# Cloud hosting: 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 a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/cloud-hosting/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/index.md

**Standing:** Amazon Web Services leads with 32% of first choices; verdict contested. 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) | 32% | 20% | 59 |
| 2 | [Microsoft Azure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-azure/index.md) | 20% | 8% | 37 |
| 3 | [DigitalOcean Droplets](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-droplets/index.md) | 12% | 9% | 45 |
| 4 | [Hostinger](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hostinger/index.md) | 10% | 6% | 16 |
| 5 | [Vultr](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/vultr/index.md) | 4% | 10% | 29 |
| 6 | [Azure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure/index.md) | 4% | 29% | 21 |
| 8 | [Google Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud/index.md) | 2% | 23% | 57 |
| 15 | [Akamai Connected Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-connected-cloud/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 26 |
| 16 | [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/oracle-cloud-infrastructure/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 20 |
| 17 | [IBM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ibm/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 18 | [Cloudways](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudways/index.md) | 0% | 25% | 12 |
| 83 | [Bluehost](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bluehost/index.md) | 0% | 70% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 85 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: Hyve Managed Hosting; alternatives Atlantic.Net, Kamatera
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Akamai Connected Cloud, Cloudways, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud
- Perplexity Sonar: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Atlantic.Net, Google Cloud, Hostinger
- Grok 4.20: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- Mistral Small: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, Liquid Web
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
- Kimi K2: DigitalOcean Droplets, Vultr; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Atlantic.Net, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
- MiniMax M2.5: Amazon Web Services, Azure
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Azure, Google Cloud
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Azure, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, InMotion Hosting

## Sources the answers cite

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

- hostingadvice.com: 27 answers, 44 citations
- atlantic.net: 26 answers, 37 citations
- digitalocean.com: 24 answers, 37 citations
- bluehost.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- linkedin.com: 15 answers, 19 citations
- techradar.com: 14 answers, 21 citations
- cybernews.com: 14 answers, 18 citations
- hostscore.net: 14 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://atlantic.net/cloud-platform/best-cloud-hosting-providers-small-businesses (13 answers)
- https://cybernews.com/best-web-hosting/cloud-web-hosting (13 answers)
- https://hostscore.net/choose/best-cloud-hosting (13 answers)
- https://newsweek.com/vault/small-business/best-cloud-hosting-services (13 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-cloud-hosting-providers (12 answers)
- https://digitalocean.com/resources/articles/cloud-service-providers (11 answers)
- https://hostinger.com/tutorials/best-cloud-hosting (11 answers)
- https://atlantic.net/vps-hosting/how-to-find-the-top-cloud-hosting-providers (10 answers)
- https://forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-cloud-hosting (10 answers)
- https://hostingadvice.com/how-to/best-business-cloud-hosting (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Google Cloud: 13 of 57 labels negative. "Raw hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure ... require more self-management, and can become expensive" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Amazon Web Services: 12 of 59 labels negative. "Avoid AWS and Azure for limited budgets" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Bluehost: 7 of 10 labels negative. "Similar issues to Hostinger (poor support, upselling), owned by EIG which has a reputation for slow support and aggressive upselling practices" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- HostGator: 6 of 7 labels negative. "Complaints highlight long wait times for help and unreliable server speeds" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Amazon Web Services at 30%.

- Hetzner: 9% to 5%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 6 of 75.
- Vultr: 2% to 5%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 8 → 5 of 75.
- Hostinger: 7% to 9%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 4 of 75.
- Google Cloud: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 12 → 7 of 75.
- Kamatera: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 8 of 75.
- Azure: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 19 → 11 of 75.
- Cloudways: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 16 of 75.
- OVHcloud: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 11 → 72 of 75.
- Amazon Web Services: 29% to 30%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 75, unchanged.
- Microsoft Azure: 24% to 23%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 2 of 75, unchanged.
- DigitalOcean Droplets: 13% to 12%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 3 of 75, unchanged.
- Akamai Connected Cloud: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 14 of 75.

## 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.