Alibaba Cloud
vs
Firebase
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
- Free Spark plan with no payment method needed
- Realtime sync in Firestore and Realtime Database
- SDKs for iOS, Android, web, Flutter and Unity
- Crashlytics, Analytics and Cloud Messaging at no cost
- Runs on Google Cloud in 40+ locations
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Firebase | 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) | -- Not listed | |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | $39.24 /mo 1 TB stored, 250 GB egress, 1M download + 100k upload operations | 29% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| 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) | $44.66 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration · $0.40 / 1M invocations + Cloud Run CPU and memory rates | 54% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | 360 MB/day on Hosting (~10 GB/mo) | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | $150.00 /TB $0.15 / GB (Hosting) | 51% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
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. We track no GPU listings from Firebase. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Firebase | 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 |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months). 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 | Firebase |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | Some Firebase services only |
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 | Firebase |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 42 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | The New York Times, Duolingo, Venmo, Trivago, Ctrip, Gameloft |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | firebase.google.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Firebase against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Firebase on Sept. 18, 2026.