Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer: A broad Alibaba Cloud balancing service with Layer 4/7 routing and a low published entry price. Ranked #3 of 31 in Load Balancing Software by our editors (9.1/10); pricing: Paid; best for alibaba Cloud deployments.
At a glance
- Editor score9.1 / 10
- PricingPaid
- Best forAlibaba Cloud deployments
- Free planNo
- Paid from$0.007/unit usage-based
- Layer 7 routingYes
- Founded2009
- Facts checked20 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Supports Layer 4 and Layer 7 traffic, including QUIC and gRPC
- Multi-zone deployment, disaster recovery, and automatic traffic-based scaling
- Integrates with ECS, ACK, WAF, CEN, CDN, and other Alibaba Cloud services
Where it doesn't
- No free plan or dedicated free trial
- Actual charges can include LCUs and transfer or IP-related fees
- Prices and availability vary by region
Our verdict on Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer (SLB) is a managed service for distributing client traffic across backend servers. It brings together Network Load Balancer (NLB) for Layer 4 traffic, Application Load Balancer (ALB) for Layer 7 application delivery, and Classic Load Balancer (CLB). It is suited to Alibaba Cloud deployments that need TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, QUIC, or gRPC traffic handling, with health checks, forwarding rules, and multi-zone deployment.
Pricing is paid and billed separately across ALB, NLB, and CLB. According to the published plans, ALB Basic starts at USD 0.007 per instance per hour with pay-as-you-go billing and application-layer load balancing. ALB Standard adds the same listed application-layer and billing model, while ALB WAF-enabled adds a WAF-enabled edition. NLB pay-as-you-go provides Layer 4 load balancing and SSL offloading; CLB pay-as-you-go provides Layer 4 load balancing. The published starting reference uses ALB Basic's instance fee, while usage-based LCU charges and, for public instances, transfer or IP-related fees may also apply.
Its main strength is breadth across traffic layers and Alibaba Cloud's surrounding platform. Features include certificate management for HTTPS, domain-name and URL-based forwarding, weighted round-robin, weighted least-connection scheduling, automatic scaling based on inbound traffic, and management through the console, OpenAPI, and SDKs. Integrations include ECS, WAF, CEN, ACK, SAE, Kubernetes, EIP, NAT Gateway, CDN, Anti-DDoS, Global Accelerator, OSS, and Tair. Choose SLB when a deployment benefits from this Alibaba Cloud ecosystem and multi-layer routing; choose an alternative if a free plan or simpler, single-purpose load-balancing service is the priority.
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Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer pricing
All 5 Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer plans and prices →
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer fact sheet
| Free plan | No |
|---|---|
| Paid from | $0.007/unit usage-based |
| Managed service | Yes |
| Layer 7 routing | Yes |
| Layer 4 routing | Yes |
| Global traffic management | Yes |
| TLS termination | Yes |
| Backend limit | 200 backends |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Platforms | Web |
| Support | Tickets, Live chat, Phone, Community, Docs |
| Built for | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 13 integrations: Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Web Application Firewall (WAF), Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK), Serverless App Engine (SAE), Kubernetes … |
| Pricing | Paid (source) |
| Website | alibabacloud.com |
| Facts checked | 20 Sep 2026 |
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer integrations
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer lists 13 integrations on its own site.
- Elastic Compute Service (ECS)
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN)
- Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK)
- Serverless App Engine (SAE)
- Kubernetes
- Elastic IP Address (EIP)
- NAT Gateway
- Alibaba Cloud CDN
- Anti-DDoS
- Global Accelerator (GA)
- Object Storage Service (OSS)
- Tair
Alternatives to Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer
- AWS Elastic Load BalancingBroad Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancing for AWS production environments.9.3
- Google Cloud Load BalancingA managed load balancer for global, regional, Layer 4, and Layer 7 traffic.9.2
- Cloudflare Load BalancingAffordable global traffic steering with health-based routing, analytics, and failover.9.0
See all Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer alternatives →
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs the competition
- Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs AWS Elastic Load Balancing
- Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs Google Cloud Load Balancing
- Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs Cloudflare Load Balancing
- Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs Progress Kemp LoadMaster
- Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs NGINX Plus
- Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer vs HAProxy Community Edition
Compare Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer with any tool side by side →
Also Ranked In
Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer is ranked in 2 of our directories.
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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