Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Google App Engine VS web2py

Compare Google App Engine VS web2py and see what are their differences

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Google App Engine logo Google App Engine

A powerful platform to build web and mobile apps that scale automatically.

web2py logo web2py

Web2py is an open source web application framework.
  • Google App Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17
  • web2py Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

Google App Engine features and specs

  • Auto-scaling
    Google App Engine automatically scales your application based on the traffic it receives, ensuring that your application can handle varying workloads without manual intervention.
  • Managed environment
    App Engine provides a fully managed environment, covering infrastructure management tasks like server provisioning, patching, monitoring, and managing app versions.
  • Integrated services
    Seamlessly integrates with other Google Cloud services such as Datastore, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, and more, offering a comprehensive ecosystem for building and deploying applications.
  • Multiple languages support
    Supports multiple programming languages including Java, Python, PHP, Node.js, Go, Ruby, and .NET, giving developers flexibility in choosing their preferred language.
  • Security
    Offers robust security features including Identity and Access Management (IAM), Cloud Identity, and automated security updates, which help protect your applications from vulnerabilities.
  • Developer productivity
    App Engine allows rapid development and deployment, letting developers focus on writing code without worrying about infrastructure management, thus boosting productivity.
  • Versioning
    Supports versioning of applications, allowing multiple versions of the application to be hosted simultaneously, which helps in A/B testing and rollback capabilities.

Possible disadvantages of Google App Engine

  • Cost
    While you pay for what you use, costs can escalate quickly with high traffic or resource-intensive applications. Detailed cost prediction can be challenging.
  • Vendor lock-in
    Relying heavily on Google App Engine's proprietary services and APIs can make it difficult to migrate applications to other platforms, leading to vendor lock-in.
  • Limited control
    Being a fully managed service, App Engine provides limited control over the underlying infrastructure which might be a limitation for certain advanced use cases.
  • Environment constraints
    Certain restrictions and limitations are imposed on the runtime environment, such as request timeout limits and specific resource quotas, which can affect application performance.
  • Complex debugging
    Debugging issues in a highly abstracted managed environment can be more complex and difficult compared to traditional server-hosted applications.
  • Cold start latency
    Serverless environments like App Engine can suffer from cold start latency, where the initial request triggers a delay as the environment spins up resources.
  • Configuration complexity
    Despite its benefits, configuring and optimizing App Engine for specific scenarios can be more complex than expected, requiring a steep learning curve.

web2py features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    web2py provides a user-friendly web-based interface and requires no installation, making it easy even for beginners to use. It also includes a web-based IDE and administrative interface.
  • Security
    It comes with built-in security features like XSS, CSRF, and SQL Injection protection by default, ensuring safer web applications out of the box.
  • No Configuration Required
    web2py runs with zero configuration, allowing developers to start coding immediately without worrying about initial setup.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    web2py can run on any system that supports Python, providing cross-platform compatibility including Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • Full-Stack Framework
    As a full-stack framework, web2py includes everything needed to build a web application, from the database to the web server and the front-end interface.
  • Real-Time Error Logging
    The framework offers real-time error logging which aids in easy troubleshooting and debugging during development.
  • Internationalization Support
    Built-in support for internationalization and localization, making it easier to develop applications for a global audience.
  • Active Community and Documentation
    web2py has a strong community and extensive documentation which greatly aids in quick issue resolution and learning the framework.

Possible disadvantages of web2py

  • Less Popular
    web2py is not as popular as other modern frameworks like Django or Flask, leading to fewer third-party plugins, extensions, and community support.
  • Performance
    While web2py is designed for productivity and ease of use, it may not offer the same level of performance optimizations that some other frameworks provide.
  • Lack of Asynchronous Support
    web2py does not natively support asynchronous request handling, which can be a limitation for applications requiring real-time capabilities.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite being beginner-friendly, the framework's custom syntax and paradigms might still present a learning curve for developers used to other frameworks.
  • Monolithic Design
    The monolithic nature of web2py can make it less flexible compared to micro-frameworks like Flask, especially for developers who prefer a modular approach.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    Due to its lower popularity, the ecosystem for third-party libraries, plugins, and tools is relatively limited compared to more widely adopted frameworks.
  • Not Ideal for Large Projects
    web2py is often considered ideal for simple to moderately complex applications but may not be suitable for very large or highly specialized projects.

Analysis of Google App Engine

Overall verdict

  • Google App Engine is generally considered a good choice for developers looking for a serverless platform to deploy their applications quickly without managing underlying infrastructure. Its ease of use, scalability, and integration with Google's ecosystem make it a strong option, especially for projects expecting to scale significantly or require integration with other Google Cloud services.

