Paperspace vs Aquanode
GPU cloud and notebooks, now part of DigitalOcean
Paperspace is now part of DigitalOcean, and its persistent-machine model is closer to ours than most of this list — a Paperspace machine does keep its disk. The gap is that the machine is the unit: it lives in one account, on one vendor's hardware, and cannot be re-materialised somewhere cheaper.
Where Paperspace wins
- Persistent machines with attached storage that survive a stop — the core habit of keeping your environment is already there.
- Integration with the wider DigitalOcean platform, so networking, object storage and the rest of an app can live next to the GPU.
- Gradient notebooks for people who want a hosted notebook rather than a box.
Where Aquanode wins
- Your environment survives the box. Pause a deployment, come back tomorrow, resume with packages, model weights and config intact — instead of rebuilding from a fresh image every session.
- A snapshot taken on one provider restores onto another. Supply moved, price moved, or a region ran dry — the environment follows, rather than being stranded in the account that created it.
- One account across every provider we broker, so you are not maintaining separate logins, keys and billing per vendor to chase capacity.
- Automated backups are on by default when you attach storage at deploy time, at a 6-hour interval — you do not have to remember to configure them.
Paperspace pricing vs Aquanode
Paperspace figures are Paperspace machines, hourly, per GPU, read from their own pricing page on 2026-08-05. The Aquanode column is the lowest live per-GPU rate in our marketplace feed and moves on its own — the two columns are not measured the same way, so treat this as a starting point, not a quote.
Source: https://www.paperspace.com/pricing — Paperspace machines, hourly, per GPU. Verified 2026-08-05. Vendors change prices; check theirs before deciding.
What we do not claim
Restoring an environment requires a snapshot that already exists. Stopping a deployment yourself captures it on the way out, so you can bring it back later on any provider. A provider-side termination is different: it is only recoverable if you had already switched automated snapshots on for that deployment, and it costs you the work since the last one. Automated snapshots are opt-in — nothing runs until you start it — and with none running there is nothing to restore.
`aq deploy --snapshot <id>` rents the cheapest matching GPU and restores your snapshot onto it — including onto a different provider than the one it came from. Creating the snapshot is a separate step today: the standalone ogre CLI on the box writes it.
Paperspace vs Aquanode: common questions
Paperspace machines already persist. Why move?
Because persistence and portability are different things. A Paperspace machine keeps its disk, on Paperspace. An Aquanode snapshot restores onto a different provider, which is what you need when capacity or price moves rather than when you simply stop for the night.
