# Modal vs Serverless Framework

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Serverless Framework

| Attribute | Modal | Serverless Framework |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 56.4 (72% (medium)) | 65.4 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 53 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 12,543 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 46,922 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 1,294,273 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A serverless cloud platform designed for running AI inference, training, batch processing, and interactive development. It automatically scales compute resources on demand, offers integrated logging and metrics, and provides a Python-native SDK for defining infrastructure as code. It is indexed under Serverless & Edge Platforms.","source":"https://modal.com/pricing","question":"What is Modal?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Modal offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://modal.com/pricing","question":"Is Modal free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Modal supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://modal.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does Modal support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Modal, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://modal.com/pricing","question":"Can Modal be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 4 integrations for Modal, including AWS Marketplace, GCP Marketplace, Datadog and Sentry.io. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://modal.com/pricing","question":"What does Modal integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and HIPAA for Modal. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Modal not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://modal.com/docs/guide/security","question":"What security certifications does Modal have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Modal is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://modal.com/pricing","question":"Where is Modal available?","confidence":0.75}]` | `[{"answer":"Infrastructure-as-code framework for defining and deploying serverless applications to AWS Lambda and related services. It is indexed under Serverless & Edge Platforms.","source":"https://www.serverless.com/pricing","question":"What is Serverless Framework?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Serverless Framework offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $1. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.serverless.com/","question":"Is Serverless Framework free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Serverless Framework 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.serverless.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does Serverless Framework support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Serverless Framework can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.serverless.com/pricing","question":"Can Serverless Framework be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 5 integrations for Serverless Framework, including AWS Lambda, AWS DynamoDB, AWS S3, AWS API Gateway and AWS SQS. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.serverless.com/pricing","question":"What does Serverless Framework integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for Serverless Framework. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Serverless Framework not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.serverless.com/","question":"What security certifications does Serverless Framework have?","confidence":0.48}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | A cloud platform that automatically scales applications based on demand and charges only for actual compute consumed, measured per CPU cycle. Provides direct GPU access for AI inference and training, with support for Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Go. | A CLI tool and framework that simplifies building and deploying serverless applications to AWS Lambda and managed cloud services. It uses YAML configuration to provision infrastructure, supports multiple programming languages, and automates operational tasks like scaling, domain management, and monitoring with minimal maintenance overhead. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"cloud","triggers":"HTTP, cron/scheduled, events","languages":"Python","cold_start":"low","cli_and_iac":true,"http_trigger":true,"durable_state":true,"scale_to_zero":true,"custom_runtime":true,"scheduled_cron":true,"edge_distributed":true,"runtime_substrate":"container","observability_builtin":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","triggers":"HTTP, scheduled tasks, SQS workers","languages":"Node.js, Python","cli_and_iac":true,"http_trigger":true,"durable_state":true,"scale_to_zero":true,"custom_runtime":true,"scheduled_cron":true,"observability_builtin":true}` |
| integrations.count | 2 | 9 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS Marketplace"},{"name":"GCP Marketplace"},{"name":"Datadog","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Sentry.io","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"AWS DynamoDB"},{"name":"AWS S3"},{"name":"AWS API Gateway"},{"name":"AWS SQS"},{"name":"AWS CloudWatch","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"AWS EventBridge","native":true,"category":"events"},{"name":"AWS Cognito","native":true,"category":"auth"},{"name":"AWS AppSync","native":true,"category":"api"},{"name":"Amazon Bedrock","native":true,"category":"ai"}]` |
| language.primary | - | JavaScript |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Starter","summary":"$0/month base + compute usage ($30/month free credits)","features":["3 workspace seats","100 containers","10 GPU concurrency","Limited scheduled and web functions","Real-time metrics and logs","Region selection"],"minSeats":3,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For small teams and independent developers","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"compute":"$30/month","containers":"100","gpu_concurrency":"10"}},{"free":false,"name":"Team","summary":"$250/month base + compute usage ($100/month free credits)","features":["Unlimited workspace seats","5000 containers","50 GPU concurrency","Unlimited scheduled functions","Custom domains","Static IP proxy","Deployment rollbacks","Environment-level budgets"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For startups and larger organizations","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"compute":"$100/month","containers":"5000","gpu_concurrency":"50"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["Volume-based discounts","Embedded ML engineering services","Private Slack support","Audit logs","SAML SSO","HIPAA compliance"],"description":"For organizations requiring security and compliance","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Non-preemptible execution","components":[{"of":"base compute pricing","kind":"percentage","rate":3}]}],"summary":"Free tier with $30/month compute. Pay-per-second metering: CPUs from $0.0000131/core/sec, GPUs from $0.000164/sec (T4) to $0.001972/sec (B300), memory at $0.00000222/GiB/sec.