How AI Search Is Recommending Web Hosting: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

Hostinger remains the category leader in September 2026, holding 69.0% valid recommendation coverage, but the gap to the next brand, Bluehost, has narrowed to 13.8 points from July's 14.7-point gap. Notably, Hostinger's rank-one rate stands at 49.0% (318 of 649 observations), down from 50.1% in July, and no brand posted a significant rise this month.

The sharper story is the broadening decline across the middle tier. SiteGround, IONOS, and Namecheap each registered significant baseline-to-current declines: SiteGround fell 8.5 points to 51.6% from 60.1%, IONOS fell 7.8 points to 45.8% from 53.6%, and Namecheap fell 5.8 points to 30.7% from 36.5%. Against the immediately prior month, IONOS declined 3.9 points, SiteGround declined 2.3 points, and Namecheap declined 1.6 points, extending a two-month decline for all three brands.

Hostinger itself eased 4.3 points from July's 73.3%, a movement within normal variation, and held flat against August. The gaps between GoDaddy and SiteGround narrowed by 9.4 points, and between GoDaddy and IONOS by 8.7 points, driven by the middle-tier declines rather than GoDaddy gains.

Each monthly run begins with 800 prompt-surface observations (622 unique questions in September 2026) across the benchmark's defined AI/search surface universe. Of those, 800 mentioned a tracked brand or competitor; 787 were relevant and 13 were irrelevant. The public metrics use the 649 observations that survive both qualification stages. For comparison, July's run began with 800 prompts (540 unique questions), with 649 qualified observations; August's run began with 800 prompts (603 unique questions), with 620 qualified observations.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The report separates the raw collection universe from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

August's intermediate run collected 620 qualified observations, a modest dip from July and September's 649. The current month's qualified set is back to the July level, with the same six canonical AI surface families represented across all three months.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

The category-level signal is a shrinking recommendation shortlist share. Both July and September ran 649 qualified observations, yet the share of those observations producing a valid recommendation shortlist fell 3.9 points, meaning AI systems recommended brands in fewer qualifying instances even as the observation count held steady.

AI Recommendation Trend

The middle of the category is compressing while the leader holds

September's defining feature is not a leadership change but a broad contraction across the brands that previously clustered behind Hostinger. SiteGround, IONOS, and Namecheap all posted significant baseline-to-current declines, narrowing the field between the leader and the rest of the category.

Movement is baseline-to-current, and several rank pairs are separated by narrow margins. The category-level change came from the combination of three significant declines plus smaller downward adjustments across the middle and tail, not from a single dominant move. Bluehost's 3.8-point rise from August's 51.4% and DreamHost's 4.3-point rise from August's 48.2% represent the sharpest month-over-month upward movements, though neither reached significance.

What Changed This Month

No brand posted a significant rise in September. The three significant baseline-to-current declines define the month, and each shows a different pattern beneath the coverage figure.

SiteGround: Significant decline in valid recommendation coverage, with parallel drops across supporting metrics

SiteGround fell 8.5 points to 51.6% in September from 60.1% in July, a significant decline in valid recommendation coverage, and declined 2.3 points from August's 53.9%. The brand's raw mention presence also fell, down 6.2 points to 71.5%.

SiteGround's top-three rate fell 7.9 points to 31.6% from 39.5%, and its rank-one rate fell 2.6 points to 1.1% from 3.7%. Its absolute valid recommendation count dropped to 335 from 390.

SiteGround's decline this month touches presence, top-three placement, and rank-one appearances together, not just overall recommendation breadth. This is a deeper retreat than the pattern seen in August, when top-three placement held relatively steady.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompt categories drove the simultaneous loss of presence, top-three placement, and rank-one appearances, and whether the lost recommendations shifted to Hostinger or Bluehost.

IONOS: Significant decline in valid recommendation coverage, driven by top-three erosion

IONOS fell 7.8 points to 45.8% in September from 53.6% in July, a significant decline, and declined 3.9 points from August's 49.7%. The brand's top-three rate fell 9.2 points to 19.9% from 29.1%.

