Alibaba Cloud
vs
Exoscale
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
- Locations in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria and Croatia
- 1 TiB of monthly egress included per instance
- Managed databases from PostgreSQL to Kafka and ClickHouse
- Nvidia GPUs from RTX 3080 Ti to RTX PRO 6000
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Exoscale | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $10.50 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Tiny) | 46% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $67.20 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (Large) | 10% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (CPU-optimized XL) | 11% cheaper on Exoscale |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $10.08 /mo 100 GB | 25% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | $25.28 /mo 1 TB stored, 250 GB egress (Standard) | 9% cheaper on Exoscale |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $98.49 /mo 4 GB RAM, 80 GB storage (Startup-4) | |
| Redis | -- Not listed | $42.44 /mo 1 GB RAM (Hobbyist-2 / Valkey) | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | $25.00 /mo Network Load Balancer | 22% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | 1 TiB / mo per instance (1.42 GiB / hr) | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | $20.00 /TB $0.02 / GB | 73% cheaper on Exoscale |
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 Exoscale offers 7. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Exoscale | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs · 4 configs
|
$2.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.83 /GPU/hr On-demand | 69% cheaper on Exoscale |
|
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 |
|
B300
1 config
|
-- | -- On request | Exoscale only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
4 configs
|
-- | $2.00 /GPU/hr On-demand | Exoscale only |
|
A40
4 configs
|
-- | $1.05 /GPU/hr On-demand | Exoscale only |
|
A5000
3 configs
|
-- | $1.14 /GPU/hr On-demand | Exoscale only |
|
RTX 3080 Ti
3 configs
|
-- | $0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | Exoscale only |
|
A30
4 configs
|
-- | $0.74 /GPU/hr On-demand | Exoscale only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Exoscale 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 | Exoscale |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | 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 | Exoscale |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | China | Switzerland |
| Locations | 31 | 8 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | -- |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | www.exoscale.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Exoscale against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Exoscale on Oct. 1, 2026.