22% of first choices, contested.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured
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%.
“Licensing bait-and-switch — Look for companies with a recent history of sudden pricing changes or forced bundling (Citrix is the prime example).” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
“avoid or be cautious with Amazon WorkSpaces, Citrix DaaS, Azure Virtual Desktop (for non-Windows needs), and Shells” Mistral Small, negative prompt
“Avoid VMware Horizon if not hybrid/on-prem (post-Broadcom changes make it pricier/enterprise-oriented)” Grok 4.1 Fast, direct prompt
“**Reasons to avoid**: Cloud-only with no on-site option, Windows only (no Linux provisions)” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
77 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. 1051 links across 200 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.
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.
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azure parent site Azure Virtual Desktop 22% | 22% | 130 | 301,000 | 47,904 | ||||
| Microsoft parent site Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop 16%, Microsoft Windows 365 2%, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services 2%, Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) / Windows 365 0% | 19% | 72 | 2,240,000 | 403,136 | ||||
| Amazon parent site Amazon WorkSpaces 10% | 10% | 169 | 151,000,000 | 1,380,939 | ||||
| Windows 365 | 9% | 9,900 | 760 | |||||
| V2 Cloud v2cloud.com | 9% | 73 | 1,000 | 16 | 35,060 | 34 | 1 | |
| Nerdio Manager getnerdio.com | 9% | 47 | 70 | 12 | 10,941 | $9 | 53 | 1 |
| Citrix citrix.com Citrix DaaS 7% | 7% | 170 | 880 | 32 | 170,730 company | 4 | ||
| Apps4Rent apps4rent.com | 5% | 15 | 480 | 7 | 9,570 | 6 | ||
| Parallels RAS parallels.com | 2% | 24 | 590 | 22 | 493,328 | $38 | 118 | |
| Kasm Workspaces | 2% |
Google's top ten for the three searches hold 18 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (getnerdio.com, inuvika.com, ironorbit.com, venn.com). The first result for “best virtual desktop platform” is v2cloud.com.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-04 22:21 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 00:20 | yes | 5 | 7 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-05 00:48 | yes | 15 | 28 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 01:11 | yes | 20 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 00:55 | yes | 20 | 12 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 00:46 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 22:31 | yes | 24 | 38 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-04 23:52 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 00:56 | yes | 5 | 16 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 01:11 | yes | 15 | 20 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 01:01 | yes | 15 | 46 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 01:25 | yes | 5 | 14 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-10-05 01:35 | yes | 5 | 18 s |
| Direct recommendation | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-10-04 22:43 | yes | 13 | 18 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-04 22:59 | no | 0 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 01:02 | yes | 2 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-05 00:57 | yes | 7 | 25 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 00:20 | yes | 17 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 00:06 | yes | 24 | 11 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-04 22:10 | yes | 10 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 22:24 | yes | 23 | 27 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-04 22:16 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 01:51 | yes | 14 | 33 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-04 22:49 | yes | 20 | 29 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-04 22:37 | yes | 16 | 22 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 01:23 | no | 0 | 10 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-10-05 01:51 | yes | 5 | 15 s |
| Paraphrase | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-10-05 00:40 | yes | 13 | 18 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 01:57 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-04 23:52 | yes | 4 | 5 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-04 22:38 | yes | 17 | 27 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 00:13 | yes | 17 | 5 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-04 22:50 | yes | 23 | 9 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 00:38 | yes | 9 | 7 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 22:50 | yes | 20 | 53 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 00:56 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-05 01:34 | yes | 10 | 37 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-04 23:36 | yes | 14 | 25 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-04 22:11 | yes | 18 | 60 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 01:22 | yes | 24 | 42 s |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-10-05 01:52 | yes | 6 | 21 s |
| Comparative | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-10-05 01:40 | yes | 24 | 40 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 00:01 | no | 0 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 01:23 | yes | 4 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-05 01:06 | yes | 23 | 26 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 01:29 | yes | 18 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 00:29 | yes | 25 | 10 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 01:30 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 23:19 | yes | 22 | 51 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 01:37 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-04 23:54 | yes | 14 | 64 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 01:25 | yes | 18 | 23 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 01:15 | yes | 15 | 89 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 00:54 | yes | 15 | 34 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-10-05 01:51 | yes | 3 | 12 s |
| Budget constrained | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-10-04 23:53 | yes | 14 | 17 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 00:48 | no | 0 | 5 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-04 22:51 | no | 0 | 9 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-04 23:50 | yes | 5 | 27 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-05 01:22 | yes | 20 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 01:23 | yes | 19 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 01:43 | no | 0 | 13 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-05 00:39 | yes | 24 | 47 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-04 22:21 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-04 23:57 | no | 0 | 29 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-05 00:47 | yes | 25 | 32 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-05 00:25 | yes | 14 | 121 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-04 23:46 | yes | 10 | 15 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-10-05 01:39 | yes | 4 | 16 s |
| Scale constrained | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-10-05 01:40 | yes | 14 | 19 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-05 01:39 | yes | 15 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-05 00:25 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-05 01:25 | yes | 18 | 31 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-04 23:52 | yes | 18 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-05 01:30 | yes | 24 | 10 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-05 00:21 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-04 23:07 | yes | 24 | 37 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-05 00:44 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-04 22:40 | yes | 18 | 26 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-04 23:18 | yes | 24 | 24 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-04 22:56 | yes | 25 | 70 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-05 01:19 | yes | 10 | 26 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-10-05 01:53 | yes | 3 | 19 s |
| Negative framing | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-10-05 01:05 | yes | 19 | 29 s |
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
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