Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud (GCP)
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud (GCP).
Quick Verdict
3.6/5
Microsoft Azure
0 reviews
3.9/5
Google Cloud (GCP)
0 reviews
Google Cloud (GCP) is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.6). Microsoft claims over 95% of Fortune 500 use Azure (vendor claim, unverified) Known for its data analytics and AI tooling (BigQuery, Vertex AI).
Microsoft Azure Enterprise cloud — 90% of Fortune 500 use it | Google Cloud (GCP) Google's cloud — AI/ML and data analytics focus | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.6 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | usage-based | pay-as-you-go |
| Starting price | From $6.13/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Microsoft-centric enterprises and hybrid Windows estates needing compliance, identity integration, and global regions more than raw compute value | Data- and ML-centric teams already building on BigQuery, GKE, or Vertex AI, and workloads that need a published multi-zone SLA or data residency in one of 43 regions. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierhourly billingipv6gpu availables3 compatibleeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi accessterraform providerkubernetes supportwindows availablearm processors | free tierhourly billingipv6gpu availables3 compatibleeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi accessterraform providerkubernetes supportarm processors |
| Visit Microsoft Azure → | Visit Google Cloud (GCP) → | |
Microsoft Azure
Pros
- + Deep Microsoft integration: Entra ID, Windows Server/SQL licensing (Hybrid Benefit), Azure Arc hybrid management
- + Tiered availability SLA up to 99.99% across availability zones, with credits up to 100% below 95%
- + Free tier of 750 hours/month for 12 months on B1s, B2pts v2, and B2ats v2 VMs
- + Massive global footprint with EU/US/APAC residency and sovereign clouds
- + Full SKU ladder including N-series GPUs and Arm-based options
Cons
- - List-price price-performance is several times worse than value VPS providers
- - Disks, public IPs, egress, backup, and monitoring all meter separately from the VM
- - Dense portal and vocabulary — real onboarding time for small teams
- - Conditional SLAs: 95% for a single VM on Standard HDD; 99.99% only with your own multi-zone design
- - Production-grade support is a paid tier
Google Cloud (GCP)
Pros
- + Best published SLA set in the comparison: 99.99% multi-zone, 99.9% single-instance
- + 43 regions and 130 zones with per-region price variance you can trade against latency
- + Per-second billing and three discount levers — Spot up to 91% off, commitments up to 55–70%
- + Live migration through host maintenance; deep integration with GKE, BigQuery, Vertex AI
- + Real free entry: $300 trial credit that never auto-charges, plus an Always Free e2-micro VM
Cons
- - Poor price-performance for plain VMs versus European VPS specialists; no bundled transfer
- - Egress is expensive ($0.12/GiB Premium) and billed as a separate line item
- - Sustained use discounts don't apply to E2 and N4 — the families entry buyers choose
- - Budgets alert but don't cap Compute Engine spend; human support costs from $29/month
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