Alibaba Cloud
vs
Nova Cloud
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
- Per-second billing with no contracts or minimum spend
- Owned-and-operated datacenters in Western Canada
- Reserved 1, 3, and 6 month terms for additional discounts
- 5 Gb/s network bandwidth with all ports available
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Nova Cloud | 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 | -- 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 | -- Not listed | |
| 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 Nova Cloud offers 2. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Nova Cloud | 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 |
|
RTX PRO 6000
20 configs
|
-- | $0.30 /GPU/hr Spot · sold out | Nova Cloud only |
|
RTX 5090
20 configs
|
-- | $0.53 /GPU/hr Reserved (6 mo) | Nova Cloud only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Nova Cloud bills on-demand, spot and reserved (1, 3 or 6 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 | Nova Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | -- |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | -- |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | 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 | Nova Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | China | Canada |
| Locations | 31 | 1 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | -- |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | nova-cloud.ai |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Nova Cloud against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Nova Cloud on Oct. 1, 2026.