IONOS's raw mention presence slipped 4.3 points to 59.5%, within normal variation, and its rank-one rate eased 0.6 points to 5.7%. Absolute valid recommendation count dropped to 297 from 348.

IONOS remains visible in AI answers, but it is appearing in top-three recommendation positions far less often. The brand's presence held relatively steady while its recommendation strength compressed.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which AI surfaces or prompt types stopped placing IONOS in top-three positions, and which competitor captured those slots.

Namecheap: Significant decline in valid recommendation coverage, with a stable top-three rate

Namecheap fell 5.8 points to 30.7% in September from 36.5% in July, a significant decline, and declined 1.6 points from August's 32.3%. Unlike SiteGround and IONOS, Namecheap's top-three rate rose 0.8 points to 11.9% from 11.1%.

Namecheap's rank-one rate fell 1.2 points to 1.4%, and its raw mention presence slipped 3.0 points to 56.9%, both within normal variation. Absolute valid recommendation count dropped to 199 from 237.

Namecheap's decline is a breadth story. It is being recommended in fewer valid shortlists overall, but when it appears, its top-three placement improved slightly.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompts stopped including Namecheap in valid recommendation shortlists, and whether the lost coverage went to Hostinger or Bluehost.

DreamHost: Largest upward movement versus prior month

DreamHost rose 4.3 points to 52.5% in September from August's 48.2%, the sharpest month-over-month upward movement in the category, though not significant. Against baseline, DreamHost remains down 3.0 points from July's 55.5%.

DreamHost's top-three rate rose 2.1 points to 12.9% from July's 10.8%, and its rank-one rate rose to 0.8% (5 of 649) from 0.1%. Its absolute valid recommendation count sits at 341 in September, down from July's 360.

DreamHost's recovery from August's 7.3-point drop is real but incomplete. It has regained ground against the prior month while remaining below its July level.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompt categories returned DreamHost to valid recommendation shortlists, and whether the recovery is concentrated on a particular AI surface.

Competitive repositioning: Middle-tier gaps narrowing

The gap between GoDaddy and SiteGround narrowed by 9.4 points to 43.3 points, and the gap between GoDaddy and IONOS narrowed by 8.7 points to 37.5 points, with both spreads narrowing at each step of the three-month series. The gap between A2 Hosting and SiteGround narrowed by 8.0 points to 40.5 points, also narrowing every month in the series.

These narrower gaps are the mathematical consequence of the significant declines in SiteGround and IONOS occurring while GoDaddy and A2 Hosting held comparatively steady. They represent a compression of the spread between the long tail and the middle tier, not gains by the tail brands themselves.

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

All 649 qualified observations in September fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. No qualified observations were recorded for Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison, matching the July and August pattern. The public benchmark can speak to which brand AI systems recommend for general hosting queries, but it cannot yet answer price, value, or head-to-head comparison questions. Those commercial questions require a separate research design targeting comparison and pricing prompts specifically.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations (query, surface, recommendation outcome, rank, sentiment, and citations where exposed). Company-level analysis can go deeper into prompt, competitor, surface, and evidence patterns. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

About This Benchmark

This report is part of the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery research program.

• AI Industry Market Discovery Overview
• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Report-Specific Interpretation Notes

• Small-count movement: brands with fewer than 100 valid recommendations (A2 Hosting, GoDaddy, HostGator, InMotion Hosting) have movement that can shift with a handful of observations; treat their percentages as directional rather than precise.
• Qualified denominator: brand-level percentages are calculated against the 649 qualified observations, not the 800 raw prompts or 787 relevant prompts.
• Directional analysis: month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating; it does not by itself establish the cause of those changes.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate percentage sit the questions that matter: which high-intent prompts is a brand winning, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes do AI systems associate with each option, and which external sources shape those answers. The benchmark shows that SiteGround, IONOS, and Namecheap all declined significantly in September, but it cannot say which prompts moved, which competitor captured the lost recommendations, or what evidence sources drove the shifts. A company-level audit can answer those questions.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps the prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. It identifies the specific high-intent prompts where a brand is losing, names the competitor that takes the recommendation, and pinpoints the external sources that shape AI answers.

Request an AI visibility audit