Head-to-head, indicative as of Oct 2026. Prices change — always confirm on the vendor page.
Quick read: pick Scaleway if your workload is eu data residency without hyperscaler pricing and its included egress fits your traffic shape; pick Alibaba Cloud if you need reaching apac users at apac prices. For anything latency-sensitive at the edge, cold start row is the tiebreaker.
| Scaleway | Alibaba Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Cloud (EU-focused) | Full cloud (ECS) |
| Free tier | Periodic free tiers | Trial credits |
| Paid pricing (indicative) | From ~€4/mo | ECS from ~$2.50/mo promo |
| Egress | Included allowances | Metered by region |
| Cold start | N/A | N/A |
| Regions | Paris/Amsterdam/Warsaw | Strong APAC + global |
| Best for | EU data residency without hyperscaler pricing | Reaching APAC users at APAC prices |
Try Scaleway Try Alibaba Cloud
NinjaOps publishes free engineering guides. Some outbound links are affiliate links: they cost you nothing and support the site.
Last reviewed 2026-10-02 · NinjaOps SEO grid · DevOps blog