Leafcloud
vs
Lightning AI
What's good about each
- Netherlands data residency, GDPR, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 Type II certified
- OpenStack-based, reduced vendor lock-in
- Free ingress and a monthly egress allowance
- Server heat reused to warm homes and care facilities
- NVIDIA A30, A100, H100, and RTX 6000 Blackwell GPUs, VM included
- Billed by the second, interruptible machines 50-80% off
- Studios move between its own cloud, AWS, GCP, Lambda and Nebius
- Owned H100, B200 and GB300 fleet in US datacenters
- Bring your own AWS or GCP account and spend cloud credits
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Leafcloud | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $8.55 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (ec1.xsmall) | -- Not listed | |
| Medium VM | $68.41 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (ec1.large) | -- Not listed | |
| Large VM | $136.81 /mo 6 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (ec1.2xlarge) | -- Not listed | |
| Block storage | $11.15 /mo 100 GB | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | 10% cheaper on Lightning AI |
| Object storage | $6.69 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| Load balancer | $16.08 /mo Load Balancer | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 100 GB / mo | -- Not listed | |
| Egress | -- Fair use, no published rate | Not publicly 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
Leafcloud offers 3 GPU models, while Lightning AI offers 8. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Leafcloud | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
RTX PRO 6000
3 configs · 4 configs
|
$2.22 /GPU/hr On-demand | $4.63 /GPU/hr On-demand | 52% cheaper on Leafcloud |
|
A100
4 configs · 8 configs
|
$1.78 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | 13% cheaper on Lightning AI |
|
A30
4 configs
|
$0.67 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Leafcloud only |
|
H100
4 configs
|
-- | $5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
B200
1 config
|
-- | $9.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
H200
4 configs
|
-- | $4.50 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
L40S
3 configs
|
-- | $2.97 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
L4
4 configs
|
-- | $0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
T4
2 configs
|
-- | $0.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
Leafcloud bills on-demand; Lightning AI bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
| Service | Leafcloud | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| Block Storage | ||
| GPU-powered Servers | ||
| Load Balancer | ||
| Managed Containers | ||
| Managed Databases | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Python Notebooks | ||
| Virtual Private Server (VPS) |
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Leafcloud | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | -- |
| HIPAA | -- | AWS and GCP clouds only |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
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 | Leafcloud | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2020 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | Netherlands | USA |
| Locations | 1 | -- |
| Example customers | Mobiel.nl, Milieudefensie, FeedbackFruits, GlobeScope, Erasmus Data Collaboratory, Brunel Solar Team | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs |
| Website | leaf.cloud | lightning.ai |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Leafcloud and Lightning AI against other cloud providers.
Our data for Leafcloud was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for Lightning AI on Oct. 28, 2026.