IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Cloud and infrastructure September 2026 Edition

Managed Kubernetes platforms

Asked as “managed Kubernetes platform”, and as “hosted Kubernetes service”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
39% 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.

01The 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
01Google Kubernetes Engine39%11%63endorsed leader
02DigitalOcean Kubernetes22%12%42accepted challenger
03Civo10%0%22accepted challenger
04Linode Kubernetes Engine10%5%21accepted challenger
05Azure Kubernetes Service8%13%61accepted challenger
06Amazon EKS6%31%58criticized challenger
07Rancher2%8%24accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11VMware Tanzu0%31%13criticized challenger
10Red Hat OpenShift0%30%27criticized challenger
09Vultr Kubernetes Engine0%9%11accepted challenger
08Scaleway Kapsule0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor 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
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Google Kubernetes Engine39%
02DigitalOcean Kubernetes22%
03Civo10%
04Linode Kubernetes Engine10%
05Azure Kubernetes Service8%
06Amazon EKS6%
07Rancher2%
08Scaleway Kapsule0%
09Vultr Kubernetes Engine0%
10Red Hat OpenShift0%
11VMware Tanzu0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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.
Amazon EKS
31%
18 of 58 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“EKS is frequently described as "the worst managed Kubernetes provider out of all the major players"... avoid hyperscaler-only solutions like EKS” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Red Hat OpenShift
30%
8 of 27 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid if you want standard, highly portable Kubernetes API patterns or if you are on a tight budget.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Azure Kubernetes Service
13%
8 of 61 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“avoid hyperscaler-only solutions like EKS, GKE, or AKS unless you have strong ecosystem reasons” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Google Kubernetes Engine
11%
7 of 63 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“avoid hyperscaler-only solutions like EKS, GKE, or AKS unless you have strong ecosystem reasons” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

03What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 834 links across 222 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

35 answers · 83 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Rackspace33 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Railway30 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
29 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Portainer25 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Northflank21 answers · 31 citations · 8 models
vendor site · DigitalOcean18 answers · 26 citations · 7 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Mirantis16 answers · 16 citations · 6 models
14 answers · 24 citations · 6 models
13 answers · 15 citations · 6 models
12 answers · 12 citations · 6 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.

