Web Hosting: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which web hosting brand led AI recommendations in October 2026, and by how much?
• Did any brand's recommendation coverage move beyond normal variation in October 2026?

Hostinger led the Web Hosting benchmark in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 73.6%, and the gap to second-place DreamHost (55.6%) was an 18.0-point lead over the field. No brand posted a month-over-month change beyond normal variation in October 2026, so the largest prior-to-current moves belong to Hostinger (up 4.6 points, from 69.0% in September 2026 to 73.6% in October 2026) and SiteGround (down 2.5 points, from 51.6% to 49.1%). October 2026 was a quiet month at the brand level.

Measured against the July 2026 baseline, two brands registered declines beyond normal variation: IONOS (53.6% to 47.8%, down 5.8 points) and SiteGround (60.1% to 49.1%, down 11.0 points). No brand posted a baseline-to-current increase beyond normal variation; the remaining eight tracked brands moved within normal month-to-month variation across the full series. Hostinger has now led the benchmark in each of the four months since July 2026, though its current reading of 73.6% is up only 0.3 points from its July 2026 baseline of 73.3%. The leader is stable, but the lead is not widening.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 603 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI and search surface families with at least one qualified observation in the month: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were active in both July and October 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Web Hosting

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations qualified for the October 2026 web hosting benchmark?
• What does the qualification funnel show about irrelevant or off-topic observations?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design, so qualified counts are reported alongside the full collection funnel.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which hosting brands received the most AI recommendations in October 2026?
• How do presence rate, valid recommendation coverage, and top-three rate differ across the tracked brands?

The table below is the primary current-month benchmark view for October 2026, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand was mentioned at all. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand received a valid recommendation. Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appeared in the first three recommendation positions. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand was the first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions among qualified observations.

Presence and recommendation coverage tell different stories, and the gap between them is where the competitive risk sits.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which web hosting brand saw the largest recommendation coverage decline since July 2026?
• Did any tracked brand's month-to-month movement exceed normal variation in October 2026?

Prior-to-current movement was within normal variation for every tracked brand. Hostinger rose 4.6 points from September 2026 to October 2026, Namecheap rose 4.3 points, and DreamHost rose 3.1 points, while IONOS rose 2.0 points after declining in each of the two months before September 2026.

Largest Decline: SiteGround

SiteGround's valid recommendation coverage fell 11.0 percentage points from July 2026 to October 2026, from 60.1% to 49.1%, a decline beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand declined in each of the three months from August 2026 to October 2026. The decline was broad-based: presence rate fell 12.5 points, from 77.7% to 65.2%, top-three rate fell 5.3 points, from 39.5% to 34.2%, and rank-one rate fell 3.2 points, from 3.7% to 0.5%. This is a broad-based retreat, not a single-metric wobble. IONOS also declined beyond normal variation across the series, down 5.8 points from 53.6% in July 2026 to 47.8% in October 2026, though its October reading recovered 2.0 points from September 2026.

Category Leader: Hostinger

Hostinger led for the fourth consecutive month. Its valid recommendation coverage of 73.6% in October 2026 was up 0.3 percentage points from 73.3% in July 2026, within normal variation, and up 4.6 points from 69.0% in September 2026. Presence rate stood at 94.2%, up 2.1 points from 92.1% in July 2026, and rank-one rate reached 55.4%, up 5.3 points from 50.1% over the same span.

The lead is being held on first-choice preference, not on coverage growth.

Stable Brands

Eight brands moved within normal month-to-month variation across the full series. DreamHost and GoDaddy ended October 2026 above their July 2026 baselines, while Bluehost, Namecheap, A2 Hosting, and InMotion Hosting ended below theirs. HostGator declined in each of the three months from August 2026 to October 2026, a cumulative fall of 3.7 points that remains within normal variation: this is a watch item, not yet a trend.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How does recommendation placement differ between Bluehost and DreamHost despite similar coverage?
• Which brand dominates first-position recommendations among web hosting providers?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, Hostinger stands out sharply on placement, with a top-three rate of 68.0% and a 55.4% rank-one rate in October 2026. DreamHost and Bluehost ended the month nearly level on coverage, at 55.6% and 55.2%, but differ on placement.

DreamHost's top-three rate rose 10.8 points from July 2026 to October 2026, beyond normal variation, while its rank-one rate was essentially unchanged, at 0.2% in October versus 0.1% in July. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates: Bluehost and DreamHost ended October 2026 within half a point of each other on coverage, yet Hostinger's rank-one rate of 55.4% was more than twenty times either brand's.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

In both July 2026 and October 2026, all qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation class, where the AI surface was asked to recommend a hosting provider directly.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes. Price, value, and head-to-head comparison questions have no public signal in this data.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Who has led the web hosting benchmark in every month since July 2026?
• What were the qualified observation counts and largest coverage movements across the four measurements?

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment, not proof of causation.

Scope Boundaries

• This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, or revenue.
• It does not capture every possible AI response; results reflect the qualified observation set for each month.
• It does not measure organic-search ranking, social mention volume, or private and sponsored channels.
• It does not establish causality from a metric movement alone.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• Which web hosting brands' own domains appeared among the top cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,304 citations were observed pointing to 939 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the ten most-cited domains account for a combined 41.7% of all citations, and no single domain exceeds 11.8%. Three tracked brands' own domains appear in the top ten: hostinger.com at rank 4, godaddy.com at rank 8, and namecheap.com at rank 10. The remainder is dominated by general video and community platforms plus technology review outlets, with review and editorial sites such as forbes.com, cybernews.com, cnet.com, and techradar.com accounting for four of the ten positions.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands appear and are recommended across major AI and search surfaces. It is a neutral, industry-level benchmark designed to show category-wide movement rather than company-specific outcomes.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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