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://modal.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-18T15:59:18.208Z","startingPrice":{"amount":250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free (CLI)","summary":"Free for organizations under $2M revenue","features":["Full CLI access","AWS Lambda deployment","Service Instance tracking"],"description":"CLI access for individuals and organizations under $2M annual revenue","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Paid (CLI Subscription)","summary":"$4 per Service Instance per month (standard); $1-$1.50 with discounts","features":["Full CLI access","AWS Lambda deployment","License Key management"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"Service Instance","amount":4,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"CLI subscription for organizations earning over $2M annually","contactSales":false},{"free":true,"name":"Dashboard (Free Tier)","summary":"2 free Service Instances included","features":["2 free Service Instances","Free Metrics and Traces","Dashboard access"],"description":"Free Dashboard tier with limited Service Instances","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"traces":"unlimited","metrics":"unlimited","service_instances":"2"}}],"summary":"Free CLI for organizations under $2M revenue; $1-$4 per Service Instance per month for larger organizations; annual subscriptions available with discounts","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.serverless.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T13:54:26.052Z","startingPrice":{"unit":"Service Instance","amount":4,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | high | low |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":250,"currency":"USD"}` | `{"amount":4,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 13 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.43.0","date":"2026-09-24T21:37:19Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.43.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.42.0","date":"2026-09-09T15:12:42Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.42.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.41.1","date":"2026-08-26T21:23:57Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.41.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.41.0","date":"2026-08-10T15:17:40Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.41.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.40.0","date":"2026-07-22T14:18:48Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.40.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.39.0","date":"2026-07-08T16:18:42Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.39.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.38.1","date":"2026-06-19T20:00:32Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.38.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.38.0","date":"2026-06-17T19:10:39Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.38.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.37.0","date":"2026-05-27T19:41:48Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.37.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.36.1","date":"2026-05-14T15:55:17Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.36.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.36.0","date":"2026-05-12T16:00:45Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.36.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.35.1","date":"2026-05-06T18:35:06Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.35.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.35.0","date":"2026-04-30T15:37:15Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.35.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.34.0","date":"2026-04-10T16:56:01Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.34.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.33.3","date":"2026-04-02T16:23:07Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.33.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.33.2","date":"2026-04-01T00:14:38Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.33.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.33.1","date":"2026-03-31T19:13:49Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.33.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.33.0","date":"2026-02-19T21:18:33Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.33.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.32.0","date":"2026-02-12T18:27:01Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.32.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/serverless/serverless/releases/tag/sf-core%404.31.2","date":"2026-01-27T21:03:37Z","type":"stable","version":"sf-core@4.31.2"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 6.7 |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://modal.com/docs/guide/security | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=serverless&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Serverless & Edge Platforms)

| Capability | Modal | Serverless Framework |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Execution substrate | Container | - |
| Language / runtime breadth | Python | Node.js, Python |
| **Reach** |  |  |
| Runs at global edge PoPs | ✓ | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Scale to zero | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| Cold-start profile | Low | - |
| **Limits** |  |  |
| Max execution duration | - | - |
| **Integration** |  |  |
| Event source breadth | HTTP, cron/scheduled, events | HTTP, scheduled tasks, SQS workers |
| HTTP endpoint trigger | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cron / scheduled invocations | ✓ | ✓ |
| **State** |  |  |
| Durable state / workflow primitive | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Flexibility** |  |  |
| Bring-your-own runtime / container | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Built-in logs / metrics / tracing | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| CLI + IaC / framework support | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:12:32.026Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*