Google App Engine vs Microsoft Azure comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 6, 2024

We compared Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine based on our user's reviews in several parameters.

In summary, Microsoft Azure is praised for its scalability, reliability, customer service, pricing, and return on investment. On the other hand, Google App Engine is appreciated for its scalability, easy deployment process, infrastructure, customer service, pricing, and return on investment. The main difference lies in Azure's extensive range of services and flexibility, while App Engine could benefit from improvements in scalability and performance optimization.

Features: Microsoft Azure is highly praised for its scalability, versatility, reliability, and extensive range of services. In contrast, Google App Engine stands out for its easy deployment process, strong infrastructure, automatic scaling, and efficient datastore. It also seamlessly integrates with other Google services.

Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for Microsoft Azure is praised for its ease and simplicity, according to user feedback. Users find the licensing terms flexible and varied. On the other hand, Google App Engine has minimal and straightforward setup cost, making implementation easy. Its pricing is considered cost-effective and well-suited for users' needs., Microsoft Azure has been praised for its cost savings, improved efficiency, and scalability. It offers a diverse range of services and tools. On the other hand, Google App Engine is known for its positive ROI, increased efficiency, and seamless integration with other Google products. Users also reported time and resource savings.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure users have provided feedback on areas that require improvement, while Google App Engine users have suggested enhancements in scalability, performance, resource allocation, latency issues, flexibility in configuration, and deployment options.

Deployment and customer support: Microsoft Azure users have provided varying feedback on the time required for deployment, setup, and implementation phases, with some mentioning a three-month deployment period and an additional week for setup. Other users mention a one-week timeframe for both deployment and setup. Careful evaluation of the context is crucial for accurately assessing implementation duration. Similarly, users of Google App Engine also reported different timeframes for deployment, setup, and implementation. Some mentioned three months for deployment and an extra week for setup, while others reported one week for both. Considering the specific context is essential to evaluate the duration of each phase accurately., In terms of customer service, Microsoft Azure receives positive feedback for its responsiveness and expertise. Users appreciate the prompt and helpful assistance in resolving technical issues, as well as the availability of comprehensive documentation. On the other hand, Google App Engine also has highly regarded customer service, with users appreciating the responsiveness, effectiveness, and reliability of the support team. They find the promptness in addressing queries and the knowledgeable guidance offered by customer service representatives to be satisfactory.

The summary above is based on 27 interviews we conducted recently with Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Google App Engine vs. Microsoft Azure Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 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
"The solution is serverless, so we don't have to operate it.""I've found that all of the features are valuable, especially the shared drive and the ability for multiple people to use their documents at the same time.""The WhatApp feature is the most valuable.""The product's setup and deployment phases are easy.""Administering App Engine is simple; it has intuitive UIs and a very scalable app engine.""Its ability to integrate with most devices helps users who have different or old devices.""The initial setup is okay. It's not too complex. Deployment took about one day.""The product's initial setup phase was straightforward, considering that there is good documentation explaining the implementation part of it."

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"We didn't have any problems setting it up.""The focus on security is excellent. We really appreciate that about the solution.""Microsoft Azure has been easy to use in my experience.""Storage has made remote access to files much more painless and easy.""Azure is very user friendly. I was able to create some database servers really fast. The user interface is intuitive.""I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are.""We use Microsoft Azure for operations, email, and office applications.""One of the features I have found to be valuable is the scale set feature."

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Cons
"I am limited to sending a photo to five people. I want to be able to send a photo to many people, not just five.""There needs to be more directions in terms of how to use the solution.""The only concern is that there is a number of the offerings which are built on their own proprietary technologies. With some of the offerings in Google Cloud, it's difficult to have a path to migrate to other cloud providers.""The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required.""Data consumption of the device could be improved.""Some features of runtime don't work well in App Engine.""Difficult to assess how pricing is managed.""I think there's still a lot that can be done with Google Meet and the video conferencing part of it. It could be more dynamic in terms of what can be done with it."

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"The solution could improve by being more user-friendly.""Pricing is one area where Azure has room for improvement. There should be some due consideration. Azure has solved some issues with pricing from the development team's standpoint, but it is still quite costly. They should also offer a trial period for the individual platform solutions. I think that would be pretty handy for the developers.""The dashboard of Microsoft Azure could be better.""It would be beneficial if Microsoft could enhance the free version to allow for more exploration and development. That's my only suggestion regarding Azure.""I think it would be good to keep making progress on giving users the ability to do action calls on Data Factory. Right now, it's mostly local. Perhaps Microsoft could add the ability to put some calls in the workflow.""I would like it if Microsoft communicated better about upcoming changes before they roll them out. Sometimes when Microsoft implements changes, they don't notify the users promptly enough. I would like to know about new features, especially Office 365.""We use Microsoft Server 2019 and 2016. And I didn't like the 2019 client, so we had to downgrade back to 2016. The main issue there was its monitoring system. Our client needed an alternative, and if they were using more Windows products, they also needed to make that downgrade.""The market place can be raised, and the CMT can be more sophisticated to create more opportunities for the end users."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I would like to have more free application with it. Some of the applications, I am paying more for them. I think that they must be free."
  • "We pay the license yearly. It's about $6 a month, which is $72 a year per person, so it's about $500."
  • "If we don't know how to work with the tool, we might have some spikes in price."
  • More Google App Engine Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Related to pricing and licensing, you have to be careful how you operate with the concept."
  • "Be careful with Azure Cool storage accounts; if you are dealing with high object counts, then it can be more economical to use Hot storage because of the high storage access costs associated with Cool."
  • "Make use of Azure pricing calculator and you will find out that Azure Is still more reasonable that the competition and do your research, when unclear speak with your MS support."
  • "It’s necessary to use third party products or to use good self-management economic tools"
  • "Keep to PaaS to gain the optimal benefits from an OPEX finance and resource perspective."
  • "Several thousand dollars and counting, we haven't needed to upgrade on premises hardware (In fact we eliminated all of the old on-premises hardware and run 100% on Azure) or pay for it's maintenance, power etc."
  • "If you are not aware of costs, pricing, etc., you can end up with a hefty bill. However, I found that the Azure price calculator is a valuable tool to use before starting to deploy VMs in Azure. This tool will give you an overview of the costs you should expect on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis."
  • "Pricing is very difficult to guesstimate. With so many a la carte options and individual pricing it can be a hassle to understand."
  • More Microsoft Azure Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Amazon Web Services, Rackspace OpenStack, Microsoft Windows Azure and Google are the major cloud hosting and storage service providers. Athough Amazon is top of them and is oldest in cloud market, Rackspace, Microsoft and Google are giving tough competition to each other and to Amazon also for alluring IT customers. This article give brief history of these cloud hosting service providers and compares the cloud services provided by them. -- Amazon Web Services -- It's hard to find someone who doesn't agree that Amazon Web Services is the market leader in IaaS cloud computing. The company has one of the widest breadths of cloud services - including compute, storage, networking, databases, load balancers, applications and application development platforms all delivered as a cloud service. Amazon has dropped its prices 21 times since it debuted its cloud six years ago and fairly consistently fills whatever gaps it has in the size of virtual machine instances on its platform - the company recently rolled out new high-memory instances, for example. There are some cautions for Amazon though. Namely, its cloud has experienced three major outages in two years. One analyst, Jillian Mirandi of Technology Business Researcher, has suggested that continued outages could eventually start hindering businesses' willingness to invest in Amazon infrastructure. That sentiment gets to a larger point about AWS though - the service seems to be popular in the startup community, providing the IT… Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product's initial setup phase was straightforward, considering that there is good documentation explaining the implementation part of it.
    Top Answer:If we don't know how to work with the tool, we might have some spikes in price. It will increase a lot of our bill. I rate the pricing a six out of ten.
    Top Answer:The support for the Indian region is not as good as compared to the support that is offered to the regions in Europe. My company faces a lot of problems with the support team, especially when Google's… more »
    Top Answer:IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity… more »
    Top Answer:One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with both… more »
    Top Answer:I would recommend Google Firebase instead of Microsoft Azure, simply for the array of features that it has to offer. In particular, the Firebase library grants you access to a shared data structure… more »
    Ranking
    13th
    out of 33 in PaaS Clouds
    Views
    3,977
    Comparisons
    3,412
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    500
    Rating
    7.8
    1st
    out of 33 in PaaS Clouds
    Views
    37,026
    Comparisons
    29,748
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    547
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure
    Learn More
    Overview

    Google App Engine is a Platform-as-a-Service (Paas) provider that equips web application developers with all the resources and tools that they need to develop, test, and run their applications on Google's infrastructure. Everything is built into the kit, so with one download of the SDK, you'll be well on your way to first-rate apps.

    Windows Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, where developers can create, deploy, and maintain their apps. This cloud application platform allows developers to concentrate on the actual applications, while it takes care of all the elements behind the apps.

    Windows Azure works across multiple frameworks and languages. It is fully scalable, localized in that it is hosted globally in many datacenters, and has widespread capabilities with elements of application development, deployment, and management.