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best managed Kubernetes platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which hosted Kubernetes service would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top managed Kubernetes platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best managed Kubernetes platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a managed Kubernetes platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which managed Kubernetes platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Four alternativesCivo, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Fairwinds, Northflank
Google Kubernetes EngineChanged
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
no first choiceDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine
no first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
GPT-5.4 miniAmazon EKS
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift
Google Kubernetes EngineChanged
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Red Hat OpenShift
against: DigitalOcean Kubernetes
no first choiceGoogle Kubernetes Engine
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Cloud Run
no first choiceagainst: AWS, Azure Kubernetes Service
Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
against: DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Google Kubernetes EngineHeld
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
against: DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Google Kubernetes Engine
Five alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift
DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Civo, Google Kubernetes Engine Enterprise
against: Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine
Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine
One alternativeAWS Fargate
against: Amazon EKS, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu
Perplexity SonarDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
Google Kubernetes EngineChanged
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
no first choice
Five alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift
Civo
Three alternativesDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
no first choiceagainst: Amazon EKS, Azure Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Cloud Run, Google Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu
Grok 4.1 FastDigitalOcean Kubernetes
Two alternativesGoogle Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS, Rackspace Spot
Google Kubernetes EngineChanged
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
no first choice
Four alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine
against: Red Hat OpenShift
DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Three alternativesCivo, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine
no first choice
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine
against: Red Hat OpenShift
against: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine
Mistral SmallDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Civo, Google Kubernetes Engine
Oracle Container Engine for KubernetesChanged
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Google Kubernetes Engine
Six alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift
Civo
Three alternativesDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
no first choiceagainst: Platform9, StackPointCloud
DeepSeek V4 FlashGoogle Kubernetes Engine
Four alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Civo, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Google Kubernetes EngineHeld
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
Google Kubernetes Engine
Seven alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Civo, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift
DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Civo, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine
no first choice
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Hetzner, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift
Llama 4 MaverickLinode Kubernetes Engine
Three alternativesNorthflank, Portainer, Scaleway Kapsule
PurvacoChanged
Three alternativesDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Northflank, Railway
no first choiceCivo
Four alternativesHetzner, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashAzure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS
Google Kubernetes EngineChanged
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
Google Kubernetes Engine
Five alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Kubernetes Engine by DigitalOcean / Linode, Mirantis Kubernetes Engine, Red Hat OpenShift
DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Three alternativesGoogle Kubernetes Engine, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift
against: Amazon EKS, Rancher, Rancher Kubernetes Engine v1, Red Hat OpenShift
Kimi K2Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engineagainst: Amazon EKS, Rancher, VMware TanzuAzure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes EngineHeld
One alternativeDigitalOcean Kubernetes
against: Amazon EKS
Google Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
Civo, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Three alternativesAzure Kubernetes Service, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS
Google Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
against: IBM Cloud Kubernetes, Linode Kubernetes Engine, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
GLM 4.7 FlashXRancher
Two alternativesDigitalOcean Kubernetes, UpCloud Managed Kubernetes
against: Amazon EKS, Red Hat OpenShift
Azure Kubernetes ServiceChanged
Three alternativesDigitalOcean Kubernetes, Google Kubernetes Engine, Rancher
no first choice
Eight alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, Platform9, Portainer, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift
DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Three alternativesLinode Kubernetes Engine, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
against: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Hetzner
Google Kubernetes Engine
Five alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Mirantis, Rancher, VMware Tanzu
against: Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform
MiniMax M2.5Linode Kubernetes Engine
Three alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine
Google Kubernetes EngineChanged
Four alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Civo, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Google Kubernetes Engine
Six alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Rancher, Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu
Civo, DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Three alternativesLinode/ Akamai Cloud Compute, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Google Kubernetes Engine
Two alternativesAmazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service
against: IONOS
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The 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.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:31yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:40yes38 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:44yes1224 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:22yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:31yes2015 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:44yes1111 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:41yes1817 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:34yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:48yes1475 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:40yes1061 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:22yes2464 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:30yes512 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:23no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:23no05 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:30yes925 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:39yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:38yes2714 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:21yes109 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:38yes1012 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:32yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:27yes1543 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:26yes1531 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:40yes2136 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:28yes540 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:33yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:41yes913 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:41yes1124 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:42yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:44yes2215 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:30yes1012 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:35yes1819 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:33yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:44yes526 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:23yes1061 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:33yes1894 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:46yes1535 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:22no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:38no06 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:23yes1523 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:40yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:23yes3918 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:42yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:25yes99 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:34yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:35no044 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:49yes918 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:42yes2071 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:44yes515 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:25no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:34no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:26yes826 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:24yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:38yes2014 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:34no010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:21yes2423 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:25yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:44no053 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:48yes1526 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:46yes1545 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:25yes577 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 07:38yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 07:26yes68 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 07:22yes2127 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 07:46yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 07:45yes4519 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 07:21yes58 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 07:37yes3438 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 07:33yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 07:34yes23109 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 07:24yes2549 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 07:24yes1934 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 07:33yes1031 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Akamai Linode read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
DigitalOcean read as DigitalOcean Kubernetes
DigitalOcean (DOKS) read as DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Linode read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Linode (LKE) read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Linode/Akamai read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Linode/Akamai (LKE) read as Linode Kubernetes Engine
Oracle Cloud (Always Free) read as Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure read as Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes
Scaleway read as Scaleway Kapsule
UpCloud read as UpCloud Managed Kubernetes
Vultr read as Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Vultr Kubernetes (VKE) read as Vultr Kubernetes Engine
Unresolved, counted raw
Atmosly
DigitalOcean LKE
Kubernetes Engine by DigitalOcean / Linode
Linode/ Akamai Cloud Compute
Rancher Kubernetes Engine v1 (RKE1)
StackPointCloud
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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