# Cloud hosting for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "cloud hosting provider" and as "infrastructure-as-a-service cloud", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/cloud-hosting/2026-10/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/cloud-hosting/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** Amazon Web Services leads with 42% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Amazon Web Services](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-web-services/index.md) | 42% | 13% | 68 |
| 2 | [Microsoft Azure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-azure/index.md) | 38% | 4% | 49 |
| 3 | [Azure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure/index.md) | 6% | 35% | 17 |
| 4 | [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/oracle-cloud-infrastructure/index.md) | 4% | 24% | 33 |
| 9 | [DigitalOcean Droplets](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-droplets/index.md) | 2% | 62% | 13 |
| 10 | [Google Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 62 |
| 11 | [IBM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ibm/index.md) | 0% | 19% | 21 |
| 41 | [Alibaba Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/alibaba-cloud/index.md) | 0% | 50% | 12 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 42 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Microsoft Azure
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- Perplexity Sonar: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Google Cloud, IBM, NTT DATA
- Grok 4.20: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- Mistral Small: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
- Llama 4 Maverick: Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Technology
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- Kimi K2: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: no first choice
- MiniMax M2.5: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Google Cloud
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Google Cloud, Liquid Web

## Sources the answers cite

71 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- atlantic.net: 33 answers, 40 citations
- digitalocean.com: 16 answers, 19 citations
- linkedin.com: 14 answers, 20 citations
- elementor.com: 13 answers, 13 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 12 answers, 17 citations
- gane.ai/index: 12 answers, 13 citations
- guideflow.com: 12 answers, 12 citations
- hostinger.com: 12 answers, 12 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://atlantic.net/cloud-platform/best-enterprise-hosting-providers (27 answers)
- https://digitalocean.com/resources/articles/cloud-service-providers (12 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/cloud/cloud-hosting/enterprise (12 answers)
- https://hostinger.com/tutorials/best-cloud-hosting (12 answers)
- https://elementor.com/blog/best-cloud-hosting-providers (10 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/cloud-hosting (9 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-cloud-2026 (9 answers)
- https://atlantic.net/vps-hosting/how-to-find-the-top-cloud-hosting-providers (8 answers)
- https://docs.cloud.google.com/docs/get-started/aws-azure-gcp-service-comparison (8 answers)
- https://gitnux.org/service/enterprise-cloud-hosting (8 answers)

## Warned against

- DigitalOcean Droplets: 8 of 13 labels negative. "Some cloud hosting providers that may not be suitable for large enterprises include DigitalOcean, which can scale but may not match the enterprise-grade features" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Amazon Web Services: 9 of 68 labels negative. "The top cloud hosting companies for large enterprises include AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud... However, these providers can introduce layers of operational and financial complexity." (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Google Cloud: 8 of 62 labels negative. "not a hyperscaler like AWS or Google Cloud, because those are typically pay-as-you-go and can be harder to forecast" (Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt)
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: 8 of 33 labels negative. "it still faces criticism for support responsiveness ... console usability, and occasional abrupt billing disputes" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Amazon Web Services at 43%.

- Amazon Web Services: 57% to 43%, −14. Cleared the floor by 3 points · rank 1 of 40, unchanged.
- Microsoft Azure: 27% to 40%, +13. Cleared the floor by 2 points · rank 2 of 40, unchanged.
- Azure: 5% to 2%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 4 of 40, unchanged.
- DigitalOcean Droplets: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 44 → 8 of 40.
- Google Cloud: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 9 of 40.
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: 5% to 5%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 3 of 40, unchanged.
- IBM: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 10 of 40.
- Alibaba Cloud: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 45 → 38 of 40.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.