Provider Overview
Strengths & Best For
Microsoft Azure offers ND H100 v5 and NC A100 v4 series VMs across 60+ regions, with enterprise compliance certifications including HIPAA, FedRAMP, and SOC 2 built in. Deep Active Directory and hybrid cloud integration makes it the natural GPU cloud for Microsoft-centric organizations running LLM fine-tuning or AI inference at scale. On-demand, reserved, and spot GPU billing options are available with flexible commitment terms.
- Enterprise compliance
- Active Directory integration
- Hybrid cloud
- Microsoft 365 ecosystem
UpCloud is a Finnish cloud provider known for its MaxIOPS storage and reliable infrastructure, now offering H100 and A100 GPU instances for AI and ML workloads across Finnish, EU, US, and APAC data centers. On-demand billing and a strong uptime track record make it a dependable choice for European teams that need GPU compute paired with high-performance storage for data-intensive AI training pipelines. A solid European GPU cloud for teams that value reliability and storage performance alongside GPU compute.
- MaxIOPS storage
- Reliable uptime
- European presence
- Competitive pricing
Live GPU Pricing
Region Coverage
Popular Comparisons
Azure — hyperscaler provider
Microsoft Azure offers ND H100 v5 and NC A100 v4 series VMs across 60+ regions, with enterprise compliance certifications including HIPAA, FedRAMP, and SOC 2 built in. Deep Active Directory and hybrid cloud integration makes it the natural GPU cloud for Microsoft-centric organizations running LLM fine-tuning or AI inference at scale. On-demand, reserved, and spot GPU billing options are available with flexible commitment terms.
UpCloud — specialist provider
UpCloud is a Finnish cloud provider known for its MaxIOPS storage and reliable infrastructure, now offering H100 and A100 GPU instances for AI and ML workloads across Finnish, EU, US, and APAC data centers. On-demand billing and a strong uptime track record make it a dependable choice for European teams that need GPU compute paired with high-performance storage for data-intensive AI training pipelines. A solid European GPU cloud for teams that value reliability and storage performance alongside GPU compute.
Billing model comparison
Azure uses a Pay-as-you-go, Reserved (1yr/3yr), Spot billing model with a minimum commitment of None (pay-as-you-go). UpCloud uses On-demand billing with a None minimum. Both providers offer flexible billing options — compare the live pricing table above to find the best rate for your specific GPU model and workload duration.
Which workloads each provider suits best
Azure is best suited for: Enterprise ML, Windows-based workloads, Teams on Microsoft stack. Its key strengths are enterprise compliance, active directory integration, hybrid cloud. UpCloud is best suited for: European teams, Storage-intensive AI, Reliable inference. Its key strengths are maxiops storage, reliable uptime, european presence. As a hyperscaler, Azure offers broader ecosystem integration and compliance certifications at a premium price. UpCloud as a specialist provider typically offers lower per-GPU rates for teams that don't need the full hyperscaler ecosystem.
Support tiers and region coverage
Azure offers Basic → Premier support across 5 regions (eastus, westus2, westeurope and 2 more). UpCloud offers Standard support across 4 regions (FI, EU, US and 1 more). Azure's broader region footprint gives it an advantage for latency-sensitive workloads or teams with data residency requirements in specific geographies.
Provider background: Azure vs UpCloud
Azure was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Redmond, WA. UpCloud was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. Azure has 1 years more operational history than UpCloud, which may matter for teams evaluating provider stability and long-term contract risk. Use the live pricing table above to compare current on-demand and spot rates for specific GPU models, and the region map to verify coverage in your target geography.