Is Banana or Poolside better?

Neither clearly leads. Banana starts at $1200/month and Poolside at $0.06/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Banana or Poolside?

Banana starts at $1200/month and Poolside at $0.06/month.

Does Banana or Poolside run on more platforms?

Banana runs on Cloud, Api. Poolside runs on web, api, mac, windows, linux.

What is Banana best used for?

Banana is most often used for historically, serverless gpu inference for machine learning models, migration reference for teams that ran models on banana before the 2024 shutdown. Of those, historically, serverless gpu inference for machine learning models and migration reference for teams that ran models on banana before the 2024 shutdown are not what Poolside is typically brought in for.

What can Banana do that Poolside cannot?

Banana covers GPU inference, Auto-scaling, Docker deployment, Low latency. Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Desktop and CLI tools, Open-weight models.

AI · head to head

Banana vs Poolside

Banana

ML inference at scale

From: $1200/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Poolside

Open-weight foundation models built for agentic software engineering

From: $0.06/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Banana banana shut down its serverless GPU infrastructure on 31 March 2024 at noon PST and told customers to migrate to another provider by that time; Poolside no self-serve public application; access is largely through enterprise sales or third-party model gateways
They diverge on capability: Banana covers GPU inference, Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Banana and Poolside actually diverge.

Attributes where Banana and Poolside differ
Attribute	Banana	Poolside
Starting price	$1200/month	$0.06/month
Pricing model	subscription	usage-based
Platforms	Cloud, Api	web, api, mac, windows, linux
Founded	2021	2023

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (AI).

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 Banana

GPU inference
Auto-scaling
Docker deployment
Low latency
REST API
Python SDK
Cloud support
Api support

Only in Poolside

Laguna S 2.1
Laguna XS 2.1
Desktop and CLI tools
Open-weight models
Third-party gateway access

What people use each for

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

Banana

Historically, serverless GPU inference for machine learning modelsnot Poolside
Migration reference for teams that ran models on Banana before the 2024 shutdownnot Poolside

Poolside

Enterprises deploying AI coding assistance across large developer organizationsnot Banana
Government and defense agencies needing on-premise or sovereign coding modelsnot Banana
Teams building custom coding agents on open-weight foundation modelsnot Banana
Organizations wanting on-device lightweight coding modelsnot Banana

Where each one falls short

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

Banana

Banana shut down its serverless GPU infrastructure on 31 March 2024 at noon PST and told customers to migrate to another provider by that time
The vendor's own sunset notice names limited runway, retention problems and GPU supply constraints as the reasons for closing
The banana.dev site still displays pricing tiers, but every tier links to the sunset notice rather than to a purchase

Poolside

No self-serve public application; access is largely through enterprise sales or third-party model gateways
Pricing for the flagship enterprise and government offering is not public and requires a sales conversation
Targets organizations with large (5,000+) developer headcounts, making it a poor fit for individuals or small teams
Documentation and product surface area are thin compared to consumer-facing coding assistants

Pricing, plan by plan

Banana

$1200/month

Team$1200/month
- 10 team members
- 5 projects
- 50 max parallel GPUs
Enterprise$null/custom
- Custom seat limit
- Custom GPU configuration

Poolside

$0.06/month

Laguna XS 2.1$undefined/month
- $0.06 per 1M input tokens
- $0.12 per 1M output tokens
- Available via OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway
Laguna S 2.1$undefined/month
- $0.10 per 1M input tokens
- $0.20 per 1M output tokens
- 1M token context window
Enterprise / Government$undefined/month
- Custom contracts for large engineering organizations
- Sales-quoted pricing
- On-premise or dedicated deployment options

Which should you pick?

Choose Banana if

You need gpu inference.
You work on Cloud, Api.
You also want auto-scaling.

Banana review

Choose Poolside if

You need laguna s 2.1.
You work on web, api, mac, windows, linux.
You also want laguna xs 2.1.

Poolside review

Questions people ask

Is Banana or Poolside better?: Neither clearly leads. Banana starts at $1200/month and Poolside at $0.06/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Banana or Poolside?: Banana starts at $1200/month and Poolside at $0.06/month.
Does Banana or Poolside run on more platforms?: Banana runs on Cloud, Api. Poolside runs on web, api, mac, windows, linux.
What is Banana best used for?: Banana is most often used for historically, serverless gpu inference for machine learning models, migration reference for teams that ran models on banana before the 2024 shutdown. Of those, historically, serverless gpu inference for machine learning models and migration reference for teams that ran models on banana before the 2024 shutdown are not what Poolside is typically brought in for.
What can Banana do that Poolside cannot?: Banana covers GPU inference, Auto-scaling, Docker deployment, Low latency. Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Desktop and CLI tools, Open-weight models.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Banana: How much does Banana's Team plan cost?

The Team plan costs $1,200 per month plus the cost of compute resources at cost with zero markup applied.

Source

Poolside: How is Poolside's Laguna model usage priced?

Laguna XS 2.1 is priced at $0.06 per 1M input tokens and $0.12 per 1M output tokens; Laguna S 2.1 is $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.20 per 1M output tokens.

Source

Banana: What is the maximum team size on Banana's Team plan?

The Team plan includes 10 team members and supports a maximum of 5 projects with up to 50 parallel GPUs.

Source

Poolside: Where can I access Poolside's models?

Laguna models are available through third-party gateways OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway, as well as via Poolside's own desktop and CLI tools.

Source

Banana: Does Banana offer an Enterprise plan with custom pricing?

Banana offers an Enterprise plan with custom pricing plus at-cost compute, including SAML SSO, automation API, and dedicated support.

Source

Poolside: Does Poolside offer enterprise or government pricing?

Yes, Poolside offers custom, sales-quoted contracts for large enterprises and government/defense customers, including on-premise or dedicated deployment options.

Source

Poolside: How do I get started building with Poolside's models?

Poolside's documentation provides a quickstart guide for installing the `pool` CLI and running an agent task, alongside API documentation for custom integrations.

Source

Banana vs Poolside

Banana

Poolside

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Banana

Only in Poolside

What people use each for

Banana

Poolside

Where each one falls short

Banana

Poolside

Pricing, plan by plan

Banana

Poolside

Which should you pick?

Choose Banana if

Choose Poolside if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Banana

More on Poolside

Keep looking

Other head to heads