Heralded
Start free trial
Heralded

The most visible cloud hosting platforms in Germany, October 2026

October 2026 · 15 questions asked from Germany in German and English · ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode · 60 answers read

AI: how the engines answer the board's questions; Search: Google's top 10 for the questions' demand keywords; All: both combined. How the Heralded Score works.

Leader

AWS

48%of answers name it

Most cited source

shopify.com

8citations

From Gemini, Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT

Where engines disagree most

Microsoft Azure

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 Rank change Heralded Score Score trend Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
1 AWS US New entry 56 , range 34–72
56
  • : score 56 · #1
 48% 13% None First reading
2 Google Cloud US New entry 44 , range 24–64
44
  • : score 44 · #2
 37% 8% None First reading
3 Hetzner DE New entry 39 , range 24–65
39
  • : score 39 · #3
 32% 13% First reading
4 Microsoft Azure US New entry 30 , range 21–59
30
  • : score 30 · #4
 28% 7% None First reading
5 DigitalOcean US New entry 28 , range 20–57
28
  • : score 28 · #5
 24% 6% None First reading
6 Vercel US New entry 23 , range 19–55
23
  • : score 23 · #6
 20% 8% None First reading
7 Render US New entry 22 , range 14–54
22
  • : score 22 · #7
 15% 8% None First reading
8 Cloudflare Workers US New entry 21 , range 4–50
21
  • : score 21 · #8
 13% 2% None First reading
9 IONOS DE New entry 18 , range 5–50
18
  • : score 18 · #9
 14% 1% First reading
10 Railway US New entry 18 , range 5–51
18
  • : score 18 · #10
 10% 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.

This month's moves

First reading. No comparable previous month yet.

Biggest risers

No clear rise.

Biggest fallers

No clear fall.

New entries

162 new entries

Drop-outs

No drop-outs.

Most cited sources

Rank Source Type Cited in Engines Pages cited Brands its pages mention
1 shopify.com Vendor site 8.3% 3 of 4 4 8
2Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
3Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
4Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
5Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
6Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
7Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
8 websale.de Vendor site 3.3% 2 of 4 1 0
9 aunimeda.com Vendor site 1.7% 1 of 4 1 Not read
10Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.

The questions, and who wins each

QuestionLanguageWins it
best cloud hosting platform for independent developers English Hetzner
cloud hosting for small software teams English Hetzner
how can a developer host an app without managing servers English Render 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

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