Linode (Akamai) vs UpCloud

Linode (Akamai) is strongest for developers. UpCloud is strongest for performance-sensitive VPS workloads. Here's how they stack up on price, uptime, and support.

Feature	Linode (Akamai)	UpCloud
Starting price	$1/mo	$3.5/mo
Best for	Developers Startups GPU/AI workloads Small-to-mid production apps Kubernetes	Performance-sensitive VPS workloads European data residency Simple predictable billing
Stated uptime SLA	99.99%	99.999%
Storage	SSD	NVME
Regions	20	13
Managed Kubernetes	Yes	Yes
Support channels	Ticket, Community forum, Docs, Phone (higher support tiers)	Ticket, Docs, Community
Compliance	SOC 2, PCI DSS (for compatible services), GDPR, HIPAA (with BAA on eligible services)	GDPR, ISO 27001
Hidden costs to watch for	Outbound bandwidth billed at $0.005/GB (compute/storage) or $0.015/GB (NodeBalancer) once pooled network transfer allowance is exceeded Backups service is a separate add-on priced per instance (roughly 20-25% of the instance monthly price) HA control plane for LKE Kubernetes is a flat $60/mo add-on per cluster; LKE Enterprise clusters are $300/mo per cluster Managed Database HA (3-node) clusters cost roughly 2-3x the single-node price	Simple Backups add-on billed as a percentage surcharge on server price (Day +10%, Week +20%, Month +40%, Year +60%) Data transfer beyond the Fair Transfer Policy allowance can incur overage charges despite marketing free egress Premium plans require MaxIOPS block storage which is priced/allocated differently than Starter plan Standard SSD
Last reviewed	2026-07-18	2026-07-18