Live database

GEO for Cybersecurity

How AI engines choose and recommend cybersecurity companies today.

We run real buyer prompts against ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity with web search on, and record which cybersecurity companies they name and which sources they cite. This page is one live view into that dataset - it updates as new probes land.

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Updated Jul 18, 202615 prompts analyzed52 citations85 brands detected
Top cited domain
stingrai.io
10 citations · 19% of all
Most active engine
ChatGPT
69% of citations
Top source type
Other
92% of citations
Data as of
July 18, 2026
trends unlock after two cycles
1

What buyers ask AI

Real questions people put to AI assistants about cybersecurity companies.

Best endpoint protection for small businessSIEM tool comparisonPenetration testing company reviewsBusiness password managerManaged security service providerBest email security solutionZero trust vendorsSOC 2 compliance toolsBest vulnerability scannerCloud security posture management tools
2

What AI actually recommends

Data as of July 18, 2026

Live answers per engine - exactly what each one named, in order.

PromptChatGPTGeminiPerplexity
Best endpoint protection for small business
  1. Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security
  2. Microsoft Defender for Business
  3. Sophos Intercept X Essentials
  1. Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security
  2. Sophos Intercept X Advanced
  3. CrowdStrike Falcon Go
  1. Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security
  2. Bitdefender GravityZone
  3. Microsoft Defender for Business
Best SIEM tool
  1. Splunk Enterprise Security
  2. Elastic Security
  3. Wazuh
  1. Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)
  2. Microsoft Sentinel
  3. Azure
  1. Splunk Enterprise Security
  2. Microsoft Sentinel
  3. IBM QRadar
Best penetration testing company
  1. Stingrai
  2. NetSPI
  3. Bishop Fox
  1. Synack
  2. Coalfire
  3. Veracode
  1. UnderDefense
  2. Cobalt
  3. NetSPI
Best password manager for business
  1. 1Password
  2. Bitwarden
  3. Keeper
  1. LastPass Business
  2. 1Password Business
  3. Bitwarden Enterprise
  1. Dashlane
  2. Proton Pass
  3. Proton
Best managed security service provider
  1. Vancord
  2. Arctic Wolf
  3. Ntiva
  1. IBM Security
  2. Secureworks
  3. Dell Technologies
  1. Check Point Cloud Firewall
  2. CloudGuard Network Security
  3. Secureworks Taegis Managed XDR / MDR
3

AI ranking factors

Where these engines actually look before naming anyone - citation share by source type.

Other92% · 48
Reviews6% · 3
News / PR2% · 1

Shares are computed from the sources engines actually grounded on in our security probes - not an editorial guess. Unknown domains land in “other” and get reviewed monthly.

The United States sources that matter for cybersecurity companies

Gartner Peer Insightsgartner.com
Analyst + verified-review hybrid; the heaviest single citation source for enterprise security prompts.
G2g2.com
Review grids engines blend into shortlists, strongest for SMB intent.
PeerSpotpeerspot.com
In-depth practitioner reviews engines mine for pros/cons phrasing.
Redditreddit.com
r/sysadmin, r/netsec, r/msp deployment threads - prime Perplexity citations.
MITRE ATT&CK Evaluationsmitre.org
Vendor-neutral technical benchmark engines reference for detection claims.
Hacker Newsnews.ycombinator.com
Technical credibility layer; research write-ups that land here get cited.
4

Engine comparison

How differently each engine sources its answers - share of that engine's citations per source type.

SourceChatGPTPerplexity
Reviews★★★★★★★★★★
News / PR★★★★★★★★★★

Stars are banded from real citation shares in this vertical - hover any cell for the exact number.

5

How cybersecurity companies win AI visibility

What the data above means in practice - and the playbook that follows from it.

Security buying runs on institutional trust, and AI answers mirror that: the analyst layer - Gartner (Magic Quadrants, Peer Insights), Forrester Waves, MITRE ATT&CK evaluations - carries more citation weight here than in any other B2B vertical we track. Engines treat analyst placement as pre-validated vendor ranking, so “best SIEM” answers often read like a Magic Quadrant summary with prices attached. For vendors this cuts both ways: analyst presence compounds into AI visibility automatically, while challengers outside the reports must build their evidence through the practitioner layer instead - which is genuinely possible, because engines blend both.

That practitioner layer is unusually influential and unusually skeptical. r/sysadmin, r/netsec, r/msp and Hacker News threads are where real deployment experience lives - “we ran X for two years, here’s what broke” - and Perplexity in particular quotes these threads directly. Security practitioners are hostile to astroturf and quick to name vendors that earn trust through behavior: responsive support stories, transparent postmortems, sane licensing. A vendor whose community reputation is genuine accumulates exactly the kind of citations that offset missing analyst coverage for the SMB-shaped prompts (“best endpoint protection for small business”) where big-enterprise reports are least relevant.

01

Cover the review layer completely

G2, PeerSpot and Gartner Peer Insights profiles current and earning detailed reviews - the layer engines blend with analyst data for every shortlist.

02

Publish original research

CVE write-ups, threat reports, incident analyses with real data. Research citations build authority that product marketing can't.

03

Earn practitioner trust

Be genuinely useful in r/sysadmin, r/netsec and vendor-neutral communities. Deployment stories from real users are prime AI citations.

04

Make compliance machine-readable

SOC 2, ISO 27001, trust center, status page - stated in plain text engines can quote. Compliance-shaped prompts filter on exactly this.

05

Build honest comparison content

“[You] vs [leader]” pages with real trade-offs, and use-case pages for the segments where incumbents are weak (SMB, MSP).

06

Track your category prompts

Run the buyer prompts monthly per engine, note the analyst/community citation balance for your category, and invest where you're absent.

Win SMB prompts against enterprise gravity
Analyst reports skew enterprise, so “for small business” prompts lean on reviews and communities - a focused challenger can own them with SMB-specific evidence and pricing transparency.
Turn research into recurring citations
A named annual report (“The 2026 X Threat Report”) with original numbers becomes a stable reference engines cite year-round - design it to be quotable: clear stats, permalinks, no gating.
Don't gate what you want cited
Whitepapers behind forms are invisible to engines. Keep the citable version open; gate the extended PDF if sales insists.
Watch MSP-mediated buying
“Best MSSP” answers recommend service providers who then pick your product. Track the MSP-facing prompts separately - being the tool MSPs praise in threads is a second door into the same buyer.
6

FAQ

Answers to common questions about this report.

What is GEO for cybersecurity companies?
Generative Engine Optimization for security vendors: making sure that when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for “the best [your category]”, your product is named - with accurate positioning, compliance status and pricing context.
Which sources do AI engines cite for security vendors?
In our probes: the analyst layer (Gartner, Forrester), review platforms (G2, PeerSpot), and practitioner communities (r/sysadmin, Hacker News) - see the live source mix above for the current split.
Can a vendor outside the Magic Quadrant still win AI answers?
Yes - engines blend analyst data with reviews, communities and research. SMB- and use-case-shaped prompts in particular lean on practitioner evidence, which a focused vendor can build deliberately.
How is this data collected?
We run real buyer prompts against ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with web search enabled, on a rolling schedule, and record which vendors each engine names and which sources it cites - no editorial reordering.
How can my company get started?
Run a free AI visibility scan with your product or company name. In about two minutes you’ll see where you appear across engines for your category, which sources cite you, and what to fix first.

See where your company appears across all AI engines.

The data above is the industry view. Run a free scan to get the same report for your company: where you show up, who outranks you, and what to fix first.

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Zene dashboard: a brand's AI visibility score, the next automatic scan, and per-engine cards for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity