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Google Cloud vs Google Compute Engine comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.0
Users achieved significant ROI from Google Cloud via increased efficiency, cost reduction, faster tasks, and fair pricing for features.
Sentiment score
5.6
Some businesses achieved over 90% cost savings by switching to cloud and cheaper analytic tools despite budget challenges.
One task that could be developed in a day, now it could be done in around one or two hours.
Data Scientist at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Google Cloud's support receives mixed reviews, with varying effectiveness depending on service tiers, user experience, and specific needs.
Sentiment score
6.4
Google Compute Engine's customer service is positively rated for responsiveness, with various support tiers and effective online support channels.
I would rate the customer support a nine on a scale of 1 to 10.
Data Scientist at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
I consider them good partners when it comes to support.
Presales Engineer at 2P - Perfect Presentation
We have consulted Google support several times, and we received a quick response.
Technology Manager at Publicis Sapient
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Google Cloud's scalability enables efficient integration and expansion, supporting large workloads with ease and attracting various sectors.
Sentiment score
7.8
Google Compute Engine offers scalable resources and supports diverse workloads, with managed instances aiding easy scaling for businesses.
If I had to rate scalability from one to ten, I would rate it a nine as we have never faced any issues with scalability.
Technology Manager at Publicis Sapient
Google Cloud is highly scalable, and we have not faced any issues with its scalability.
IT Service Delivery Manager at NGK
This solution is suitable for enterprise-level organizations, particularly in finance and healthcare domains where there is substantial data volume.
RPA developer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Google Cloud is reliable with high user satisfaction, minimal downtime, and consistent performance, despite occasional capacity concerns.
Sentiment score
8.2
Google Compute Engine is highly stable, achieving 99.99% uptime and favorable comparisons to other servers with minimal downtime.
Regarding the stability of the product, it is the best one.
Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The stability of Google Compute Engine is on par with other servers, akin to using instances from AWS, as no one needs any downtime.
Cloud Engineer at Global Payments Inc.
 

Room For Improvement

Google Cloud requires improvements in usability, analytics, pricing, security, integration, and reliability for better user experience and database management.
Google Compute Engine needs better user experience, automation, security, multi-region support, and simplified licensing for non-technical users.
If the hierarchy or similarities were the same, that would help developers more conveniently migrate from a traditional SQL server to BigQuery.
RPA developer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Providing more hypervisors would be beneficial.
Presales Engineer at 2P - Perfect Presentation
The logging could be improved; there's currently no intuitive way to filter logs on the Google console, especially for individuals who are not familiar with query languages.
Technology Manager at Publicis Sapient
I have noticed a positive impact since the deployment of Google Compute Engine; it is simpler.
Cloud Engineer at Global Payments Inc.
 

Setup Cost

Google Cloud offers competitive pricing with flexible billing, though some find costs higher than alternatives like Azure.
Google Compute Engine is cost-effective with pay-as-you-go pricing, but affordability varies by region and usage patterns.
As far as I know, it is a little more expensive compared to other cloud options.
Presales Engineer at 2P - Perfect Presentation
Compared to buying new hardware, Google Cloud offers flexible options for scaling up or down, making it more convenient.
IT Service Delivery Manager at NGK
While doing my personal projects, I prefer AWS over GCP and usually suggest the same to others because I have tried everything in AWS.
Cloud Engineer at Global Payments Inc.
 

Valuable Features

Google Cloud offers seamless scalability, robust security, user-friendliness, efficient integration, and excellent technical support, enhancing business efficiency.
Google Compute Engine offers flexible, cost-effective virtual machines with rich features, high availability, and seamless integration with Google Cloud services.
The most valuable features of Google Cloud for us are the integration with Kubernetes, IAM, Istio integration, and Terraform capabilities.
Technology Manager at Publicis Sapient
When you need to handle not 10, but 50 per week, and this could be done within one or two hours, that saves a lot of time.
Data Scientist at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
If customers use different technologies within their environment, GCP cannot offer a full performance analysis covering all the disclosures.
Presales Engineer at 2P - Perfect Presentation
In GCP, there's a custom configuration feature unlike AWS and Azure.
Senior Cloud Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
What I like the most about Google Compute Engine is SSH access and the different price categories.
Cloud Engineer at Global Payments Inc.
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud
Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (4th)
Google Compute Engine
Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud is 4.4%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Compute Engine is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Cloud4.4%
Google Compute Engine1.2%
Other94.4%
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

