CoreWeave vs Vast.ai: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of CoreWeave and Vast.ai to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
CoreWeave
6.4/10
CoreWeave is a GPU-focused cloud that rents NVIDIA GPU and CPU instances, managed Kubernetes, and storage to teams training and serving AI models.
Vast.ai
6.3/10
Vast.ai is a marketplace for renting GPU compute by the second from independent hosts and data centers, used for AI training, inference, and rendering.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.4/10 | 6.3/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 9/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Scalability | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Support | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Contact for pricing | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| API and CLI | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | ||
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose CoreWeave
- Higher Support score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (9/10 vs 4/10)
- Includes Uptime SLA, which Vast.ai lacks
Why choose Vast.ai
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Customization score (8/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for startups (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Includes Serverless Functions, which CoreWeave lacks
Pros & Cons
CoreWeave
Pros
- Free internet egress and internal data transfer, which lowers the cost of moving large datasets and model checkpoints.
- Large inventory of current NVIDIA hardware, from L40S to GB200 NVL72, with InfiniBand for multi-node training.
- Spot rates are well below on-demand rates, for example $19.71 versus $49.24 per hour for an 8-GPU H100 node, and committed discounts reach up to 60%.
- The CKS control plane and SUNK Slurm scheduler are free, so you pay only for compute.
- A Terraform and OpenTofu provider manages clusters, VPCs, storage, and inference as code.
Cons
- No free tier or trial credits, and minimum spend is reported to be high even for light use.
- No managed databases, serverless functions, or CDN, so a second cloud is often needed.
- Regions are concentrated in North America and Europe, with limited Asia-Pacific coverage.
- The best pricing usually requires multi-year contracts and an enterprise sales process.
- Few public user reviews are available on G2 or Gartner to validate claims.
Vast.ai
Pros
- Marketplace rates for H100 and RTX 4090 run well below RunPod, Lambda, and AWS in mid-2026 reviews
- Per-second billing with no contracts or minimum hours
- Wide hardware choice across 68+ GPU types and 40+ data centers
- Secure Cloud filter limits results to vetted ISO 27001 data center hosts
Cons
- Reliability varies by host, and reviewers report disconnections
- No platform uptime SLA on standard marketplace instances
- Reviewers describe support as limited and inconsistent
- Storage is billed while instances are stopped, and bandwidth costs extra, which raises the real cost
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
CoreWeave scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 6.4/10 against 6.3/10 for Vast.ai. The largest gap is in Cost: 6/10 for CoreWeave and 9/10 for Vast.ai.
No, neither CoreWeave nor Vast.ai lists a free plan.
CoreWeave is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 4/10 for Vast.ai.
CoreWeave has Uptime SLA, which Vast.ai lacks. Vast.ai has Serverless Functions, which CoreWeave lacks.
