NHN Cloud
5.9/10South Korean OpenStack-based public cloud from NHN, offering compute, Kubernetes, managed databases, storage, CDN and security services from Korean and Japanese regions.
Data last updated November 2026 · Our methodology
Overview
NHN Cloud is the public cloud platform of Korea's NHN group. It started as Toast in 2014, which NHN describes as the country's first OpenStack-based public cloud, and was renamed NHN Cloud in 2021. The current company, NHN Cloud Corp., was set up as a separate entity in April 2022. The catalog is broad. It covers virtual instances and GPU instances, Cloud Functions for serverless code, auto scaling, NHN Kubernetes Service with a container registry, VPCs and load balancers, block, NAS and object storage, a backup service, and managed RDS for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB and MS-SQL. There are also CDN, DDoS Guard, a web firewall, monitoring, notification APIs that include KakaoTalk messaging, AI services, and the Dooray! collaboration suite. It operates four regions: Pangyo, Pyeongchon and Gwangju in Korea, plus Tokyo in Japan. It holds the Korean CSAP certification, which matters for public-sector work. It is best suited to Korean enterprises, public agencies, and companies serving Korean users that want a domestic provider. Pricing is pay-as-you-go by service, with a pricing calculator and custom quotes, but the pricing pages we checked showed no public per-unit rates. For automation, NHN Cloud keeps an official Terraform provider and REST APIs. Its main limitation is reach: there are only four regions, almost all in Korea, much of the documentation and console is Korean-first, and independent English-language user reviews are scarce.
Our Rating
Who NHN Cloud is best for
Good fit
Serves about 3,000 corporate clients, including KB Financial and HDC, with a wide enterprise catalog.
CSAP certification helped it expand into Korea's public sector.
Counts major Korean financial groups among its clients and offers SIEM and key management.
Less suited
Provides Terraform, Kubernetes and serverless, but the documentation is Korean-first.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very broad catalog for a regional provider: compute, NKS, serverless, managed RDS for four engines, CDN, security, and AI services.
- Holds CSAP certification, which suits Korean public-sector and regulated buyers.
- An official Terraform provider, published by NHN Cloud on GitHub, supports infrastructure as code.
- Korea-specific services such as KakaoTalk Bizmessage notifications and support for local databases like Tibero and CUBRID.
Cons
- Only four regions, three in Korea and one in Tokyo, so it reaches few markets outside Korea.
- The pricing pages we checked showed no per-unit rates; buyers have to use the calculator or ask for a quote.
- Documentation and console are Korean-first, and independent English-language reviews are scarce.
- Some services, such as Data Transporter and Storage Gateway, are still in alpha or beta.
Key Features
NHN Cloud Pricing
Pay-as-you-go (per service)
- CloudTrail free
- Usage-based pricing by service
- Pricing calculator and custom quotes
- Basic Security free in Korean regions
Frequently Asked Questions
It has four regions: Korea (Pangyo), Korea (Pyeongchon), Korea (Gwangju) and Japan (Tokyo). Not every service is offered in every region.
Yes. NHN Cloud publishes the nhn-cloud/nhncloud Terraform provider. The Terraform guide in its documentation lists the KR1, KR2 and JP1 regions for it.
Yes. The company says it obtained CSAP certification around 2017, which helped it win public-sector business.
Yes. NHN Kubernetes Service (NKS) is a managed Kubernetes offering, and NHN Cloud Container Registry is available alongside it.
Each service is billed on usage. NHN Cloud provides a pricing calculator and custom quotes. Basic Security is free in the Korean regions, and CloudTrail is free.
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