# Cloud hosting: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 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/2026-11

**Standing:** Microsoft Azure leads with 29% of first choices; verdict contested. 58 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Microsoft Azure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-azure/index.md) | 29% | 5% | 41 |
| 2 | [Amazon Web Services](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-web-services/index.md) | 28% | 18% | 61 |
| 3 | [DigitalOcean Droplets](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-droplets/index.md) | 24% | 4% | 51 |
| 4 | [Akamai Connected Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-connected-cloud/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 30 |
| 5 | [Atlantic.Net](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/atlantic-net/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 15 |
| 6 | [Vultr](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/vultr/index.md) | 2% | 8% | 24 |
| 7 | [Cloudways](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudways/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 8 | [Hostinger](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hostinger/index.md) | 2% | 24% | 17 |
| 11 | [Google Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 54 |
| 12 | [Hetzner](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hetzner/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 17 |
| 13 | [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/oracle-cloud-infrastructure/index.md) | 0% | 5% | 19 |
| 14 | [IBM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ibm/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 106 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: Atlantic.Net; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Cloudways, Hosting.com
- GPT-5.4 mini: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Cloudreach, Google Cloud, Mission Cloud, Rackspace Technology
- Perplexity Sonar: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
- Grok 4.20: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Akamai Connected Cloud, Atlantic.Net, DigitalOcean Droplets, Effectual
- Mistral Small: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Akamai's Linode, DigitalOcean Droplets, Expedient, RapidScale
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Akamai Connected Cloud, Atlantic.Net, DigitalOcean Droplets, Expedient
- Llama 4 Maverick: Amazon Web Services; alternatives DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud
- Kimi K2: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, Vultr
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Akamai Connected Cloud, Atlantic.Net, Cloudways, DigitalOcean Droplets; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- MiniMax M2.5: Microsoft Azure; alternatives Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon Web Services; alternatives Azure, Google Cloud
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure; alternatives Akamai's Linode, Atlantic.Net, DigitalOcean Droplets, RapidScale

## Sources the answers cite

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

- atlantic.net: 25 answers, 29 citations
- hostingadvice.com: 11 answers, 15 citations
- forbes.com: 10 answers, 12 citations
- techradar.com: 10 answers, 11 citations
- bestbusinesstechnology.com: 10 answers, 10 citations
- techvendorindex.com: 9 answers, 13 citations
- azure.microsoft.com: 9 answers, 11 citations
- hostinger.com: 9 answers, 9 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://atlantic.net/cloud-platform/best-cloud-hosting-providers-small-businesses (19 answers)
- https://bestbusinesstechnology.com/best/best-cloud-infrastructure-providers (10 answers)
- https://forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-cloud-hosting (9 answers)
- https://techvendorindex.com/compare/best-cloud-infrastructure-for-mid-market (9 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-cloud-hosting-providers (8 answers)
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/choosing-a-cloud-service-provider (6 answers)
- https://atlantic.net/cloud-platform/best-enterprise-hosting-providers (6 answers)
- https://cloudwards.net/aws-vs-azure-vs-google (6 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/cloud/cloud-hosting (6 answers)
- https://hostinger.com/tutorials/best-cloud-hosting (6 answers)

## Warned against

- Amazon Web Services: 11 of 61 labels negative. "Avoid big providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud unless you're using their free tiers" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Azure: 10 of 20 labels negative. "Avoid big providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Google Cloud: 7 of 54 labels negative. "Avoid big providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Bluehost: 5 of 7 labels negative. "EIG (Endurance International Group) hosting providers - such as Bluehost, HostGator, iPage, and others, due to their decline in quality and customer satisfaction." (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Amazon Web Services (32%) to Microsoft Azure (29%). Margin 1 points, within noise.

- DigitalOcean Droplets: 12% to 24%, +12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 3 of 106, unchanged.
- Microsoft Azure: 20% to 29%, +9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 2 → 1 of 106.
- Hostinger: 10% to 2%, −8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 4 → 8 of 106.
- Akamai Connected Cloud: 0% to 5%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 15 → 4 of 106.
- Amazon Web Services: 32% to 28%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 1 → 2 of 106.
- Hetzner: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 7 → 12 of 106.
- Azure: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 6 → 102 of 106.
- Atlantic.Net: 2% to 5%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 10 → 5 of 106.
- Vultr: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 6 of 106.
- Cloudways: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 18 → 7 of 106.
- Google Cloud: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 11 of 106.
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 16 → 13 of 106.

## Record

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