Managed Kubernetes platforms
Asked as “managed Kubernetes platform”, and as “hosted Kubernetes service”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each.
Standing · first-choice share
52%
Clear leader
52Google Kubernetes Engine24DigitalOcean Kubernetes09Azure Kubernetes Service15others
52% of first choices, clear leader.
Since October 2026▲+9Since October 2026: 43% → 52%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.Google Kubernetes Engine held the lead, +9 points on 43%, inside the 11-point floor.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small business
DigitalOcean Kubernetes62%Clear leader▲+7Since October 2026: 55% → 62%, +7 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.Standing →Mid-market
Google Kubernetes Engine52%Clear leader▲+9Since October 2026: 43% → 52%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.This pageEnterpriseGoogle Kubernetes Engine57%Clear leader▲+26Since October 2026: 31% → 57%, +26 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement.Standing →
DigitalOcean Kubernetes62%Clear leader▲+7Since October 2026: 55% → 62%, +7 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.Standing →Mid-marketGoogle Kubernetes Engine52%Clear leader▲+9Since October 2026: 43% → 52%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.This pageEnterpriseGoogle Kubernetes Engine57%Clear leader▲+26Since October 2026: 31% → 57%, +26 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement.Standing →The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince October 2026
01Google Kubernetes Engine Lab in the set52%14%77endorsed leader▲+9Since October 2026: 43% → 52%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.43% → 52%
Google Kubernetes Engine Lab in the set52%14%77endorsed leader▲+9Since October 2026: 43% → 52%, +9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.43% → 52%02DigitalOcean Kubernetes24%12%42accepted challenger▲+10Since October 2026: 14% → 24%, +10 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.14% → 24%
DigitalOcean Kubernetes24%12%42accepted challenger▲+10Since October 2026: 14% → 24%, +10 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.14% → 24%03
Azure Kubernetes Service9%20%66accepted challenger▼−3Since October 2026: 12% → 9%, −3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.12% → 9%
Azure Kubernetes Service9%20%66accepted challenger▼−3Since October 2026: 12% → 9%, −3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.12% → 9%04
Amazon EKS4%28%72criticized challenger▼−11Since October 2026: 15% → 4%, −11 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement.15% → 4%
Amazon EKS4%28%72criticized challenger▼−11Since October 2026: 15% → 4%, −11 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement.15% → 4%05
Linode Kubernetes Engine4%20%20accepted challenger▲+1Since October 2026: 3% → 4%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.3% → 4%
Linode Kubernetes Engine4%20%20accepted challenger▲+1Since October 2026: 3% → 4%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.3% → 4%06
Civo Kubernetes2%10%10accepted challenger▼−7Since October 2026: 9% → 2%, −7 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.9% → 2%
Civo Kubernetes2%10%10accepted challenger▼−7Since October 2026: 9% → 2%, −7 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.9% → 2%Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service0%50%10criticized challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service0%50%10criticized challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%08
Red Hat OpenShift0%26%34criticized challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Red Hat OpenShift0%26%34criticized challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%11
Mirantis Kubernetes Engine0%18%11accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Mirantis Kubernetes Engine0%18%11accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%10
VMware Tanzu0%18%17accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
VMware Tanzu0%18%17accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%09
Platform9 Managed Kubernetes0%7%14accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Platform9 Managed Kubernetes0%7%14accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%07
Rancher0%4%25accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Rancher0%4%25accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one can't be told apart from repeat variation, and both are shown. Each index measures its own floor from its own repeat, over its own categories, so the floor differs from one index to the next. Both editions asked the same fourteen models. How the floor is measured
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Google Kubernetes Engine is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice two times of 4; the other thirteen models twenty-two times of 52. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.
