Cloud hosting · September 2026 Edition
Amazon Web Services vs Microsoft Azure
Six of twelve models named Amazon Web Services first on the direct prompt; five named Microsoft Azure. Both were named by all twelve models and Amazon Web Services carries 58 labels and Microsoft Azure 35, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in five categories this edition.
First-choice share29%24%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate17%3%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 12; printed, not drawn.
Labels5835A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Amazon Web Services reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Google Cloud was named alongside these two in nine of the twelve direct answers. Amazon Web Services vs DigitalOcean · Microsoft Azure vs DigitalOcean
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the cloud hosting page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Amazon Web ServicesFirst choices, of twelve modelsMicrosoft Azure
Direct65
Paraphrase76
Comparative81
Budget-constrained005 against Amazon Web Services · 1 against Microsoft Azure
Scale-constrained002 against Amazon Web Services
Negative103 against Amazon Web Services
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure stood in it.
Both were the first choice
3 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.Claude Haiku 4.5Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure alternatives: DigitalOcean
Gemini 3.5 FlashAmazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure alternatives: Atlantic.Net, Cloudways, Google Cloud, Liquid Web / Nexcess
Qwen 3.7 FlashAmazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace Technology alternatives: Google Cloud
Amazon Web Services first, Microsoft Azure an alternative
3 of 12 modelsMicrosoft Azure was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniAmazon Web Services alternatives: Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Grok 4.1 FastAmazon Web Services alternatives: Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
Mistral SmallAmazon Web Services alternatives: Akamai Connected Cloud, DigitalOcean, Microsoft Azure, Vultr
Microsoft Azure first, Amazon Web Services an alternative
2 of 12 modelsAmazon Web Services was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.DeepSeek V4 FlashMicrosoft Azure alternatives: Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud
Kimi K2Microsoft Azure alternatives: 11:11 Systems, Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, RapidScale
Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Perplexity SonarCloudways alternatives: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
GLM 4.7 FlashXno first choice alternatives: Akamai Connected Cloud, Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, RapidScale, Vultr
MiniMax M2.5Rackspace Technology alternatives: Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, Liquid Web, Microsoft Azure
Neither was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Amazon Web Services leads by nine points.
Amazon Web Services11%#2 of 14Microsoft Azure2%#9 of 14Mid-marketThe figures above
Amazon Web Services leads by four points.
Amazon Web Services29%#1 of 12Microsoft Azure24%#2 of 12Enterprise
Amazon Web Services leads by thirty points.
Amazon Web Services57%#1 of 8Microsoft Azure27%#2 of 8What the models said about Amazon Web Services
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Avoid big clouds like AWS/GCP/Azure for tiny budgets” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP): Best if you need incredibly complex, cutting-edge services... However, they are highly complex and can be very expensive.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · soft negative
“A major trap for budget-conscious companies is choosing "hyperscalers" like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“AWS is usually considered the most comprehensive cloud platform, with the broadest range of services and the deepest ecosystem.” GPT-5.4 mini · comparative prompt · first choice
“If you have no strong existing-preference signal: AWS. It's the safest, most flexible choice for a mid-sized B2B company” DeepSeek V4 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Choose AWS if you are building a complex, highly scalable application and have the technical expertise to manage it.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
What the models said about Microsoft Azure
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“their complex pay-as-you-go pricing, steep learning curves, and high data transfer (egress) fees frequently lead to "sticker shock" invoices” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“Best for: B2B companies heavily integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem... Azure is almost always the path of least resistance.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“Azure = "the Microsoft-centric, hybrid-cloud champion" – the natural choice for organisations deeply invested in Windows” MiniMax M2.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Choose Azure if your company uses Microsoft products extensively or needs to bridge on-premise servers with the cloud.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
Also compared
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.