Google Cloud Run vs. Google App Engine: Which is better?

Are you looking for a serverless platform to deploy your applications? Do you want to leverage the power of Google Cloud Platform to build and run your applications? If yes, then you might be wondering which serverless platform to choose between Google Cloud Run and Google App Engine.

Both Google Cloud Run and Google App Engine are serverless platforms that allow you to deploy and run your applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. However, they have some differences that might make one platform better suited for your needs than the other.

In this article, we will compare Google Cloud Run and Google App Engine and help you decide which platform is better for your use case.

What is Google Cloud Run?

Google Cloud Run is a serverless platform that allows you to deploy and run your containerized applications. With Cloud Run, you can deploy your applications as Docker containers and let Google manage the underlying infrastructure for you.

Cloud Run is built on top of Knative, an open-source platform for building, deploying, and managing serverless workloads on Kubernetes. This means that Cloud Run inherits all the benefits of Kubernetes, such as scalability, high availability, and fault tolerance.

Cloud Run supports both HTTP and gRPC protocols, which means that you can deploy web applications, APIs, and microservices on the platform. You can also deploy your applications from various sources, such as Cloud Build, Git, or the Cloud Console.

What is Google App Engine?

Google App Engine is a serverless platform that allows you to deploy and run your applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. With App Engine, you can deploy your applications as web applications, APIs, or background workers.

App Engine supports several programming languages, such as Java, Python, PHP, and Go. You can also use popular web frameworks, such as Flask, Django, and Spring Boot, to build your applications.

App Engine provides several features, such as automatic scaling, load balancing, and traffic splitting, that make it easy to scale your applications and handle traffic spikes. You can also integrate your applications with other Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Pub/Sub.

Cloud Run vs. App Engine: Comparison

Now that we have a basic understanding of Cloud Run and App Engine, let's compare them based on some key features.

Deployment

Cloud Run allows you to deploy your applications as Docker containers. This means that you can use any programming language, framework, or library that can be packaged as a Docker container. You can also deploy your applications from various sources, such as Cloud Build, Git, or the Cloud Console.

App Engine, on the other hand, supports several programming languages, such as Java, Python, PHP, and Go. You can also use popular web frameworks, such as Flask, Django, and Spring Boot, to build your applications. However, you cannot deploy your applications as Docker containers.

Scalability

Both Cloud Run and App Engine provide automatic scaling, load balancing, and traffic splitting features that make it easy to scale your applications and handle traffic spikes.

However, Cloud Run provides more granular control over scaling than App Engine. With Cloud Run, you can specify the maximum number of instances, the minimum number of instances, and the maximum number of requests per instance. You can also set the concurrency limit, which controls the number of requests that can be processed simultaneously by an instance.

Pricing

Cloud Run and App Engine have different pricing models. Cloud Run charges you based on the number of requests and the duration of the requests, while App Engine charges you based on the instance hours and the outgoing network traffic.

Cloud Run's pricing model is more granular than App Engine's pricing model. With Cloud Run, you only pay for the exact number of requests and the exact duration of the requests, which means that you can save money if your applications have low traffic or short-lived requests.

Integration with other Google Cloud services

Both Cloud Run and App Engine provide integration with other Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Pub/Sub.

However, Cloud Run provides more flexibility than App Engine when it comes to integration. With Cloud Run, you can deploy your applications in a VPC network, which means that you can access other resources in the same VPC network, such as Compute Engine instances, Cloud SQL databases, and Cloud Memorystore instances.

Development experience

Cloud Run and App Engine provide different development experiences. With Cloud Run, you need to package your applications as Docker containers and deploy them to the platform. This means that you need to have some knowledge of Docker and containerization.

With App Engine, you can deploy your applications directly from your code editor or IDE. This means that you don't need to have any knowledge of Docker or containerization.

Conclusion

So, which serverless platform is better for your use case? The answer depends on your specific needs and requirements.

If you want to deploy your applications as Docker containers and have more granular control over scaling, then Cloud Run might be a better choice for you. If you want to deploy your applications directly from your code editor or IDE and have a simpler development experience, then App Engine might be a better choice for you.

Both Cloud Run and App Engine are powerful serverless platforms that can help you build and run your applications on Google Cloud Platform. It's up to you to decide which platform is better suited for your needs.

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