Why this product is good

  • Google App Engine is a fully managed serverless platform that allows developers to build scalable web applications and mobile backends. It abstracts away infrastructure management, handles scaling automatically, and offers integration with other Google Cloud services, providing a high degree of flexibility and efficiency. Its key strengths include support for multiple programming languages, built-in security features, and seamless connectivity to Google's machine learning and data analytics tools.

Recommended for

    Google App Engine is recommended for developers building web applications who prefer a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model, startups who need a solution that can grow with them without worrying about scaling issues, teams wanting to leverage Google's robust data and analytics offerings, and businesses that require a global reach with reliable performance.

Google App Engine videos

Get to know Google App Engine

More videos:

  • Review - Developing apps that scale automatically with Google App Engine

web2py videos

Web development with Python and web2py Part1

More videos:

  • Review - Full Stack Web Development with Python WEB2PY
  • Review - Web2py & Py4web

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google App Engine and web2py)
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Web And Application Servers
Cloud Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
Application Server
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Google App Engine and web2py

Google App Engine Reviews

Top 5 Alternatives to Heroku
Google App Engine is fast, easy, but not that very cheap. The pricing is reasonable, and it comes with a free tier, which is great for small projects that are right for beginner developers who want to quickly set up their apps. It can also auto scale, create new instances as needed and automatically handle high availability. App Engine gets a positive rating for performance...
AppScale - The Google App Engine Alternative
AppScale is open source Google App Engine and allows you to run your GAE applications on any infrastructure, anywhere that makes sense for your business. AppScale eliminates lock-in and makes your GAE application portable. This way you can choose which public or private cloud platform is the best fit for your business requirements. Because we are literally the GAE...

web2py Reviews

  1. Yeral Garcia Mayedo
    ยท Student at University of Camagรผey ยท
    Best framework for newbies

    It's a framework to rapid development with a nice DAL to connect to the databases. great for me. Just less than 20mb to download and you have all you need to do develop offline.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Google App Engine seems to be a lot more popular than web2py. While we know about 33 links to Google App Engine, we've tracked only 1 mention of web2py. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Google App Engine mentions (33)

  • Simplifying basic (genAI) web app deployment with serverless
    Google App Engine (GAE) -- the "OG" serverless platform that launched back in 2008 & somewhat modernized in 2018; uses customized, proprietary containers, free static file edge-caching, and generous outbound networking free tier. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Unlocking the Cloud: Your Essential Guide to IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS Models
    Google App Engine - Google's fully managed platform for building scalable web and mobile backends. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Guide to modern app-hosting without servers on Google Cloud
    If Google App Engine (GAE) is the "OG" serverless platform, Cloud Run (GCR) is its logical successor, crafted for today's modern app-hosting needs. GAE was the 1st generation of Google serverless platforms. It has since been joined, about a decade later, by 2nd generation services, GCR and Cloud Functions (GCF). GCF is somewhat out-of-scope for this post so I'll cover that another time. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Security in the Cloud: Your Role in the Shared Responsibility Model
    As Windsales Inc. expands, it adopts a PaaS model to offload server and runtime management, allowing its developers and engineers to focus on code development and deployment. By partnering with providers like Heroku and Google App Engine, Windsales Inc. Accesses a fully managed runtime environment. This choice relieves Windsales Inc. Of managing servers, OS updates, or runtime environment behavior. Instead,... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Hosting apps in the cloud with Google App Engine in 2024
    Google App Engine (GAE) is their original serverless solution and first cloud product, launching in 2008 (video), giving rise to Serverless 1.0 and the cloud computing platform-as-a-service (PaaS) service level. It didn't do function-hosting nor was the concept of containers mainstream yet. GAE was specifically for (web) app-hosting (but also supported mobile backends as well). - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
View more

web2py mentions (1)

  • would it be ok to post backup restore code and instructions and have a backups folder for easy finding?
    Web2py {{for _item in response.menu or []:}} {{if len(_item)<4 or not \_item\[3\]:}} {{=_item[0]}} {{else:}} {{=_item[0]}} {{for _subitem in _item[3]:}} {{=_subitem[0]}} {{pass}} {{pass}} {{pass}} {{if 'auth' in globals():}} {{if auth.user:}}{{=auth.user.first_name}}{{else:}}LOGIN{{pass}} {{if auth.user:}} {{=T('Profile')}} {{if 'change_password' not in... Source: over 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google App Engine and web2py, you can also consider the following products

Salesforce Platform - Salesforce Platform is a comprehensive PaaS solution that paves the way for the developers to test, build, and mitigate the issues in the cloud application before the final deployment.

Microsoft IIS - Internet Information Services is a web server for Microsoft Windows

Dokku - Docker powered mini-Heroku in around 100 lines of Bash

Apache Tomcat - An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

Heroku - Agile deployment platform for Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python, and Scala. Setup takes only minutes and deploys are instant through git. Leave tedious server maintenance to Heroku and focus on your code.

LiteSpeed Web Server - LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement.