Amazon CloudWatch vs Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon CloudWatch and Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Log Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"We have found the pricing to be reasonable.""It's a very simple logging system.""The monitoring features are valuable.""The initial setup is easy.""The solution is easy to use.""The solution gives us very good real-time data.""It offers direct integrations with various storage providers, making it convenient to push logs from CloudWatch to these external platforms.""Setting up this product was easy. I found data analytics as its most valuable feature."

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"Our company has a corporate account for Google Cloud and so our systems and clusters integrate really well.""Provides visibility into the performance uptime.""The most valuable feature is the multi-cloud integration, where there is support for both GCP and AWS.""We find the solution to be stable.""Offers a valuable logging transport feature""The features that I have found most valuable are its graphs - if I need any statistics, in Kubernetes or Kong level or VPN level, I can quickly get the reports.""I like the monitoring feature.""Google's technical support is very good."

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Cons
"Amazon CloudWatch's pricing needs improvement.""I found several areas for improvement in Amazon CloudWatch. First is that it's tough to track issues and find out where it's going wrong. The process takes longer. For example, if I get an exception error, I read the logs, search, go to AWS Cloud, then to the groups to find the keyword to determine what's wrong. Another area for improvement in Amazon CloudWatch is that it's slow in terms of log streaming. It requires an entire twenty-four hours for scanning, rather than just one hour. This issue can be solved with Elasticsearch streaming with Kibana, but it requires a lot of development effort and integration with Kibana or Splunk, and this also means I need a separate developer and software technical stack to do the indexing and streaming to Kibana. It's a manual effort that you need to do properly, so log streaming should be improved in Amazon CloudWatch. The AWS support person should also have a better understanding of the logs in Amazon CloudWatch. What I'd like added to the solution is a more advanced search function, particularly one that can tell you more information or special information. Right now, the search function is difficult to use because it only gives you limited data. For example, I got an error message saying that the policy wasn't created. I only know the amount the customer paid for the policy, the mobile number, and the customer name, but if I use those details, the information won't show up on the logs. I need to enter more details, so that's the type of fuzzy matching Amazon CloudWatch won't provide. If this type of search functionality is provided, it will be very helpful for businesses and companies that provide professional services to customers, like ours.""The drill-down aspect on the dashboard of the solution needs improvement. We get a very good high-level overview, but when we drill down, it becomes a little less clear. We have given this feedback to AWS as well and hope they will improve this in the future.""CloudWatch doesn’t monitor disk throughput by default.""Some of our customers want to use Kubernetes to monitor their CICD flow but Amazon CloudWatch does not support it. We need to use another solution, such as Datadog or Dynatrace has the needed capability.""Incorporating a straightforward method or a plug-and-play solution for integrating these databases with our systems, facilitating smooth data transfer, and enabling the creation of dashboards for monitoring and analysis would be beneficial.""The graphical interface has room for improvement. CloudWatch only gives you a breakdown of what's wrong. However, it would be nice if it could automatically remedy the problems it identifies. You should be able to configure it so that when a specific condition arises, it will take a predefined action.""The solution's pricing is a bit higher."

