Google Cloud Platform vs. Google Compute Engine

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Cloud Platform
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Google Cloud Platform is a suite of cloud computing services used to build apps or take advantage of cloud infrastructural services, achieve legacy infrastructure modernization, or manage enterprise data and analytic needs.
$0
(25+ apps are currently available at no cost)
Google Compute Engine
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Google Compute Engine is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) product from Google Cloud. It provides virtual machines with carbon-neutral infrastructure which run on the same data centers that Google itself uses.
$0
per month GB
Pricing
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Preemptible Price - Predefined Memory
0.000892 / GB
Hour
Three-year commitment price - Predefined Memory
$0.001907 / GB
Hour
One-year commitment price - Predefined Memory
$0.002669 / GB
Hour
On-demand price - Predefined Memory
$0.004237 / GB
Hour
Preemptible Price - Predefined vCPUs
0.006655 / vCPU
Hour
Three-year commitment price - Predefined vCPUS
$0.014225 / CPU
Hour
One-year commitment price - Predefined vCPUS
$0.019915 / vCPU
Hour
On-demand price - Predefined vCPUS
$0.031611 / vCPU
Hour
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices vary according to region (i.e US central, east, & west time zones). Google Compute Engine also offers a discounted rate for a 1 & 3 year commitment.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Features
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Google Cloud Platform
7.8
4 Ratings
5% below category average
Google Compute Engine
7.6
64 Ratings
8% below category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime8.03 Ratings8.125 Ratings
Dynamic scaling8.03 Ratings7.859 Ratings
Elastic load balancing7.53 Ratings8.453 Ratings
Pre-configured templates6.53 Ratings8.361 Ratings
Monitoring tools8.03 Ratings3.026 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images6.53 Ratings8.463 Ratings
Operating system support9.04 Ratings8.264 Ratings
Security controls9.04 Ratings8.462 Ratings
Automation7.53 Ratings7.92 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Small Businesses
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.4 out of 10
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(4 ratings)
8.4
(64 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.7
(3 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.9
(9 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(27 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(27 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(10 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Compute Engine
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
When most of our stuff is in Google Cloud Platform, it works great to integrate and cross/share data that is all in Google Cloud Platform or BigQuery. It has simplified things from a permissions perspective as well. I'd say it is less appropriate when trying to test something quickly locally, or when half your stuff is in AWS or another provider.
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Google
You can use Google Cloud Compute Engine as an option to configure your Gitlab, GitHub, and Azure DevOps self-hosted runners. This allows full control and management of your runners rather than using the default runners, which you cannot manage. Additionally, they can be used as a workspace, which you can provide to the employees, where they can test their workloads or use them as a local host and then deploy to the actual production-grade instance.
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Pros
Google
  • Easy to set up
  • Affordable use of the tool
  • Easy to access billing
  • Reliable service
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Google
  • Scaling - whether it's traffic spikes or just steady growth, Google Compute Engine's auto-scaling makes sure we've got the compute power we need without any manual juggling acts
  • Load balancing - Keeping things smooth with that load balancing across multiple VMs, so our users don't have to deal with slow load times or downtime even when things get crazy busy
  • Customizability - Mix and match configs for CPU, RAM, storage and whatnot to suit our specific app needs
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Cons
Google
  • The UI is so confusing. The console is good, but it is like a maze. There are too many menus and settings, and things do not work as expected. It takes time to get friendly, and it is not friendly for new users.
  • Support experience: Sometimes, you get a great engineer, but other times, it's very difficult to talk with them as they are unable to respond as expected and solve issues late.
  • Region and zone are issues, as not all services are available in all regions, which is lacking when deploying something in the same region or zone.
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Google
  • Built-in monitoring via Stackdriver is quite expensive for what it provides.
  • Initially provided quotas (ie. max compute units one can use) are very low and it took several requests to get an appropriate amount.
  • Support on GCE is limited to their knowledge base and forums. For more hands-on support provided by Google, you must pay for their Premium services.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
No answers on this topic
Google
Its pretty good, easy and good performance. Also, interface is very good for starters compared to competitors. Infra as Code (IaC) using Terraform even added easiness for creation, management and deletion of compute Virtual Machines (VM). Overall, very good and very easy cloud based compute platform which simplified infrastructure, very much recommend.
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Usability
Google
The Google Cloud Platform console is pretty slick for BigQuery especially. I have liked the visibility I get from using that and the way to integrate and see what's in our data lake. The logging console for tracking GKE jobs isn't quite as great, which is why it doesn't get a full 10.
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Google
Having interacted with several cloud services, GCE stands out to me as more usable than most. The naming and locating of features is a little more intuitive than most I've interacted with, and hinting is also quite helpful. Getting staff up to speed has proven to be overall less painful than others.
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Reliability and Availability
Google
No answers on this topic
Google
Google Compute Engine works well for cloud project with lesser geographical audience. It sometimes gives error while everything is set up perfectly. We also keep on check any updates available because that's one reason of site getting down. Google Compute Engine is ultimately a top solution to build an app and publish it online within a few minutes
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Performance
Google
No answers on this topic
Google
It works great all the time except for occasional issues, but overall, I am very happy with the performance. It delivers on the promise it makes and as per the SLAs provided. Networking is great with a premium network, and AZs are also widespread across geographies. Overall, it is a great infra item to have, which you can scale as you want.
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Support Rating
Google
No answers on this topic
Google
  • The documentation needs to be better for intermediate users - There are first steps that one can easily follow, but after that, the documentation is often spotty or not in a form where one can follow the steps and accomplish the task. Also, the documentation and the product often go out of sync, where the commands from the documentation do not work with the current version of the product.
  • Google support was great and their presence on site was very helpful in dealing with various issues.
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Alternatives Considered
Google
Google Cloud Platform is release later than Amazon web service, I think that why Google Cloud Platform can learned and optimized the Dashboard and some features that make it easy to use and can be cheaper than amazon web service.
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Google
Google Compute Engine provides a one stop solution for all the complex features and the UI is better than Amazon's EC2 and Azure Machine Learning for ease of usability. It's always good to have an eco-system of products from Google as it's one of the most used search engine and IoT services provider, which helps with ease of integration and updates in the future.
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Scalability
Google
No answers on this topic
Google
It works really well with other Google Cloud services, making it easy to build scalable solutions across different teams and locations.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • It allows us to focus our efforts on other, more important items at hand
  • It gives us an affordable option letting me know it's available to all users, not just the largest scale ones out there
  • The customer service is always helpful and reliable, along with the service itself which lets me focus on my work instead of worrying about the service.
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Google
  • With Google Compute we don't have the overhead of managing our own data centers reducing costs and reducing the staff needed to manage systems.
  • As I said earlier, Google's costs are ~1/2 of AWS, so we are able to see a ROI much faster.
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ScreenShots

Google Cloud Platform Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of Google Compute EngineScreenshot of the GCP consoleScreenshot of SLIsScreenshot of various homepages

Google Compute Engine Screenshots

Screenshot of How to choose the right VM
With thousands of applications, each with different requirements, which VM is right for you?Screenshot of documentation, guides, and reference architectures
Migration Center is Google Cloud's unified migration platform with features like cloud spend estimation, asset discovery, and a variety of tooling for different migration scenarios.