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dstack

Orchestration stack for heterogeneous AI compute.

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dstack is an open-source orchestration layer for AI workloads across heterogeneous accelerators. It provides a unified control plane for managing compute and running training and inference on GPU clouds, Kubernetes, VMs, or bare-metal clusters, helping teams use existing infrastructure without building their own AI compute stack.

Its core modules include Fleets for cluster provisioning and monitoring, Tasks for job scheduling, Services for cache-aware and PD-disaggregated inference, Gateways for HTTPS, auto-scaling, domains, and rate limits, Presets as an agent-based optimization toolkit, and Projects for tenant isolation and usage metering. Backends cover major GPU clouds, SSH fleets, Kubernetes, and an experimental Slurm backend, with support for any framework and any model.

dstack is aimed at cloud tenants, data-center operators, and AI token factories. It is available as self-hosted dstack, the multi-tenant dstack Factory, and the hosted dstack Sky, which provides unified access to GPU clouds with one billing.

12 alternatives to dstack

Ranked by how well each tool replaces dstack: shared features, audience, price and popularity.

  1. Scaleway

    European Cloud & AI provider (as described on the site)

    Covers 3 of 15 key features.

    70 out of 100 match—

  2. Apache CloudStack

    Apache CloudStack — Infrastructure for Virtual Machines and Bare Metal

    Covers 4 of 15 key features.

    Free planOpen source
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  3. Apache Helix

    A cluster management framework for partitioned and replicated distributed resources

    Covers 9 of 15 key features.

    Free planOpen source
    63 out of 100 matchContact sales

  4. OpenStack

    Cloud Infrastructure for Virtual Machines, Bare Metal, and Containers

    Covers 6 of 15 key features.

    Open source
    63 out of 100 match—

  5. Beam

    Cloud platform for running AI inference, sandboxes and task queues

    Covers 8 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    62 out of 100 match$89/mo

  6. DoiT

    Cloud Intelligence™ — AI FinOps Platform with Forward Deployed Engineers

    Covers 4 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    61 out of 100 matchFree

  7. Databricks

    Build and run apps, agents and AI on your data

    Covers 4 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    61 out of 100 matchUsage-based

  8. Vast.ai

    GPU cloud marketplace for renting compute by the hour

    Covers 5 of 15 key features.

    60 out of 100 match$5/mo

  9. Kubernetes

    Open source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized.

    Covers 6 of 15 key features.

    Free planOpen source
    60 out of 100 matchFree

  10. CoreWeave

    The essential cloud for AI

    Covers 3 of 15 key features.

    60 out of 100 matchUsage-based

  11. Microsoft Azure

    Cloud Computing Services | Microsoft Azure

    Covers 2 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    60 out of 100 matchContact sales

  12. Apache OpenWhisk

    Open Source Serverless Cloud Platform

    Covers 10 of 15 key features.

    Free planOpen source
    60 out of 100 matchContact sales