Gcore vs Modal Comparison
Compare Gcore vs Modal features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Gcore
6.8/10
Luxembourg-based edge and cloud provider offering CDN, virtual machines, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, object storage, AI GPU cloud, and DDoS/WAF security for businesses.
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 | 6.8/10 | 6.7/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | €390/mo DDoS Protection Start | $250/mo Team |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | €390/mo DDoS Protection Start | $250/mo Team |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | ||
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | ||
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
Gcore vs Modal cost by team size
| Team size | Gcore | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | FreeStarter |
| 5 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | $250/moTeam |
| 10 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | $250/moTeam |
| 25 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | $250/moTeam |
| 50 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | $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 Gcore
- Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Integration score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Includes Dedicated Servers, which Modal lacks
Why choose Modal
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Support score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for startups (9/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
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.
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
Gcore scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 6.8/10 against 6.7/10 for Modal. The largest gap is in Cost: 7/10 for Gcore and 5/10 for Modal.
Yes, both Gcore and Modal have a free plan.
Modal is the better fit for startups: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 6/10 for Gcore.
Gcore has Dedicated Servers, which Modal lacks.
