Leader
91%of answers name it
The most visible B2C cloud hosting platforms, October 2026
Most cited source
34citations
From Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews
Where engines disagree most
1/4engines put it in their top three
Top three on Gemini, not on Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT
Brands
| Rank | Brand | Heralded Score | Mentioned | Recommended | By engine | Mentioned by | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1#1 overall |  AWS US | 83 , range 77–88 | 91% | 59% | None | First reading | |
| 2#3 overall | | 75 , range 67–81 | 79% | 46% | None | First reading | |
| 3#6 overall | | 40 , range 34–48 | 29% | 21% | None | First reading | |
| 4#7 overall | | 38 , range 32–46 | 28% | 18% | None | First reading | |
| 5#8 overall | | 35 , range 26–42 | 22% | 15% | | First reading | |
| 6#9 overall | | 27 , range 9–36 | 20% | 4% | None | First reading | |
| 7#10 overall | | 27 , range 9–36 | 15% | 8% | | First reading | |
| 8#11 overall | | 19 , range 7–34 | 16% | 4% | | First reading | |
| 9#13 overall | | 9 , range 5–32 | 9% | 6% | None | First reading | |
| 10#14 overall | | 8 , range 4–31 | 8% | 5% | None | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Vendor site | 3.1% | 2 of 4 | 8 | Not read |
| 2 | Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it. | |||||
| 3 | | Vendor site | 4.2% | 2 of 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it. | |||||
| 5 | Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it. | |||||
| 6 | | Vendor site | 3.1% | 2 of 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | | Vendor site | 2.1% | 2 of 4 | 3 | 0 |
| 8 | | Vendor site | 3.1% | 2 of 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | | Vendor site | 2.1% | 1 of 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | | Vendor site | 2.1% | 1 of 4 | 1 | 0 |
The questions, and who wins each
| Question | Language | Wins it |
|---|---|---|
| best cloud hosting for a software company | English | AWS |
| cloud hosting recommendations for a platform engineer | English | AWS |
| top cloud hosting | English | AWS, |
| how to choose cloud hosting | English | |
| what to look for in cloud hosting | English | No brand recommended |
| cloud hosting for a team of 20 to 200 | English | AWS |
| cloud hosting that integrates with Terraform | English | AWS and |
| cloud hosting with GDPR-compliant hosting | English | AWS, |
| cloud hosting for media | English | AWS and |
| most reliable cloud hosting | English | AWS |
Each engine's top three
Google AI Mode
- 1
DigitalOcean
- 2
- 3
Hetzner
Gemini
- = 1
- = 1
- 3
Vultr
Google AI Overviews
- 1
- 2
- 3
Hostinger
ChatGPT
- 1
- 2
- 3
Related leaderboards
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.