AI · head to head
Atlas Cloud vs Vault

Atlas Cloud
AI
One API for 500+ image, video, LLM and audio models
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Only Vault has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Atlas Cloud not every model accepts every request format. Each model publishes its own supported_apis list, and Gemini models expose their full multimodal capability only on the native Gemini format, so 'change the base URL' does not hold for every model.; Vault vault 1.15.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, not an OSI open source licence, with IBM Corporation as licensor
- They diverge on capability: Atlas Cloud covers 500+ models, one API key, Vault covers Secrets management.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 12 November 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Atlas Cloud and Vault actually diverge.
| Attribute | Atlas Cloud | Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | Free |
| Pricing model | usage-based | open-source |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | web, api | Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud |
| Category | AI | Cloud |
| Founded | Unknown | 2015 |
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).
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 Atlas Cloud
- 500+ models, one API key
- OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint
- Pay-as-you-go pricing
- ComfyUI nodes
- MCP server and CLI
- Playground and Generator
- Streaming, batch and webhooks
- Coding Plan
Only in Vault
- Secrets management
- Encryption
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Audit logging
- API access
- High availability
- Replication
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Atlas Cloud
- Adding AI image or video generation to an app without an account at each model providernot Vault
- Switching an existing OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini SDK integration to other models by changing the base URLnot Vault
- Running hosted image and video models inside ComfyUI workflows without a local GPUnot Vault
- Comparing image and video models side by side in a playground before committing to onenot Vault
- Giving coding agents access to open-weight LLMs on a flat-rate plannot Vault
Vault
- Centrally storing and rotating secrets, API keys and database credentialsnot Atlas Cloud
- Issuing short-lived dynamic credentials to applications instead of static passwordsnot Atlas Cloud
- Encryption as a service and PKI certificate issuancenot Atlas Cloud
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Atlas Cloud
- Not every model accepts every request format. Each model publishes its own supported_apis list, and Gemini models expose their full multimodal capability only on the native Gemini format, so 'change the base URL' does not hold for every model.
- No Anthropic models were listed when checked in November 2026: the provider directory showed Anthropic with 0 models, so the Anthropic Messages format is a compatibility layer for other models rather than access to Claude.
- The model count is stated inconsistently across the site: the homepage title says 400+, the vendor says 500+ and the pricing page listed 550, which makes it hard to know what is available without checking the live list.
- Billing is prepaid. When the balance runs out new API requests are rejected with 402 Payment Required unless auto top-up is enabled, which matters for production workloads.
- Most models are third-party models resold through the platform, so pricing and availability follow upstream providers and change often; prices on the pricing page are shown against a separate official price and discounts vary by model.
Vault
- Vault 1.15.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, not an OSI open source licence, with IBM Corporation as licensor
- The Additional Use Grant forbids offering Vault to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis in a paid product that competes with IBM's paid versions of Vault
- Each version only converts to MPL 2.0 four years after that version is published, and the Change Date is tracked per version
- Replication, HSM support, namespaces, performance standby nodes, FIPS builds, control group authorisation, multi-factor authentication, secrets sync and lease count quotas all require a Vault Enterprise licence
- A Vault Enterprise licence must be applied to the cluster before any Enterprise feature can be used
Pricing, plan by plan
Atlas Cloud
On request- Pay-as-you-go$undefined/usage
- Billed per image, per second of video or per token; no subscription
- GPT Image 2 text-to-image: $0.004 per image
- Seedream 5.5 generation or edit: $0.02 per image
- Coding Plan$undefined/month
- Monthly subscription with a monthly total and a weekly limit
- Or 90-day pay-as-you-go credit packs with no weekly cap
- Open-weight LLMs including GLM, MiniMax, Kimi and DeepSeek
- Enterprise$undefined/custom
- Volume API discounts
- SLA options through sales
- Dedicated infrastructure and private hosting on request
Vault
Free- Open SourceFree
- Secrets management
- Encryption as a service
- Identity management
- EnterpriseFree
- Advanced features
- Premium support
- Dedicated updates
Which should you pick?
Choose Atlas Cloud if
- You need 500+ models, one api key.
- You work on web, api.
- You also want openai-compatible llm endpoint.
Choose Vault if
- You need secrets management.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
- You also want encryption.
Questions people ask
- Is Atlas Cloud or Vault better?
- Neither clearly leads. Atlas Cloud starts at On request and Vault at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Atlas Cloud or Vault?
- Vault has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Atlas Cloud and Free for Vault.
- Does Atlas Cloud or Vault run on more platforms?
- Atlas Cloud runs on web, api. Vault runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
- Can I use Vault for free?
- Yes. Vault has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Atlas Cloud starts at On request.
- What is Atlas Cloud best used for?
- Atlas Cloud is most often used for adding ai image or video generation to an app without an account at each model provider, switching an existing openai, anthropic or gemini sdk integration to other models by changing the base url, running hosted image and video models inside comfyui workflows without a local gpu, comparing image and video models side by side in a playground before committing to one. Of those, adding ai image or video generation to an app without an account at each model provider and switching an existing openai, anthropic or gemini sdk integration to other models by changing the base url are not what Vault is typically brought in for.
- What can Atlas Cloud do that Vault cannot?
