Alibaba Cloud
vs
Azure
Both are hyperscalers with matching service catalogs. Alibaba Cloud charges less for medium VMs and runs regions in mainland China, while Microsoft Azure adds H100, GB200 and AMD GPUs and OpenAI models.
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
- Integrates with Entra ID, Microsoft 365, GitHub and Visual Studio
- Azure Arc and Azure Stack for hybrid and multicloud
- OpenAI models served through Azure AI Foundry
- 100+ compliance offerings, regional and industry-specific
- 60+ regions worldwide
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Azure | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $6.77 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (B2ats v2) | 17% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $95.76 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (B4als v2) | 37% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $231.84 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (D8als v6) | 19% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $7.92 /mo 100 GB (Premium SSD v2) | Within 5% |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | $35.25 /mo 1 TB | 21% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $54.71 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (Flexible Server B2s) | |
| Redis | -- Not listed | $23.04 /mo 1 GB RAM (Managed Redis Balanced B1) | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | $23.00 /mo Standard | 16% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | $35.00 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | 41% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | 100 GB / mo | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | $87.00 /TB $0.087 / GB (Premium network North America) | 15% 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, while Azure offers 10. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Azure | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs · 6 configs
|
$2.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.53 /GPU/hr On-demand | 43% cheaper on Azure |
|
T4
12 configs · 16 configs
|
$1.12 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.53 /GPU/hr On-demand | 53% cheaper on Azure |
|
A10
26 configs · 12 configs
|
$1.27 /GPU/hr On-demand | $3.20 /GPU/hr On-demand | 60% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
|
P100
12 configs
|
$0.87 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
H100
20 configs
|
-- | $1.29 /GPU/hr Spot | Azure only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
40 configs
|
-- | $1.02 /GPU/hr Spot | Azure only |
|
H200
4 configs
|
-- | $6.86 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | Azure only |
|
A100
20 configs
|
-- | $0.68 /GPU/hr Spot | Azure only |
|
GB200
4 configs
|
-- | $11.90 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | Azure only |
MI300X
4 configs
|
-- | $1.60 /GPU/hr Spot | Azure only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Azure bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 or 36 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 | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | Level 1 |
| FedRAMP | -- | High |
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 | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2008 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 66 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | General Motors, NHS, Fujitsu, NBA |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | azure.microsoft.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Azure against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Azure on Oct. 1, 2026.