Amazon Lightsail vs Google App Engine comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.9, while Google is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.0% mindshare in PSP, compared to Google’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon Lightsail

Read 13 Amazon Lightsail reviews

1,022 Views
1,022 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Google App Engine

Read 35 Google App Engine reviews

1,610 Views
1,481 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Amazon Lightsail

Google App Engine

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Google App Engine and Amazon Lightsail are both cloud computing offerings. Google App Engine holds an advantage in auto-scaling and development environment support, while Amazon Lightsail is favored for its simple and cost-effective setup.

Features: Google App Engine provides robust auto-scaling, integrated development tools, and comprehensive built-in services like data storage and task queues. Amazon Lightsail delivers easy virtual server provisioning, predictable pricing, and pre-configured environments, making it ideal for straightforward deployments.

Room for Improvement: Google App Engine could improve its ease of deployment and configuration simplicity for new users. It might also focus on enhancing compatibility with non-Google services. Additionally, providing more flexible pricing options would be beneficial. Amazon Lightsail should expand its scalability features, introduce more advanced networking solutions, and offer deeper customization options for complex applications.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google App Engine requires intricate deployment strategies, supported by detailed customer service, which benefits large-scale apps. Amazon Lightsail excels in offering straightforward, quick setup through pre-configured templates, with efficient support tailored for smaller-scale needs.

Pricing and ROI: Google App Engine employs usage-based pricing, potentially higher for extensive use but offering good returns for dynamic applications. Amazon Lightsail features low flat-rate pricing, ideal for small to medium projects, providing predictable costs with a focus on simple deployments.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Lightsail vs. Google App Engine Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail vs. Google App Engine

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Lightsail

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google App Engine

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Amazon Lightsail is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google App Engine is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Google App Engine	2.1%
Amazon Lightsail	2.0%
Other	95.9%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

VictorAugusto De Souza E Silva

Cloud Engineer at Leek Solucoes

Has simplified website migration and reduced hosting costs significantly

Amazon Lightsail should have some kind of scale service. To be more clear, if I need to scale up my instance or VPS, I need to create a snapshot and create a new instance from this snapshot with more resources, such as CPU, RAM, or disk. It would be beneficial to have a welcome instance where we can just set the instance, go there to edit and select a greater instance from large to x-large or 2x-large. I do not see the need to scale down, but it would be good too. When we are on an x-large for testing purposes and need to do a rollback to a large one, we need to scale down. We do not have this capability on Amazon Lightsail.

Read full review

Chandra Shekar Reddy Arrabolu

Associate Projects at Cognizant

Effortless server management and automatic scaling boost productivity

The error logging system in Google App Engine could be enhanced. While there are troubleshooting documents with Google-defined error logs, identifying the exact root cause can be challenging. Often, issues must be escalated through support to product engineering teams who access internal logs for resolution. Increasing the visibility of logging would help users identify issues more easily. Regarding runtimes, the validity period limitations can be problematic. When companies use legacy applications, migrating to new versions requires significant code changes and isn't always a simple lift-and-shift operation. Google App Engine should consider continuing to provide security patches for legacy applications, especially for customers with substantial billing. The manual scaling feature needs improvement, as it isn't available for all runtimes. Adding this capability across all runtimes would be beneficial for controlling instance scaling within specific parameters.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"In Lightsail, they simplified to do it in as few clicks as possible. So, around ten clicks, I have a virtual machine deployed."

"EC2 instances are pre-configured and upgraded, so you can simply select and instantly pay for an EC2 instance to set up WordPress, Node.js, or a server container using Docker."

"One of the product's most valuable features is its fixed pricing, which makes it ideal for small projects and websites that do not require scaling."

"The benefit of using Amazon Lightsail over the AWS console management is that it is a small platform that is easy to understand, as it has only the instance, DNS, Route 53, snapshots, backups, and load balancing network."

"The intuitive management console of Amazon Lightsail is very good because it is simple; with just a few clicks, I can set a blog online, a WordPress blog online, a new e-commerce online, or just a new application with NodeJS."

"Amazon Lightsail is a virtual instance that is a service of Amazon AWS, designed to store data securely and provide applications through the cloud at an affordable cost to the SME sector."

"Implementations are completed with a few clicks, allowing efficient transitions to other development stages, and setup is easy whether for online support or basic business requirements."

"I find Lightsail particularly valuable for hosting WordPress as it is easier to set up than a bare metal server, which requires extensive configuration and package installations."

More Amazon Lightsail pros

"The initial setup is okay. It's not too complex. Deployment took about one day."

"The seamless integration of Google App Engine with other Google Cloud services has enhanced my application capabilities by allowing us to trigger Cloud Jobs from App Engine and some cloud functions, as handling messages through Pub/Sub."

