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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Compute Engine

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AGoogle 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

    Azure SQL Database

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAzure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).

    $0.50

    Per Hour

    Pricing
    Google Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Editions & Modules
    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
    2 vCORE
    $0.5044
    Per Hour
    6 vCORE
    $1.5131
    Per Hour
    10 vCORE
    $2.52
    Per Hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    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 Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    45 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    17 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    44 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    44 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    41 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    Google Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Google Compute Engine and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Google Compute Engine
    8.0
    65 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime8.125 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling7.860 Ratings00 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing9.353 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates9.562 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring tools3.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images9.464 Ratings00 Ratings
    Operating system support8.365 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security controls9.163 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automation7.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Google Compute Engine and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Google Compute Engine
    -
    Ratings
    Azure SQL Database
    7.2
    32 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Automatic software patching00 Ratings6.330 Ratings
    Database scalability00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Automated backups00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Database security provisions00 Ratings8.832 Ratings
    Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings6.831 Ratings
    Automatic host deployment00 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Small Businesses
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (65 ratings)
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (9 ratings)
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    9.6
    (28 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (28 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (10 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Compute EngineAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have found it's a great alternative for making older legacy applications work with online databases instead of only on-premises databases. We've converted over a dozen applications this way, and it has allowed our clients to have a distributed workforce using their applications without incurring the expense of a complete application rewrite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
    • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
    • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
    • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
    • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
    • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
    • Sudden disconnects.
    • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
    • Only one Latin Collation choice.
    • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The interfaces are intuitive once you are familiar with all the functions. The ability to use different tools to interact with the platform, such as directly via a browser or code editors such as VS Code or Visual Studio is a great option and allows for integrating withn the project and other testing and developing tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Google
    It works really well with other Google Cloud services, making it easy to build scalable solutions across different teams and locations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
    • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
    • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    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.