Gcore vs IBM Cloud Comparison

Why choose Gcore

• Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 5/10)
• Higher Ease of Use score (6/10 vs 4/10)
• Better fit for startups (6/10 vs 4/10)

Why choose IBM Cloud

• Higher Customization score (8/10 vs 7/10)

Gcore

Pros

• The CDN includes 1 TB of traffic and 1 billion requests free each month, and traffic after that starts at 0.01 EUR per GB.
• DDoS protection pricing does not depend on attack size, and mitigation is not metered on any plan.
• The managed Kubernetes control plane is free with high availability, so you pay only for the nodes.
• A large edge footprint, reported at about 210 PoPs and 200 Tbps of capacity, suits latency-sensitive workloads such as gaming and streaming.
• Headquarters in Luxembourg is an advantage for buyers who prefer an EU-based provider.

Cons

• Trustpilot scores are around 2.5 out of 5, with complaints about recurring billing, refunds, and slow support.
• There is no public price list for VMs and bare metal; prices are only available through the calculator.
• The Terraform v2 provider is still in alpha and Gcore says it is not ready for production.
• The product range is very broad, which can make it harder for small teams to understand how pricing works.

IBM Cloud

Pros

• The One Rate Object Storage plan bundles egress and API calls into one charge starting at 10 USD per TB per month.
• Tight integration with Red Hat OpenShift, and IBM manages the Kubernetes master, version updates and the host OS.
• Unusual compute options, including bare metal and IBM Power Virtual Server, suit legacy enterprise workloads.
• Large promotional credits are available, including 1,000 USD for bare metal or VPC and 2,500 USD for Power Virtual Server.
• Reviewers consistently cite security and compliance as strengths.

Cons

• A Gartner reviewer criticised the portal's response time, and others describe the platform as complex for new administrators.
• Public feedback cites friction with billing, procurement and account administration.
• Some reviewers report support that is slow or fragmented across IBM's large organization.
• Most service prices come from the catalog estimator rather than a public price list.
• Its market position and third-party ecosystem are smaller than those of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.