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The most visible cloud hosting platforms, October 2026

October 2026 · 12 questions asked in English, worldwide · ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode · 96 answers read

Leader

AWS

91%of answers name it

Most cited source

youtube.com

34citations

From Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews

Where engines disagree most

Microsoft Azure

1/4engines put it in their top three

Top three on ChatGPT, not on Google AI Mode, Gemini and Google AI Overviews

Brands

Rank Brand Heralded Score Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
1 AWS US 84 , range 78–88 91% 56% First reading
2 Google Cloud US 79 , range 73–84 86% 45% First reading
3 DigitalOcean US 78 , range 72–83 81% 48% First reading
4 Microsoft Azure US 67 , range 53–75 60% 39% First reading
5 Cloudways MT 45 , range 38–56 39% 26% First reading
6 Vultr US 43 , range 36–52 34% 25% First reading
7 Hetzner DE 37 , range 31–45 29% 17% First reading
8 Hostinger LT 32 , range 24–40 21% 14% First reading
9 Kinsta US 30 , range 20–37 18% 10% None First reading
10 Akamai Linode US 27 , range 19–35 21% 4% First reading

“=” marks brands whose score ranges overlap, so the test cannot separate them. Every brand named in at least three answers is ranked. By engine has one dot per engine (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode), darker the more often it names the brand.

Most cited sources

Rank Source Type Cited in Engines Pages cited Brands its pages mention
11Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
12Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
13Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
14 cnet.com Media 6.3% 3 of 4 1 0
15 hetzner.com Brand site 5.2% 2 of 4 6 0
16 devopsschool.com Reference 5.2% 1 of 4 1 0
17Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
18Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
19 bso.co Vendor site 4.2% 2 of 4 1 0
20Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.

The questions, and who wins each

QuestionLanguageWins it
cloud hosting with the best support English Cloudways
which cloud hosting do experts recommend English AWS and DigitalOcean, tied

Each engine's top three

Method

Each month Heralded asks every engine the same buyer questions, twice each, and reads every answer. An answer counts 0 for a brand it leaves out, 50 for a brand it names and 100 for a brand it recommends, and the Heralded Score is built from those. A brand named in at least three answers gets a score and a place.

How the leaderboards are measured