# Colocation providers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "colocation provider" and as "data center colocation space", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/cloud/colocation-providers/

**Standing:** TierPoint leads with 22% of first choices; verdict contested. 41 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TierPoint | 22% | 6% | 18 |
| 2 | Flexential | 15% | 0% | 14 |
| 3 | Equinix | 10% | 25% | 44 |
| 4 | DataBank | 10% | 0% | 15 |
| 5 | CoreSite | 5% | 0% | 33 |
| 6 | Digital Realty | 2% | 12% | 32 |
| 7 | CyrusOne | 0% | 4% | 23 |
| 8 | NTT Global Data Centers | 0% | 0% | 18 |
| 9 | Iron Mountain Data Centers | 0% | 0% | 13 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Flexential; alternatives Centersquare, CoreSite, Iron Mountain Data Centers, TierPoint
- Perplexity Sonar: CoreSite; alternatives Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers
- Grok 4.1 Fast: DataBank, TierPoint; alternatives Equinix
- Mistral Small: DataBank, Equinix
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Flexential; alternatives DataBank, TierPoint
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: DataBank, Digital Realty; alternatives Equinix, NTT Global Data Centers
- Kimi K2: TierPoint; alternatives Cologix, DataBank
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Flexential, TierPoint; alternatives CoreSite, CyrusOne, DataBank, Iron Mountain Data Centers
- MiniMax M2.5: no first choice
- GPT-6 Luna: Flexential; alternatives CoreSite, Equinix, TierPoint
- Muse Glimmer 30B: TierPoint; alternatives CoreSite, CyrusOne, Cyxtera, DataBank

## Sources the answers cite

73 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- quotecolo.com: 38 answers, 50 citations
- guideflow.com: 23 answers, 24 citations
- databank.com: 22 answers, 37 citations
- encoradvisors.com: 22 answers, 26 citations
- dgtlinfra.com: 21 answers, 23 citations
- techradar.com: 21 answers, 21 citations
- feeds.sabertoothpro.com: 19 answers, 19 citations
- gartner.com: 18 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://quotecolo.com/colocation-providers (33 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/colocation-services (23 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-colocation-hosting (21 answers)
- https://dgtlinfra.com/top-10-colocation-providers (20 answers)
- https://feeds.sabertoothpro.com/blog/best-colocation-service-provider-usa (19 answers)
- https://encoradvisors.com/best-colocation-data-center (17 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/colocation-providers (17 answers)
- https://metrocoloadvisory.com/provider-comparison (14 answers)
- https://enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/data-center/top-7-data-center-colocation-companies (12 answers)
- https://databank.com/resources/blogs/best-colocation-providers-secure-reliable-and-scalable-solutions-for-your-business (11 answers)

## Warned against

- Equinix: 11 of 44 labels negative. "Avoid hyperscale giants (Equinix, Digital Realty): ... will likely be overkill and overpriced for a mid-market B2B firm." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt)
- ColoCrossing: 5 of 8 labels negative. "This provider has received warnings primarily focused on customer support responsiveness." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Evocative: 4 of 5 labels 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 Realty: 4 of 32 labels negative. "Avoid hyperscale giants (Equinix, Digital Realty): ... will likely be overkill and overpriced for a mid-market B2B firm." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.