- Atlas Cloud covers 500+ models, one API key, OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint, Pay-as-you-go pricing, ComfyUI nodes. Vault covers Secrets management, Encryption, Authentication, Authorization.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Atlas Cloud: How is Atlas Cloud priced?
Pay as you go, per image, per second of video or per token, drawn from a prepaid balance with no subscription required. Examples in November 2026 were $0.004 per image for GPT Image 2 text-to-image, $0.02 per image for Seedream 5.5 and from $0.11 per second for Kling 4.0. Enterprise volume discounts are available through sales.
SourceVault: Is HashiCorp Vault free to use?
Yes, Vault is available as a free, open-source project. The community version includes secrets management, certificate generation and rotation, encryption services, and credential management. Vault Enterprise is a commercial offering with additional features.
SourceAtlas Cloud: Is the Atlas Cloud API OpenAI-compatible?
Yes. The base URL https://api.atlascloud.ai accepts OpenAI Chat Completions, Completions, Responses and Images requests, Anthropic Messages and Google Gemini requests with the same API key. Not every model supports every format; each model publishes a supported_apis list.
SourceVault: What are the differences between open-source Vault and Vault Enterprise?
Open-source Vault is free and self-hosted. Vault Enterprise includes additional features and commercial support. HashiCorp also offers Vault Dedicated on the HashiCorp Cloud Platform as a fully managed cloud option.
SourceAtlas Cloud: Can I use Atlas Cloud in ComfyUI?
Yes. The Atlas Cloud ComfyUI nodes, installed from the AtlasCloudAI/atlascloud_comfyui GitHub repository, call hosted models from a ComfyUI graph. Generation runs on Atlas Cloud, so large video and image models work without a local GPU.
SourceVault: Can I try HashiCorp Cloud Platform Vault without payment?
Yes, HashiCorp offers a free trial option for HCP Vault Dedicated. New users also receive a $500 credit to use across HashiCorp Cloud Platform services.
SourceAtlas Cloud: What happens when my balance runs out?
New API requests are rejected with 402 Payment Required and you receive low-balance notifications. Service resumes as soon as you top up, and auto top-up can be enabled to avoid interruptions.
SourceVault: What does Vault manage and protect?
Vault provides identity-based secrets management for users, machines, services, and AI agents. It automates authentication and authorization for access to secrets, passwords, certificates, encryption keys, and other sensitive data across your infrastructure.
SourceAtlas Cloud: What is the Atlas Cloud Coding Plan?
A set of flat-rate subscriptions and 90-day credit packs for open-weight LLMs such as GLM, MiniMax, Kimi and DeepSeek, designed for coding agents including Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Monthly subscriptions carry a weekly limit that resets every Monday.
SourceAtlas Cloud: Where is Atlas Cloud based?
Its headquarters are at 1540 Broadway, New York, with offices in Silicon Valley and Calgary.
SourceRelated pages
More on Atlas Cloud
Other head to heads
- Atlas Cloud vs Together AI
- Atlas Cloud vs Replicate
- Atlas Cloud vs Black Forest Labs
- Atlas Cloud vs Ideogram
- Atlas Cloud vs Grok
- Atlas Cloud vs Resemble AI
- Atlas Cloud vs Adobe Firefly
- Atlas Cloud vs Pika
- Atlas Cloud vs D-ID
- Atlas Cloud vs Stable Diffusion
- Atlas Cloud vs AutoGen
- Atlas Cloud vs HeyGen
- Atlas Cloud vs Tabnine
- Atlas Cloud vs Verbit
- Atlas Cloud vs Wordtune
- Atlas Cloud vs Amazon Q Developer
- Atlas Cloud vs Anyword
- Atlas Cloud vs AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Atlas Cloud vs DigitalOcean
- Atlas Cloud vs Grafana Cloud
- Atlas Cloud vs Neon
- Atlas Cloud vs Crossplane
- Atlas Cloud vs Microsoft Azure
- Atlas Cloud vs Podman
- Atlas Cloud vs Hetzner Cloud
- Atlas Cloud vs Linode
- Atlas Cloud vs Vultr
- Atlas Cloud vs Akamai
- Atlas Cloud vs Cilium
- Atlas Cloud vs Contabo
- Atlas Cloud vs Coolify
- Atlas Cloud vs Dokku
- Atlas Cloud vs Buildah
- Atlas Cloud vs containerd
- Vault vs Together AI
- Vault vs Replicate
- Vault vs Black Forest Labs
- Vault vs Ideogram
- Vault vs Grok
- Vault vs Resemble AI
- Vault vs Adobe Firefly
- Vault vs Pika
- Vault vs D-ID
- Vault vs Stable Diffusion
- Vault vs AutoGen
- Vault vs HeyGen
- Vault vs Tabnine
- Vault vs Verbit
- Vault vs Wordtune
- Vault vs Amazon Q Developer
- Vault vs Anyword
- Vault vs AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Vault vs DigitalOcean
- Vault vs Grafana Cloud
- Vault vs Neon
- Vault vs Crossplane
- Vault vs Microsoft Azure
- Vault vs Podman
- Vault vs Hetzner Cloud
- Vault vs Linode
- Vault vs Vultr
- Vault vs Akamai
- Vault vs Cilium
- Vault vs Contabo
- Vault vs Coolify
- Vault vs Dokku
- Vault vs Buildah
- Vault vs containerd

