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Index › Cloud and infrastructure › Colocation › Small business › October 2026 Edition

Colocation providers for small business buyers

Asked as “colocation provider”, and as “data center colocation space”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. 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: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
24%
Contested · Flexential 10%
24InterServer10Flexential08GigeNET57others

24% 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 fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01InterServer24%0%28accepted challenger
02Flexential10%0%15accepted challenger
03DataBank6%0%15accepted challenger
04TierPoint6%7%15accepted challenger
05ColoCrossing2%30%10criticized challenger
06Equinix2%66%35criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Digital Realty0%64%25criticized challenger
07CoreSite0%23%22accepted challenger
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.
All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01InterServer24%
02Flexential10%
03DataBank6%
04TierPoint6%
05ColoCrossing2%
06Equinix2%
07CoreSite0%
08Digital Realty0%

What they warned about

Four of fourteen 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, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
Equinix
66%
23 of 35 labels negative · 10 of 14 models · 4 hard negative
“What to Avoid for a Small B2B Business ... **Equinix** | Enterprise-grade, but pricing and minimum commitments are typically beyond small business needs” DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Digital Realty
64%
16 of 25 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“multi-year commitments are usually structured for larger enterprises (costs can be 2–3x higher)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt
ColoCrossing
30%
3 of 10 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“Providers to **Avoid or Be Especially Cautious With**: - **ColoCrossing**: Frequently cited in negative reviews” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
CoreSite
23%
5 of 22 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid big names like Equinix/Coresite ($1K+/rack) unless scaling.” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

75 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1027 links across 207 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

38 answers · 44 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Guideflow37 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
vendor site · SourceForge35 answers · 60 citations · 11 models
32 answers · 39 citations · 11 models
30 answers · 31 citations · 13 models
28 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
26 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
vendor site · DataBank22 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
vendor site · FitGap22 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
20 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Accio19 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Softwaresuggest15 answers · 15 citations · 10 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.

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 productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
InterServer interserver.net24%403,6007053,424$1,02625
Flexential flexential.com10%374,40030679,719$915120
GigeNET gigenet.com8%8
DataBank databank.com6%366,60078253,845$6041208
TierPoint tierpoint.com6%463,60019233,285$160635
Colocation America colocationamerica.com6%12480396,7780
Sectorlink sectorlink.com4%1114001,552
NTT Global Data Centers nttdata.com4%491,6004844,7310
Ultahost4%
Sharktech sharktech.net4%6

