Google Cloud vs AWS (Comparing the Giants)
Google Cloud vs AWS: Introduction
Google Cloud and AWS have dominated the cloud computing space since IaaS solutions began to gain traction in 2008. These cloud giants are household names in the tech world. Both companies have dominated their respective businesses for more than a decade. They are well-known for being world-class companies that are meticulous in their pursuit of innovation and quality. Each has a plethora of tech industry knowledge that is nearly impossible to match.
AWS now offers over 200 products and services in a variety of sectors, including computation (“hosting”), storage, networking, and much more.
Although Google Cloud may not offer as much variety as Amazon Web Services, it does offer over 100 different products and services that cover many of the same categories.
A Detailed Comparison Between Google Cloud vs AWS
Google Cloud vs AWS market share
A common question that a lot of people have about AWS vs Google Cloud is which service is more popular.
When it comes to cloud services, AWS is the undisputed leader.
According to Canalys’ Q4 2021 global cloud infrastructure report, AWS accounts for approximately 31% of all revenue in the global cloud infrastructure industry[1,] making it by far the most popular alternative on the market.
Google Cloud isn’t quite as popular. Google Cloud accounted for only 7% of cloud revenues in Q4 2020, trailing AWS’s 31% share and placing it third overall. If you’re curious, Microsoft Azure is ranked second with a share of 20%. By the way, if you’re curious about how AWS compares to Azure, we have a whole resource dedicated to that.
Having said that, this figure is up from Google Cloud’s 2019 figures, when the company held only 6% of the market, indicating that things are improving.
Google Cloud vs AWS: Features and Services
As we’ve mentioned above, at the time that we’re writing this post, AWS offers over 200+ different products/services, while Google Cloud offers ~100:
- Full AWS service list
- Full Google Cloud service list
That’s far too many services to compare in detail, so we’re certainly not going to talk about every feature. But we will cover the most relevant aspects for someone interested in creating a website.
Here’s how we’ll break this down:
- Compute – in layperson’s terms, you could call this “hosting”
- Storage – options for storing files/data
- Networking – includes content delivery networks (CDN) and DNS
Google Cloud vs AWS: Pricing
Next, let’s take a look at Google Cloud vs AWS pricing for two key areas – compute and storage.
Compute
First, we’ll talk about compute pricing, starting with Google Cloud Compute Engine vs AWS EC2. If you want to host a website, this is what you’ll be paying.
As we mentioned earlier, Google’s Compute Engine is generally a bit cheaper than the equivalent resources from EC2.
For example, let’s look at a medium plan from each – e2-medium for Compute Engine and t4g.medium for EC2. Both plans offer:
- 2 CPU cores.
- 4 GB memory.
- 40 GB storage.
Let’s look at another instance with:
- 2 CPU cores.
- 8 GB memory.
- 40 GB storage.
The exact difference will depend on the specific plan that you choose. But, in general, you’ll notice that Compute Engine is normally more or less 15% cheaper than EC2.
Pricing is simpler on Amazon Lightsail (the VPS offering). It starts at just $3.50 per month for:
- 512 MB memory.
- 1 core processor.
- 20 GB SSD disk.
- 1 TB transfer.
Google Cloud doesn’t offer a comparable service, so there’s no price comparison here.
Storage
As we mentioned above, Google Cloud Storage is generally a bit cheaper than Amazon’s S3 service.
There are three main variables that affect your price:
- Bucket location – in general, North America is the cheapest, while Asia is the most expensive, though it varies on the specific city. Even within the USA, different regions have different prices.
- Access frequency – if you need to access your data more frequently/quickly, you’ll pay a higher price.
- Volume – S3 gives you discounts for higher volumes of storage.
Amazon Web Services Benefits
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides easy deployment options for applications.
- Enhanced security with the help of physical and operational security layers
- Little time is required for the deployment of a new version of your application.
- AWS is the perfect option for your project if you need higher computing power
- It helps you to enhance the growth of the application development professionals.
- A Variety of automatic functionalities such as the setup, scaling, installation, etc., are available.
- AWS is a cost-effective service that helps you to pay only what you have consumed without any contracts or up-front costs
- Without any limits, you can use as much as you can
Google Cloud Benefits
- Offers high productivity with quick access
- Your employees can work from Anywhere
- Cost-effective with long-term discounts
- It comes with the Instance and payment configuration
- Future-Proof infrastructure
- Powerful Data Analytics
- Big Data and Machine Learning products
Google Cloud vs AWS: Interface
Let’s take a look at the Google Cloud and AWS interfaces to wrap things off. This is probably not a big deal, but it will give you an idea of what it’s like to work at each service’s console.
But first, a quick summary…
In terms of interfaces, most people will probably prefer Google Cloud for two reasons:
- Google Cloud’s interface just looks better and is more user-friendly. Design is certainly subjective, but most people will agree on that. AWS has improved a lot, though, so the difference isn’t as large as it once was.
- Google Cloud is more consistent in using the same interface structure for all of its products, while the AWS interface isn’t always consistent across different products.
Final thoughts on Google Cloud vs AWS
Overall, there are far too many variables to declare a single definitive winner when it comes to Google Cloud vs AWS.
We can draw some general conclusions, though:
- AWS offers double the number of products and services that Google Cloud offers.
- Google Cloud is generally cheaper than AWS – around 15% for common products, though it depends on which product you’re looking at.
- Both have similar global networks, though Google Cloud has a slightly larger number of regions.
- AWS has a more generous free trial that lets you try many services free for up to a year.
- Google Cloud’s forever free plan is more generous for most users because it offers forever free options for Compute Engine and Cloud Storage.
- Google Cloud has a nicer and more user-friendly interface.
- AWS has a very beginner-friendly VPS offering in Lightsail, which isn’t something Google Cloud offers. However, I, personally, don’t find this to be a huge advantage, because I think DigitalOcean and Vultr are better options than Lightsail.
