AWS vs Azure vs GCP: Cloud Cost Comparison

Cloud computing is one of the hottest buzzwords in the IT field. The largest public cloud providers offer easy-to-set-up, highly scalable, and generally affordable benefits. With various of the largest cloud providers currently available, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google GCP stand out proudly as the top contenders. They have already reported double-digit growth in cloud computing prices. However, one must acknowledge that these cutting-edge cloud solutions come at a specific cost. This blog will delve into AWS Vs Azure Vs GCP cloud cost comparison and see how they fare. But before we do, let’s understand the current state of the cloud market.

In 2023, the cloud computing landscape continues to be dominated by key players, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) maintaining a significant market share of 32%, according to AAG IT Support. Following closely, Microsoft Azure holds a notable 23%, as reported by Acropolium, while Google Cloud Platform (GCP) secures a 10% share, as per the same source.

These statistics underscore AWS’s continued leadership in the cloud market, with Azure and GCP also playing substantial roles, showcasing the dynamic competition among these significant cloud service providers.

When it comes to pricing, the competition remains intense. Key instances, such as AWS t4g.large, Azure B4ms, and GCP e2-standard-4 boast varying discounts, providing users with cost-efficient options based on their specific needs. Moreover, the inclusion of Oracle VM.Standard3.As reported by CAST AI, Flex, with a 1% discount, adds diversity to the pricing field.

Beyond market share and pricing, enterprise usage statistics reveal Azure leading with an 80% adoption rate, slightly ahead of AWS, which holds 77% of enterprise usage, according to CAST AI. Additionally, each cloud provider distinguishes itself through its service offerings, with price comparison AWS Azure Google presenting the broadest range of services, Azure showcasing strong integration with Microsoft products, and GCP focusing on open-source technologies and machine learning, as highlighted by Channel Insider.

 According to CNBC, AWS sustains a growth rate of 12%, maintaining its stronghold in the industry. In contrast, Microsoft Azure outpaces both AWS and GCP with an impressive growth rate of 29%, as reported by CNBC, showcasing its accelerated momentum in the market. However, GCP, while still growing at a commendable 22%, experiences a slowdown compare AWS and Azure pricing to the previous quarter, highlighting the dynamic nature of the cloud industry’s competitive field.

Financially, the revenue figures underscore these cloud giants’ substantial impact on the market. AWS leads with a revenue of USD 79.4 billion in 2023, according to Synergy Research Group, while Azure follows closely with USD 74.7 billion, as reported by CNBC. GCP maintains a notable revenue of USD 28.4 billion, further illustrating the robust financial performance of these major players in the cloud computing domain.

Other noteworthy statistics include Azure’s significant presence among Fortune 500 companies, with 95% utilizing its services and 40% of Azure users located in the US, according to Acropolium. Additionally, as noted by HG Insights, GCP stands out, with 84% of its customers exclusively using its platform. Despite Azure’s notable growth, AWS vs Google cloud pricing continues to lead in overall market share, highlighting the enduring competitiveness of these cloud service providers.

Furthermore, according to CNBC, Microsoft’s emphasis on AI has propelled Azure’s growth, surpassing AWS and Google in the latest quarter. Notably, Google Cloud Platform’s robust growth in AI and machine learning further positions it as a key player in the evolving  cloud storage cost comparison field.

Looking For Support

Picking an integrated cloud vendor for your organization is not an easy task. One has to consider multiple factors, some of which are unique needs, business goals, workloads, and requirements. One of the criteria is pricing. While cloud technology is about making things cost-effective, it is tough to choose from AWS, Azure, and Google as pricing can vary widely by different plans, service choices, features, discount options, resource use, and more.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google (GCP), and Microsoft (Azure) are the most prominent public cloud providers market share, and they have a multi-billion dollar market share in the cloud pricing computing arena. While all three provide similar vital functions, which public cloud provider best suits your organization in terms of pricing? Our Veritis team will help you pick the right vendor for your platform.

