Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Platform.sh VS Google App Engine

Compare Platform.sh VS Google App Engine and see what are their differences

Platform.sh logo Platform.sh

Continuous deployment cloud hosting

Google App Engine logo Google App Engine

A powerful platform to build web and mobile apps that scale automatically.
  • Platform.sh Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12
  • Google App Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17

Platform.sh

$ Details
Release Date
2010 January
Startup details
Country
France
City
Paris
Founder(s)
Damien Tournoud
Employees
100 - 249

Platform.sh features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Platform.sh provides a user-friendly interface and integrates seamlessly with a wide range of development tools, making it easy for developers to deploy, manage, and scale their applications.
  • Multi-Cloud Support
    Platform.sh supports multiple cloud providers, allowing users to choose the best infrastructure for their needs and ensure redundancy and high availability.
  • Automated Workflows
    The platform automates many of the tedious aspects of development and deployment, such as environment creation, updates, and scaling, which can save developers a significant amount of time and reduce errors.
  • Git-based Deployment
    Platform.sh uses Git for version control, making it easy to manage code changes, roll back to previous versions, and collaborate with other developers.
  • Security Features
    Platform.sh offers robust security features, including end-to-end encryption, compliance with various industry standards, and granular access controls to help protect applications and data.
  • Scalability
    The platform is designed to easily scale applications both vertically and horizontally to handle increases in traffic and usage, ensuring optimal performance.
  • Customizable Environments
    Developers can create multiple isolated environments for different stages of development (e.g., development, testing, staging), which allows for more controlled and efficient workflows.

Possible disadvantages of Platform.sh

  • Cost
    Platform.sh can be more expensive compared to other hosting solutions, particularly for small projects or startups with limited budgets.
  • Complexity for Simple Projects
    For very simple or small-scale projects, the robust features of Platform.sh might be overkill, adding unnecessary complexity to the project.
  • Learning Curve
    While Platform.sh is designed to be developer-friendly, there can be a learning curve for teams unfamiliar with the platform or with advanced features.
  • Limited Language Support
    Although Platform.sh supports a wide range of programming languages, some less common languages might not be supported, which could be a limitation for certain projects.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Relying heavily on Platform.sh's unique features can create a situation where migrating to another platform could become complex and time-consuming, leading to vendor lock-in.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    Since Platform.sh is a cloud-based service, consistent internet connectivity is required to access and manage applications, which can be a drawback in environments with unreliable internet service.

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.

Analysis of Platform.sh

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Platform.sh is regarded as a reliable and flexible hosting solution, particularly beneficial for businesses and teams that need advanced development workflows and infrastructure management. It can significantly streamline operations for development teams working in a collaborative environment.

Why this product is good

  • Platform.sh is considered a strong choice for developers and teams who require a robust, scalable, and efficient cloud hosting solution. It offers features like automated deployments, vertical scaling, and a comprehensive DevOps workflow. The platform provides tools for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), which can simplify the process of managing complex applications. Its ability to support multiple programming languages and frameworks also makes it versatile for various types of projects.

Recommended for

    Platform.sh is especially recommended for medium to large enterprises, digital agencies, and development teams looking to streamline their deployment processes and infrastructure management. It's also suitable for projects that require multi-cloud support and high levels of customization and scalability.

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.

Platform.sh videos

Try new technologies and architectures | Platform.sh Demo

More videos:

  • Review - ezConf 17 - ezPlatform on Platform.sh

Google App Engine videos

Get to know Google App Engine

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Platform.sh and Google App Engine)
Cloud Hosting
24 24%
76% 76
Cloud Computing
15 15%
85% 85
Web Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
Backend As A Service
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 Platform.sh and Google App Engine

Platform.sh Reviews

Top 10 Node JS Hosting Companies
Infrastructure Management — Platform.sh gives you infrastructure management with the help of PaaS or “Platform as a Service”. This ensures that all the features related to management are either coded into the backend or are available for the user to take advantage of through the management interface.

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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Platform.sh might be a bit more popular than Google App Engine. We know about 36 links to it since March 2021 and only 31 links to Google App Engine. 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.

Platform.sh mentions (36)

  • Dev Challenge: A Soroban Crowdfactoring dApp
    I have been participated in other Soroban challenges such as Sorobanathon and Sorobounties Spectacular, but this challenge has been different. I have improved my react skills and I've learned how to integrate Backend and Frontend using the Symfony UX initiative. Besides, I've also learned how to deploy an application to the Platform.sh cloud. I specially would like to mention that I have learned that web2 and... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • How much RAM for 20+ Drupal sites?
    You wrote get a 20G medium hosting package from platform.sh, did you mean 2G? Source: over 1 year ago
  • Platform.sh vs Pantheon
    I personally *like* platform.sh better as a development tool but it's hard to make a strong objective case one way or the other. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2023)
    Platform.sh | REMOTE | Full-Time | https://platform.sh Platform.sh is a unified, secure, enterprise-grade platform for building, running and scaling fleets of websites and applications. We serve thousands of customers worldwide including The United Nations, The Financial Times, Adobe Commerce/Magento, Shopware, Orange, University of Missouri and The British Council. We are among the momentum leaders in Cloud PaaS... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Why does Acquia cost more than Pantheon?
    With all that said... There will ALWAYS be edge case scenarios where Pantheon DOESN'T work, But I'm sure that would happen with Acquia also. Or platform.sh... Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Google App Engine mentions (31)

  • 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 / 5 months 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 / 7 months 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 / 8 months ago
  • Fixing A Broken Deployment to Google App Engine
    In 2014, I took a web development on Udacity that was taught by Steve Huffman of Reddit fame. He taught authentication, salting passwords, the difference between GET and POST requests, basic html and css, caching techniques. It was a fantastic introduction to web dev. To pass the course, students deployed simple python servers to Google App Engine. When I started to look for work, I opted to use code from that... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Next.js Deployment: Vercel's Charm vs. GCP's Muscle
    GCP offers a comprehensive suite of cloud services, including Compute Engine, App Engine, and Cloud Run. This translates to unparalleled control over your infrastructure and deployment configurations. Designed for large-scale applications, GCP effortlessly scales to accommodate significant traffic growth. Additionally, for projects heavily reliant on Google services like BigQuery, Cloud Storage, or AI/ML tools,... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Platform.sh and Google App Engine, you can also consider the following products

Pantheon - The professional website platform for Drupal & WordPress sites.

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.

Hostwinds - Hostwinds offers web hosting services and solutions.

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.

WP Engine - Hassle-Free WordPress Hosting

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