AnjaneyaVara Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Cloud services have reduced on‑prem hardware costs and now support flexible microservices workloads
Regarding potential areas of improvement for Google Cloud, considering that they are providing 300 plus services, some services could be improved. For example, if I am facing some network troubleshooting issue in GKE in Google Cloud, I have to dig deeply and enable some special logs, such as flow logs. To enable that, it is chargeable. At least for basic services, they should give end-to-end support. In terms of end-to-end support, if I am purchasing one firewall from Google and using that firewall, all firewall-related services should be free. If I want to troubleshoot something deep and perform deep troubleshooting, you have to enable some additional logs. That is not that good. If I have to enable additional logs and want to store them into Google Cloud storage, which is similar to an S3 bucket, it is again chargeable. Those kinds of things should be given as part of the package. If you take firewall, all firewall-related logs, activities, and diagnostics everything should come as one package. If you want to do some deep analysis, you have to enable these logs, and for that you have to store them in the cloud storage, which is again chargeable. We should not have those kinds of things.Regarding additional costs, it can vary case by case. If I want to do deep analysis, I have to enable some logs, and for those logs, Google is charging. I am already paying for my virtual firewall from Google, and I am paying the cost for that. If I want to do some further troubleshooting and enable some low-level logs, they are charging for that. So these are the kinds of things I am talking about. To do very deep-level troubleshooting and enable additional logs, they will be charging. Not only Google, but all clouds are charging for this. Functionality-wise, Google Cloud is fine. In terms of virtual machine deployment or VM instance, the functionality is good.
AK
Cloud Engineer at Global Payments Inc.
SSH access has simplified my backend deployments but setup and architecture still need improvement
Currently, I have not found much value in the features or capabilities of Google Compute Engine because I only use SSH access, as I have not used many of their services. It is already set up by a different team, and I have been using them as it is a normal case, similar to a normal Linux server. I have noticed a positive impact since the deployment of Google Compute Engine; it is simpler. However, for those who are not very much familiar with Google Cloud, it can, at times, be difficult. Also, the freebies are not much from Google's side, referring to the credits, so that users can become more familiar since there is a limited amount or it is case-dependent. Without trying Google Compute Engine totally, I cannot tell you much about it. From my personal perspective, I suggest that while setting up Google Compute Engine, the process is hard compared to AWS. The complexity increases, especially if we want to access the things over the API; we need to explicitly set up things and can only access the CLI environment of GCP, which is sometimes a hectic task.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
University
6%
Manufacturing Company
26%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Performing Arts
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud?
Regarding potential areas of improvement for Google Cloud, considering that they are providing 300 plus services, some services could be improved. For example, if I am facing some network troublesh...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud?
The main requirement from my clients to Google Cloud is to reduce the on-prem footprint or to minimize the maintenance cost of the on-prem data center. Those who are looking for a scalable solution...
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud?
The AutoML feature of Google Cloud is really good. Google is providing good AI features. We have been leveraging ServiceNow integration through API. Whatever knowledge base articles are stored in S...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Compute Engine?
Regarding the pricing and licensing of Google Compute Engine, when I refer to licensing, it implies the price or a credit-based system. While doing my personal projects, I prefer AWS over GCP and u...
What needs improvement with Google Compute Engine?
Currently, I have not found much value in the features or capabilities of Google Compute Engine because I only use SSH access, as I have not used many of their services. It is already set up by a d...
What is your primary use case for Google Compute Engine?
My usual use cases for Google Compute Engine involve deploying the backends and APIs only.
 

Also Known As

GCP
GCE
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Allthecooks, BetterCloud, Bluecore, Cosentry, Evite, Ezakus, HTC, Infectious Media, iStreamPlanet, Mendelics, SageMathCloud, Sedex, Treeptik, Wibigoo, Wix, zulily, Zync
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud vs. Google Compute Engine and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.