Colocation providers
Asked as “colocation provider”, and as “data center colocation space”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 41 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each. Added to the September 2026 Edition; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
22%
Contested · Flexential 15%
22TierPoint15Flexential15InterServer49others
22% of first choices, contested.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
The standing
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. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01TierPoint22%
TierPoint22%02Flexential15%
Flexential15%03Equinix10%
Equinix10%04DataBank10%
DataBank10%05CoreSite5%
CoreSite5%06Digital Realty2%
Digital Realty2%07CyrusOne0%
CyrusOne0%08NTT Global Data Centers0%
NTT Global Data Centers0%09Iron Mountain Data Centers0%
Iron Mountain Data Centers0%What they warned about
Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Equinix25%
11 of 44 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**Avoid hyperscale giants (Equinix, Digital Realty):** ... will likely be overkill and overpriced for a mid-market B2B firm.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
ColoCrossing62%
5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“This provider has received warnings primarily focused on customer support responsiveness.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Evocative80%
4 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“There is a notable volume of negative sentiment surrounding Evocative. Users have described their experiences as an "absolute disaster"” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Digital Realty12%
4 of 32 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**Avoid hyperscale giants (Equinix, Digital Realty):** ... will likely be overkill and overpriced for a mid-market B2B firm.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.
Sites the answers cite
73 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 987 links across 249 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.
38 answers · 50 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Guideflow23 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · DataBank22 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
22 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
21 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 21 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
18 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
vendor site · SourceForge15 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
vendor site · CoreSite15 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
12 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
33 answers · 10 models
23 answers · 10 models
21 answers · 11 models
20 answers · 8 models
19 answers · 10 models
17 answers · 8 models
17 answers · 10 models
14 answers · 9 models
12 answers · 8 models
11 answers · 8 models
Search against answers
Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best colocation provider”, “colocation provider”, “colocation providers”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TierPoint tierpoint.com | 22% | 46 | 3,600 | 192 | 33,285 | $160 | 63 | 5 |
| Flexential flexential.com | 15% | 37 | 4,400 | 306 | 79,719 | $915 | 120 | |
| InterServer interserver.net | 15% | 40 | 3,600 | 70 | 53,424 | $1,026 | 25 | |
| Equinix equinix.com | 10% | 126 | 33,100 | 2,002 | 83,527 | 77 | 1 | |
| DataBank databank.com | 10% | 36 | 6,600 | 782 | 53,845 | $604 | 120 | 8 |
| CoreSite coresite.com | 5% | 90 | 4,400 | 282 | 73,076 | $98 | 34 | |
| Sectorlink sectorlink.com | 5% | 11 | 140 | 0 | 1,552 | |||
| Sharktech sharktech.net | 5% | 6 | ||||||
| Digital Realty digitalrealty.com | 2% | 96 | 14,800 | 726 | 68,677 | 30 | ||
| Colocation America colocationamerica.com | 2% | 12 | 480 | 3 | 96,778 | 0 |
Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (databank.com, gartner.com, quotecolo.com). The first result for “best colocation provider” is equinix.com.
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.ShowHide
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHideModelDirect“What is the best colocation provider for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which data center colocation space would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top colocation providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best colocation provider for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a colocation provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which colocation providers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceno first choiceHeldEquinixInterServerno first choiceagainst: Evocative, QuadraNet
Four alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Qu Data CentresTwo alternatives
ARPHost, LLC, ServerManiaGPT-5.4 miniEquinixno first choiceChangedDigital Realty, EquinixFlexentialagainst: Equinixno first choicenothing named
Three alternatives
CoreSite, Flexential, TierPointSeven alternatives
Cologix, CoreSite, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS, SwitchTwo alternatives
CDNetworks, TierPointGemini 3.5 FlashFlexentialagainst: Digital Realty, EquinixCoreSiteChangedagainst: EquinixEquinixJoe's Datacenteragainst: CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Equinixno first choiceagainst: 11:11 Systems, Centersquare, INAP
Four alternatives
Centersquare, CoreSite, Iron Mountain Data Centers, TierPointTwo alternatives
Flexential, Iron Mountain Data CentersSix alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Realty Trust, SwitchFour alternatives
ColoCrossing, Dedicated.com, Hivelocity, Psychz NetworksPerplexity SonarCoreSiteno first choiceChangedno first choiceInterServeragainst: Dedicated.comno first choicenothing named
Two alternatives
Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data CentersOne alternative
Colocation AmericaGrok 4.1 FastDataBank, TierPointTierPointChangedno first choiceInterServerno first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Evocative
One alternative
EquinixOne alternative
EvocativeTwo alternatives
Hetzner, RackNerdMistral SmallDataBank, EquinixEquinixChangedDigital Realty, EquinixSharktechno first choiceagainst: Cloudnium LLC, Crown Castle Colocation, Equinix, Leaseweb, MOD Mission Critical, TierPoint
Two alternatives
Digital Realty, NTT Global Data CentersFive alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Cyxtera, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data CentersThree alternatives
InterServer, MIRhosting, UltahostDeepSeek V4 FlashFlexentialagainst: Digital Realty, EquinixTierPointChangedagainst: EquinixEquinixColocation America, Sharktechno first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Colocation America, Evocative
Two alternatives
DataBank, TierPointThree alternatives
CoreSite, DataBank, FlexentialSeven alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers, SwitchThree alternatives
GigeNET, Hetzner, InterServerLlama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashDataBank, Digital RealtyPerformiveChangedEquinixInterServerno first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Evocative, QuadraNet
