Provider Comparison

Atlantic.net vs Crusoe

Atlantic.net and Crusoe represent distinct approaches in the GPU cloud market for ML/AI workloads. Atlantic.net, a established IaaS provider, emphasizes enterprise-grade stability and compliance, particularly for regulated sectors like healthcare. Its bare-metal delivery ensures raw performance with a 100% uptime SLA, making it ideal for long-term, mission-critical deployments. However, it lacks managed MLOps tools and flexible pricing like spot instances, with rigid per-hour billing. Crusoe differentiates through sustainability, leveraging stranded energy sources in a vertically integrated energy-to-cloud model. This appeals to ESG-focused organizations, especially for batch training where carbon metrics matter. It offers per-hour billing plus spot instances for cost savings, but has a smaller geographic footprint and no HIPAA compliance. Atlantic.net suits teams needing HIPAA/GDPR/SOC2 compliance and bare-metal reliability for production workloads. Crusoe excels for environmentally conscious users prioritizing batch jobs with potential spot pricing discounts. Both provide high-performance GPUs, but Atlantic.net prioritizes uptime and compliance, while Crusoe focuses on green computing and flexibility. For ML engineers, choice hinges on regulatory needs versus sustainability and cost optimization—Atlantic.net for stable enterprise use, Crusoe for eco-efficient scaling.

Our Recommendation

Choose Atlantic.net for HIPAA-regulated environments like healthcare AI, where bare-metal stability and 100% uptime SLA are non-negotiable, or for large enterprises with long-term contracts needing raw GPU performance without MLOps overhead. Ideal for teams of 10+ engineers running persistent production inference on multi-GPU setups, with budgets tolerant of fixed per-hour pricing. Opt for Crusoe if ESG compliance drives decisions, such as in research orgs or startups tracking carbon footprints for batch training. Its spot instances suit variable workloads, benefiting smaller teams (1-10 engineers) experimenting with fine-tuning or intermittent large runs. Budget-conscious users save via spots, but verify geographic availability. Avoid Crusoe for real-time needs requiring broad regions; prefer Atlantic.net for compliance-heavy, stable ops.

Live Pricing

Compare real-time GPU offers from Atlantic.net and Crusoe

19 offers available
Crusoe
Crusoe
United States
NVIDIA A40
48GB VRAM
0 vCPU
0GB RAM
$0.40/GPU/hr
Crusoe
Crusoe
United States
NVIDIA L40S
48GB VRAM
0 vCPU
0GB RAM
$0.50/GPU/hr
Crusoe
Crusoe
United States
NVIDIA A40
48GB VRAM
0 vCPU
0GB RAM
$0.90/GPU/hr
Crusoe
Crusoe
United States
AMD Instinct MI300X
192GB VRAM
0 vCPU
0GB RAM
$0.95/GPU/hr
Crusoe
Crusoe
United States
NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40GB
40GB VRAM
0 vCPU
0GB RAM
$1.00/GPU/hr
Atlantic.net(Est. 1994)

A veteran in the infrastructure-as-a-service market focusing on enterprise-class infrastructure with a pivot into high-performance computing for regulated industries.

Best For

Healthcare organizations requiring HIPAA-compliant GPU hostingEnterprises seeking raw performance of bare metal with long-term stability

Unique Features

  • 100% uptime SLA
  • Bare-metal delivery model

Limitations

  • Lack of managed MLOps tools like notebooks and endpoints
  • Rigid pricing model without spot markets
Crusoe(Est. 2018)

A climate-aligned computing provider powering high-performance computing using stranded energy sources to mitigate environmental impact.

Best For

Organizations with strict ESG mandatesBatch training workloads where carbon footprint is a key metric

Unique Features

  • Vertically integrated energy-to-cloud model
  • Use of stranded energy sources

Limitations

  • Smaller geographic footprint compared to hyperscalers

Feature Comparison

Access Methods
FeatureAtlantic.netCrusoe
SSH
Jupyter Notebooks
Web Terminal
API
Kubernetes
Containers
Billing Options
FeatureAtlantic.netCrusoe
Billing Incrementper-hourper-hour
Spot Instances
Reserved Instances
Prepaid Credits
Compliance
CertificationAtlantic.netCrusoe
SOC 2
HIPAA
GDPR
ISO 27001
Support
FeatureAtlantic.netCrusoe
SLA
Enterprise Support
Discord Community

Pricing Analysis

Pricing Overview

Both providers use per-hour billing, but Crusoe adds spot instances for preemptible workloads, enabling up to 70-90% discounts during low-demand periods, ideal for interruptible training. Atlantic.net sticks to on-demand per-hour rates without spots or reserved options, ensuring predictable costs but no savings for bursty usage. No per-second billing from either, unlike hyperscalers. Implications: Steady, long-running jobs favor Atlantic.net's stability; variable or experimental workloads benefit from Crusoe's spots, reducing costs for non-urgent ML tasks. Teams with predictable hours pay similarly, but Crusoe offers flexibility for ML pipelines with idle times.

Value Assessment

For small experiments and fine-tuning, Crusoe provides superior value via spot instances, slashing costs for short bursts on A100/H100 GPUs. Large training runs see Crusoe edge out with green efficiency and spots, especially for ESG-reporting orgs. Production inference favors Atlantic.net's bare-metal reliability and uptime SLA, justifying premium for always-on needs. Batch inference leans Crusoe for cost-effective scaling. Overall, Crusoe wins for cost-sensitive, sustainable batch workloads (20-50% savings potential); Atlantic.net for compliance-driven, uninterrupted inference where downtime costs exceed spot risks.

Use Case Comparison

LLM Training
Crusoe recommended

Atlantic.net

Atlantic.net excels with bare-metal multi-GPU clusters for stable, long-duration training, backed by 100% uptime SLA. Suits regulated enterprises needing HIPAA compliance, offering raw performance without virtualization overhead. However, lacks spot pricing, making it costlier for exploratory phases, and no built-in MLOps tools require self-management.

Crusoe

Crusoe's spot instances optimize costs for large-scale LLM pre-training, with stranded energy reducing carbon impact for ESG-focused teams. Vertically integrated infra supports efficient scaling, but smaller footprint may limit low-latency data access; no HIPAA for healthcare LLMs.

Batch Inference
Crusoe recommended

Atlantic.net

Bare-metal delivery provides consistent high-throughput for batch jobs in compliant environments. Strong for healthcare batch scoring with HIPAA, but rigid pricing inflates costs for sporadic runs without interruption tolerance.

Crusoe

Spot availability shines for cost-effective batch inference, aligning with sustainability goals. Efficient for high-volume, non-real-time processing, though geographic limits could affect data locality.

Real-time Inference
Atlantic.net recommended

Atlantic.net

100% uptime SLA and bare-metal ensure low-latency, reliable endpoints for production inference. Ideal for enterprise-scale, compliant real-time services like medical diagnostics, with stable networking.

Crusoe

Per-hour billing works, but spot unreliability risks interruptions unsuitable for real-time. Smaller footprint may introduce latency; better for non-critical inference.

Fine-tuning & Experimentation
Crusoe recommended

Atlantic.net

Reliable bare-metal supports iterative fine-tuning in regulated setups, but fixed pricing and no MLOps hinder rapid prototyping for smaller teams.

Crusoe

Spot instances enable cheap, flexible experimentation with low commitment. Sustainability appeals to research, though compliance gaps limit some uses.

Technical Comparison

Infrastructure

Atlantic.net focuses on bare-metal servers for direct GPU access, minimizing virtualization overhead, with robust networking and storage for enterprise HPC. Supports Kubernetes but emphasizes unmanaged stability; HIPAA-compliant setups include secure storage. Crusoe uses virtualized clusters powered by stranded energy data centers, offering Kubernetes-native deployments and spot preemptibles. Smaller regions (US-focused) limit global redundancy; both provide NVLink multi-GPU, but Atlantic.net prioritizes isolation.

Performance

Both offer A100/H100 GPUs with strong multi-node scaling via InfiniBand/RoCE. Atlantic.net's bare-metal yields peak performance consistency (no noisy neighbors), ideal for precision training. Crusoe matches raw specs but spots risk interruptions; its energy model sustains high utilization for batch. Limited public benchmarks show comparable FLOPS, but Atlantic.net edges in uptime for inference; Crusoe uncertain for inter-region scaling due to footprint.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which provider offers spot instances for cost savings?
Crusoe offers spot/preemptible instances, which can significantly reduce costs (typically 50-80% off on-demand prices) for interruptible workloads like batch processing and training with checkpoints. Atlantic.net does not currently offer spot instances, so all usage is billed at on-demand rates. If cost optimization through spot instances is important for your workflow, Crusoe would be the better choice.
What is the minimum billing increment for each provider?
Atlantic.net bills per-hour, while Crusoe bills per-hour. Both providers use the same billing granularity, so this factor won't differentiate your decision.
Which provider has better compliance certifications for enterprise use?
Atlantic.net holds SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR certifications. Crusoe holds SOC 2, GDPR certifications. For organizations with strict compliance requirements, Atlantic.net offers more comprehensive coverage.
Which provider offers better development tools like Jupyter notebooks?
Neither provider offers built-in Jupyter notebook support, so you'll need to set up your own development environment. Both providers support SSH access, allowing you to install JupyterLab or other tools on your instances.
Which provider has better Kubernetes support for orchestration?
Crusoe offers native Kubernetes support for container orchestration, while Atlantic.net does not. If you're building production ML pipelines with Kubernetes-based tools like Kubeflow, Argo, or KServe, Crusoe will integrate more seamlessly with your workflow.
What is each provider best suited for?
Atlantic.net is best suited for Healthcare organizations requiring HIPAA-compliant GPU hosting; Enterprises seeking raw performance of bare metal with long-term stability. Crusoe excels at Organizations with strict ESG mandates; Batch training workloads where carbon footprint is a key metric. Understanding these specializations helps you choose the provider that aligns with your primary use case, though both can handle a variety of GPU computing needs.
Which provider offers reserved instances for long-term savings?
Both Atlantic.net and Crusoe offer reserved instance pricing for committed usage, typically providing 20-40% discounts compared to on-demand rates. Reserved instances are ideal for predictable, steady-state workloads like always-on inference services. For variable workloads, on-demand or spot instances may offer better flexibility.
Which provider offers better enterprise support?
Both Atlantic.net and Crusoe offer enterprise support tiers with dedicated assistance, faster response times, and potentially custom SLAs. Regarding SLAs: Atlantic.net offers SLA guarantees (100% uptime); Crusoe has no published SLA.
Which provider has better API and automation support?
Both Atlantic.net and Crusoe provide APIs for programmatic instance management, enabling automation of provisioning, scaling, and teardown operations. This is essential for integrating GPU resources into CI/CD pipelines and automated ML workflows.
Which provider has better container and Docker support?
Both Atlantic.net and Crusoe support containerized workloads, allowing you to deploy Docker images with your ML frameworks, dependencies, and models pre-configured. This ensures reproducibility and simplifies deployment across development, staging, and production environments.
What unique features differentiate these providers?
Atlantic.net's standout features include: 100% uptime SLA; Bare-metal delivery model. Crusoe's standout features include: Vertically integrated energy-to-cloud model; Use of stranded energy sources. These differentiators may be decisive factors depending on your specific technical requirements and workflow preferences.
How do I get started with each provider?
To get started with Atlantic.net, visit their website at https://cloud.atlantic.net/r/t3hjjhja?utm_source=gpuperhour&utm_medium=referral to create an account and explore available GPU options. For Crusoe, visit https://crusoe.ai?utm_source=gpuperhour&utm_medium=referral to sign up. Both providers typically offer some form of free credits or trial period for new users. We recommend starting with a small experiment to evaluate the platform's ease of use, instance launch times, and overall fit for your workflow before committing to larger workloads.

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