Before going into an in-depth AWS Vs. Azure Vs. For the GCP cloud cost comparison, we will cover the estimated amount you can expect to pay as an average user for each provider. First, let’s have detailed info about each provider and the comparison of AWS vs Azure vs GCP.

Useful Link: Cloud Implementation Services: Strategy, Solutions and Benefits

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS came into the limelight in 2006 with services like Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). In 2009, it offered more services such as Elastic Block Store (EBS), Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Amazon CloudFront. Amazon offers more than 18,000 services ranging from productivity tools to machine learning.

Amazon Web Services is the most standard cloud storage cost comparison service for object archiving, and it holds the biggest chunk of the current cloud provider security. It comprises decadent tools like IoT, security, databases, management, analytics, and enterprise applications. On the other hand, AWS cloud server pricing Service S3 offers reliability, scalability, accessibility of information, and efficiency.

AWS market share dominates the global market with a revenue share of 32%, while Azure has a 23% market share, and GCP has an 11% market share.

Microsoft and Google compete with AWS by reducing their prices. AWS is one of the best cloud services providers as their server pricing provides a pay-as-you-go model for its services as users pay what they consume for their service, and once they finish the services, there is no need to pay the additional amount or termination fees.

Inside AWS vs Azure pricing, the pricing format is complicated enough to make you seek a third-party app to manage all these services. However, for the minimum instance (for 2 virtual CPUs and 8 GB RAM), Amazon will cost you nearly USD 69/month, while the maximum instance (for 128 virtual CPUs and 3.84 TB RAM) will increase you to nearly USD 3.97/hour.

Measurement specifications for Amazon S3

Storage volume: 200 GB per month

Data scan: 200 GB per month

Data return: 200 GB per month

PUT, COPY, POST, LIST requests: 10,000

GET, SELECT, and all other requests: 10,000

With the data above, we estimated the minimum total you would need to spend per month for your MVP (minimum viable product). The prices of Amazon S3 vary from one region to another. In perspective, the cost in some regions would be:  UK – USD 5.47, US East – USD 5.20, US West – USD 5.87. Meanwhile, all other places would average at USD 5.5. The cloud storage prices are USD 4.65 per month for all outlined locations.

Useful Link: Accelerate Business Growth with AWS Cloud Migration

Microsoft Azure

Azure provides numerous cloud pricing comparison types that cater to multiple companies’ requirements. Data Lake Storage and Queue Storage are some of the best Azure options for big companies that need high data storage requirements. Bulk storage is ideal for companies opting for a large amount of unstructured data, while File storage is reliable and designed for most business requirements.

Azure vs AWS pricing depends on multiple factors, such as the management level, the capacity required, and the location. Additionally, it offers a free tier, which allows free forever for some specific models and the unrestricted use of certain models for the first 12 months only.

Like AWS, Azure pricing offers the pay-as-you-go pricing model. It also provides an alternate option to pre-purchase its service, which it calls a “Reserved Instance” (upfront commitment). This scenario requires a one or 3-year commitment for many of their products. With Reserved Instance, you can receive up to a 72 percent discount for Azure services. It also offers spot instances, allowing users to purchase VMs from Azure’s spare capacity at a low price.

The pay-as-you-go approach is charged per second, and users can start or stop the service as per requirement and pay for what they use. On the other hand, the Reserved Instance is built for continuous use, and it is based on the entire month’s cost (730 hours). The pay-as-you-go model also depends on a 730-hour analysis per the pricing calculator.

Therefore, when comparing both the models, 730 hours Reserved Instance vs 730 hours pay as you go, the Reserved Instance model looks best by estimating with the price calculator that you need to use Azure cloud services pricing for a year or more.

Microsoft Azure allows a wide range of services, such as computing, networking, storage, and analytics. Therefore, its pricing model depends on various factors, including the capacity required, the location, the type of service, and the management level.

Azure Pricing Model