Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Google App Engine

10.2K
8K
+ 1
611
PythonAnywhere

93
293
+ 1
64
Add tool

Google App Engine vs PythonAnywhere: What are the differences?

Introduction

Google App Engine and PythonAnywhere are two platforms that offer hosting and deployment services for web applications. While they serve a similar purpose, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Pricing Model: Google App Engine has a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on resource consumption, while PythonAnywhere offers fixed-price plans based on the amount of storage and computational power required. This difference in pricing models allows users to choose the option that best suits their budget and usage patterns.

  2. Scalability and Flexibility: Google App Engine is designed to handle high-traffic applications and provides automatic scaling to accommodate fluctuating user demands. It offers various runtime environments and supports multiple programming languages beyond Python. On the other hand, PythonAnywhere is more focused on simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for smaller projects with lower traffic. It primarily supports Python and offers limited scalability options.

  3. Deployment Process: Google App Engine provides a managed infrastructure where developers can deploy their applications directly from the command line or through integration with development tools like Git. It also offers features like traffic splitting and versioning for smooth deployment of updates. In contrast, PythonAnywhere offers a simple web-based deployment interface, making it easier for beginners to get started. However, it may lack some advanced deployment features provided by Google App Engine.

  4. Additional Services and Integration: Google App Engine offers a wide range of additional services and integrations with other Google Cloud Platform products, such as BigQuery for analytics, Firestore for database storage, and Cloud Pub/Sub for messaging. These services provide developers with a comprehensive ecosystem for building and scaling applications. PythonAnywhere, being a more dedicated hosting platform, does not offer such extensive integrations and additional services.

  5. Support and Community: Google App Engine benefits from the extensive support and active community of the Google Cloud Platform. It has comprehensive documentation, forums, and support channels for developers to seek assistance. PythonAnywhere, being a smaller and more specialized platform, may have a smaller support community and documentation. However, it still provides customer support and assistance for its users.

  6. Ease of Use and Learning Curve: PythonAnywhere emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for beginners and developers who prefer a straightforward hosting experience. It provides a user-friendly web interface and simple deployment process. Google App Engine, on the other hand, may have a steeper learning curve due to its extensive features and flexibility. It is more suitable for developers with experience in cloud environments or those who require advanced scalability and integration options.

In summary, Google App Engine is a more robust and flexible platform with a scalable infrastructure, extensive services, and integration options, while PythonAnywhere provides a simpler and beginner-friendly hosting experience with fixed-price plans. The choice between the two depends on the specific needs, budget, and expertise of the developers or businesses.

Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
Learn More
Pros of Google App Engine
Pros of PythonAnywhere
  • 145
    Easy to deploy
  • 106
    Auto scaling
  • 80
    Good free plan
  • 62
    Easy management
  • 56
    Scalability
  • 35
    Low cost
  • 32
    Comprehensive set of features
  • 28
    All services in one place
  • 22
    Simple scaling
  • 19
    Quick and reliable cloud servers
  • 6
    Granular Billing
  • 5
    Easy to develop and unit test
  • 5
    Monitoring gives comprehensive set of key indicators
  • 3
    Really easy to quickly bring up a full stack
  • 3
    Create APIs quickly with cloud endpoints
  • 2
    No Ops
  • 2
    Mostly up
  • 15
    Web apps
  • 11
    Easy Setup
  • 8
    Great support
  • 8
    Shell access
  • 8
    Free plan
  • 7
    Super-easy to use
  • 5
    Libraries
  • 2
    Many things like Python are pre-installed

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Google App Engine
Cons of PythonAnywhere
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 1
      No root access
    • 1
      Really small community

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Google App Engine?

    Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.

    What is PythonAnywhere?

    It's somewhat unique. A small PaaS that supports web apps (Python only) as well as scheduled jobs with shell access. It is an expensive way to tinker and run several small apps.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Google App Engine?
    What companies use PythonAnywhere?
    Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
    Learn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Google App Engine?
    What tools integrate with PythonAnywhere?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    What are some alternatives to Google App Engine and PythonAnywhere?
    Heroku
    Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.
    DigitalOcean
    We take the complexities out of cloud hosting by offering blazing fast, on-demand SSD cloud servers, straightforward pricing, a simple API, and an easy-to-use control panel.
    AWS Lambda
    AWS Lambda is a compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages the underlying compute resources for you. You can use AWS Lambda to extend other AWS services with custom logic, or create your own back-end services that operate at AWS scale, performance, and security.
    Kubernetes
    Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk
    Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.
    See all alternatives