Vast.ai vs HostKey
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Vast.ai and HostKey.
Quick Verdict
3.7/5
Vast.ai
0 reviews
3.1/5
HostKey
0 reviews
Vast.ai is rated higher (3.7 vs 3.1). P2P GPU marketplace connecting researchers and developers with spare compute capacity. Offers rented GPUs at lower rates than centralized cloud providers, ideal for ML training, rendering, and batch processing. HostKey provides dedicated servers with GPU options in Netherlands and US. RTX and A100 GPU servers available for ML workloads. Custom hardware configurations and anti-DDoS.
Vast.ai Rent GPUs from individuals for 2-10x cheaper compute | HostKey GPU-enabled dedicated servers in EU and US | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.7 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.1 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | usage-based | paid |
| Starting price | From $0.03/mo✓ | From $40/mo |
| Best for | ML researchers, rendering studios, and budget-conscious teams running checkpointable training, fine-tune, and batch workloads who are willing to vet hosts themselves | ML and rendering teams wanting dedicated GPU servers in the EU, and buyers who want bare metal with BYOIP and hourly billing at low cost |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | Global — distributed hosts | Amsterdam NL, USA, Turkey, Finland (site also shows FR/DE/UK pickers and legacy RU listings) |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | hourly billinggpu availableeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter | nvme storageipv6ddos protectiongpu availableeu datacenterus datacenter |
| Visit Vast.ai → | Visit HostKey → | |
Vast.ai
Pros
- + Cheapest public GPU-hour rates anywhere; per-second billing with no minimum charge
- + Always-on capacity across 81 GPU types and hosts in 52 countries — no 'capacity coming soon'
- + Interruptible bidding and reserved discounts give real pricing levers per workload
- + Dense, useful search filters: reliability score, DLPerf, network speed, host tier
- + SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA attestations at the platform level, per third-party comparisons
Cons
- - No SLA, no owned datacenters, and no recourse when an independent host disappears
- - Host variance is real: measured ±11.7% throughput spread on identical H100 SXM specs
- - Storage bills continue on stopped instances; bandwidth is host-set and can be expensive
- - Interruptible preemption risk demands checkpointing discipline
- - Verification and reliability-score formulas are only partially disclosed
HostKey
Pros
- + GPU pricing is competitive: RTX-class bare metal from €118/mo, GPU VPS from €70/mo, A100/H100 available
- + Cheap bare-metal entry at €40/mo with IPMI/iDRAC and unmetered 1 Gbps on advanced NL servers
- + Hourly and monthly billing on instant servers — rare for dedicated hardware
- + BYOIP/AS announcement free on the instant EPYC line; custom builds up to 190 cores and 4.6TB DDR5
- + Amsterdam base with EU data residency plus US and Turkey options
Cons
- - No published uptime SLA percentage or credit schedule
- - Small provider: thin documentation, sales-led quotes, and listings that mix hardware eras
- - Footprint beyond Amsterdam is thin; no multi-region story
- - Mixed pricing currencies (euro lists, dollar tiers) and 'from' prices that require confirmation
- - Backups and snapshots are add-ons; no free tier
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