Amazon EC2 vs Google Compute Engine

Amazon EC29.4Visit Google Compute Engine9.3Visit

Higher score Amazon EC2 #2 in Cloud Hosting 9.4/10 Paid ✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Amazon EC2

vs

Google Compute Engine #3 in Cloud Hosting 9.3/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Google Cloud

• Amazon EC2 fits best

  AWS users needing flexible virtual compute

• Google Compute Engine fits best

  Enterprise VM workloads needing broad controls

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Side by side

Feature	Amazon EC2 9.4/10 Visit ↗	Google Compute Engine 9.3/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.4	9.3
Ranking	#2 in Cloud Hosting	#3 in Cloud Hosting
Best for	AWS users needing flexible virtual compute	Enterprise VM workloads needing broad controls
Pricing model	Paid	Free plan + paid
Starting price	—	Free plan
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Phone, Live chat, Email, Docs, Community · 24/7	Docs, Community · 24/7
Integrations	4 integrations	4 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Amazon EC2 4/4 · Google Compute Engine 4/4
Autoscaling	✓	✓
Load balancing	✓	✓
Object storage	✓	✓
Managed databases	✓	✓
Specs
Regions available	39	Not checked yet
Monthly bandwidth	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Support level	Premium	Premium
Our review
Pros	Resizable instances with per-second billing Auto Scaling and automatic replacement of unhealthy instances Integrates with S3, RDS, Load Balancing, and CloudWatch	Custom VM types, block storage, autoscaling, and load balancing Supports Linux, Windows, GPUs, TPUs, APIs, and console control Connects with Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Cloud SQL, and more
Cons	No free plan Pricing varies by instance type, Region, operating system, and usage Requires choosing among instance types and purchasing options	Self-managed infrastructure requires operational expertise Usage-based billing can make costs harder to forecast Broader controls may be more than simple hosting needs
Our verdict	Amazon EC2 provides resizable virtual servers for applications running in the AWS cloud. It is aimed at developers, IT teams, and organizations that need configurable compute infrastructure for development or production workloads. Users… Read the review →	Google Compute Engine is an infrastructure-as-a-service platform for creating and running self-managed virtual machines on Google infrastructure. It suits teams running web servers, applications, databases, containers, batch processing,… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Amazon EC2 — where it wins

  • Resizable instances with per-second billing
  • Auto Scaling and automatic replacement of unhealthy instances
  • Integrates with S3, RDS, Load Balancing, and CloudWatch

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan
  • Pricing varies by instance type, Region, operating system, and usage
  • Requires choosing among instance types and purchasing options

• Google Compute Engine — where it wins

  • Custom VM types, block storage, autoscaling, and load balancing
  • Supports Linux, Windows, GPUs, TPUs, APIs, and console control
  • Connects with Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Cloud SQL, and more

  Where it doesn't

  • Self-managed infrastructure requires operational expertise
  • Usage-based billing can make costs harder to forecast
  • Broader controls may be more than simple hosting needs

• Amazon EC29.4/10 · Paid

  Flexible virtual compute for AWS workloads, with usage-based pricing and broad service integration.

  Visit Amazon EC2Full verdict →
• Google Compute Engine9.3/10 · Free plan

  A broad-control VM platform for enterprise workloads across Linux and Windows.

  Visit Google CloudFull verdict →