Cloud-Provider Comparison
Equivalent services across major providers. Background: What is Cloud-Computing?. Provider sheets: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Hetzner Cloud, DigitalOcean, Cloudflare, Oracle Cloud, Backblaze B2 and Civo.
Product names change. Treat this as a map, then check each provider’s current docs and pricing.
Services Map #
| CATEGORY | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud | Civo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual machines | EC2 | Virtual Machines | Compute Engine | Instances |
| Managed Kubernetes | EKS | AKS | GKE | Civo Kubernetes (K3s) |
| Serverless functions | Lambda | Functions | Cloud Functions / Cloud Run functions | n/a |
| Serverless containers | Fargate / App Runner | Container Apps | Cloud Run | n/a |
| Object storage | S3 | Blob Storage | Cloud Storage | Object Store |
| Block storage | EBS | Managed Disks | Persistent Disk | Volumes |
| File storage | EFS | Azure Files | Filestore | n/a |
| Managed SQL | RDS / Aurora | Azure SQL / Database for PostgreSQL | Cloud SQL / AlloyDB | Databases |
| NoSQL | DynamoDB | Cosmos DB | Firestore / Bigtable | n/a |
| Private network | VPC | VNet | VPC | Private networks |
| Load balancer | ELB / ALB / NLB | Load Balancer / App Gateway | Cloud Load Balancing | Load balancers |
| DNS | Route 53 | Azure DNS | Cloud DNS | DNS |
| CDN | CloudFront | Front Door / CDN | Cloud CDN | n/a |
| Identity | IAM | Entra ID + RBAC | Cloud IAM | Teams / API keys |
| Secrets | Secrets Manager | Key Vault | Secret Manager | n/a |
| Monitoring | CloudWatch | Azure Monitor | Cloud Monitoring | Basic metrics |
| IaC (native) | CloudFormation | Bicep / ARM | Deployment Manager | none (use Terraform) |
| CLI | aws | az | gcloud | civo |
Self-Hosting Providers #
| PROVIDER | GOOD FOR | SHEET |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Cloud | Cheap European VPS, Storage Box for backups | Hetzner Cloud |
| DigitalOcean | Simple Droplets, Spaces, clear billing | DigitalOcean |
| Cloudflare | DNS, Tunnel, R2 with no egress fees | Cloudflare |
| Oracle Cloud | Largest free VPS allowance (Always Free) | Oracle Cloud |
| Backblaze B2 | Cheap off-site backup storage | Backblaze B2 |
| AWS | S3, Route 53, wide catalogue | Amazon Web Services |
| Google Cloud | Free e2-micro, Cloud Run | Google Cloud |
| Civo | Managed K3s, simple pricing | Civo |
When to Pick What #
| NEED | LEANING |
|---|---|
| Widest service catalogue | AWS |
| Microsoft shop, hybrid with on-prem AD | Azure |
| Data, analytics, Kubernetes pedigree | Google Cloud |
| Simple, predictable pricing, fast K3s clusters, learning | Civo |
| Small hobby or homelab extension | Civo, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode |
| Cheap off-site backups | Backblaze B2, Hetzner Storage Box, Cloudflare R2 |
| Free VPS | Oracle Cloud Always Free, Google Cloud e2-micro |
Free Tiers (check current terms) #
| PROVIDER | TYPICAL OFFER |
|---|---|
| AWS | 12 months of small free tier plus always-free services |
| Azure | Credit plus 12 months of selected services |
| Google Cloud | Credit plus always-free small usage |
| Civo | Sign-up credit |
| Oracle Cloud | Always Free: Arm VM (2 OCPU, 12 GB), 2 AMD micro VMs, 200 GB block storage |
| Backblaze B2 | First 10 GB of storage free |
CLI Quick Start #
| PROVIDER | LOGIN | LIST VMS |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | aws configure | aws ec2 describe-instances |
| Azure | az login | az vm list -o table |
| Google Cloud | gcloud auth login | gcloud compute instances list |
| Civo | civo apikey save <NAME> <KEY> | civo instance list |
Cost Tips #
- Egress is the common surprise. Keep traffic in one region where possible.
- Use spot or preemptible instances for fault-tolerant work.
- Right-size, and turn off dev environments out of hours.
- Use budgets and alerts on every account.