GCP VS AWS: The Best Cloud Development Platform

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting a tech startup, navigating the cloud landscape can be tricky. Cloud platforms offer scalability, security, and a vast array of services. It’s easy to get lost among all the features and price comparisons. Let’s talk about the Google Cloud Platform GCP VS AWS or Amazon Web Services.

But both services offer so many things, and since they have a lot of modular customization options, comparing them isn’t that easy. So before we get into that complex path, let’s understand the basics first.

A cloud platform is basically a virtual computer provided by a service provider. Usually, providers offer various computing resources, such as storage, processing power, and networking capabilities, over the internet.

It will make sense if you want to deploy, manage, and access applications and data remotely and don’t need physical infrastructure. The major cloud platforms include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure.

Cloud platform market share

Amazon’s cloud service, AWS, has been the market leader up until now. But with competitive features, Microsoft Auzre is also holding a prominent place. And the Google Cloud platform is also giving tough competition to both.

As per the 2023 data on cloud platforms, Amazon’s AWS holds a solid 31% market share. Microsoft’s Azure is holding 24%, giving it solid competition. And Google Cloud holds its ground at 11% market share.

That year, businesses spent $270 billion on cloud services, which is 19% more than in 2022! 

AWS VS GCP service comparison

AWS has over 200 fully featured services, and the Google Cloud platform offers over 100 services. So, comparing these two giant in one table is not going to cover everything. But here are similar products by these two.

Global Network of GCP VS AWS

The coverage of both platforms is pretty solid around the world. On the one hand, GCP covered 40 regions and 121 zones; on the other hand, AWS covered 33 regions and 105 zones. Both of these services are available in over 200 countries and territories.

Price of Google Cloud vs AWS

First of all, it’s very difficult to actually compare the prices of these services on one table. Both of these platforms offer a vast range of services through hundreds of products.

If you visit these platforms websites, you will not find any simple price tables. Instead, you will find a price calculator. Yet it’s not very straight-forward. You should have in-depth knowledge of what you need to calculate the price.

This price is complex by design. It enables the user to customize the price at a granular level. Not to mention, from region to region, storage prices can vary for several reasons.

Customers have the ability to make their own instance or remote computer as per their needs. Again, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to know your staff before you buy a cloud platform. Because these complex systems can bankrupt you very easily.

Basic price comparison GCP vs AWS

If you are new to these platforms, the tables below can help you get an idea of how the price works.

AWS Price

GCP Price

If you want to transfer data to some other platform, they will charge you per GB transfer. And the rate will increase for large-scale data transfers. Furthermore, it’s a complex process because different platforms use different architectures. Data migration services can be a bit handy but not cost-effective.

As you can see, it’s extremely baffling. But the biggest advantage of this baffling pricing system is granular customization.

Cost optimization featreus

Speaking of granular pricing, companies know that customers might end up paying more money. So, both platforms have a solution for that. AWS has AWS Budgets and Google Cloud has Cost Management. These products are designed to help optimize your expenses on the cloud.

The work processes for both of these products are kind of similar. You get to set the budget limit on both of these. Before the budget ends, you will be notified. In fact, you can see a forecast for budget expenses on both platforms.

Google Cloud also provides several ways and methods to optimize your budgets. Google walks you through the usage and might let you know about the underused instances that you are paying for.

There are also some other options available that you can explore to manage the budget. Third-party tools like AWS cost optimization solutions or GCP cost optimization tools give you more granular tuning.

Which cloud platform is best for developers?

There is no easy answer to this question. It may depend on various factors, mostly on the user of the platform.

If you like to choose products from a wider range of services and features with higher flexibility, you can go with AWS. But if you prefer innovative and pioneering new features, along with competitive pricing, the GCP is well known for that.

So, here is a basic comparison between ASW vs Google Cloud for developers.

Final verdict

At the end, the best way to choose is to try both platforms and see which one feels more comfortable. You need to consider efficiency for your development needs as well. A lot of teams even go with a hybrid setup, using more than one cloud platform.

Whether you want computational power or cloud storage for deploy SaaS or remote support team, both AWS and Google Cloud are solid options. Let us know which one you will position first, GCP vs AWS.