Crusoe Cloud vs Modal: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Crusoe Cloud and Modal to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Crusoe Cloud
6.6/10
Crusoe Cloud is a GPU-focused AI cloud that offers NVIDIA and AMD GPU instances, managed Kubernetes, storage and managed inference to AI teams and enterprises.
Modal
6.7/10
Modal is a serverless cloud platform that runs Python code on GPUs and CPUs with per-second billing, aimed at teams building and serving AI applications.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.6/10 | 6.7/10 |
| Integration | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Security | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $250/mo Team |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Contact for pricing | $250/mo Team |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
Crusoe Cloud vs Modal cost by team size
| Team size | Crusoe Cloud | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | Contact for pricing | FreeStarter |
| 5 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
| 10 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
| 25 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
| 50 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Crusoe Cloud
- Higher Support score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose Modal
- Has a free plan (Crusoe Cloud does not)
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 7/10)
Pros & Cons
Crusoe Cloud
Pros
- SemiAnalysis gave it a ClusterMAX Gold rating and praised how easy the console is to use, along with its fault management.
- Reviewers describe hands-on, white-glove engineering support.
- It covers NVIDIA H100 through B300 and AMD MI355X GPUs, with InfiniBand clusters.
- CPU, storage and Kubernetes rates are published openly, for example $0.10 per Kubernetes cluster-hour.
- Developers get a CLI, a Terraform provider, an API and an MCP server for automation.
Cons
- There are few independent user reviews on G2, Capterra or Gartner.
- It has fewer managed services and a narrower geographic footprint than the hyperscalers.
- Self-serve GPU rates on the pricing page are set to rise from December 1, 2026.
- Service terms reportedly exclude HIPAA-regulated workloads.
Modal
Pros
- GPUs from the T4 up to the B300 are available without quota requests or reservations, and workloads can burst to thousands of containers.
- Per-second billing and scale-to-zero mean idle bursty inference workloads cost nothing.
- Python developers define infrastructure in code and deploy with a single CLI command, with no Kubernetes or Dockerfiles needed.
- The free Starter plan includes $30 a month of compute, and startup and academic credit programs are available.
- Sandboxes support large numbers of concurrent isolated environments for AI agents and untrusted code.
Cons
- Always-on or steady workloads can cost more than reserved GPU rentals from providers such as RunPod or Lambda.
- Containers stay billable for 60 seconds after the last request by default, and keep-warm settings are a common source of bill surprises.
- Region pinning raises prices by 1.15 to 1.75 times, and non-preemptible execution by 3 times.
- SSO, audit logs, and HIPAA support are limited to the custom-priced Enterprise plan.
- Credits from AWS, GCP, or Azure cannot be applied to Modal usage.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Modal scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 6.7/10 against 6.6/10 for Crusoe Cloud. The largest gap is in Support: 8/10 for Crusoe Cloud and 6/10 for Modal.
Modal has a free plan; Crusoe Cloud does not list one.
