Provider Overview
Strengths & Best For
Microsoft Azure offers ND H100 v5 and NC A100 v4 series VMs across 60+ regions, with enterprise compliance certifications including HIPAA, FedRAMP, and SOC 2 built in. Deep Active Directory and hybrid cloud integration makes it the natural GPU cloud for Microsoft-centric organizations running LLM fine-tuning or AI inference at scale. On-demand, reserved, and spot GPU billing options are available with flexible commitment terms.
- Enterprise compliance
- Active Directory integration
- Hybrid cloud
- Microsoft 365 ecosystem
Scaleway is a French GPU cloud offering H100 and A100 instances with strong GDPR compliance and EU data sovereignty, backed by managed Kubernetes and a full developer-friendly cloud platform. On-demand and reserved billing options are available across EU data centers, making it one of the most complete European GPU cloud options for teams that need both AI compute and broader cloud services. A natural fit for EU-based AI teams that want competitive European GPU pricing without vendor lock-in.
- EU sovereignty
- GDPR compliant
- Competitive EU pricing
- Managed Kubernetes
Live GPU Pricing
Region Coverage
Popular Comparisons
Azure — hyperscaler provider
Microsoft Azure offers ND H100 v5 and NC A100 v4 series VMs across 60+ regions, with enterprise compliance certifications including HIPAA, FedRAMP, and SOC 2 built in. Deep Active Directory and hybrid cloud integration makes it the natural GPU cloud for Microsoft-centric organizations running LLM fine-tuning or AI inference at scale. On-demand, reserved, and spot GPU billing options are available with flexible commitment terms.
Scaleway — specialist provider
Scaleway is a French GPU cloud offering H100 and A100 instances with strong GDPR compliance and EU data sovereignty, backed by managed Kubernetes and a full developer-friendly cloud platform. On-demand and reserved billing options are available across EU data centers, making it one of the most complete European GPU cloud options for teams that need both AI compute and broader cloud services. A natural fit for EU-based AI teams that want competitive European GPU pricing without vendor lock-in.
Billing model comparison
Azure uses a Pay-as-you-go, Reserved (1yr/3yr), Spot billing model with a minimum commitment of None (pay-as-you-go). Scaleway uses On-demand, Reserved billing with a None minimum. Both providers offer flexible billing options — compare the live pricing table above to find the best rate for your specific GPU model and workload duration.
Which workloads each provider suits best
Azure is best suited for: Enterprise ML, Windows-based workloads, Teams on Microsoft stack. Its key strengths are enterprise compliance, active directory integration, hybrid cloud. Scaleway is best suited for: EU-based AI teams, GDPR-sensitive workloads, Full-stack cloud users. Its key strengths are eu sovereignty, gdpr compliant, competitive eu pricing. As a hyperscaler, Azure offers broader ecosystem integration and compliance certifications at a premium price. Scaleway as a specialist provider typically offers lower per-GPU rates for teams that don't need the full hyperscaler ecosystem.
Support tiers and region coverage
Azure offers Basic → Premier support across 5 regions (eastus, westus2, westeurope and 2 more). Scaleway offers Basic → Enterprise support across 2 regions (EU-West, EU-Central). Azure's broader region footprint gives it an advantage for latency-sensitive workloads or teams with data residency requirements in specific geographies.
Provider background: Azure vs Scaleway
Azure was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Redmond, WA. Scaleway was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Azure has 5 years more operational history than Scaleway, which may matter for teams evaluating provider stability and long-term contract risk. Use the live pricing table above to compare current on-demand and spot rates for specific GPU models, and the region map to verify coverage in your target geography.