For buyers
Head to head
All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each
Google Kubernetes Engine vs Linode Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes Engine vs Civo KubernetesDigitalOcean Kubernetes vs Azure Kubernetes ServiceDigitalOcean Kubernetes vs Amazon EKSDigitalOcean Kubernetes vs Linode Kubernetes EngineDigitalOcean Kubernetes vs Civo KubernetesAzure Kubernetes Service vs Amazon EKSAzure Kubernetes Service vs Linode Kubernetes EngineAzure Kubernetes Service vs Civo KubernetesAmazon EKS vs Linode Kubernetes EngineAmazon EKS vs Civo KubernetesLinode Kubernetes Engine vs Civo Kubernetes
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
010203040506070809101112Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Google Kubernetes Engine52%
Google Kubernetes Engine52%02DigitalOcean Kubernetes24%
DigitalOcean Kubernetes24%03Azure Kubernetes Service9%
Azure Kubernetes Service9%04Amazon EKS4%
Amazon EKS4%05Linode Kubernetes Engine4%
Linode Kubernetes Engine4%06Civo Kubernetes2%
Civo Kubernetes2%07Rancher0%
Rancher0%08Red Hat OpenShift0%
Red Hat OpenShift0%09Platform9 Managed Kubernetes0%
Platform9 Managed Kubernetes0%10VMware Tanzu0%
VMware Tanzu0%11Mirantis Kubernetes Engine0%
Mirantis Kubernetes Engine0%12IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service0%
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service0%What they warned about
Nine of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Amazon EKS28%
20 of 72 labels negative · 11 of 14 models · 5 hard negative
“What to Avoid (The "Expensive" Options) ... AWS EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS ... introduce several "budget killers"” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Azure Kubernetes Service20%
13 of 66 labels negative · 11 of 14 models · 4 hard negative
“What to Avoid (The "Expensive" Options) ... AWS EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS ... budget killers” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Google Kubernetes Engine14%
11 of 77 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid (The "Expensive" Options) ... AWS EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS ... budget killers” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Red Hat OpenShift26%
9 of 34 labels negative · 8 of 14 models
“Powerful for enterprises but overkill and opinionated for many... vendor lock-in is significant.” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
What they cite
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted.
Sites the answers cite
70 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 752 links across 192 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. 54 of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category; the method page measures whether that reading tilts an answer.
vendor site · Control Plane31 answers · 34 citations · 11 models
vendor site · DigitalOcean24 answers · 35 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Rackspace23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
vendor site · GitHub22 answers · 32 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Northflank20 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Mirantis20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Qovery19 answers · 29 citations · 8 models
17 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
publisher (Gane)16 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
vendor site · LinkedIn13 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
22 answers · 11 models
19 answers · 9 models
17 answers · 9 models
17 answers · 8 models
17 answers · 8 models
17 answers · 8 models
13 answers · 6 models
12 answers · 7 models
12 answers · 7 models
12 answers · 7 models
Search against answers
Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best managed kubernetes platform”, “managed kubernetes platform”, “managed kubernetes platforms”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Kubernetes Engine cloud.google.com Google Kubernetes Engine 52%, Google Kubernetes Engine Enterprise 0% | 52% | 191 | 2,400 | 15 | 7,405,347 | 4 | ||
| DigitalOcean parent site DigitalOcean Kubernetes 24% | 24% | 93 | 74,000 | 942 | ||||
| Azure azure.microsoft.com Azure Kubernetes Service 9% | 9% | 165 | 301,000 | 47,904 | 1,848,766 | $6,123 | ||
| Amazon parent site Amazon EKS 4% | 4% | 186 | 151,000,000 | 1,380,939 | ||||
| Linode linode.com Linode Kubernetes Engine 4% | 4% | 45 | 30 | 1 | 15,263 company | 76 | ||
| Civo Kubernetes civo.com | 2% | 25 | 20 | 1 | 4,772 | |||
| Scaleway scaleway.com Scaleway Kapsule 2% | 2% | 12 | 10 | 0 | 13,420 company | |||
| Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with Autopilot mode | 2% | |||||||
| Rancher rancher.com | 0% | 69 | 12,100 | 30,642 | 11,297 | |||
| Red Hat OpenShift redhat.com | 0% | 89 | 2,900 | 89 | 1,347,338 | $281 | 117 |
Google's top ten for the three searches hold 19 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (digitalocean.com, mirantis.com, spot.rackspace.com). The first result for “best managed kubernetes platform” is cycle.io.