    Azure is comprised of several different service modules, including Infrastructure; Web; Mobile; Dev & Test; Big Data; Media;Storage, Backup & Recovery; and Identity & Access Management.

    Microsoft Azure works as a:

    1. Platform as a service (PaaS)
    2. Software as a service (SaaS)
    3. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

    Microsoft Azure is available:

    • On-premises
    • Hybrid
    • Multi-cloud
    • At the edge

    Compared to its competitors, Microsoft Azure:

    • Has more affordable features
    • Has easier migration for organizations already using other Microsoft tools
    • Has several educational resources available
    • Provides robust support
    • Is ideal for small and large businesses

    Microsoft Azure Features:

    • Scalability
    • Stability
    • Flexibility
    • Azure Site Recovery
    • Active Directory
    • Monitoring features
    • Cloud-based
    • Automated tasks
    • Change capability cadence
    • Showback capabilities
    • Information protection
    • Azure Data Lake
    • Excellent portal
    • Intuitive user interface
    • Remote desktop
    • Fast provisioning
    • Data security
    • Data resiliency
    • Speed of service
    • Integrated delivery pipeline
    • Disaster recovery
    • Robust templates
    • Flexible coding languages
    • Virtual systems testing

    Benefits of Microsoft Azure:

    • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Because Microsoft Azure is an IaaS, organizations can deploy as well as manage applications easily and quickly. Azure also provides you with the ability to customize the cloud software to meet your specific business needs.
    • Seamless integration: Microsoft Azure is built to seamlessly integrate with existing IT departments via hybrid databases, secure private connections, and storage solutions.
    • Cost-effective: Because Azure can harmoniously exist in your business environment with your data center, it is a very cost-effective solution.
    • Analytics support: Azure is designed with built-in support that is used to analyze data and provide key insights. Azure offers Cortana Analytics, Stream Analytics, Machine Learning, and SQL services.
    • Unique storage system: Compared to other cloud services, Microsoft Azure has more data centers and delivery points, which helps create an optimal user experience and also helps deliver content faster. In addition, Microsoft Azure makes it possible for organizations to exchange content across several virtual machines.
    • Enhanced flexibility: Azure provides extreme flexibility by allowing you to choose any level of functionality you require. It also supports many of the same technologies IT teams and developers usually depend on, making it easier for them to manage.
    • Easy implementation: Microsoft Azure is easy and quick to deploy. If necessary, you can change web apps to Azure with almost zero downtime.

    Reviews from Real Users:

    "It is a flexible solution that is straightforward to use," says the principal consultant at a computer software company.

    OmarJ., future datacenter consultant: Microsoft Azure Cloud at a tech company, adds that "The user interface is very nice and makes everything easy to use."

    You can build an environment in minutes. It's very good in terms of being an infrastructure as a service, and I found that really fascinating,” says an information technology consultant at a computer software company.

    "I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are," says an enterprise architect at an energy/utilities company.

    Marco C., Ing. at Wolters Kluwer, says "The valuable features of Microsoft Azure are that it is cloud-based and has good storage. The storage is completely managed by Azure. We do not need to do any patching of security because it is handled by Azure which is a benefit. The solution is fully compatible with the Microsoft technology stack and is very scalable."

    "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure is it has everything together in one place. It is one large tool with lots of small tools that are updated often," says the owner of a media company.



    Sample Customers
    Khan Academy, Best Buy, Gigya, MetOffice, Getaround, Mimiboard, NewsLimited, WebFilings, and CloudLock.
    BMW, Toyota, easyJet, NBC Sports, HarperCollins, Aviva, TalkTalk Business, Avanade, and Telenor.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Media Company25%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Non Profit13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization16%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Media Company9%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company22%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization35%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business58%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise61%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise40%
    Large Enterprise46%
    Buyer's Guide
    Google App Engine vs. Microsoft Azure
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Google App Engine vs. Microsoft Azure and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Google App Engine is ranked 13th in PaaS Clouds with 23 reviews while Microsoft Azure is ranked 1st in PaaS Clouds with 298 reviews. Google App Engine is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Azure is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Google App Engine writes "Simplifies app development process for businesses". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure writes "Promotes clear, logical structures preventing impractical configurations and offers seamless integration ". Google App Engine is most compared with Amazon AWS, Heroku, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Google Compute Engine and OpenShift, whereas Microsoft Azure is most compared with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, Pivotal Cloud Foundry and Linode. See our Google App Engine vs. Microsoft Azure report.

    See our list of best PaaS Clouds vendors.

    We monitor all PaaS Clouds 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.