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Amazon EC2 vs Google App Engine comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EC2
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Compute Service (6th)
Google App Engine
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Cloud Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Amazon EC2 is designed for Compute Service and holds a mindshare of 5.4%, down 7.6% compared to last year.
Google App Engine, on the other hand, focuses on PaaS Clouds, holds 2.2% mindshare, up 2.1% since last year.
Compute Service
PaaS Clouds
 

Featured Reviews

KatlegoMabila - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers customization and flexibility with great support
Scalability depends on whether the client wants to scale up or scale down. It decreases resources based on demand. The great aspect of scalability is the flexibility to allow business success to optimize resource solutions and cost efficiency. Another crucial aspect of scalability is auto-scaling. When you have the opportunity to auto-scale, it can't always be available for everything. If you have chosen to integrate with auto-scaling, it's marvellous and doesn't require additional effort. Auto-scaling gives you the edge by using the capacity you have efficiently, scaling up or down as needed. These flexibilities within the EC2 feature instances of AWS play a crucial role in helping me utilize AWS EC2 Intelligent efficiently.
OmkarPatil - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplifies app development process for businesses
The product simplifies app development processes since once the local development is completed, my company has a common configuration in place where we can specify the requirements to run an application, after which we need to do a one-click GCP deployment for the entire application. In general, the two offer managed deployment options, so we don't have to worry about deployment. In my company, we just configure the servers and check if anything needs to be containerized, after which GCP handles everything for us. A project where Google App Engine scalability was essential was when, recently, my company was involved with Golang to build a web application, after which deploying that application on Google App Engine was really easy. In my company, we also had a Django application in Python, and it was easy to deploy. As my company deals with small-scale projects, the automated scaling feature of Google App Engine is not something we thought about. I wouldn't recommend the product to others unless the potential end users use GCP and have a word with their vendors about their plans. One specific recommendation from me would be that the product's potential uses should stick with a particular vendor. If someone wants a product that is easy to deploy and scalable, then multiple options are available in the market. The product integrates very well with other Google solutions. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I can quickly create a VM instance with just one click."
"Amazon EC2 is really reliable and provides great flexibility."
"An advantage of Amazon is that it offers a wide range of infrastructure services with an easy way to configure them."
"The ethernet configuration is stable and the product is reliable."
"The product is very mature and organized."
"The best features of Amazon EC2 are its high performance and security."
"The serverless architecture solutions are most valuable, and the ability to start with little cost, and then expand as needed."
"We find it easy to scale."
"The product's setup and deployment phases are easy."
"Google App Engine's most valuable feature is self-management. You do not have to manage the infrastructure underneath where all the functions are happening, such as load balancing deployment and version management, they are managed by the system itself."
"Administering App Engine is simple; it has intuitive UIs and a very scalable app engine."
"What I find most valuable about Google App Engine is its support for open-source development."
"The zero infrastructure management is valuable, allowing me to focus on the code rather than the service."
"The solution is serverless, so we don't have to operate it."
"Seurity features - unauthorized individuals are unable to access certain applications."
"Its ability to integrate with most devices helps users who have different or old devices."
 

Cons

"If the solution was cheaper, if the price was less, it would be better."
"One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense."
"The product could benefit from offering more mixed instance types that combine features from different series to suit diverse workload requirements better."
"The monitoring part could be improved. When we're building and configuring things or doing database replication, EC2's monitoring could provide more information. It's hard to find the information I need in the graphs they provide."
"Regarding availability, a noticeable improvement would be the possibility of more load balancing configurations and the deployment of more datacenters, mainly in Latin America."
"The support could be more responsive."
"It's not the best of the best because we still have issues with downtime. We still have issues with the cost of storage, with all these different instance styles, and how much it costs. They cost an arm and a leg the higher you go."
"I would like to see improvement in the information available up-front for users around tailoring the package to their actual requirements. At present it can take time to work with the on demand instance until you are used to what features are right for the user."
"The whitelist and blacklist of APIs can be a deal-breaker due to security concerns, and the deployment process is chaotic."
"The documentation and community are lacking for this product."
"There is limited customization because the sandbox environment restricts it."
"Some features of runtime don't work well in App Engine."
"I am limited to sending a photo to five people. I want to be able to send a photo to many people, not just five."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"I think there's still a lot that can be done with Google Meet and the video conferencing part of it. It could be more dynamic in terms of what can be done with it."
"There needs to be more directions in terms of how to use the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive, and it could be cheaper."
"Amazon EC2 is a very expensive solution."
"Pricing appears to be cheap, however, it is extremely difficult in calculating what something will cost."
"I use the free tier, although I have paid for some services that are not free. The overall cost of this solution depends on the services you use."
"We are paying about $1,500 a month for one of the services."
"The clients have found the billing of Amazon EC2 good, but the price could be less high. There is a monthly subscription to use the solution."
"For our usage, the cost is approximately $20,000 to $23,000 per month."
"The price of Amazon EC2 could improve. The Google Cloud Platform is more cost-effective."
"If we don't know how to work with the tool, we might have some spikes in price."
"We pay the license yearly. It's about $6 a month, which is $72 a year per person, so it's about $500."
"I would like to have more free application with it. Some of the applications, I am paying more for them. I think that they must be free."
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Comparison Review

it_user8586 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 14, 2013
Amazon vs Rackspace vs Microsoft vs Google: Cloud Hosting Services Comparison
Amazon Web Services, Rackspace OpenStack, Microsoft Windows Azure and Google are the major cloud hosting and storage service providers. Athough Amazon is top of them and is oldest in cloud market, Rackspace, Microsoft and Google are giving tough competition to each other and to Amazon also for…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Educational Organization
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EC2?
The scalability and elasticity are helpful.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EC2?
I'm going to mention again that there is quite a bit of complexity within the pricing of EC2 instances. I'm just going to give it six out of ten since there are various standards, upfront and commi...
What needs improvement with Amazon EC2?
There is not much to be improved or enhanced. One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense. Sometimes, clients don't understand the structures. Thes...
What do you like most about Google App Engine?
The product's setup and deployment phases are easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google App Engine?
The pricing is a pay-as-you-go model. For F1 usage with 256 MB, it is free. F2 with 512 MB costs approximately 0.05 USD. F4 with 1 GB varies from 0.10 to 0.15 USD. It is billed per instance and hou...
What needs improvement with Google App Engine?
There is limited customization because the sandbox environment restricts it. There are issues with cold starting; apps may take time to wake up if idle for a few minutes. The pricing is higher comp...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, EC2
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Expedia, TimeInc., Novaris, airbnb, Lamborghini
Khan Academy, Best Buy, Gigya, MetOffice, Getaround, Mimiboard, NewsLimited, WebFilings, and CloudLock.
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