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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
7.1
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
Compute Service (6th)
Google App Engine
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Cloud Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Amazon EC2 is designed for Compute Service and holds a mindshare of 5.1%, down 7.5% compared to last year.
Google App Engine, on the other hand, focuses on PaaS Clouds, holds 2.2% mindshare, down 2.3% 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

"Its ease of use is valuable."
"The ethernet configuration is stable and the product is reliable."
"The amount of bandwidth has been most valuable."
"Amazon EC2's flexibility and ease of configuration were found to be very valuable."
"There's a lot of encryption across the setups to ensure that database credentials and everything related to security are well managed."
"Amazon EC2's most valuable feature I have heard from clients is easy provisioning. Provisioning is very quick and easy."
"I like the AMI-related features. A very good feature of this solution is the customizable AMI. It is a very good feature provided by Amazon. The encryption technologies are also very good. We are using KMS, etc."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to have standard operating systems along with the Windows, Linux operating systems, and their maintenance-free structure, which we prefer."
"What I appreciate most about Google App Engine is that the deployment is significantly easier compared to a conventional Linux platform."
"The customer service is excellent and very responsive."
"The seamless integration of Google App Engine with other Google Cloud services has enhanced my application capabilities by allowing us to trigger Cloud Jobs from App Engine and some cloud functions, as handling messages through Pub/Sub."
"What I find most valuable about Google App Engine is its support for open-source development."
"The features of Google App Engine that I have found most valuable for my use cases include its easy deployment process, where there is minimal configuration required, allowing a few details in a configuration file before pushing it to Google App Engine, which auto-scales and requires less maintenance with no downtime over three years."
"The zero infrastructure management is valuable, allowing me to focus on the code rather than the service."
"It is simple to use. It is much simpler than AWS. It is also very powerful."
"Administering App Engine is simple; it has intuitive UIs and a very scalable app engine."
 

Cons

"The product could benefit from offering more mixed instance types that combine features from different series to suit diverse workload requirements better."
"Its price can be reduced."
"EC2 is a little expensive."
"The initial setup could be easier because many keys are required for access."
"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."
"The scalability could improve."
"Amazon EC2 is very expensive, and it would be helpful if they decreased the pricing."
"An area needing improvement is the time limitations when accessing EC2 instances."
"Difficult to assess how pricing is managed."
"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."
"There needs to be more directions in terms of how to use the solution."
"Some clients don't use it because Google is very unstable with their products. Google has terminated many promising products in the past, and some clients have stated, 'This is from Google, we don't trust it because Google can change their mind any day.'"
"The interface and IDE, where I write code, could be improved. Unlike other IDEs like Visual Studio, it lacks easy access to available functions."
"The whitelist and blacklist of APIs can be a deal-breaker due to security concerns, and the deployment process is chaotic."
"There are two versions of Google App Engine: flexible and standard versions. I think they can improve by having only one version."
"I would like a simpler deployment tool on laptops. It is a bit complicated at the moment. We know how to do it, but it could be easier to deploy it on laptops."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of this solution is variable. There is an open-source variant that is accessible via the public cloud, and then tiers that range in price depending on the level and amount of usage that is required."
"The solution has different pricing models, and its cost differs when you purchase it for one year or three years."
"Amazon EC2 is a very expensive solution."
"Reducing the price of the solution could lead to an improvement."
"The price of Amazon EC2 could improve. The Google Cloud Platform is more cost-effective."
"The licensing of Amazon EC2 is expensive. Microsoft Windows Servers are expensive to license."
"When we did the deployment of Amazon EC2 we found it to be less expensive than other solutions."
"It's competitive but can vary based on instance types and usage patterns."
"If we don't know how to work with the tool, we might have some spikes in price."
"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."
"We pay the license yearly. It's about $6 a month, which is $72 a year per person, so it's about $500."
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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
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
12%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

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 needs improvement with Amazon EC2?
The main thing that needs improvement is the cost. Other than that, there is nothing that needs improvement.
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?
I haven't been involved on the pricing side, so I'm not exactly aware of the costs, although we did analyze log retention costs, but overall, I'm not sure how Google App Engine compares to other pr...
What needs improvement with Google App Engine?
I have not yet used the real-time logging feature.
 

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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