Fluidstack vs Modal: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Fluidstack and Modal to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Fluidstack
5.9/10
Fluidstack builds and runs large GPU clusters and custom AI data centers for frontier AI labs and enterprises that train and serve large models.
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 | 5.9/10 | 6.7/10 |
| Analytics | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Customization | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4/10 | 8/10 |
| Integration | 4/10 | 6/10 |
| Scalability | 10/10 | 9/10 |
| Security | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $250/mo Team |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Contact for pricing | $250/mo Team |
| Features | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Shared Hosting | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| Cloud Compute | Not listed | |
Fluidstack vs Modal cost by team size
| Team size | Fluidstack | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | Contact for pricing | FreeStarter |
| 5 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
| 10 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
| 25 users | Contact for pricing | $250/moTeam |
| 50 users | Contact for pricing | $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 Fluidstack
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Customization score (8/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Includes Dedicated Servers, which Modal lacks
Why choose Modal
- Has a free plan (Fluidstack does not)
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Integration score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for startups (9/10 vs 5/10)
Pros & Cons
Fluidstack
Pros
- Can build and deliver capacity at gigawatt scale, which is why Anthropic chose it for its Texas and New York data centers.
- Runs managed Slurm and Kubernetes on bare metal, so training teams do not have to operate the cluster themselves.
- SemiAnalysis gave its GPU clusters a ClusterMAX Gold rating.
- Heavily funded, including an $830M Series A in January 2026, which lowers the risk that the supplier fails.
Cons
- There is no public rate card or self-serve signup, so pricing requires a sales quote.
- Public documentation on APIs, storage and compliance certifications is scarce.
- Third-party sources say its GPU catalog is narrower than marketplace providers and that on-demand billing is per hour.
- It offers no general web hosting, managed databases or app platform services.
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
Modal scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 6.7/10 against 5.9/10 for Fluidstack. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 4/10 for Fluidstack and 8/10 for Modal.
Modal has a free plan; Fluidstack does not list one.
Modal is the better fit for developers: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 4/10 for Fluidstack.
Fluidstack has Dedicated Servers, which Modal lacks.
