Our take
Pick Databricks if students / hobbyists who will stay on Free Edition at $0 (serverless, quota-limited) while they open a first notebook table, then pay-as-you-go DBUs on AWS / Azure / GCP when a production warehouse is required. Pick Modal if python teams with spiky GPU/CPU jobs who will read a per-second table. Skip Modal if people who want a hosted chat playground (Together AI) or a one-click image studio
Best for
Databricks A query table you start at a public $
Modal Run a containerized function on burst GPUs
Free plan
Databricks $0 · replaced Community Edition (retired 2025). Serverless-only, quota-limited. SQL editor, notebooks, dashboards, Genie, Lakeflow. Personal learning / prototyping
Modal $0 · / month + compute. Up to 3 seats. Included compute $30 / month. 1-day logs. 5 deployed crons
Lowest paid
Databricks Not published by the vendor
Modal CPU $0.0000131/mo
Next step up
Databricks
Modal Example GPU list (per second) $0.001097
Runs where
Databricks Hosted
Modal
Watch out
Databricks Free Edition is quota-limited and serverless-only
Modal $0 is the seat, not the GPU
Last checked
Databricks 2026-10-23 · databricks.com/product/pricing
Modal 2026-10-21 · modal.com/pricing
students / hobbyists who will stay on Free Edition at $0 (serverless, quota-limited) while they open a first notebook table, then pay-as-you-go DBUs on AWS / Azure / GCP when a production warehouse is required.
Read the Databricks pagepython teams with spiky GPU/CPU jobs who will read a per-second table.
Read the Modal page
