AWS vs Azure vs GCP 2026: The Complete Cloud Platform Comparison

2026 Market Share: AWS leads with ~31%, Azure holds ~25%, and GCP has ~11%. The remaining ~33% is split among Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and smaller providers. AWS's lead is narrowing, while Azure and GCP continue to gain ground — especially in AI/ML workloads where GCP excels.

Pricing Note: All three providers offer significant discounts for committed use: AWS Reserved Instances (up to 72% off), Azure Reserved VM Instances (up to 72% off), and GCP Committed Use Discounts (up to 57% off). GCP also offers Sustained Use Discounts automatically — no commitment required — giving you up to 30% off for VMs running all month.

# Create a Linux VM on each platform:

# AWS — Launch EC2 instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type t3.medium \
    --key-name my-key-pair \
    --security-group-ids sg-903004f8 \
    --subnet-id subnet-6e7f829e \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=web-server}]'

# Azure — Create VM
az vm create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name web-server \
    --image Ubuntu2204 \
    --size Standard_B2s \
    --admin-username azureuser \
    --generate-ssh-keys \
    --public-ip-sku Standard

# GCP — Create Compute Engine instance
gcloud compute instances create web-server \
    --zone=europe-west1-b \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
    --boot-disk-size=50GB \
    --tags=http-server,https-server

Pro Tip: In 2026, multi-cloud skills are increasingly valued. Many enterprises use 2+ cloud providers. Knowing the fundamentals of all three — even if you specialize in one — makes you significantly more employable and effective. Start with one platform, then expand your knowledge to the others.

# Same concept, different providers — Terraform abstracts the differences

# AWS — Create a VPC + EC2 instance
provider "aws" {
  region = "eu-west-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  ami           = "ami-0abcdef1234567890"
  instance_type = "t3.medium"
  tags = {
    Name = "web-server"
  }
}

# Azure — Create a Resource Group + VM
provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

resource "azurerm_linux_virtual_machine" "web" {
  name                = "web-server"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  location            = "westeurope"
  size                = "Standard_B2s"
  admin_username      = "azureuser"
  # ...
}

# GCP — Create a Compute Engine instance
provider "google" {
  project = "my-project-id"
  region  = "europe-west1"
}

resource "google_compute_instance" "web" {
  name         = "web-server"
  machine_type = "e2-medium"
  zone         = "europe-west1-b"
  boot_disk {
    initialize_params {
      image = "ubuntu-os-cloud/ubuntu-2204-lts"
    }
  }
  # ...
}

Recommended Books for Cloud & DevOps:

• AWS for Linux Administrators — €26.90
• Azure for System Administrators — €27.90
• Cloud Computing Basics — €19.90
• Kubernetes Fundamentals — €26.90
• Docker Fundamentals — €23.90
• Ansible Automation: From Zero to Production — €24.90
• Kubernetes Security & Best Practices — €14.90
• Kubernetes Networking & Service Mesh — €12.90
• Kubernetes for Production: Scaling & Monitoring — €13.90
• Docker Security & Production Hardening — €12.90
• Docker Compose & Multi-Container Applications — €13.90
• Microservices with Docker and Kubernetes — €31.90
• Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID) — €24.90

There is no single "best" cloud platform — only the best platform for your specific use case.

Choose AWS if you need the broadest service catalog, the largest community, and the most mature ecosystem. AWS is the safe choice for most workloads and the platform most likely to appear in job listings.

Choose Azure if your organization uses Microsoft 365, Active Directory, or Windows Server. Azure's hybrid capabilities and Microsoft integration are unmatched. It's the enterprise default.

Choose GCP if your workload is data-intensive, AI/ML-focused, or Kubernetes-native. BigQuery, GKE, and TPUs are genuinely best-in-class. GCP's pricing model is also the most developer-friendly.

The smartest career move in 2026? Learn one platform deeply, then expand to the others. Cloud fundamentals transfer across providers — networking, storage, compute, and security concepts are universal. Your platform expertise makes you valuable; your multi-cloud understanding makes you invaluable.

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