UpCloud vs Tencent Cloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between UpCloud and Tencent Cloud.
Quick Verdict
4.2/5
UpCloud
0 reviews
3.6/5
Tencent Cloud
0 reviews
UpCloud is rated higher (4.2 vs 3.6). Finnish cloud provider with fast MaxIOPS storage and 15 data centers. Starter cloud servers from EUR 3/month, with free outbound traffic. Tencent Cloud is the cloud division of Tencent Holdings, the third-largest provider in China (15% share, Canalys Q3 2024) with about 2% of the global cloud market. Strong WeChat and gaming ecosystem integration; 22 regions with mainland China coverage.
UpCloud MaxIOPS storage tops disk benchmarks consistently | Tencent Cloud China's second-largest cloud by Tencent | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.6 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | freemium |
| Starting price | From $3/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Database-heavy European production workloads where disk I/O and a five-nines SLA matter more than raw compute price | Businesses with China or Asia-Pacific users, game studios, media delivery into mainland China, and teams building on the WeChat/mini-program ecosystem |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 1 vCPU | 1 vCPU |
| RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Storage | 10 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | 1 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.999%✓ | 99.975% |
| Data-center count | 15 | 22✓ |
| €/vCPU/mo | €3.00 | €0.00✓ |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €3.00 | €0.00✓ |
| Performance | ||
| CPU score (sysbench) | 4,600 | — |
| Disk read (fio) | 2,800 MB/s | — |
| Disk IOPS (4K random) | 62,000 | — |
| Network out | 1 Gbps | — |
| Latency (TTFB) | 22 ms | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | 22 regions / 64 AZs incl. mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, Mumbai, Silicon Valley, Virginia, Frankfurt, Moscow |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | hourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotseu datacenterus datacenterapac datacentergdpr compliantapi accessprivate networking | free tierhourly billinggpu availableapac datacenterus datacenterapi access |
| Visit UpCloud → | Visit Tencent Cloud → | |
UpCloud
Pros
- + Best disk performance in our benchmark set: 62,000 IOPS / 2,800 MB/s on a Helsinki Simple 2-2GB (2026-04-01)
- + 99.999% uptime SLA with 50x credit payback on Premium and managed products
- + Legible pricing: hourly billing capped at 28 days, zero-cost transfer, identical prices in all 15 DCs
- + Broad platform: managed databases, Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, GPU and Private Cloud options
- + European-first footprint (2x Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Frankfurt and more) with 24/7 in-house support
Cons
- - CPU value lags the budget clouds — our test showed 4,600 CPU score against Hetzner's 9,400 at lower cost
- - Backups are a paid add-on (10-40% of server price) and extra MaxIOPS disk costs €0.22/GB/mo
- - Plan-line reorganization (Simple to Starter/Premium/Cloud Native) plus announced price changes create continuity risk
- - Starter tier caps (5 deployments, 250 Mbit/s port, previous-gen CPUs) despite carrying an SLA
- - APAC coverage is Singapore and Sydney only; GPU and Private Cloud lines are too new for long-run track records
Tencent Cloud
Pros
- + 22 regions and 64 AZs with mainland China coverage that Western clouds cannot offer
- + Published per-hour CVM price lists by region and per-second pay-as-you-go billing
- + Published 99.975% single-instance SLA with 10-400 Gbps baseline DDoS protection included
- + Trial-based Free Tier across 30+ products (CVM 2C4G free for 3 months) plus aggressive new-user pricing
- + Native WeChat, mini-program and gaming ecosystem integration
Cons
- - Mainland China compliance (ICP registration, data law) is heavy friction for Western buyers
- - Documentation and console experience are inconsistent, with machine-translated pages
- - Sales-and-ticket support model; community ecosystem is thin outside Asia
- - Promotional pricing is the headline — steady-state costs on modern instance families are closer to hyperscaler rates
- - Price list is reference-only; actual order pricing governs
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new hosting and infrastructure providers, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.