Alibaba Cloud
vs
Thunder Compute
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
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Thunder Compute | 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) | $21.60 /mo 100 GB beyond free allowance · First 100 GB per GPU included | 65% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| 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 | Free and unlimited |
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 and Thunder Compute each offer 4 GPU models. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Thunder Compute | 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
4 configs
|
-- | $3.20 /GPU/hr On-demand · sold out | Thunder Compute only |
|
A100
4 configs
|
-- | $1.09 /GPU/hr On-demand | Thunder Compute only |
|
RTX A6000
1 config
|
-- | $0.35 /GPU/hr On-demand | Thunder Compute only |
|
L40
4 configs
|
-- | $0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | Thunder Compute only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Thunder Compute 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 | Thunder Compute |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | 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 | Thunder Compute |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2024 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 1 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Theseus, ETH Zürich, MIT, NYU Langone Health |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | www.thundercompute.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Thunder Compute against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Thunder Compute on Oct. 2, 2026.