Alibaba Cloud
vs
Beam
What's good about each
- 30+ regions, most in mainland China and Asia-Pacific
- 3,200+ CDN nodes in 70+ countries
- Qwen models served through Model Studio
- PolarDB, its own MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible database
- Pay-per-millisecond billing, only while code is running
- Sub-second cold starts from memory snapshots
- No egress or bandwidth fees on any plan
- Runs in your own AWS, GCP or Azure account
- Recurring monthly credit on every plan
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Beam | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | -- Not listed | |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | -- Not listed | |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | -- Not listed | |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $2.10 /mo 100 GB beyond free allowance · First 1 TB included | 72% cheaper on Beam |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | -- Not listed | |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | Free and unlimited | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | -- Not listed |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Alibaba Cloud offers 4 GPU models, while Beam offers 10. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Beam | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs
|
$1.51 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
T4
12 configs
|
$0.62 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
A10
26 configs
|
$0.71 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
P100
12 configs
|
$0.87 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
H100
2 configs
|
-- | $1.83 /GPU/hr On-demand | Beam only |
|
B300
1 config
|
-- | -- On request | Beam only |
|
B200
2 configs
|
-- | $4.11 /GPU/hr On-demand | Beam only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
1 config
|
-- | $1.09 /GPU/hr On-demand | Beam only |
|
H200
2 configs
|
-- | $2.09 /GPU/hr On-demand | Beam only |
|
RTX 5090
1 config
|
-- | $0.72 /GPU/hr On-demand | Beam only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Beam bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Alibaba Cloud | Beam |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | -- |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | -- |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Alibaba Cloud | Beam |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2021 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | -- |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Coke, Ogilvy, EdgeImpulse, Magellan AI, Geospy, Frase |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | www.beam.cloud |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Beam against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Beam on Oct. 1, 2026.