TensorDock vs Beam Cloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between TensorDock and Beam Cloud.
Quick Verdict
3.8/5
TensorDock
0 reviews
3.6/5
Beam Cloud
0 reviews
TensorDock is rated higher (3.8 vs 3.6). TensorDock is a GPU compute marketplace with per-second billing — H100 SXM5 from $2.80/hour and A100 from $1.50/hour (A100 PCIe 80GB) on its published rate card. 100+ locations in 20+ countries, on-demand provisioning. Beam Cloud provides serverless GPU and CPU compute for AI model serving and data pipelines. Scale to zero when not running. Python SDK for easy integration. Pay only for compute used.
TensorDock Affordable GPU cloud compute without long-term contracts | Beam Cloud Serverless GPU infrastructure with per-second billing and instant scaling | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.8 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.6 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | usage-based | freemium |
| Starting price | From $0.1/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Cost-conscious ML engineers, researchers and studios running training with checkpointing, batch inference or rendering, especially where consumer GPUs like the RTX 4090 fit the workload | Teams shipping AI inference, agent sandboxes, and spiky GPU workloads who want per-second pricing and the option to self-host or run on their own cloud credits. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 2 vCPU | — |
| RAM | 4 GB | — |
| Storage | 20 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | — |
| Data-center count | 100 | — |
| €/vCPU/mo | €0.05 | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €0.03 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | 100+ marketplace locations in over 20 countries (US, EU, Asia-Pacific); tier 3/4 data centers plus community hosts | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | hourly billinggpu availableeu datacenterus datacenter | free tiergpu availableus datacenterapi access |
| Visit TensorDock → | Visit Beam Cloud → | |
TensorDock
Pros
- + Among the lowest published GPU rates anywhere: RTX 4090 at $0.35/hr, H100 SXM5 at $2.85/hr typical
- + A la carte, per-second billing for vCPU, RAM and NVMe — pay only for the configuration you need
- + Breadth: 45 GPU models across 100+ locations in 20+ countries, with an API for automation
- + Published rate card and transparent explanation of why the same GPU has multiple prices
- + Host vetting, host SSH access revoked, and a 99.99% uptime standard for listed hosts
Cons
- - Marketplace variance: host redundancy and quality differ, with cheaper listings often least redundant
- - Email-only support with multi-hour response windows; no contractual SLA with credits
- - Prepaid balance model deletes servers when the balance reaches zero
- - Published rate card is stamped July 2024 and carries a no-guarantee disclaimer
- - Fewer managed niceties (templates, serverless) than RunPod, Lambda or hyperscalers
Beam Cloud
Pros
- + Aggressive GPU pricing: H100 PCIE from $1.83/hr on-demand, RTX 4090 serverless at $0.000192/sec
- + Free Developer tier with $30 compute credits every month and no mandatory production subscription
- + Open-source beta9 runtime (AGPL-3.0) with self-host and BYOC on AWS/GCP/Azure
- + Millisecond billing with scale-to-zero; sandboxes with GPU support and GPU checkpoint restore
- + Published per-second and per-hour rates with a transparent cost calculator
Cons
- - No published uptime SLA; young company with a small team behind it
- - Multiple billing units (per-second, per-hour, per-core-second, management fees) make comparison hard
- - Cold-start figures are vendor claims; uncached large images and weight downloads are slower
- - Managed fleet's regional footprint is not published; BYOC assumes you already run a cloud account
- - Container platform, not a VPS — no bare-metal root or kernel-level control on the serverless line
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new hosting and infrastructure providers, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.