Two alternatives
Equinix, NTT Global Data CentersTwo alternatives
Digital Realty, Local Tier-2 ProvidersSix alternatives
CyrusOne, DataBank, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS, SwitchThree alternatives
Atlantic.Net, Colocation America, MIRhostingKimi K2TierPointagainst: EquinixFlexential, TierPointChangedEquinixagainst: CyxteraInterServerno first choiceagainst: Cyxtera Technologies
Two alternatives
Cologix, DataBankThree alternatives
DataBank, Digital Realty, EquinixFive alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, QTS Data CentersThree alternatives
Colocation America, Sectorlink, UltahostGLM 4.7 FlashXFlexential, TierPointTierPointChangedDigital Realty, EquinixNextArray, Sectorlinkno first choiceagainst: Cyxtera, Equinix
Five alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, DataBank, Iron Mountain Data Centers, QTSTwo alternatives
Digital Realty, EquinixSix alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers, SwitchThree alternatives
Dedicated.com, InterServer, LowCostColocation.comMiniMax M2.5no first choiceEquinixChangedEquinixno first choiceno first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing
Three alternatives
Cologix, DataBank, NTT Global Data CentersFour alternatives
CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data CentersBold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 00:21 | no | 0 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 00:27 | yes | 2 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-05 01:34 | yes | 19 | 25 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-04 23:58 | yes | 19 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-04 22:44 | yes | 21 | 10 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-04 23:57 | yes | 6 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-05 00:20 | yes | 19 | 61 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 00:00 | yes | 7 | 2 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 01:47 | yes | 5 | 17 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 01:03 | yes | 9 | 21 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-04 22:19 | yes | 18 | 29 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 01:08 | no | 0 | 47 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 01:25 | no | 0 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 00:36 | no | 0 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-04 23:13 | yes | 12 | 20 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 00:22 | yes | 18 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-04 22:22 | yes | 23 | 9 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-04 23:51 | yes | 20 | 9 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-05 00:58 | yes | 21 | 24 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-04 23:33 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 01:03 | yes | 5 | 22 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-04 22:19 | yes | 15 | 27 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 00:16 | yes | 14 | 17 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 01:05 | yes | 5 | 26 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 01:20 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-04 23:56 | yes | 5 | 9 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-04 22:19 | yes | 10 | 31 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 01:51 | yes | 20 | 4 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-04 23:18 | yes | 22 | 10 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-04 23:57 | yes | 11 | 12 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-05 00:34 | yes | 23 | 47 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 01:19 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 00:23 | no | 0 | 26 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 01:34 | yes | 12 | 58 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 01:59 | yes | 12 | 235 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 00:56 | yes | 5 | 12 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-04 23:55 | yes | 9 | 7 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 01:12 | yes | 1 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-05 00:01 | yes | 33 | 32 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 00:17 | yes | 17 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-04 23:59 | yes | 22 | 10 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 00:28 | yes | 12 | 7 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-05 00:45 | yes | 23 | 43 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-04 23:36 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-04 22:40 | yes | 8 | 19 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 00:18 | yes | 17 | 19 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 01:47 | yes | 18 | 340 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-04 22:13 | yes | 5 | 38 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 01:13 | no | 0 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 01:10 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-04 23:48 | no | 0 | 15 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 01:13 | yes | 18 | 5 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 01:13 | yes | 13 | 8 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 00:20 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 22:57 | yes | 19 | 42 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 01:12 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-04 22:27 | no | 0 | 24 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 01:20 | yes | 20 | 29 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 01:01 | yes | 19 | 34 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-04 23:55 | no | 0 | 12 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 01:32 | yes | 17 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 01:16 | yes | 7 | 6 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-04 22:59 | yes | 17 | 32 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 00:57 | yes | 19 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 00:05 | yes | 22 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 00:46 | yes | 15 | 8 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 23:53 | yes | 24 | 38 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 00:02 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 01:31 | yes | 18 | 26 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 01:32 | yes | 25 | 20 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 01:43 | yes | 23 | 25 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 00:38 | yes | 20 | 42 s |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Iron Mountain read as Iron Mountain Data Centers
Unresolved, counted raw
11:11 Systems
ARPHost, LLC
Aligned
Cafe24
Cogent CoreSpace
Colo Colo
Convergys
DataSite / DataSite Colo
Evoque
Fiber State
Interxion (Digital Realty subsidiary)
Lightsquared (ViaWest)
Local Tier-2 Providers
LowCostColocation.com
NextArray
Novva
Qu Data Centres
UnitedLayer
iland
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.