Google App Engine vs Netlify

Cloud computing for hosting and developing brings several benefits to modern-day applications. However, managing such technical things is inefficient, especially for small and medium businesses.

That’s where cloud computing platforms come in, as they provide all the services while minimizing your efforts.

Google App Engine and Netlify are two of the world’s leading cloud computing platforms, and here we will help you select one of them.

Google App Engine Overview

Google App Engine helps with developing and managing web applications within Google’s managed data centers.

This platform brings technology, analytics, and security to meet your IT needs in a serverless way to power all your application’s digital needs. In this way, you can focus more on the code and the basic features of your application.

Once you begin with Google App Engine and set all your requirements, everything else is taken care of by the platform.

Google App Engine does everything from app instances to scaling and provisioning servers and frees up your developers from hard work.

Google App Engine Features

Google App Engine comes packed with many features, and below are the details of some of its top features.

• Application diagnostics

Google App Engine comes with a powerful diagnostics feature that uses its cloud logging and cloud monitoring functionalities to monitor your application’s performance and health.

The cloud debugger feature helps diagnose and fix any bugs in your application quickly with early and precise error reporting.

So, Google App Engine will help keep your web application free from all types of bugs and help maintain the best performance and health.

• Versioning

The versioning feature at Google App Engine does not restrict you or your application to a specific version.

Instead, you have the freedom to host different versions of one application with easy development and hosting. It also comes with easy:

• Testing
• Production
• Staging

So, you can keep different versions of your application live to provide the best experience to its users.

• Serverless approach with security

One of the best features of Google App Engine is that it comes with a serverless ecosystem where you can easily utilize different cloud services from google for your application.

So, it brings a complete suite of developing and deployment tools on a cloud platform along with enterprise-grade security.

It has a built-in firewall and managed SSL/TLS certifications on your domain. The best part is that all these security features are free.

• Fully managed services

Developing your web app on Google App Engine gets you a fully managed environment so the developers can focus more on the code and main features and functionalities of the application.

Your IT team does not need to focus on any of the infrastructure requirements, as the Google App Engine platform takes care of all those.

Google App Engine Pricing

Google App Engine comes with competitive market pricing and scales according to your requirements.

You can select all the features you need and set your required specifications to get a price estimation for your application using the Google App Engine price calculator.

As you get your bill, there will be some basic features, including the standard and flexible environment instances. The Standard environment offers a free tier and the Flexible environment does not offer a free tier.

Netlify Overview

Netlify is a developer-oriented cloud computing serverless platform with building, deploying, CDN, and hosting services all in one place.

As it brings all of these under one platform, it removes the need to connect different platforms or go through the complex process of setting up and managing data across different services and tools.

All you need to do is to write the code for your website, and Netlify will take care of the rest. Netlify even simplifies the development process by connecting to your Git repository, allowing you to push changes right from your Git repository in the future. Netlify will automatically build and deploy the changes in your web app as you push changes.

Netlify Features

The following are some of the best features you get from Netlify while developing and hosting your web application.

• Serverless approach

Netlify has a serverless approach where you do not need to install web development tools. It works with Netlify’s functions, plugins, and APIs to bring an easier development experience than traditional development.

This serverless approach from Netlify also removes the need for infrastructure management or backend maintenance issues.

• No need for backend code

There are several features in a web application; for most of them, you will not need any backend code. It is because Netlify makes integrating with different applications and platforms easier.

So, you can get those features from over 1000 applications without any backend code. Some common examples include:

• Automatically populating Google spreadsheets
• Creating Zendesk tickets
• Sending Gmail email
• Creating Salesforce leads, etc.

With no code for these, your development and deployment experience will elevate.

• Custom creation brings more features

With Netlify, you can get all the features you want, along with automatic deployment services, right from its CDN.

You also have the choice to go with modern-day languages and frameworks to create some custom features to make your application more feature rich and offer a better user experience.

• Collaboration made easier

Sharing, reviewing, and managing feedback is easier with Netlify as it empowers all stakeholders to view project progress and leave feedback at any time.

Those comments are synced to the right productivity tool to resolve that comment for higher productivity.

Netlify Pricing

The pricing polity at Netlify starts with a free plan that is good enough to get started for an individual. However, if you want advanced features and better support, here are the 3 different plans you get:

• The Pro plan starts at $19 per user per month
• The Business plan starts at $99 per user per month
• The Enterprise plan under quotation

If the business plan does not meet all your requirements and you want higher uptime, better support, and an enterprise-grade network, then you can get the Enterprise plan upon contacting their sales team.

Netlify vs Google App Engine Comparison

Conclusion

This article overviewed Netlify and Google App Engine and explained the distinctions between these two cloud platforms.

Netlify is a cloud computing platform for building and deploying web applications. The main features include continuous integration, deploy previous, edge functions, etc. The platform is straightforward to use, allows fast deployment, and it’s a great way to accelerate development.

Google App Engine supports developers build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud. It is focused on backend development and allows web/mobile deployment. The core features include a fully managed environment, application versioning, and security.

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