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.ShowHide
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHideModelDirect“What is the best managed Kubernetes platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which hosted Kubernetes service would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top managed Kubernetes platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best managed Kubernetes platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a managed Kubernetes platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which managed Kubernetes platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceGoogle Kubernetes EngineChangedGoogle Kubernetes Engineagainst: Red Hat OpenShift, VMware TanzuDigitalOcean Kubernetesno first choiceagainst: Mirantis Kubernetes Engine, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
Two alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceFour alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean KubernetesThree alternatives
Azure Kubernetes Service, Civo Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes EngineGPT-5.4 miniGoogle Kubernetes EngineAmazon EKSChangedno first choiceGoogle Kubernetes Engineagainst: Amazon EKSno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, EKS Auto Mode, Google Kubernetes Engine
One alternative
Amazon EKSTwo alternatives
Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes EngineFour alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShiftTwo alternatives
Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean KubernetesGemini 3.5 FlashGoogle Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldGoogle Kubernetes EngineDigitalOcean Kubernetesagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engineno first choiceagainst: AWS EKS on Fargate, Amazon EKS, Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Four alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Porter, QoveryTwo alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceSix alternatives
Akamai Linode Kubernetes Engine, Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShiftFive alternatives
Akamai Connected Cloud, Civo Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine, OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes, Scaleway KapsulePerplexity SonarGoogle Kubernetes Engineagainst: Red Hat OpenShiftGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetesagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Serviceno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Mirantis Kubernetes Engine, Platform9 Managed Kubernetes, Railway, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift, Render, Upsun
Three alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean KubernetesThree alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean KubernetesSeven alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Northflank, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShiftThree alternatives
Civo Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes EngineGrok 4.20Google Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with Autopilot modeChangedno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetesagainst: Amazon EKSAzure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engineagainst: Alibaba ACK, Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Huawei CCE, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, IONOS, OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift, Tencent TKE
Three alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Red Hat OpenShiftTwo alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceFive alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShiftThree alternatives
Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes EngineFive alternatives
Amazon EKS, EKS Anywhere, GKE On-Prem, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShiftMistral SmallGoogle Kubernetes EngineAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes EngineChangedno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetesagainst: Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engineno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift
Four alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Northflank, Red Hat OpenShiftTwo alternatives
DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Exoscale Scalable Kubernetes ServiceTwo alternatives
Linode Kubernetes Engine, Rackspace SpotDeepSeek V4 FlashGoogle Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldagainst: Amazon EKSno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetesagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Serviceno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, D2iQ Kubernetes Platform, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Hetzner Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Three alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean KubernetesOne alternative
Azure Kubernetes ServiceSeven alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Platform9 Managed Kubernetes, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShiftTwo alternatives
Civo Kubernetes, Google Cloud's GKE AutopilotNine alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Northflank, Platform9 Managed Kubernetes, Rafay, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift, SUSELlama 4 MaverickGoogle Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engineno first choicenothing named
Three alternatives
Amazon EKS, Atmosly, DigitalOcean KubernetesThree alternatives
Amazon EKS, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, NorthflankThree alternatives
Civo Kubernetes, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr Kubernetes EngineQwen 3.7 FlashGoogle Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldGoogle Kubernetes EngineDigitalOcean Kubernetesagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engineno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift
Four alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShiftThree alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Control PlaneSeven alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Northflank, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift, Render, VMware TanzuTwo alternatives
Hetzner, Linode Kubernetes EngineKimi K2Google Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldGoogle Kubernetes EngineCivo Kubernetesno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, Scaleway Kapsule
Two alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceTwo alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceFour alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShiftFour alternatives
DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Hetzner, IONOS Cloud, OVHcloud Managed KubernetesFive alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShiftGLM 4.7 FlashXAzure Kubernetes Serviceagainst: Red Hat OpenShiftAzure Kubernetes ServiceHeldno first choiceScaleway Kapsuleagainst: Amazon EKS, Azureno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes Engine, VMware Tanzu
Three alternatives
Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine, RancherThree alternatives
Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine, Platform9 Managed KubernetesTen alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Kubernetes on DigitalOcean, Kubernetes on IBM Cloud, Kubernetes on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Platform9 Managed Kubernetes, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware TanzuThree alternatives
Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, HetznerMiniMax M2.5no first choiceGoogle Kubernetes EngineChangedGoogle Kubernetes EngineDigitalOcean Kubernetesno first choiceagainst: IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Yandex Cloud
Two alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceFive alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware TanzuThree alternatives
Google Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes Engine, UpCloud Kubernetes ServiceGPT-6 LunaGoogle Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetesno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine
Two alternatives
AKS Automatic, Amazon EKSTwo alternatives
AKS Automatic, EKS Auto ModeFour alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Managed Red Hat OpenShiftThree alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes EngineMuse Glimmer 30BGoogle Kubernetes EngineGoogle Kubernetes EngineHeldno first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engineno first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, EKS Anywhere, Google Kubernetes Engine, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Six alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Mirantis Kubernetes Engine, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware TanzuTwo alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes ServiceFive alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Mirantis Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShiftFour alternatives
