Every category where a model named Cloudflare DNS for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant	Since September 2026
Managed DNS	Network and edge	84%	1 of 78	7%	70	endorsed leader
DNS filtering	Network and edge	0%	28 of 94	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by DNSFilter at 59%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Cloudflare DNS yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment and per category, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Cloudflare DNS across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

ShowHide

Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	3	0	2	0	5
GPT-5.4 mini	2	0	2	0	4
Gemini 3.5 Flash	5	0	0	1	6
Perplexity Sonar	3	1	0	0	4
Grok 4.1 Fast	4	1	0	1	6
Mistral Small	4	0	1	1	6
DeepSeek V4 Flash	4	1	1	0	6
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	1	0	1
Qwen 3.7 Flash	4	2	0	0	6
Kimi K2	5	0	1	0	6
GLM 4.7 FlashX	4	0	0	1	5
MiniMax M2.5	4	0	1	1	6
GPT-6 Luna	4	0	0	0	4
Muse Glimmer 30B	4	1	1	0	6

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct35 labels33

Paraphrase35 labels30

Comparative40 labels33not counted in share

Budget-constrained36 labels32

Scale-constrained21 labels8

Negative36 labels10not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative203 labels in all, every segment counted; 103 of the 146 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“If you want a unified security, CDN, and DNS solution: Cloudflare is the industry standard for performance and easy-to-use security controls.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Managed DNS · scale prompt · first choice

“Choose Cloudflare if you want the best speed/performance and strong security (DDoS/WAF) out of the box. It is the best value for money.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Managed DNS · comparative prompt · first choice

“Best for: Overall performance, fast propagation, and all-in-one security... Consistently ranked #1 or #2 globally for raw resolution speed” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Managed DNS · comparative prompt · first choice

“For most mid-market B2B companies, Cloudflare is the top choice due to its balance of performance, security, and ease of use.” Mistral Small · Managed DNS · direct prompt · first choice

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Cloud, and AWS have all had significant DNS-related outages in recent years. This isn't to say avoid them” MiniMax M2.5 · Managed DNS · negative prompt · soft negative

“Trustpilot and G2 note steep learning curve, complex UI/setup, spotty support ... though enterprise DNS is generally reliable” Grok 4.1 Fast · Managed DNS · negative prompt · soft negative

“users often struggle with a complex user interface, steep learning curve, and high pricing for advanced features” Mistral Small · Managed DNS · negative prompt · soft negative

“While generally considered a top-tier provider, Cloudflare has recently suffered high-impact outages.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Managed DNS · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Cloudflare DNS, over the 203 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Cloudflare DNS was named but was not.

ShowHide

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Amazon Route 53155 of 2031Compare →

Google Cloud DNS105 of 2031Not among the top eight

Akamai Edge DNS61 of 2031Compare →

NS161 of 2030Not among the top eight

ClouDNS51 of 2030Not among the top eight

Azure DNS50 of 2031Not among the top eight

DNSimple41 of 2032Not among the top eight

IBM NS1 Connect38 of 2031Not among the top eight

Dyn33 of 2030Not among the top eight

DNS Made Easy32 of 2032Compare →

A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Cloudflare DNS. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 187 of the 203 answers that named Cloudflare DNS and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

g2.com74

ioriver.io71

logicmonitor.com64

us.fitgap.com63

zipdo.co63

cloudflare.comYour site60

slashdot.org59

wifitalents.com57

cloudns.net55

peerspot.com53

559 of the 619 domain citations in answers naming Cloudflare DNS came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

ioriver.io/blog/top-dns-providers66

logicmonitor.com/deep-dive/dns-monitoring/managed-dns63

us.fitgap.com/search/managed-dns-providers-software/enterprise49

zipdo.co/service/dns-management41

dnslab.dev/learn/docs/operations/managed-dns36

peerspot.com/categories/managed-dns35

itechguides.com/best/managed-dns-services34

g2.com/categories/managed-dns-solutions33

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

Where Cloudflare DNS stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.

ShowHide

In search

Google, US estimates

Searches for its name, Google: 40,500 a month (“cloudflare dns”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 704 a month
Its own site: It sits on Cloudflare's site (cloudflare.com), so there are no site figures for it alone

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

84%

rank 1 of 78 in Managed DNS

First choices

103

across its categories

Named in: 203 answers
Its own site cited: in 187 of the answers that named it

Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read October 5, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.

Names read as Cloudflare DNS

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Cloudflare DNS; a claim can dispute any of them.

Cloudflare 43Cloudflare (Business/Enterprise) 1Cloudflare DNS 1.1.1.1 1

Follow Cloudflare DNS

An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.

Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.

The company

Cloudflare is the company behind Cloudflare DNS.

ShowHide

On record

Company records

Also from Cloudflare: Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 for Families, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Cloudflare API Gateway, Cloudflare API Security, Cloudflare API Shield, Cloudflare Access, Cloudflare Access / Cloudflare One, Cloudflare Access / Cloudflare Zero Trust and 41 more

In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: authoritative and recursive DNS for private networks to the same global network and control plane that runs Cloudflare's Zero Trust, networking, and public DNS
blog.cloudflare.com/internal-dns
For: Enterprise customers
blog.cloudflare.com/internal-dns
Price stated: included with Cloudflare Gateway without any additional charge blog.cloudflare.com/internal-dns
Free plan or trial: Free blog.cloudflare.com/foundation-dns
Customers named: aws.com
Not stated on the pages read: Starting price, integrations, certifications, hosting

What Cloudflare DNS's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: blog.cloudflare.com/internal-dns, blog.cloudflare.com/oblivious-dns, blog.cloudflare.com/dns-analytics, blog.cloudflare.com/foundation-dns, blog.cloudflare.com/dns-resolver-1-1-1-1. A claimed page can correct any of them.

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Cloudflare DNS's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Cloudflare DNS, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives

A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Cloudflare DNS by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Cloudflare DNS is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
who was chosen in the answers that did not name Cloudflare DNS, and every reason the record gives;
a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.

Badges

Wins only: a badge exists where Cloudflare DNS is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.

ShowHide

AI models recommend Cloudflare DNS first in Managed DNS this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.

Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/managed-dns/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/cloudflare-dns--managed-dns-wide.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in Managed DNS, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="320" height="104"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Managed DNS standing, where the claim can be checked.

Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/managed-dns/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/cloudflare-dns--managed-dns-square.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in Managed DNS, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="240" height="240"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Managed DNS standing, where the claim can be checked.

Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/network/managed-dns/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/cloudflare-dns--managed-dns-compact.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in Managed DNS, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="200" height="56"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Managed DNS standing, where the claim can be checked.

Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.