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Amazon Web Services vs Google Cloud Platform

Two hyperscaler cloud options for hosting. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

Amazon Web ServicesHyperscaler cloud
Google Cloud PlatformHyperscaler cloud
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose Amazon Web Services if
  • The widest catalog of building blocks — Lambda, containers, managed databases, queues — to assemble your own infrastructure.

Use it whenYou need a specific AWS service, enterprise customers ask for it, or you have credits to spend.

Trade-offYou wire up networking, permissions and deploys yourself; billing is per service and hard to predict.

Choose Google Cloud Platform if
  • Containers on Cloud Run that scale to zero, next to BigQuery, Firebase and Google's AI services.

Use it whenYour product leans on BigQuery, Vertex AI or Firebase, or you have Google Cloud credits.

Trade-offMore setup than a PaaS, and IAM and billing take learning.

At a glance

Amazon Web ServicesGoogle Cloud Platform
Used by386 makers' products · 17 open-source projects184 makers' products
Cost at default usagerequests 5 million requests, data transfer out 100 GB, serverless function compute 100 GB-hours$17/mo Pay as you go (Lambda + EC2 t4g.small)—
Downloads4.2M/wk−39% vs npm
PricingPay-as-you-go per service; new accounts get up to $200 in Free Tier credits over 6 months. · paid from Pay as you goPay-as-you-go per service; new customers get $300 in free credit, plus free monthly usage of 20+ products. · paid from Pay as you go
Free tierYesYes
Open sourceNoNo

What makers say

Makers on using it for hosting, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Amazon Web Services
We are so excited to integrate with AWS Lambda. Look for our upcoming co-authored blog about how Fleak and AWS Lambda bring goodness to data teams and help them win their time back!
Fleak, the makerSep 2026 ↗
AWS provides the global infrastructure we need to deliver low-latency voice translation to users worldwide. Their reliable services ensure our calls connect seamlessly across regions.
The Banana App, the makerSep 2026 ↗
AWS Lambda's scalability is definitely a game-changer, especially for handling the traffic spikes from a Product Hunt launch. Shoutout to AWS Lambda for making it possible! 🚀
Gan.AI, the makerSep 2026 ↗
152 more on the Amazon Web Services page →
On Google Cloud Platform
GCP has been solid for our AI infra stack, especially around inference and data pipelines. The tooling is consistent, and the managed services scale with less hand-holding than most
Sieve, the makerSep 2026 ↗
GCP gives us scalable infra with minimal friction. Their tooling around AI workloads has improved significantly in the past year. Easy integration with AI pipelines and generous scaling.
RunLLM, the makerSep 2026 ↗
i self host everything on GCP and am super thankful to their startup team and program for giving me some credits to get integral off the ground. great product and support.
Integral, the makerSep 2026 ↗
113 more on the Google Cloud Platform page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Amazon Web Services
Most loved
  • It offers a huge catalog of services in one place, from databases to queues to AI. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • It scales up and down with bursty traffic without re-architecting. PHPH 2PH 3
  • Its reliability record is something teams are willing to bet a product on. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
Watch-outs
  • Major outages, from long us-east incidents to struck data centers, have taken customer services down. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
  • Its services can be tricky to configure. PH
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 282 reviews · mentioned most: reliable cloud services, scalable infrastructure, extensive service offerings
Google Cloud PlatformOn Product Hunt: 5.0★, 205 reviews · mentioned most: robust infrastructure, scalability, AI/ML capabilities

Who uses each

Amazon Web Services386 makers' products
Ada.imAgentMailAgentplace.ioAgentRAI Context FlowAlchemyzeAmplooAntiquotedAnythingAstridAstrioBeatoven.ai+374 more
Google Cloud Platform184 makers' products
agumbe.devAraBePresentBlimpBlop AIBrainstreamBreadth Edits Beta v1.0BrightByteNiteByteroverClaroClaw Cognition+172 more
Used by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product
BetterClawByteNiteCynative Security Research AgentGateOSGoMarbleHello InboxKukyMakko AINeuralAgentNINAPulse for Elasticsearch and OpenSearchQualGent

What makers pair each with

With Amazon Web Services
Transactional Email
LLM API
Frontend Framework
Payments
With Google Cloud Platform
LLM API
Transactional Email
Database
Frontend Framework

Neither quite right?

See the whole hosting decision →
VercelFrontend cloudNext.js apps — zero-config deploys and preview URLs.vs Amazon Web Services →
NetlifyFrontend cloudStatic sites and JAMstack apps on any framework.
CloudflareEdge platformCheap global hosting with Workers, plus database (D1) and storage (R2) on the same platform.vs Amazon Web Services →
RailwayPaaSServers, workers and databases deployed together, with almost no configuration.vs Amazon Web Services →
RenderPaaSA Heroku-style platform for web services, cron jobs and Postgres.vs Amazon Web Services →
Fly.ioContainer platformDocker apps that should run close to users in many regions.vs Amazon Web Services →
Hetzner CloudYour own serverA lot of CPU and RAM per euro, in European, US and Singapore regions.vs Amazon Web Services →
CoolifyYour own serverA Heroku- or Vercel-style dashboard on your own server, with many one-click services.