The most visible cloud hosting platforms in United Kingdom, October 2026

October 2026 · 15 questions asked from United Kingdom in 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

54%of answers name it

Most cited source

amazon.com

33citations

From ChatGPT

Where engines disagree most

Cloudways

1/4engines put it in their top three

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

Brands

Rank Brand Rank change Heralded Score Score trend Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
11 SiteGround BG New entry 21 , range 3–49
21
  • : score 21 · #11
9% 5% First reading
12 Cloudflare Pages US New entry 16 , range 5–37
16
  • : score 16 · #12
13% 2% None First reading
13 IONOS DE New entry 16 , range 2–46
16
  • : score 16 · #13
6% 3% None First reading
14 Hostinger LT New entry 14 , range 3–44
14
  • : score 14 · #14
8% 5% First reading
15 Fly.io US New entry 14 , range 4–31
14
  • : score 14 · #15
9% 4% None First reading
16 Akamai Linode US New entry 13 , range 3–38
13
  • : score 13 · #16
9% 4% First reading
17 Cloudflare Workers US New entry 11 , range 4–36
11
  • : score 11 · #17
12% 0% None First reading
18 Heroku US New entry 10 , range 4–36
10
  • : score 10 · #18
11% 0% None First reading
19 Netlify US New entry 8 , range 3–29
8
  • : score 8 · #19
7% 3% None First reading
20 Firebase US New entry 6 , range 2–31
6
  • : score 6 · #20
5% 3% 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.

Most cited sources

Rank Source Type Cited in Engines Pages cited Brands its pages mention
1 amazon.com Brand site 18.3% 1 of 4 27 1
2Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
3 digitalocean.com Brand site 13.3% 3 of 4 7 2
4 reddit.com Community 11.7% 2 of 4 7 Not read
5 vercel.com Brand site 8.3% 1 of 4 5 1
6 google.com Brand site 6.7% 1 of 4 6 Not read
7Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
8Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
9Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
10Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.

The questions, and who wins each

QuestionLanguageWins it
best cloud hosting platform for independent developers English DigitalOcean and Railway, tied
cloud hosting for small software teams English DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Railway and Render, tied
how can a developer host an app without managing servers English AWS, Cloudflare Pages, Firebase, Google Cloud, Netlify, Render and Vercel, tied
how to keep a startup website online as traffic grows English AWS, Render and Vercel, tied
managed cloud hosting vs self-managed servers for startups English Render and Vercel, tied

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