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

54Heralded Score, range 46–68

Most cited source

hostadvice.com

10citations

From 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 Rank change Heralded Score All AI Search Score trend Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
1 AWS US New entry 54 , range 46–68 60#1 45#1
54
  • : score 54 · #1
50% 14% None First reading
2 Google Cloud US New entry 46 , range 38–60 48#2 43#2
46
  • : score 46 · #2
40% 10% First reading
3 DigitalOcean US New entry 37 , range 29–58 46#3 21#6
37
  • : score 37 · #3
30% 15% None First reading
4 Microsoft Azure US New entry 36 , range 27–55 41#4 26#4
36
  • : score 36 · #4
29% 8% None First reading
5 Hetzner DE New entry 26 , range 22–52 37#5 8#11
26
  • : score 26 · #5
18% 11% None First reading
6 Vercel US New entry 24 , range 21–50 37#6 1#57
24
  • : score 24 · #6
18% 10% None First reading
7 Render US New entry 23 , range 21–50 36#7 1= #64
23
  • : score 23 · #7
16% 11% None First reading
8 Cloudways MT New entry 23 , range 16–48 31#9 9#10
23
  • : score 23 · #8
12% 7% None First reading
9 Railway US New entry 20 , range 15–45 31#8 1= #64
20
  • : score 20 · #9
11% 8% None First reading
10 Cloudflare Workers US New entry 20 , range 11–46 29#10 4#30
20
  • : score 20 · #10
14% 2% 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. AI and Search give each brand’s score and rank on that side alone. 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 hostadvice.com Review site 2.4% 1 of 4 8 Not read
2 hostingvergelijker.nl Review site 1.4% 3 of 4 4 7
3 lafabriquedunet.fr Review site 1.4% 3 of 4 5 3
4 deploys.run Review site 1.0% 1 of 4 2 Not read
5 findstack.com Review site 1.2% 1 of 4 2 Not read
6 hostingradar.nl Review site 1.0% 2 of 4 2 3
7 toolverly.com Review site 0.7% 1 of 4 1 Not read
8 webhosters.nl Review site 0.7% 2 of 4 2 3
9 business.com Review site 0.5% 2 of 4 2 Not read
10 foxeet.fr Review site 0.5% 1 of 4 1 2

Questions asked

QuestionLanguageMost recommended
Dedicated server of cloudhosting voor kleine webwinkels? Dutch No brand recommended
Alternatieven voor dedicated serverhosting voor webwinkels Dutch Cloud86, Hosting.nl and TransIP, tied
Alternatieven voor servers op locatie voor de apps van een klein bedrijf Dutch No brand recommended
Ik run een kleine startup en zoek cloudhosting met voorspelbare maandelijkse kosten Dutch Hetzner
Ik heb een webwinkel met seizoensgebonden verkeer en zoek flexibele cloudresources Dutch Microsoft Azure
best cloud hosting platform for independent developers English DigitalOcean, Railway and Vercel, tied
cloud hosting for small software teams English Fly.io
how can a developer host an app without managing servers English AWS, Cloudflare Pages, Firebase, Microsoft Azure, Netlify and Vercel, tied
how to keep a startup website online as traffic grows English AWS
managed cloud hosting vs self-managed servers for startups English No brand recommended

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