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"The product provides minimal metrics that are insufficient.""This solution could be improved if it offered the ability to analyze charts, such as a solution like Kibana.""It could be more stable.""It could be even more automated.""While we are satisfied with the overall performance, in certain cases we must add additional metrics and additional tools like Grafana and Dynatrace.""Lacking sufficient operations documentation.""It is difficult to estimate in advance how much something is going to cost.""If I want to track any round-trip or breakdowns of my response times, I'm not able to get it. My request goes through various levels of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and comes back to my client machine. Suppose that my request has taken 10 seconds overall, so if I want to break it down, to see where the delay is happening within my architecture, I am not able to find that out using Stackdriver."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "We have monthly licensing costs. The licenses are probably in the vicinity of about $300 - $350/month."
  • "Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."
  • "What's were using is the free service of Amazon CloudWatch, so they're not charging us. As for hidden fees, we're not aware of them because we're using what our clients provided us."
  • "The pricing model is pay-as-you-go so you have to be mindful of usage to manage costs."
  • "Amazon CloudWatch has very cheap pricing, and it hardly costs my company $25-$30 a month for fifty systems, so it's pretty affordable."
  • "The solution is expensive."
  • "The price of Amazon CloudWatch is reasonable for detailed basic monitoring."
  • "The price of Amazon CloudWatch is reasonable. When the rate of data collection is done the price will increase. The price is less than other solutions."
  • More Amazon CloudWatch Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The cost of using Stackdriver depends on usage."
  • "The cost could be lower."
  • "We have a basic standard license without any additional costs."
  • More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The monitoring features are valuable.
    Top Answer:CloudWatch doesn’t monitor disk throughput by default. It is part of EC2. If EC2 forwards the logs, then we can do it.
    Top Answer:It could be even more automated. For instance, the moment you deploy something, the monitoring can be there for everything. You will just have to launch or click the console in the morning, and then… more »
    Ranking
    12th
    out of 95 in Log Management
    Views
    2,224
    Comparisons
    1,809
    Reviews
    33
    Average Words per Review
    438
    Rating
    8.2
    25th
    out of 95 in Log Management
    Views
    1,973
    Comparisons
    1,761
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    353
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Google Stackdriver, Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring
    Learn More
    Overview

    Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows users to collect and track metrics, collect and monitor log files, and set alarms. With CloudWatch, users can gain insights into their applications, infrastructure, and services, enabling them to make informed decisions and take necessary actions. 

    It provides a unified view of AWS resources and applications, making it easier to troubleshoot issues and optimize performance. CloudWatch offers a range of features including customizable dashboards, automated actions, and integration with other AWS services. 

    The product is a scalable and reliable solution that helps businesses ensure the availability and performance of their applications and infrastructure.

    Real-time log management and analysis

    Cloud Logging is a fully managed service that performs at scale and can ingest application and platform log data, as well as custom log data from GKE environments, VMs, and other services inside and outside of Google Cloud. Get advanced performance, troubleshooting, security, and business insights with Log Analytics, integrating the power of BigQuery into Cloud Logging.

    Built-in metrics observability at scale

    Cloud Monitoring provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of cloud-powered applications. Collect metrics, events, and metadata from Google Cloud services, hosted uptime probes, application instrumentation, and a variety of common application components. Visualize this data on charts and dashboards and create alerts so you are notified when metrics are outside of expected ranges.

    Stand-alone managed service for running and scaling Prometheus

    Managed Service for Prometheus is a fully managed Prometheus-compatible monitoring solution, built on top of the same globally scalable data store as Cloud Monitoring. Keep your existing visualization, analysis, and alerting services, as this data can be queried with PromQL or Cloud Monitoring.

    Monitor and improve your application's performance

    Application Performance Management (APM) combines the monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities of Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring with Cloud Trace and Cloud Profiler to help you reduce latency and cost so you can run more efficient applications.

    Sample Customers
    AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus
    Uber, Batterii, Q42, Dovetail Games
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm31%
    Healthcare Company13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider29%
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Energy/Utilities Company14%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Retailer7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise64%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise73%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Amazon CloudWatch vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon CloudWatch vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Amazon CloudWatch is ranked 12th in Log Management with 40 reviews while Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is ranked 25th in Log Management with 10 reviews. Amazon CloudWatch is rated 8.0, while Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Amazon CloudWatch writes "Instantaneous response when monitoring logs and KPIs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) writes "Good logging and tracing but does need more profiling capabilities". Amazon CloudWatch is most compared with Zabbix, Datadog, Dynatrace, SolarWinds NPM and Instana Infrastructure Monitoring, whereas Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is most compared with AWS X-Ray, Datadog, Azure Monitor, New Relic and Prometheus. See our Amazon CloudWatch vs. Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) report.

    See our list of best Log Management vendors and best Cloud Monitoring Software vendors.

    We monitor all Log Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.