AWS and Google Cloud are both hyperscale platforms, yet their listings on Buy Cloud Now look very different. The AWS page is the broadest on the marketplace, with fourteen options across several families. The Google Cloud page is compact: five options, every one of them a credit account.
That contrast is useful. It lets you compare the two platforms on the one axis they share, prepaid credit, while noting the extra AWS families that have no Google Cloud counterpart in the listings.
What each provider is
Amazon Web Services is widely chosen for the breadth of its catalog and the maturity of its tooling around compute, storage, databases and serverless. Teams with existing AWS expertise often stay there because the integrated capabilities cover most project requirements. The Buy AWS Account page lists the AWS Free Trail, vCPU and CloudFront profiles, an AWS Kiro Account, RPM and Bedrock profiles, and five credit tiers.
Google Cloud Platform offers compute, storage, networking and a strong set of data analytics and artificial intelligence services, including Vertex AI for model work and a Kubernetes-native experience for containerized applications. Access begins with a Google Cloud account linked to an active Cloud Billing account. The Buy Google Cloud Account page lists a prepaid $300 credit account and four larger credit accounts.
Key differences
- Breadth of listings. AWS has option families for trial access, vCPU quota, request rate and Bedrock. Google Cloud has only credit balances, so the choice there is about how much prepaid balance you want.
- Entry point. AWS starts at $25 with the AWS Free Trail. Google Cloud starts at $70 with the Google Cloud Prepaid $300 Credit Account, which already carries a balance.
- Platform strengths. AWS is usually picked for breadth and ecosystem. Google Cloud is usually picked for data pipelines, analytics, machine learning tooling and Kubernetes.
- Top of range. AWS credit listings go to $100K; Google Cloud credit listings stop at $25K.
Account options compared
Where the two platforms list the same credit value, the marketplace prices line up closely. AWS $1K Credit Account and Google Cloud $1K Credit Account are both $220. AWS $5K Credit Account and Google Cloud $5K Credit Account are both $950. At $10K the AWS listing is $2200 and the Google Cloud listing is $1800, and at $25K they are $4500 and $4000 respectively.
The rest of the AWS page has no Google Cloud equivalent: AWS vCPU32 ($40), AWS vCPU32 With CloudFront Enable ($45), AWS Kiro Account ($170), the 10RPM and 50RPM vCPU5 accounts ($90 and $120) and the two Bedrock accounts ($4500 and $12500). Refer to the table for the summary.
Fit by use case
- Developers. AWS Free Trail is the lightest entry. On Google Cloud, the prepaid $300 credit account is the smallest listing and suits learning the console, projects and billing structure.
- Startups. Teams building data products or running on Kubernetes often lean toward Google Cloud. Teams that expect to use many managed services lean toward AWS. The article on the first 90 days of startup infrastructure covers sequencing those decisions.
- Agencies. Matching credit values on both platforms make it easier to quote client environments consistently across ecosystems.
- Enterprise and AI teams. AWS Bedrock profiles are the listed route for model serving on AWS. On Google Cloud, a larger credit balance is the listed route, applied to whichever services the team uses.
Considerations and limitations
Credit balances behave differently on each platform, and neither listing is an official program of the provider. Buy Cloud Now is an independent marketplace. Before planning spend against a balance, read how AWS credits apply and confirm the remaining balance, expiry and eligible services on the account itself.
Both providers require compliance with their terms of service, and both make the account holder responsible for security, quotas and cost control. See the Cloud FAQ entries for AWS and Google Cloud for provider-specific answers.
