CDN / Edge / Acceleration
The biggest real distinction between Selectel and Modal is straightforward: Modal scores higher on developer experience in our data. Selectel sits at usage-based pricing and carries moderate lock-in, while Modal sits at usage-based pricing starting at $30 / month, a free tier, enterprise plan available and carries moderate lock-in. Selectel is a fit when you need russian companies needing local iaas, object storage, and managed kubernetes — typical scenarios include russian cloud iaas with dedicated servers and object storage. Modal is aimed at global, with workloads like global audience with low latency needs as the common case. The honest trade-off: Selectel is explicitly not for international companies or those with sanctions compliance requirements; Modal is not intended for internal projects. Developer experience matters most on day-to-day tasks — local dev loop, error messages, docs quality, and CLI ergonomics are where the score shows up. Run a short pilot on a representative task before committing, since DX is highly workflow-dependent and the scores here are a starting point, not the verdict.
Quick take
Selectel is for russian companies needing local iaas, object; Modal is for global; decide based on developer experience priorities.
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CDN / Edge / Acceleration | CDN / Edge / Acceleration |
| Pricing Model | usage | usage |
| Entry Price | — | $30 / month |
| Free Tier | No | Yes |
| Billing Complexity | — | — |
| Developer Experience | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Pricing Transparency | 4/5 | 4/5 |
| Lock-in Level | medium | medium |
| Migration Complexity | — | — |
| Data Portability | — | — |
| Enterprise | — | Available |
| GitHub Stars | 56 | — |
| License | MPL-2.0 | — |
Choose Selectel if your primary workload is russian companies needing local iaas, object storage, and managed kubernetes.
Not for: International companies or those with sanctions compliance requirements
Choose Modal if your primary workload is global and you prefer usage-based pricing (starts at $30 / month).
Not for: Internal projects
Check each tool's dedicated page for deeper reviews, setup notes, and pros/cons.
Modal publishes an entry price of $30 / month; Selectel's entry price is not in our data, so a definitive comparison is not possible without a quote from Selectel.
Migrating from Selectel to Modal is doable but not automatic — Selectel carries moderate lock-in. Since both tools sit in the same category (CDN / Edge / Acceleration), the conceptual mapping is closer, but you still need to validate feature parity against your specific workload. Plan migration as a project, not a script: inventory integrations, test on non-production workloads, and keep Selectel running in parallel until Modal is verified.
On our 0–5 developer experience scale, Modal scores higher (5/5 vs 3/5 for Selectel). The gap is 2 points, which is a noticeable difference in day-to-day ergonomics based on the data. Still, score your own tasks: DX is subjective and tied to stack assumptions.
Modal is in the same category as Selectel (CDN / Edge / Acceleration), so it's a reasonable alternative to evaluate. Modal is aimed at global, while Selectel targets russian companies needing local iaas, object storage, and managed kubernetes — that difference should drive the switch decision. Note that Modal is explicitly not for internal projects — if that describes your workload, it's not a viable replacement.
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