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Cloud & Infrastructure · head to head

Alibaba Cloud vs Nomad

Alibaba Cloud logo

Alibaba Cloud

Cloud & Infrastructure

Asia's leading cloud computing provider

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Nomad logo

Nomad

Cloud & Infrastructure

Flexible workload orchestration

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Alibaba Cloud technical support is a separate subscription, from $19.99 a month for Developer up to $8,000 a month for Enterprise, with only Basic included; Nomad nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
  • They diverge on capability: Alibaba Cloud covers Elastic Compute Service, Nomad covers Container orchestration.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Alibaba Cloud and Nomad actually diverge.

Attributes where Alibaba Cloud and Nomad differ
AttributeAlibaba CloudNomad
Pricing modelusage-basedopen-source
PlatformsLinux, Windows, Api, CliLinux, Windows, Mac, Cloud
Founded20092015

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud & Infrastructure).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Alibaba Cloud

  • Elastic Compute Service
  • Object Storage Service
  • RDS Database
  • MaxCompute
  • Function Compute
  • CDN
  • Load Balancer
  • API Gateway

Only in Nomad

  • Container orchestration
  • Job scheduling
  • Multi-cloud support
  • Auto-scaling
  • Service discovery
  • Rolling deployments
  • Monitoring integration
  • High availability

Both cover

  • Terraform
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Cloud deployment
  • Linux support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Alibaba Cloud

  • Cloud compute and storage with a strong footprint in China and Asia Pacificnot Nomad
  • Pay-as-you-go infrastructure without upfront commitmentnot Nomad
  • Committed-use discounts through savings plans for steady workloadsnot Nomad
  • CDN and data transfer packages for content deliverynot Nomad

Nomad

  • Scheduling containers, binaries, Java and VM workloads on the same clusternot Alibaba Cloud
  • Running an orchestrator with a single binary and no external dependenciesnot Alibaba Cloud
  • Batch and edge workload scheduling across multiple datacentresnot Alibaba Cloud

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Alibaba Cloud

  • Technical support is a separate subscription, from $19.99 a month for Developer up to $8,000 a month for Enterprise, with only Basic included
  • Service prices are not shown as a rate card and route through a calculator or sales
  • Committed discounts require savings plans, reserved instances or capacity packages rather than being automatic

Nomad

  • Nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
  • The Additional Use Grant forbids offering Nomad to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis in a paid product that competes with IBM's paid versions
  • Each version converts to MPL 2.0 only four years after that version is published
  • Resource quotas, Sentinel policies and audit logging sit in a Governance and Policy add-on module that is separate from the Enterprise base platform package
  • Multi-region deployments, multiple Vault namespaces and Nomad Autopilot advanced server management require Nomad Enterprise

Pricing, plan by plan

Alibaba Cloud

Free
  • Free TrialFree
    • Free tier credits
    • ECS instances
    • Cloud storage
  • Pay-as-You-GoFree
    • Flexible billing
    • No commitments
    • Global reach

Nomad

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Workload orchestration
    • Multi-cloud
    • Flexible scheduling

Which should you pick?

Choose Alibaba Cloud if

  • You need elastic compute service.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
  • You also want object storage service.
Alibaba Cloud review

Choose Nomad if

  • You need container orchestration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
  • You also want job scheduling.
Nomad review

Questions people ask

Is Alibaba Cloud or Nomad better?
Neither clearly leads. Alibaba Cloud starts at Free and Nomad at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Alibaba Cloud or Nomad?
Alibaba Cloud starts at Free and Nomad at Free.
Does Alibaba Cloud or Nomad run on more platforms?
Alibaba Cloud runs on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli. Nomad runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
Can I use Alibaba Cloud for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Alibaba Cloud best used for?
Alibaba Cloud is most often used for cloud compute and storage with a strong footprint in china and asia pacific, pay-as-you-go infrastructure without upfront commitment, committed-use discounts through savings plans for steady workloads, cdn and data transfer packages for content delivery. Of those, cloud compute and storage with a strong footprint in china and asia pacific and pay-as-you-go infrastructure without upfront commitment are not what Nomad is typically brought in for.
What can Alibaba Cloud do that Nomad cannot?
Alibaba Cloud covers Elastic Compute Service, Object Storage Service, RDS Database, MaxCompute. Nomad covers Container orchestration, Job scheduling, Multi-cloud support, Auto-scaling. Both handle Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud deployment.
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