltonetworks.com, pointing to a mix of analyst authority and vendor-owned content driving AI references. Third-party sources like kaseya.com, guideflow.com, and cybernx.com also appear, suggesting Google AI Mode is drawing on reseller and tutorial content rather than relying solely on first-party vendor pages.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

Microsoft Defender 25% → 62% · rank #4 → #2
+38pp
Palo Alto Cortex XDR 0% → 12% · rank #9 → #5
+12pp

Biggest visibility fallers

Huntress 38% → 25% · rank #2 → #4
-12pp

The AEO ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	SentinelOne sentinelone.com	62%	38%	Google AI Mode
SentinelOne leads jointly at 62.5% visibility and 37.5% citation, both figures sitting roughly five times above the category averages of 11.9% and 7.5% respectively.
2	Microsoft Defender microsoft.com	62%	38%	Google AI Mode
Microsoft Defender matches SentinelOne exactly on all scores after rising from rank 4, recording the largest visibility gain in the category with a delta of 37.5 percentage points.
3	CrowdStrike crowdstrike.com	50%	0%	Google AI Mode
CrowdStrike holds 50% visibility, the third highest in the category, yet its citation rate is zero, the sharpest visibility-to-citation gap among all ranked brands.
4	Huntress huntress.com	25%	38%	Google AI Mode
Huntress has a citation rate of 37.5% that matches the top two brands despite visibility of only 25%, though both metrics have fallen since the prior period.
5	Palo Alto Cortex XDR paloaltonetworks.com	12%	25%	Google AI Mode
Palo Alto Cortex XDR moved from rank 9 to rank 5, with citation rate of 25% doubling its visibility score of 12.5%, indicating stronger source authority than raw presence.
6	Bitdefender bitdefender.com	12%	12%	Google AI Mode
7	Sophos sophos.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Fortinet fortinet.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	WatchGuard watchguard.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	WithSecure withsecure.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Trend Micro trendmicro.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	Cybereason cybereason.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	Trellix trellix.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Malwarebytes malwarebytes.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	Check Point Harmony checkpoint.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	VMware Carbon Black vmware.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Cisco Secure Endpoint cisco.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Elastic Security elastic.co	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	ESET eset.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	BlackBerry Cylance blackberry.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on endpoint detection and response software, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.

youtube.comgartner.comhuntress.comkaseya.comsentinelone.compaloaltonetworks.comguideflow.comcybernx.com

How to read this AEO ranking

Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.

Visibility = being named

A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →

Citation rate = being trusted

Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →

Top engine differs by brand

The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →

AEO rankings move month to month

AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 90 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →

Run an AEO audit on your own endpoint detection and response software brand

The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.

Audit your endpoint detection and response software brand → Browse all AEO rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about AEO for endpoint detection and response software

Who leads AI visibility in endpoint detection and response software?

SentinelOne and Microsoft Defender share the lead with identical visibility scores of 62.5% and composite scores of 55.0, well ahead of all other brands in the category.

Which brand has the biggest gap between AI visibility and citation rate?

CrowdStrike has the largest gap, appearing in 50% of AI responses but receiving zero citations, meaning it is named but never used as a sourced reference.

What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for endpoint detection and response research?

The top cited sources include youtube.com and gartner.com alongside vendor domains such as huntress.com, sentinelone.com, and paloaltonetworks.com, with third-party sites kaseya.com and guideflow.com also appearing.

Which brand has improved its AI visibility the most recently?

Microsoft Defender recorded the largest visibility gain, rising 37.5 percentage points from 25% to 62.5% and climbing from rank 4 to rank 2.

Is any major EDR brand completely absent from Google AI Mode responses?

Fortinet, WatchGuard, and WithSecure all score zero on both visibility and citation, giving them no measurable presence in AI Mode responses for this category.

How does citation rate compare to visibility for smaller brands in this category?

Huntress and Palo Alto Cortex XDR both have citation rates that meet or exceed their visibility scores, suggesting AI treats them as credible sources even when they are not the primary brand mentioned.