AWS vs. Google Cloud

As AI technology advances, choosing the right platform is crucial for your team's speed, governance, and long-term success. Both AWS and Google Cloud have their strengths. The sections below compare them across developer experience, scalability, and total cost of ownership.

As AI technologies evolve, delivering and scaling applications has become essential for powering modern businesses, from AI startups to large-scale enterprises. There are various solutions available, including comprehensive cloud operating systems, managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and traditional IaaS. Selecting the right platform is crucial for your team's velocity, governance, and long-term success.

AWS and Google Cloud both bring unique strengths to application delivery, each with its own capabilities and limitations. The best choice depends on your specific use case and requirements. In the following sections, we'll compare both platforms regarding developer experience, scalability, and total cost of ownership, helping you determine the most suitable option for your needs—even if it's not us.

AWS vs. Google Cloud at a Glance

Feature	AWS	Google Cloud
Infrastructure	AWS-managed PaaS	Google-managed PaaS
Source Available
Deployment Options	AWS cloud only	GCP cloud only
Free Trial	AWS free tier (limited)	GCP free tier (limited)
Max vCPU per Service	Plan-based (EC2 instance types)	Plan-based (instance class)
Max RAM per Service	Plan-based (EC2 instance types)	Plan-based (instance class)
Custom Domains	(Route 53 / ALB)
Replicas per Service	Plan-based (Auto Scaling)	Plan-based (autoscale)
Cron Jobs	CloudWatch/EventBridge	Cloud Scheduler
Log Retention	Configurable (CloudWatch)	Configurable (Cloud Logging)
Scale-to-Zero		Standard env only
App Marketplace

Cost evidence

Monthly Cost Examples: Plans vs. Usage Billing

Estimates use the listed average CPU and RAM for a 30-day month. Storage and egress are excluded unless a platform note says otherwise.

Workload examplePlatform and monthly costEstimated difference

Small API

2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 24/7

AWSEstimate

~$90/mo

Google CloudEstimate

~$90/mo

AWS 72% lower

Medium App

8 vCPU, 16GB RAM, 24/7

AWSEstimate

~$320/mo

Google CloudEstimate

~$320/mo

AWS 60% lower

Production Stack

16 vCPU, 32GB RAM, 24/7

AWSEstimate

~$600/mo

Google CloudEstimate

~$600/mo

AWS 15% lower

Small API

2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 24/7

AWSEstimate

~$90/mo

Google CloudEstimate

~$90/mo

AWS 72% lower

Medium App

8 vCPU, 16GB RAM, 24/7

AWSEstimate

~$320/mo

Google CloudEstimate

~$320/mo

AWS 60% lower

Production Stack

16 vCPU, 32GB RAM, 24/7

AWSEstimate

~$600/mo

Google CloudEstimate

~$600/mo

AWS 15% lower

AWS calculation: EC2 + ELB + CloudWatch over 720 hours/month

GCP calculation: App Engine instance class + logging over 720 hours/month

Sources:AWS Elastic Beanstalk Pricing·Google App Engine Pricing

AWS Overview

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a mature AWS-native PaaS that automates deployment and scaling on top of EC2, ELB, Auto Scaling, and CloudWatch. It supports multiple runtimes, integrates deeply with AWS services, and lets teams deploy via the EB CLI or console. Beanstalk simplifies infrastructure management while keeping you inside the AWS ecosystem and cost model.

Google Cloud Overview

Google App Engine is Google Cloud managed PaaS for deploying web apps and APIs with minimal infrastructure management. It supports multiple runtimes, integrates with GCP services, and provides automatic scaling within region. App Engine is well-suited for teams that want a managed runtime inside Google Cloud without operating Kubernetes.