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (databank.com, hostingadvice.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
ModelDirect“What is the best colocation provider for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which data center colocation space would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top colocation providers for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best colocation provider for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a colocation provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which colocation providers should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceno first choiceHeldagainst: AWS, Azure colocation, Google Cloudno first choiceInterServer
Three alternativesARPHost, Latitude.sh, Ultahost
no first choiceagainst: Digital Realty, Equinix
GPT-5.4 miniColocation Americano first choiceChangedEquinix
Three alternatives5C Data Centers, QTS, TierPoint
against: Switch
Colocation Americano first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashFlexential, TierPoint
Three alternativesAtlantic.Net, ColoCrossing, CoreSite
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
DataBank, FlexentialChanged
Three alternativesCoreSite, Equinix, Iron Mountain Data Centers
InterServer
Three alternativesColoCrossing, Hivelocity, Psychz Networks
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
Sectorlink
Four alternativesInterServer, Joe's Datacenter, Netwise, ServerPronto
against: Cyxtera, Digital Realty, Equinix
no first choiceagainst: CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Equinix
Perplexity SonarInterServer
Three alternativesCoreSite, DataBank, Iron Mountain Data Centers
no first choiceChangedInterServer
Two alternativesCoreSpace, Flexential
against: Equinix
InterServerno first choiceagainst: Digital Realty, Equinix
Grok 4.1 FastGigeNET
Two alternativesCoreSite, Flexential
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
InterServerChanged
Two alternativesCoreSite, TierPoint
against: Equinix
InterServer
Three alternativesLiquid Web, Rackspace, TierPoint
against: Centersquare, CoreSite, Digital Realty, Equinix
Sectorlink
One alternativeInterServer
against: CoreSite, Equinix
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Digital Realty, Equinix
Mistral SmallCologix, NTT Global Data Centers
Three alternativesCyxtera Technologies, Evocative, Rackspace
NTT Global Data CentersChanged
Six alternativesCoreSite, Dataplugs, Hydro66, Lumen, NetForChoice, Zen Internet
InterServer
Four alternativesCoreSpace, Flexential, NTT Global Data Centers, Ultahost
Dedicated.com, GigeNET
Two alternativesCyfuture Cloud, LowCostColocation
no first choiceagainst: Crown Castle Colocation, Hetzner, Leaseweb, Melbicom, NTT Global Data Centers
DeepSeek V4 FlashFlexential, GigeNET
Four alternativesDataBank, InterServer, QTS, TierPoint
Colocation AmericaChanged
Four alternativesCoreSite, InterServer, Sectorlink, Sharktech
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
InterServer
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, DataBank, Flexential
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
InterServer
One alternativeDedicated.com
no first choiceagainst: CyrusOne, Cyxtera, Digital Realty, Equinix
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceVolico Data CentersChanged
Two alternativesIron Mountain Data Centers, Liquid Web
no first choiceUltahost
One alternativeAccio
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCopperX, WebServersDirect
Three alternativesDigital Realty, Equinix, Hurricane Electric
InterServer, PerformiveChanged
One alternativeCoreSpace
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
ColoCrossing
Three alternativesColocation America, Dataplugs, InterServer
against: CoreSite, Equinix
Layer3 Communications, NFOrce
Two alternativesColo Crossing, Hostopia
against: CoreSite, Digital Realty, Equinix
no first choiceagainst: Cloudnium, INCERO
Kimi K2InterServer, TierPoint
Three alternativesDigital Realty, Equinix, Sharktech
Flexential, TierPointChangedagainst: EquinixTierPoint
Six alternativesColoCrossing, DataBank, Equinix, GigeNET, Iron Mountain Data Centers, Sectorlink
ColoCrossing, GigeNET
Three alternativesIgLou, InterServer, RackNerd
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Cyxtera Technologies
GLM 4.7 FlashXFlexential
Four alternativesCoreSite, DataBank, NTT Global Data Centers, PhoenixNAP
EquinixChanged
Two alternativesAT&T Business Colocation, Digital Realty
Flexential
One alternativeTierPoint
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
Sharktech
Three alternativesColoUnlimited, InterServer, Sectorlink
no first choiceagainst: Cyxtera Technologies
MiniMax M2.5InterServer
Four alternativesCoreSite, DataBank, Digital Realty, Ultahost
InterServerHeld
Three alternativesCoreSite, NTT Global Data Centers, TierPoint
no first choiceSharktech
Four alternativesGigeNET, InterServer, ServerMania, Ultahost
no first choicenothing named
GPT-6 LunaDataBank
One alternativeHivelocity
against: Equinix
DataBankHeld
One alternativeFlexential
NodeSpace
Five alternativesCologix, DataBank, Flexential, Telehouse, WebNX
against: Equinix
ColoMichigan
Two alternativesColoCrossing, Colocation America
no first choicenothing named
Muse Glimmer 30BInterServer
Three alternativesAlpineDC, Latitude.sh, NTT Global Data Centers
InterServerHeldGigeNET
Six alternativesCoreSite, DataBank, Dedicated.com, Flexential, Sectorlink, Wacolo / Quincy WA
InterServer, Ultahost
Three alternativesGigeNET Chicago, Sectorlink, iRexta US
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Digital Realty, Equinix, Evocative, TierPoint, Zen Internet
Bold 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
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:19no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:37yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:59yes926 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:42yes193 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:20yes2311 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:02yes88 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:13yes2127 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:40yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:34no029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:56yes1520 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:53yes1673 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:46yes1751 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:18yes312 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:28yes2022 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:36no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:57yes14 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:36yes1927 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:05yes183 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:13yes219 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:24yes137 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:41yes2177 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:39yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:17yes739 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:45no026 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:32yes19223 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:51yes1638 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:07yes114 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:52yes1116 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:54yes1511 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:46yes65 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:05yes2736 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:57yes174 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:43yes1912 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:55yes159 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:21yes2376 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:49yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:39yes1145 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:14yes1626 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:39yes2249 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:25yes1429 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:50yes621 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:40yes1938 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:37yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:54yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:16yes2025 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:21yes193 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:47yes2110 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:05yes127 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:29yes2024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:53yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:03no025 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:29yes2237 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:14yes20154 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:05yes930 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:56yes315 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:46yes1320 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:06no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:47no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:01yes1027 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:39yes194 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:14yes147 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:23no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:13yes1928 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:10yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:00yes1033 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:53yes1925 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:01yes19121 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:19no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:25yes318 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:39yes1520 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:53yes157 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:32yes68 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:27yes1629 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:05yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:21yes2310 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:08yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:02yes2274 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:42yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:43yes1243 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:16yes2423 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:55yes2274 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:43yes519 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:39yes316 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:52yes1516 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
5C Data Centers
AT&T Business Colocation
American Tower
Azure colocation
Cloudnium
Cloudscene
Colo Crossing
ColoMichigan
ColoUnlimited
CopperX
CyberWurx
Expedient
GigeNET Chicago
HostZealot
Hostopia
INCERO
IgLou
Layer3 Communications
LowCostColocation
Microtronix
Netrality
Netwise
NodeSpace
Patmos
QuoteColo
ServerPronto
Slashdot
Summit
Telepoint Sofia
Vapor IO
Volico Data Centers
Wacolo / Quincy WA
WebNX
WebServersDirect
Webair
iRexta US
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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