# Alibaba Cloud vs IBM Cloud

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** IBM Cloud

| Attribute | Alibaba Cloud | IBM Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 59.9 (49% (low)) | 76.7 (71% (medium)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Alibaba Cloud delivers a comprehensive suite of managed cloud services spanning compute infrastructure, storage, databases, machine learning platforms, data analytics, CDN, and developer services deployed across global data centers with built-in security and compliance features. It is indexed under Cloud Infrastructure.","source":"https://www.alibabacloud.com","question":"What is Alibaba Cloud?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Alibaba Cloud offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $6 per month. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.alibabacloud.com","question":"Is Alibaba Cloud free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Alibaba Cloud supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.alibabacloud.com","question":"What platforms does Alibaba Cloud support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Alibaba Cloud, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.alibabacloud.com","question":"Can Alibaba Cloud be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Alibaba Cloud. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Alibaba Cloud not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/security-notice-kfxbqr?forward=https://www.facebook.com/alibabacloud/","question":"What security certifications does Alibaba Cloud have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"A cloud infrastructure and services platform designed for building and managing applications across on-premises data centers and multiple cloud providers, with built-in security and compliance capabilities for regulated industries. It is indexed under Cloud Infrastructure.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/pricing","question":"What is IBM Cloud?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"IBM Cloud offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans are also available: Lite, Pay-as-you-go, Subscription and Enterprise Savings Plan. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/pricing","question":"Is IBM Cloud free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to IBM Cloud. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/pricing","question":"What platforms does IBM Cloud support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. IBM Cloud can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and on-premise, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/pricing","question":"Can IBM Cloud be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 34 integrations for IBM Cloud, including Anaplan, Apache, Elasticsearch, IBM Analytics Engine, IBM Blockchain Platform, IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation, IBM Cloud Pak for Data and IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, plus 26 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/cloud","question":"What does IBM Cloud integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for IBM Cloud. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as IBM Cloud not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/compliance","question":"What security certifications does IBM Cloud have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"IBM Cloud is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/pricing","question":"Where is IBM Cloud available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true}` |
| description.long | Alibaba Cloud provides a cloud computing infrastructure platform with strong capabilities in security, regulatory compliance, and multi-region deployment. The platform offers integrated services for compute, storage, networking, databases, and serverless computing across international and Asia-Pacific markets. | A cloud infrastructure and services platform designed for building and managing applications across on-premises data centers and multiple cloud providers, with built-in security and compliance capabilities for regulated industries. |
| features.capabilities | `{"tier":"hyperscaler","marketplace":true,"block_storage":true,"gpu_instances":true,"regions_count":"Global with significant Asia Pacific presence","data_residency":true,"object_storage":true,"serverless_faas":true,"managed_databases":true,"managed_kubernetes":true,"private_networking":true}` | `{"tier":"hyperscaler","bare_metal":true,"block_storage":true,"gpu_instances":true,"regions_count":"Multiple regions","object_storage":true,"serverless_faas":true,"managed_databases":true,"managed_kubernetes":true,"private_networking":true}` |
| integrations.count | 1 | 887 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Salesforce"}]` | `[{"name":"Anaplan"},{"name":"Apache"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"IBM Analytics Engine"},{"name":"IBM Blockchain Platform"},{"name":"IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation"},{"name":"IBM Cloud Pak for Data"},{"name":"IBM Cloud Pak for Integration"},{"name":"IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation"},{"name":"IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps"},{"name":"IBM Db2 Warehouse"},{"name":"IBM InfoSphere Information Server"},{"name":"IBM Master Data Management"},{"name":"IBM Turbonomic"},{"name":"IBM Watson Assistant"},{"name":"IBM Watson Discovery"},{"name":"IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog"},{"name":"IBM Watson Knowledge Studio"},{"name":"IBM Watson Language Translator"},{"name":"IBM Watson Natural Language Classifier"},{"name":"IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding"},{"name":"IBM Watson Speech to Text"},{"name":"IBM Watson Studio"},{"name":"IBM Watson Text to Speech"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Linux"},{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"NVIDIA"},{"name":"Oracle"},{"name":"RabbitMQ"},{"name":"Red Hat"},{"name":"Red Hat OpenShift"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"SAP"},{"name":"SPSS Statistics"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"CN","primaryMarkets":["CN","SG","AU"],"availabilityScope":"regional","availableCountries":["CN","SG","MY","ID","HK","PH","MO","AU","JP","TH","VN","IN"],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"SAS 1vCPU 1GiB","summary":"$0.99/month","commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0.99,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"SAS 2vCPU 2GiB","summary":"$8/month","commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":8,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"SAS 2vCPU 2GiB (Windows)","summary":"$10/month","commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":10,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"SAS 4vCPU 8GiB","summary":"$32/month","commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":32,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false}],"summary":"From $0.99/month for Simple Application Server instances","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.alibabacloud.com","retrievedAt":"2026-09-18T12:34:01.938Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.99,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Lite","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Pay-as-you-go","commitment":"monthly","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Subscription","commitment":"annual","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise Savings Plan","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Reserved Capacity","commitment":"annual","contactSales":false}],"summary":"Free Lite tier available. Pay-as-you-go, subscription, and committed spending plans.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-04T13:32:58.578Z","freeTrialDays":30,"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":0.99,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"Trusted Partner Network (TPN)","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.fedramp | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://www.alibabacloud.com/trust-center | - |

## Capabilities (Cloud Infrastructure)

| Capability | Alibaba Cloud | IBM Cloud |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Provider tier | Hyperscaler | Hyperscaler |
| **Reach** |  |  |
| Regions / global footprint | Global with significant Asia Pacific presence | Multiple regions |
| **Compute** |  |  |
| Bare-metal servers | - | ✓ |
| GPU / accelerated compute | ✓ | ✓ |
| Spot / preemptible pricing | - | - |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Object storage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Block storage | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Managed** |  |  |
| Managed Kubernetes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Managed databases | ✓ | ✓ |
| Serverless / FaaS | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Network** |  |  |
| VPC / private networking | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Pricing** |  |  |
| Free / low egress | - | - |
| **Compliance** |  |  |
| Data-residency / sovereign options | ✓ | - |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Partner marketplace | ✓ | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:48:37.008Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*