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – OKE, Rackspace Spot, Scaleway Kapsule, UpCloud Managed KubernetesThree alternatives
Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes EngineBold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 09:04 | no | 0 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 12:48 | yes | 6 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 10:18 | no | 0 | 15 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 15:58 | yes | 10 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 19:23 | yes | 5 | 11 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 15:47 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 08:51 | yes | 23 | 24 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 12:35 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 10:50 | no | 0 | 32 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 12:37 | yes | 15 | 23 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 09:48 | yes | 23 | 30 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 15:14 | yes | 9 | 91 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 11:07 | yes | 3 | 12 s |
| Direct recommendation | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 16:28 | yes | 13 | 24 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 19:19 | no | 0 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 11:28 | no | 0 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 11:45 | no | 0 | 16 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 12:41 | yes | 10 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 17:29 | yes | 5 | 8 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 09:41 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 14:45 | yes | 14 | 22 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 16:03 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 13:15 | yes | 5 | 38 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 17:20 | yes | 10 | 18 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 15:19 | yes | 20 | 30 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 16:04 | yes | 5 | 52 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 11:08 | yes | 3 | 10 s |
| Paraphrase | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 12:52 | yes | 15 | 15 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 17:51 | yes | 19 | 11 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 11:27 | yes | 8 | 7 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 15:53 | no | 0 | 20 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 08:57 | yes | 10 | 6 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 14:30 | yes | 5 | 16 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 10:59 | yes | 5 | 8 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 12:19 | yes | 15 | 29 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 13:43 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 15:53 | yes | 5 | 21 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 19:40 | yes | 10 | 22 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 17:14 | yes | 10 | 24 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 12:51 | yes | 5 | 17 s |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 13:40 | yes | 4 | 17 s |
| Comparative | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 11:22 | yes | 15 | 31 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 18:11 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 12:14 | no | 0 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 13:26 | no | 0 | 20 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 14:29 | yes | 10 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 16:04 | yes | 10 | 12 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 10:23 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 16:57 | yes | 21 | 25 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 19:12 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 14:36 | no | 0 | 29 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 12:33 | yes | 15 | 45 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 11:42 | yes | 25 | 28 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 19:12 | yes | 5 | 21 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 17:29 | yes | 4 | 10 s |
| Budget constrained | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 08:47 | yes | 14 | 23 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 14:54 | no | 0 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 16:15 | no | 0 | 8 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 17:41 | no | 0 | 23 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 19:32 | yes | 10 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 15:30 | yes | 9 | 19 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 09:15 | no | 0 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 17:28 | yes | 20 | 51 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 13:47 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 12:56 | yes | 5 | 26 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 16:10 | yes | 14 | 30 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 19:29 | yes | 14 | 22 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 12:12 | yes | 8 | 38 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 19:17 | yes | 5 | 21 s |
| Scale constrained | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 10:57 | yes | 14 | 24 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 08:48 | yes | 18 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 09:49 | yes | 4 | 6 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 18:53 | yes | 3 | 25 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 12:51 | yes | 10 | 6 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 17:28 | yes | 12 | 19 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 13:13 | yes | 5 | 7 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 18:23 | yes | 24 | 38 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 10:23 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 19:09 | yes | 25 | 79 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 08:51 | yes | 25 | 75 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 18:20 | yes | 21 | 52 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 15:10 | yes | 25 | 56 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 09:38 | yes | 4 | 16 s |
| Negative framing | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 17:15 | yes | 14 | 28 s |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
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Category-scoped readings
AWS read as Amazon EKS
Amazon EKS Auto Mode read as Amazon EKS
Civo read as Civo Kubernetes
DigitalOcean read as DigitalOcean Kubernetes
DigitalOcean (DOKS) read as DigitalOcean Kubernetes
DigitalOcean (Kubernetes) read as DigitalOcean Kubernetes
DigitalOcean Kubernetes – DOKS read as DigitalOcean Kubernetes
IBM Cloud Kubernetes read as IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service
Linode read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Linode (Akamai) read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Linode (LKE) read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Mirantis read as Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
OVHcloud read as OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes
OVHcloud MKS read as OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes
Oracle read as Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OKE) read as Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes
Platform9 read as Platform9 Managed Kubernetes
Scaleway read as Scaleway Kapsule
Scaleway (Kapsule) read as Scaleway Kapsule
Vultr read as Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Unresolved, counted raw
AKS Virtual Nodes
AWS EKS on Fargate
Alibaba Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK)
Broadcom VMware Tanzu
Cloud Temple's PaaS OpenShift
Cloudfleet on Hetzner
D2iQ Kubernetes Platform (DKP)
Exoscale Scalable Kubernetes Service (SKS)
GKE On-Prem
Google Cloud's GKE Autopilot
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with Autopilot mode
Hetzner Kubernetes
Huawei CCE
IONOS Cloud
Kubernetes on DigitalOcean
Kubernetes on IBM Cloud
Kubernetes on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
Loft (vCluster)
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OKE) — Oracle Kubernetes Engine
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Kubernetes Engine (OKE)
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – OKE
Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud (ROKS)
UpCloud Kubernetes Service (UKS)
Yandex Cloud
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.