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DeepInfra vs Garden

DeepInfra logo

DeepInfra

Cloud

Low-cost cloud API for running open-source AI models

From
$0.08/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Garden logo

Garden

Developer Tools

Kubernetes development and testing automation with shared caching, now owned by Incredibuild

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Garden has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: DeepInfra focuses on inference hosting rather than fine-tuning or full training pipelines that competitors like Fireworks AI offer.; Garden incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • They diverge on capability: DeepInfra covers Open model hosting, Garden covers Action graph.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DeepInfra and Garden actually diverge.

Attributes where DeepInfra and Garden differ
AttributeDeepInfraGarden
Starting price$0.08/monthFree
Pricing modelusage-basedOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
Platformsweb, apiLinux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools

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 DeepInfra

  • Open model hosting
  • Pay-per-token pricing
  • Long context support
  • DeepCluster
  • Zero retention policy
  • Real-time metrics

Only in Garden

  • Action graph
  • Shared result caching
  • Remote Kubernetes environments
  • In-cluster builds
  • Same config everywhere
  • Hot reload sync
  • Helm and Kustomize support
  • Templating

What people use each for

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

DeepInfra

  • Running open-source LLM inference without managing GPUsnot Garden
  • Serving speech and image generation models via APInot Garden
  • Cost-sensitive production inference at scalenot Garden
  • Reserved GPU capacity via DeepCluster for steady workloadsnot Garden

Garden

  • A platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loopnot DeepInfra
  • An organisation with thirty or more services on Kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates productionnot DeepInfra
  • Giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environmentnot DeepInfra
  • Running the identical build and test definition locally and in CI so failures reproduce on a laptopnot DeepInfra

Where each one falls short

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

DeepInfra

  • Focuses on inference hosting rather than fine-tuning or full training pipelines that competitors like Fireworks AI offer.
  • Model selection is limited to what DeepInfra chooses to host, unlike self-managed platforms.
  • No published free tier; usage is billed from the first token.

Garden

  • Incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • It is tightly bound to Kubernetes, so teams running on ECS, Nomad, plain VMs or serverless get little from it and would need a different tool entirely.
  • The YAML action graph is a real configuration surface: a large monorepo needs someone to own and maintain Garden config as a first-class artefact, which is a standing platform-engineering cost.
  • Shared remote environments mean every developer needs cluster access and a cost allocation model, so cloud spend rises and namespace sprawl becomes a thing you have to police.
  • Caching correctness depends on declaring dependencies accurately; an under-declared action will serve a stale cached pass and hide a genuine test failure, which is a hard class of bug to notice.

Pricing, plan by plan

DeepInfra

$0.08/month
  • Pay-as-you-go$undefined/mo
    • Per-model token pricing from $0.08 to $2.85 per million input tokens
    • No long-term contract
  • DeepCluster$1.98/month
    • Dedicated NVIDIA B300 GPU clusters at $1.98/GPU-hour

Garden

Free
  • Garden open sourceFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed CLI
    • Full action graph and caching
    • Self-managed clusters
  • Commercial tier$undefined/year
    • Hosted caching and team features
    • Support and onboarding
    • Pricing no longer published since the Incredibuild acquisition

Which should you pick?

Choose DeepInfra if

  • You need open model hosting.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want pay-per-token pricing.
DeepInfra review

Choose Garden if

  • You need action graph.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
  • You also want shared result caching.
Garden review

Questions people ask

Is DeepInfra or Garden better?
Neither clearly leads. DeepInfra starts at $0.08/month and Garden at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DeepInfra or Garden?
Garden has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $0.08/month for DeepInfra and Free for Garden.
Does DeepInfra or Garden run on more platforms?
DeepInfra runs on web, api. Garden runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
Can I use Garden for free?
Yes. Garden has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. DeepInfra starts at $0.08/month.
What is DeepInfra best used for?
DeepInfra is most often used for running open-source llm inference without managing gpus, serving speech and image generation models via api, cost-sensitive production inference at scale, reserved gpu capacity via deepcluster for steady workloads. Of those, running open-source llm inference without managing gpus and serving speech and image generation models via api are not what Garden is typically brought in for.
What can DeepInfra do that Garden cannot?
DeepInfra covers Open model hosting, Pay-per-token pricing, Long context support, DeepCluster. Garden covers Action graph, Shared result caching, Remote Kubernetes environments, In-cluster builds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

DeepInfra: Is there a free tier on DeepInfra?

No free tier is published; usage is billed pay-as-you-go from the first token, though a credit card or pre-payment is required before you can send requests.

Source
Garden: Is Garden still maintained?

The open source project remains on GitHub under Incredibuild ownership, but the commercial pricing page redirects to the docs and there is no public paid offer.

DeepInfra: How is usage priced?

Language models are billed per million input/output tokens, other models by inference execution time, and audio models per minute of audio processed, with no minimum commitment.

Source
Garden: Do I need Kubernetes?

Effectively yes. Garden is built around Kubernetes environments and offers little to teams on other runtimes.

DeepInfra: What are the Standard, Priority, and Flex tiers?

Standard is default best-effort pricing at 1x, Priority costs 1.5x for faster time-to-first-token during peak demand, and Flex costs 0.8x for non-production or asynchronous workloads.

Source
Garden: Does it replace my CI system?

No. It runs inside GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar and speeds up what those pipelines execute.

DeepInfra: How does billing scale with spend?

Accounts advance through usage tiers as cumulative payments cross $20, $100, $500, $2,000, and $10,000 thresholds, with invoices generated monthly or at each threshold.

Source
Garden: What is the actual saving?

It comes from skipping builds and tests whose inputs have not changed, so the benefit scales with how many services you have and how often only a few change.

DeepInfra: Is there a limit on concurrent requests?

Yes, accounts are limited to 200 concurrent requests by default, though spending limits can also be configured to prevent unexpected charges.

Source
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