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You basically have two layers of choices: The “big three” hyperscalers – safest, most complete, biggest credit programs The “startup-friendly platforms” – simpler DX, cheaper for small workloads, opinionated Here’s how that shakes out in 2025 👇 1. Hyperscalers (default for most SaaS) 🥇 AWS Why pick it: biggest service catalog, tons of examples, every VC/incubator understands it, huge startup perks. Activate can get you from a few thousand up to six figures in credits, especially if you’re AI-ish. Amazon Web Services, Inc. +2 XRaise +2 Good for: “We plan to scale hard”, multi-tenant SaaS patterns (VPC, IAM, orgs), AI/ML on Bedrock, global reach, SOC2/ISO expectations. Gotchas: messy pricing, services sprawl. 🥈 Google Cloud Why pick it: very generous Google for Startups Cloud Program (often longer validity, up to $350k for AI) and great data/AI tooling. Google Cloud +2 GART Solutions +2 Good for: data-heavy SaaS, AI-first, teams already on Google workspace. Gotchas: slightly smaller ecosystem than AWS in tooling/tutorials. 🥉 Microsoft Azure Why pick it: Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, plus instant path to selling to enterprises already on Azure. Microsoft +1 Good for: B2B/SaaS selling to Microsoft shops, .NET, regulated/enterprise. Gotchas: console/DX can feel heavier than AWS/GCP for very small teams. If you want the option to raise from name-brand VCs, hire people who’ve used the stack before, and pass audits later, start with one of these three. They’re the “highly recommended” ones because of maturity, credits, compliance features, and talent supply. Market-share data still shows them dominating in 2025. DataCamp +1 2. Startup-friendly platforms These aren’t full hyperscalers, but SaaS teams love them for speed, pricing clarity, or serverless-y DX: Vercel / Netlify – perfect frontend hosting + edge + functions; great if you’re Next.js-heavy. Pair with a DB (Neon/Supabase/PlanetScale) and you can ship fast. Medium +1 Render / Railway / Fly.io / Northflank – simpler PaaS, predictable pricing, fast to get a Django/Rails/Node SaaS online. Good before you have infra people. Medium +1 Heroku-style platforms (some are newer clones) – nicest DX, but watch egress/add-ons. These are “recommended” when the priority is developer speed over deep cloud control. How to pick in 90 seconds Selling to enterprises / need SOC2 / want global regions → AWS or Azure. AI/data-first and you can get big credits through an accelerator/university → GCP. 2–4 people, pre-PMF, no infra skills, just want to ship → Render/Railway/Vercel (+ managed Postgres). Already locked into a partner’s credit program (YC, Techstars, local hub) → take the cloud that gives the most usable credits right now. Programs differ a lot by partner. GART Solutions +1 Extra names worth knowing (situational) Scaleway / OVHcloud – EU-friendly, good pricing, nice startup programs. Holori OCI / IBM Cloud – niche/enterprise or cost-sensitive, but not typical for greenfield SaaS. DataCamp +1 If you tell me where you’re based, whether you already have an accelerator/VC deal, and how “enterprise” your target customers are, I can narrow it to a single choice plus a starter architecture.