GPU Cloud User Experience Comparison

Overall if you’re not stuck with your existing cloud, then I’d recommend FluidStack, Runpod, and Lambda Labs for GPUs.

AWS
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Support-plan Pricing
    - Semi-complex, depends on plan plus usage, see the bottom row of this table: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/plans/ (thanks GM)
  - Credit card required to register for any plan.
    - *We will not charge you for usage below AWS Free Tier limits.
    - *We may temporarily hold up to $1 USD as a pending transaction for 3-5 days to verify your identity.
- Contact
  - AWS was the easiest platform to communicate with directly via a chatbot and get my questions answered, without the need for email or phone communication.
  - https://aws.amazon.com/contact-us/sales-support/
Azure
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Pricing
    - Free plan offers 12 months access to some services
    - Pay-as-you-go includes free monthly amounts of 55+ services
  - Credit card required to register for any plan.
    - *We’ll make a temporary authorization on this card, but you won’t be charged unless you move to pay-as-you-go pricing.
    - *We don’t accept prepaid cards.
    - *No automatic charges.
    - *After your credit is over, we’ll ask you if you want to continue with pay-as-you-go. If you do, you’ll only pay if you use more than the free amounts of services
- Contact
  - I contacted Azure via chat, and email, but was not able to get my basic questions answered. A follow-up email indicated that a Certified Microsoft Partner would be reaching out to me for more information.
  - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/contact/#contact-sales
Google Cloud
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Pricing
    - Free plan - $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
    - All customers can use 20+ products for free, up to monthly usage limits.
  - Credit card required to register for any plan.
    - *No autocharge after free trial ends. We ask you for your credit card to make sure you are not a robot. If you use a credit or debit card, you won’t be charged unless you manually upgrade to a paid account.
- Contact
  - I contacted them via chat on the website. They were by far the most aggressive in terms of communication. The sales rep emailed me numerous times back-to-back without giving me time to reply.
  - https://cloud.google.com/contact
Oracle Cloud
- Registration - received two separate errors during registration and was advised to contact customer support to continue.
  - Pricing - use-case specific
    - Free plan - $300 in free credits
    - Pay-as-you-go
    - Universal Credit
  - Credit card required to register for any plan.
    - *You won’t be charged unless you elect to upgrade the account.
    - *You may see a small, temporary charge on your payment method. This is a verification hold that will be removed automatically.
- Contact
  - I called the sales department and was able to get my questions answered without any follow-up calls or emails required.
  - https://www.oracle.com/cloud/
CoreWeave
- Registration - all accounts are manually reviewed prior to approval. It took ~3 days for my account to be approved.
  - Pricing
    - Free to register
  - Credit card required to register.
    - *Your card will not be charged upon submission. We will use your payment information to help verify your identity and to prevent fraud.
    - *We rely heavily on this fraud prevention step to make sure we can offer the best GPU cloud pricing and service available.
- Contact
  - I filled out a contact request via their website and a rep promptly emailed me requesting more information. I did not receive a response until I registered with the site.
  - https://www.coreweave.com/contact-us
Lambda Labs
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Pricing
    - Free to register
  - No credit card required to register.
- Contact
  - I called the sales department but they only took my information to have a rep follow-up with me. The rep emailed me, but they have yet to respond to my follow-up questions.
  - https://lambdalabs.com/contact
Runpod
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Pricing
    - Free to register
  - No credit card required to register.
- Contact
  - I contacted them via pop-up chat and received an email response next-day.
  - https://www.runpod.io
Vast.ai
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Pricing
    - Free to register
  - No credit card required to register.
- Contact
  - I contacted them via pop-up chat and received blunt incomplete directions on how to filter search results.
  - https://vast.ai
Crusoe Cloud
- Registration - currently on the waitlist.
- Contact
  - https://crusoecloud.com
FluidStack
- Registration - straight-forward and easy to complete same-day.
  - Pricing
    - Free to register
  - No credit card required to register.
- Contact
  - I filled out a contact request form via their website, but have yet to receive a response. (Received)
  - https://www.fluidstack.io/contact