Google Cloud vs STACKIT Comparison

Why choose Google Cloud

• Has a free plan (STACKIT does not)
• Higher Scalability score (10/10 vs 6/10)
• Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 6/10)
• Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 6/10)
• Better fit for startups (7/10 vs 4/10)

Why choose STACKIT

• Higher Support score (6/10 vs 5/10)

Google Cloud

Pros

• Very broad managed catalogue that spans VMs, GKE, serverless, several database engines, a CDN and Cloud Armor, so most infrastructure can come from one vendor.
• Global footprint, which Wikipedia put at 40 regions and 121 zones in early 2024, helps teams deploy close to users and across zones.
• A 300 USD, 90-day credit plus a permanent Always Free tier, including a small VM, lets developers prototype at no cost.
• Capterra reviewers credit its scalability with helping them adapt quickly to changing client demand.

Cons

• Capterra reviewers repeatedly say the billing is complex, hard to audit and sometimes produces unexpected charges.
• Technical support requires a paid plan priced as a percentage of spend, and Premium starts at 15,000 USD a month.
• Reviewers report a steep learning curve and inconsistent documentation.
• The free e2-micro VM is limited to three US regions, so other regions incur standard charges.

STACKIT

Pros

• Broad compliance list, including BSI C5 Type 2, ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018, TISAX Level 3 and DORA readiness, which is useful for regulated buyers.
• All data is processed in German and Austrian data centres by an operator owned by the privately held Schwarz Group, which avoids US CLOUD Act exposure.
• Pricing is transparent, with hourly pay-as-you-go metering, a public calculator and a downloadable price list. One review also reports free data egress.
• An official Terraform provider and CLI are described by users as well maintained and covering most needed resources.
• Managed Kubernetes is CNCF-compliant and built on open-source Gardener, which helps portability.

Cons

• The service catalogue and partner ecosystem are much smaller than those of AWS, Azure or GCP.
• There are only two regions, both in Germany and Austria, which limits global reach and cross-continent disaster recovery.
• There is no free tier or reserved-instance discount, and one review estimates compute costs 15 to 20 percent above AWS or GCP.
• Some APIs and products, such as the container registry, are still in beta, and the registry has no Terraform resource.
• Independent customer reviews are scarce, and the single-AZ VM SLA is reported at 99.5 percent.