Akamai Linode vs UpCloud (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Akamai Linode if

• Fits if you want plain Linux servers at a fixed monthly price
• Works for people who need a lot of included transfer

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you don't want to patch a server yourself
• Not for you if you want a free plan or trial
• Watch out: prices differ by region, and backups, storage and some services cost extra
• Watch out: Akamai's own pricing pages weren't readable, so prices come from the public API

Pick UpCloud if

• Fits if you run your own servers and want zero-cost egress
• Works for developers who use Terraform or Kubernetes

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a simple site host, as these are servers you manage
• Tight if you want a long trial, as it is 7 days, 2 cores and 4 GB in total, with no Windows servers
• Watch out: the trial needs card verification and must start within 365 days of registering or the account is removed
• Watch out: Cloud Native plans bundle no storage or public IP, which cost extra

Akamai Linode

• Linodes are unmanaged servers: the buyer handles operating system updates and security.
• Prices differ by region; Jakarta and Sao Paulo cost $1 and $2 more than the base price on a Nanode.
• Backups, extra storage and some services cost extra on top of the instance price.
• Akamai's own pricing pages refused automated access, so these prices come from Linode's public API.

UpCloud

• The pricing page sat behind a bot check, so no plan prices were read; use the vendor's calculator for figures.
• The free trial limits you to 2 cores and 4 GB of memory in total and excludes Windows servers.
• A trial must be started within 365 days of registration or the account is removed.
• Cloud Native plans bundle no storage or public IP, which are bought separately.

Akamai Linode

Linux virtual machines

Linodes come in shared, dedicated, high-memory and GPU classes, and are billed hourly up to a fixed monthly price.

Block and object storage

Block Storage volumes attach to a Linode, and Object Storage is $5 a month for 250GB including its bundled transfer.

Kubernetes and managed databases

The regions list shows Kubernetes and Managed Databases as capabilities in supported data centers.

Backups

The optional backup add-on costs $2 a month on a Nanode 1GB and $5 on a Linode 4GB.

Networking controls

Cloud Firewall, VPCs, VLANs and NodeBalancers are listed as capabilities in the regions data.

API and CLI

A public v4 API, a CLI and Cloud Manager manage resources, and Akamai's docs cover automating deployments.

UpCloud

Cloud servers in three plan types

Starter plans suit small projects, Premium plans list a 99.999% SLA and MaxIOPS storage, and Cloud Native plans unbundle storage and IPs.

Managed services

Managed databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Valkey and OpenSearch), Kubernetes, a load balancer and object storage are sold alongside servers.

Zero-cost egress

The documentation lists free outbound data transfers as a product feature to lower total cloud costs.

Private cloud and GPU servers

Dedicated Private Cloud infrastructure and GPU servers for AI and machine-learning work are also offered.

API and billing tools

A RESTful API and a pricing calculator are published, and billing supports bonus credits and several payment methods.

Akamai Linode

• Nanode 1GB$5

  per month, billed hourly ($0.0075 per hour)

  1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB storage and 1TB of monthly transfer. Jakarta is $6 and Sao Paulo $7.

• Linode 2GB$12

  per month, billed hourly ($0.018 per hour)

  1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 50GB storage and 2TB of monthly transfer.

• Linode 4GB$24

  per month, billed hourly ($0.036 per hour)

  2 vCPUs, 4GB RAM and 4TB of monthly transfer; backups are an extra $5 a month at this size.

• Object Storage$5

  per month, prorated

  Flat rate including 250GB of storage; storage beyond that is $0.02 per GB in most data centers.

UpCloud

Pricing could not be confirmed. See upcloud.com.