"Administering App Engine is simple; it has intuitive UIs and a very scalable app engine."

"The functions and features of Google App Engine that I have found most valuable are that it is serverless, and the learning curve is easy to follow."

"The auto-scaling feature helped us significantly in our fast-paced environment where the number of users was increasing rapidly."

"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward, considering that there is good documentation explaining the implementation part of it."

"The customer service is excellent and very responsive."

"The most valuable features of Google App Engine include the ease of rolling back deployments when failures occur, the ability to track deployment times, and the feature to split traffic between different instances."

More Google App Engine pros

Cons

"The product's network features need enhancement."

"I don't see this solution as enterprise-ready, for bigger companies like banks."

"The main area for improvement in Lightsail is the difficulty in scaling down resources."

"Amazon Lightsail needs more security in the networking because hackers can attack in application layers three and four."

"The solution could be smoother than it is."

"Currently, there is limited support available while installing or configuring it, and resources are primarily available through community-contributed articles."

"Based on my limited exploration of Amazon Lightsail so far, I would like to see improvements in the console, particularly in user behavior and some cost-related aspects."

"When you need to add some custom rules to Amazon Lightsail, the auto scaling feature is a bit difficult."

More Amazon Lightsail cons

"The interface and IDE, where I write code, could be improved. Unlike other IDEs like Visual Studio, it lacks easy access to available functions."

"The main drawback with Google App Engine's standard environment was its restrictions. We could not work with file systems, run shell scripts from the environment, or use WebSockets."

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The areas of Google App Engine I would to see improved or enhanced in the future include expanding inbuilt support for more programming languages than the current limited options such as Python, Go, and Node, ideally adding support for languages such as Java."

"I would like a simpler deployment tool on laptops. It is a bit complicated at the moment. We know how to do it, but it could be easier to deploy it on laptops."

"The documentation and community are lacking for this product."

"I think there's still a lot that can be done with Google Meet and the video conferencing part of it. It could be more dynamic in terms of what can be done with it."

"I am limited to sending a photo to five people. I want to be able to send a photo to many people, not just five."

More Google App Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The services that it provides are good for the price."

"Amazon Lightsail is a bit cheaper than Amazon EC2."

"Lightsail is available at an affordable cost starting from five dollars per month."

"The affordability of starting at five dollars makes it an attractive option for startups and medium-sized companies, aligning with budget considerations while offering essential cloud services."

"A few months ago, Lightsail's pricing increased, likely due to the addition of the new VPC feature."

"The prices are better than EC2 machines, for instance, because they are simplified management, but it works well, and I am able to run everything that I need on it."

"It's very cheap."

"I would like to have more free application with it. Some of the applications, I am paying more for them. I think that they must be free."

"If we don't know how to work with the tool, we might have some spikes in price."

"We pay the license yearly. It's about $6 a month, which is $72 a year per person, so it's about $500."

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Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Aug 14, 2013

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

University

11%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	13

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Lightsail?

In Lightsail, they simplified to do it in as few clicks as possible. So, around ten clicks, I have a virtual machine deployed.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Lightsail?

Lightsail is available at an affordable cost starting from five dollars per month. This cost may increase with additional features like a static IP.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Lightsail?

Amazon Lightsail needs more security in the networking because hackers can attack in application layers three and four. The networking layer is basically the hacker's target to break the network, s...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google App Engine?

The product's setup and deployment phases are easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google App Engine?

Google App Engine is affordable compared to other available platforms. The pricing structure is reasonable and not overrated.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google App Engine?

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 32% of the time

Google Cloud vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 30% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 9% of the time

Heroku vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Public Cloud vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon Lightsail Competitors

Microsoft Azure vs Google App Engine

Compared 30% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Google App Engine

Compared 22% of the time

Heroku vs Google App Engine

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Google App Engine

Compared 10% of the time

Acquia Cloud vs Google App Engine

Compared 5% of the time

More Google App Engine Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail

September 2025

Download Amazon Lightsail product report

Buyer's Guide

Google App Engine

September 2025

Download Google App Engine product report

Overview

Lightsail is ideal for simpler workloads, quick deployments, and getting started on AWS. It’s designed to help you start small, and then scale as you grow.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Google App Engine is a Platform-as-a-Service (Paas) provider that equips web application developers with all the resources and tools that they need to develop, test, and run their applications on Google's infrastructure. Everything is built into the kit, so with one download of the SDK, you'll be well on your way to first-rate apps.

Google

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Khan Academy, Best Buy, Gigya, MetOffice, Getaround, Mimiboard, NewsLimited, WebFilings, and CloudLock.

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail vs. Google App Engine

September 2025

Free Report: Amazon Lightsail vs. Google App Engine

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Lightsail vs. Google App Engine and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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