Amazon CloudFront vs Nscale Comparison
Compare Amazon CloudFront vs Nscale features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Amazon CloudFront
7.9/10
Amazon CloudFront is the AWS content delivery network. It caches and serves websites, APIs and media from more than 750 edge locations, and includes DDoS protection, WAF and edge compute.
Nscale
6.4/10
Nscale is an AI-focused cloud provider that rents dedicated GPU clusters, managed Kubernetes and serverless model inference to AI developers and large enterprises.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | A Amazon CloudFront | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.9/10 | 6.4/10 |
| Integration | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Customization | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Reliability | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Scalability | 10/10 | 9/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $15/mo Pro (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
Amazon CloudFront vs Nscale cost by team size
| Team size | Amazon CloudFront | Nscale |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | FreeFree (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | FreeFree (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | FreeFree (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | FreeFree (flat-rate) | Contact for pricing |
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?
AWhy choose Amazon CloudFront
- Has a free plan (Nscale does not)
- Higher Integration score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Security score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 7/10)
Why choose Nscale
- Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Includes Dedicated Servers, which Amazon CloudFront lacks
Pros & Cons
AAmazon CloudFront
Pros
- The network is very large, with more than 750 PoPs plus over 1,140 PoPs embedded inside ISP networks.
- Data transfer from AWS origins such as S3 and EC2 to CloudFront costs nothing, which lowers costs for workloads hosted on AWS.
- Flat-rate plans start at $15 a month with no overage charges, which makes bills predictable.
- It has strong compliance coverage, including PCI-DSS Level 1, HIPAA, SOC, ISO and FedRAMP Moderate.
- Two tiers of edge compute are available: CloudFront Functions at $0.10 per million invocations and Lambda@Edge for heavier code.
Cons
- G2 and Capterra reviewers report complex configuration and a steep learning curve for people new to AWS.
- Capterra-network reviewers rate customer support poorly, around 3.4 out of 5.
- Flat-rate plans lack some features, such as real-time logs, dedicated IP SSL and continuous deployment, and going over the allowance reduces performance.
- Dedicated IP SSL at $600 a month and Anycast Static IPs at $3,000 a month are expensive extras.
- Users on AWS re:Post and GitHub report cache invalidations that occasionally hang for hours or time out during deploys.
Nscale
Pros
- The serverless inference API is OpenAI-compatible, so existing SDK code can switch over with minimal changes.
- New inference users get 5 USD of free credit and pay only per token, with no commitment.
- Its own data centers in Norway and the UK give European buyers a sovereignty-friendly option.
- Billions of USD in 2026 funding support very large GPU cluster buildouts.
Cons
- There is no public price list for dedicated GPU clusters, so cost comparison means going through sales.
- It offers no general web hosting services such as WordPress, CDN or managed databases.
- Independent user reviews are almost nonexistent: directory sites list no ratings.
- The company is young (founded 2024) and reported heavy losses in the first half of 2026.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Amazon CloudFront scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.9/10 against 6.4/10 for Nscale. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Amazon CloudFront and 4/10 for Nscale.
Amazon CloudFront has a free plan; Nscale does not list one.
Amazon CloudFront is the better fit for developers: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 7/10 for Nscale.
Nscale has Dedicated Servers, which Amazon CloudFront lacks.
