Alibaba Cloud

Entry plans and the real monthly bill

In US dollars, per month, as listed by Alibaba Cloud (International regions (package prices may vary by region)). IPv4 added where it's charged separately.

Swipe the table sideways for the price and the bill.

Where Alibaba Cloud has datacenters

22 in 12 countries, as listed by Alibaba Cloud.

Where it stands among 43

Each fact with every host's answer. Alibaba Cloud is outlined.

Add-ons and extra charges

Public IPv4

Included Each Simple Application Server instance has one public IP by default

Automatic backups

Not stated Manual snapshots are free: up to 3 per server, 15 per account

Snapshots

Included Free on Simple Application Server, up to 3 per server and 15 per account

Extra traffic

Not stated Billed per GB above the package quota at a rate that varies by region (USD 0.07/GB Frankfurt and London to USD 0.153/GB Hong Kong)

How you pay

Hourly billing

YesYes ECS pay-as-you-go bills per second; Simple Application Server packages are monthly or yearly prepaid only

Minimum term

1 month (prepaid) Simple Application Server supports monthly and yearly prepayment, not pay-as-you-go

Setup fee

Not stated Not stated

Always-free server

Not stated The free-trial page says 'up to 12 months free' depending on the offer; no always-free server is described

New-account credit

USD 90 in ECS credits for new users Trials need a verified phone number and a payment method

Payment methods

Card, PayPal, Alipay, Bank transfer, Prepaid credit Methods vary by contracting entity; bank transfer only for enterprise credit-control customers

Signup checks

Phone verification and a card with a USD 1 pre-authorisation; ID may be requested Passport or driver's licence for identity verification in some cases

Refunds

No money-back window; partial refunds for unused subscription time

What you get

Processors

AMD EPYC, Intel Xeon Platinum, Yitian 710 (Arm) on ECS CPU not stated for Simple Application Server packages

ARM servers

YesYes ECS g8y, c8y and r8y families on Yitian 710

IPv6 included

Not statedNot stated Not stated for Simple Application Server

What comes with it

Block storage

YesYes ECS cloud disks; ESSD Entry USD 0.153/GB-month, rates vary by region and disk type

Object storage

YesYes OSS

Private network

YesYes VPC for ECS; Simple Application Server reaches same-account, same-region servers internally

Cloud firewall

YesYes Built-in firewall on Simple Application Server; security groups on ECS

Load balancers

Not statedNot stated Server Load Balancer exists, but its availability and price for these plans aren't stated

DDoS protection included

YesYes Basic DDoS protection included on certain public IPs, 500 Mbps to 5 Gbps by region

Managed databases

MySQL, PostgreSQL, sqlserver, MariaDB ApsaraDB RDS engines

Managed Kubernetes

YesYes Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK)

API

YesYes Public API

Terraform provider

YesYes Alibaba Cloud provider for ECS

Custom ISO

Not statedNot stated Not stated; custom images are made from server snapshots

Windows

Extra licence fee ECS Windows licence fee applies in Hong Kong and outside mainland China; not stated for Simple Application Server

Who you're renting from

Company

Alibaba Cloud The cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group

Owned by

Alibaba Group

Based in

Not stated Headquarters not stated on the cited pages

Founded

2009 Alibaba Cloud established 2009; Simple Application Server start year not stated

Support

Tickets on the free Basic plan; phone and chat only on Enterprise Paid plans: Developer, Business, Enterprise

Certifications

ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, CSA STAR Checked by fetch 2026-10-18