Compare / Google Cloud Run vs Scaleway Instances
Google Cloud Run vs Scaleway Instances
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Google Cloud Run checked 2026-08-06, Scaleway checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Google Cloud Run wins more of our comparison points, but Scaleway Instances still fits if eU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler describes you.
Price Tie
Google Cloud Run costs less while you're starting out, but Scaleway Instances works out cheaper once traffic grows.
Ease Google Cloud Run
Google Cloud Run is easier to get running: run `gcloud run deploy --source .` — buildpacks containerize the app, or push any Docker image; GitHub continuous deployment is built in.
Control Scaleway Instances
Scaleway Instances gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Free tier Google Cloud Run
Google Cloud Run has a free tier; Scaleway Instances doesn't.
Features Google Cloud Run
Google Cloud Run comes out ahead on 7 of the 15 features we track, versus 2.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| Google Cloud Run | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Container apps with spiky or low traffic that want scale-to-zero economics and can manage billing discipline. | EU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler. |
| How deploys work | Run `gcloud run deploy --source .` — buildpacks containerize the app, or push any Docker image; GitHub continuous deployment is built in. | Spin up an instance from the console or the scw CLI, then manage it like any VPS; Terraform and cloud-init are first-class. |
| The tradeoff | The best free tier and autoscaling here, attached to a billing system with no hard cap and real horror stories. | À la carte pricing makes the real cost higher than the sticker, and account verification can be painful. |
| Free tier | Always free: 2M requests, 180k vCPU-seconds, 360k GiB-seconds per month, plus a $300/90-day new-customer credit. | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Google Cloud Run Scaleway Instances
| Project stage | Google Cloud Run | Scaleway Instances | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | Free Free tier — A scale-to-zero service with hobby traffic typically rounds to $0 — the always-free tier absorbs it. | ≈€10.42/mo DEV1-S + IPv4 + 10 GB volume — ~€6.55 instance (2 shared vCPU, 2 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€0.95 block storage. Ex-VAT, ~730h/month. | Google Cloud Run |
| Steady traffic | ≈$10/mo Pay-as-you-go + 1 warm instance — One min-instance (1 vCPU, 512 MiB at the idle rate) is ~$10/month; request costs on top are usually small. | ≈€24.92/mo PLAY2-NANO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€20.10 instance (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Google Cloud Run |
| Growing | ≈$58/mo Always-on + Cloud SQL — ~$50/month for an always-on 1 vCPU / 1 GiB service (instance-based billing) plus ~$7.67 for a db-f1-micro Cloud SQL instance. | ≈€45/mo PLAY2-MICRO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€40.20 instance (4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Scaleway Instances |
Google Cloud Run pricing notes
- Egress: first 1 GiB/month free, then $0.12/GiB to NA/EU/Asia.
- Tier 2 regions cost more; committed-use discounts take ~17% off.
- The $300 new-customer credit runs 90 days and cannot produce a bill — the account closes instead of charging you.
Scaleway Instances pricing notes
- Hourly billing (~730 h/month), ex-VAT, with no egress fees — bandwidth is an unmetered per-instance speed.
- Flexible IPv4 €0.004/h (~€2.92/month); IPv6 is free. Block Storage 5K is €0.000130/GB/h (~€0.095/GB/month).
- Savings Plans (12/36-month commitment) take up to 25% off compute.
- New Professional accounts with a payment method get €100 in credit.
Our ratings
Ease of use Google Cloud Run
Pricing clarity
Free tier Google Cloud Run
Scaling Google Cloud Run
Control Scaleway Instances
Feature by feature
Google Cloud Run wins 7, Scaleway Instances wins 2, with 6 even.
Deploy workflow
| Google Cloud Run | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes Built-in continuous deployment from GitHub, or deploy from source with gcloud. | No Not on Instances — bring your own CI, or use Scaleway’s separate serverless products. |
| Preview deploys | Partial Every deploy creates a tagged revision you can hit directly and split traffic to — but no automatic PR previews. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes `gcloud run` covers deploys, revisions, and traffic splits. | Yes The scw CLI covers instances, volumes, IPs, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes Shift traffic back to any previous revision instantly. | Partial Snapshots and images restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Google Cloud Run | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Partial Domain mappings exist but Google steers production setups toward a load balancer, which adds cost and setup. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Partial Cloud CDN is available but requires fronting Cloud Run with a load balancer. | Partial Edge Services adds a CDN in front of load balancers and object storage; nothing automatic on a bare instance. |
| Serverless functions | Yes The whole platform is serverless; Cloud Run functions cover event-driven code. | No Not on Instances — Scaleway sells separate Serverless Containers and Functions products. |
| Docker containers | Yes Runs any container image — that is the product. | Yes Docker-ready images or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | No No servers to reach. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes A dozen-plus EU regions, four of them at Tier 1 pricing. | Yes Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Milan — EU-only by design. |
Runtime & operations
| Google Cloud Run | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Yes Scales per request from zero to your max-instances setting. | No Manual resizing on Instances; autoscaling lives in the serverless products. |
| Scale to zero | Yes Idle services cost nothing unless you set min-instances. | Partial A fully powered-off (archived) instance stops compute billing, but IPs and volumes keep billing. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Cloud Scheduler triggers services; Cloud Run jobs handle batch work. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | Yes Cloud SQL from ~$7.67/month (no SLA at that size); Firestore and AlloyDB nearby. | Yes Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL from ~€11.40/month plus storage; Redis and MongoDB too. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Yes Cloud Logging, Monitoring, and request traces are built in. | Partial Cockpit collects instance metrics and logs into managed Grafana; app-level instrumentation is yours. |
Watch out for
Google Cloud Run
- There is no hard spend cap anywhere in Google Cloud — budgets only send alerts. The community horror stories ($4.6k on an idle setup, $18k against a $7 budget) are real.
- Min-instances are the classic trap: a warm instance bills around $10/month, and old revisions can silently keep their own min-instances.
- Egress costs $0.12/GiB after the first free GiB — heavy traffic gets expensive fast.
- Since March 2026 Google can automatically raise your spending-tier quotas, which amplifies leaked-API-key incidents.
Scaleway
- List prices exclude storage and public IPv4: add ~€2.92/month for a flexible IPv4 and ~€0.095/GB/month for block storage.
- Scaleway raised prices across Stardust, PLAY2, PRO2, BASIC3, and storage on 1 June 2026.
- "Standby" bills as a running instance; only a full power-off (archive) stops compute billing — and IPs and volumes keep billing regardless.
- Automated KYC can freeze accounts (sometimes with servers running) until you re-verify with ID and selfie.
- The famous €0.43/month Stardust instances are chronically out of stock.
Read the full reviews: Google Cloud Run and Scaleway. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.