The most visible cloud hosting platforms in Europe, October 2026

October 2026 · 105 questions asked from 7 countries · ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode · 420 answers read

Leader

AWS

60Heralded Score, range 55–65

Most cited source

youtube.com

76citations

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

Search is not measured for this board yet, so it ranks on AI answers.

Rank Brand Rank change Heralded Score All AI Score trend Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
21 IONOS DE New entry 5 , range 3–7 5#21
5
  • : score 5 · #21
6% 1% First reading
22 Cloud86 NL New entry 3 , range 2–6 3#22
3
  • : score 3 · #22
3% 1% First reading
23 Kamatera US New entry 3 , range 2–6 3#23
3
  • : score 3 · #23
3% 1% First reading
24 o2switch FR New entry 3 , range 2–5 3#24
3
  • : score 3 · #24
3% 1% None First reading
25 Northflank GB New entry 3 , range 2–5 3#25
3
  • : score 3 · #25
3% 0% None First reading
26 GitHub Pages US New entry 3 , range 2–5 3#26
3
  • : score 3 · #26
3% 0% None First reading
27 WP Engine US New entry 3 , range 2–5 3#27
3
  • : score 3 · #27
2% 1% First reading
28 cyber_Folks PL New entry 2 , range 2–4 2#28
2
  • : score 2 · #28
2% 1% None First reading
29 TransIP NL New entry 2 , range 1–4 2#29
2
  • : score 2 · #29
2% 1% First reading
30 Aruba IT New entry 2 , range 1–4 2#30
2
  • : score 2 · #30
2% 1% First reading

“=” marks brands whose score ranges overlap, so the test cannot separate them. Every brand named in at least three answers is ranked. AI gives each brand’s score and rank from the engines’ answers; Search is not measured for this board yet. 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 youtube.com Social 10.7% 2 of 4 55 Not read
2 shopify.com Vendor site 6.2% 4 of 4 33 20
3 reddit.com Community 7.1% 3 of 4 27 Not read
4 woocommerce.com Vendor site 2.9% 1 of 4 11 2
5 medium.com Community 3.8% 3 of 4 10 Not read
6 searcheye.io Vendor site 3.1% 2 of 4 1 10
7 linkedin.com Social 2.6% 2 of 4 7 Not read
8 freecodecamp.org Reference 2.4% 3 of 4 1 8
9 hostadvice.com Review site 2.4% 1 of 4 8 Not read
10 instawp.com Vendor site 2.4% 3 of 4 1 14

Questions asked

QuestionLanguageMost recommended
Qual è la migliore piattaforma di cloud hosting per startup? Italian AWS, DigitalOcean and Google Cloud, tied
Cloud hosting per piccoli negozi online Italian Serverplan
Come può una startup mantenere la propria app online senza interruzioni? Italian AWS and Microsoft Azure, tied
Come posso ospitare un negozio online che sta ricevendo sempre più visite? Italian AWS and Cloudways, tied
Server interni o cloud hosting per startup? Italian AWS
Server dedicato o cloud hosting per piccoli negozi online? Italian No brand recommended
Alternative all’hosting su server dedicati per negozi online Italian Cloudways
Alternative ai server on-premise per le app di una piccola impresa Italian No brand recommended
Gestisco una piccola startup e cerco un servizio di cloud hosting con costi mensili prevedibili Italian Hetzner
Ho un negozio online con traffico stagionale e cerco risorse cloud flessibili Italian Microsoft Azure

Each engine's top three

Method

Each leaderboard ranks brands on two sides. AI is how ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode answer the board's buyer questions. Search is Google's top 10 results for the keywords behind those questions. All combines the two, where Search is measured.

For the AI side, 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