We compare the features of cost analytics tools from AWS, Google Cloud and DoiT
Cloud can be complex and costly. Many business leaders know that cloud costs can easily spiral out of control if they don’t have visibility into cost drivers. In response, public cloud providers and technology firms have created various tools and systems to help you analyze and optimize your cloud costs. Some, such as Google Cloud Console, AWS Cost Explorer, and the DoiT Console, are made to be affordable for all sizes and types of customers. Enterprise solutions, like CloudHealth and Cloudability, offer more features and functionality, but at a much steeper price. So which one should you use?
We’ve created a table summarizing the differences in analytics features between your free options: Google Cloud Console, AWS Cost Explorer and DoiT Console. Further down, we’ll outline the key aspects of each to help you get to grips with your cloud costs.
Comparing your cloud cost analytics options
| AWS Cost Explorer | |
| Reports | Limited report-building dimensions and report types |
| Can switch between blended and unblended costs & view amortized costs | |
| Can’t schedule reports to send | |
| Limited graph types | |
| Recommendations | Storage, security and rightsizing recommendations |
| Attributions | Not available - offers a limited feature called Cost Categories, which cannot be built on specific SKUs or be viewed in real time |
| Metrics | Not available |
| BigQuery Analysis | N/A |
| Kubernetes Analysis | (EKS) Rightsizing recommendations can identify EC2 instances that are underutilized or running idle |
| Multicloud Insights | Not available |
| Google Cloud Console | |
| Reports | Limited report-building dimensions and report types
View 1 billing account at a time Limited graph types No bespoke dashboard Can only export reports to BigQuery |
| Recommendations | Instance Recommender shows recommendations project by project only.
CUD analysis reports surface cost or resource commitment plan recommendations |
| Attributions | Not available |
| Metrics | Not available |
| BigQuery Analysis | Not available |
| Kubernetes Analysis | (GKE) Cost optimization suggestions supported |
| Multicloud Insights | Not available |
| DoiT Console | |
| Reporting | Reports support all report-building
features/dimensions of AWS and GCP Wide range of graph types Bespoke and preset Dashboards Export results in multiple formats |
| Recommendations | Instance Rightsizing Widget shows recommendations for all Google Cloud projects at once
& enables you to apply them directly from the DoiT Console Google Cloud CUD analysis available in specific default reports Spot Scaling surfaces AWS Auto Scaling Group instance recommendations |
| Attributions | Define and save custom Attributions (groupings of resources) for easy bespoke analysis |
| Metrics | Custom Metrics enable you to measure key performance indicators in your organization or business |
| BigQuery Analysis | BigQuery Lens displays insights and highlight inefficiencies in your organization's GCP BigQuery usage |
| Kubernetes Analysis | GKE Lens offers transparency into Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) spend and usage. Drill down into cluster, namespace and app costs to identify areas for improvement.
Automated GKE or EKS optimization recommendations are not supported |
| Multicloud Insights | Full visibility into AWS and Google Cloud costs, and ability to combine cloud environment costs for further analysis |
| AWS Cost Explorer | Google Cloud Console | DoiT Console | |
| Reports | Limited report-building dimensions and report types
Can switch between blended and unblended costs & view amortized costs Can’t schedule reports to send Limited graph types |
Limited report-building dimensions and report types
View 1 billing account at a time Limited graph types No bespoke dashboard Can only export reports to BigQuery |
Reports support all report-building
features/dimensions of AWS and GCP Wide range of graph types Bespoke and preset Dashboards Export results in multiple formats |
| Recommendations | Storage, security and rightsizing recommendations | Instance Recommender shows recommendations project by project only.
CUD analysis reports surface cost or resource commitment plan recommendations |
Instance Rightsizing Widget shows recommendations for all Google Cloud projects at once
& enables you to apply them directly from the DoiT Console Google Cloud CUD analysis available in specific default reports Spot Scaling surfaces AWS Auto Scaling Group instance recommendations |
| Attributions | Not available - offers a limited feature called Cost Categories, which cannot be built on specific SKUs or be viewed in real time | Not available | Define and save custom Attributions (groupings of resources) for easy bespoke analysis |
| Metrics | Not available | Not available | Custom Metrics enable you to measure key performance indicators in your organization or business |
| BigQuery Analysis | N/A | Not available | BigQuery Lens displays insights and highlight inefficiencies in your organization's GCP BigQuery usage |
| Kubernetes Analysis | (EKS) Rightsizing recommendations can identify EC2 instances that are underutilized or running idle | (GKE) Cost optimization suggestions supported | GKE Lens offers transparency into Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) spend and usage. Drill down into cluster, namespace and app costs to identify areas for improvement.
Automated GKE or EKS optimization recommendations are not supported |
| Multicloud Insights | Not available | Not available | Full visibility into AWS and Google Cloud costs, and ability to combine cloud environment costs for further analysis |
AWS Cost Explorer
AWS Cost Explorer is a native AWS tool that allows you to view your cloud spend at either the management or linked account level. With it, you can:
- Filter and group costs and usage with daily or monthly granularity.
- Create spend forecasts.
- Save custom reports.
- Get high-level overviews of total costs and usage across all accounts.
- Identify trends, cost drivers and anomalies.
- Forecast likely spend for the next 12 months.
- Get recommendations for a range of actions, including which Reserved Instances to purchase.
- Use the UI free of charge (But accessing your own data programmatically via the API costs $0.01 for each paginated API request.
- Highlight EC2 instances that are underutilized or running idle).
Google Cloud Console
The Google Cloud Console offers Reports, Tables, Cost Breakdowns and Budgets to help you understand and stay on top of your cloud costs.
- The Reports page offers tables, and line and bar charts that allow you to analyze the costs of projects, services, and regions, and the impacts of Google discount credits and promotions.
- The Cost Table report is designed to mirror your GCP invoices, to allow for easy analysis of the costs grouped under line items in your invoice.
- Budgets is a feature that allows you set a budget and receive alerts when you exceed that budget, so you can gain control of unexpected costs.
- Google Cloud Committed Use Discount (CUD) analysis reports help you determine the impact of your CUDs, highlight further saving opportunities and visualize your CUDs’ effectiveness.
- The Google Cloud Pricing Calculator allows you to estimate the overall cost of what you’re planning to purchase before you subscribe, so you can preemptively amend your budgets.
- GKE cost optimization insights help you identify optimization opportunities across your Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters and workloads.
DoiT Cloud Analytics
DoiT Cloud Analytics provides full visibility into your cloud spend at all levels, enabling you to:
- Pinpoint spending patterns.
- Identify important trends.
- Forecast your spend.
- Share reports easily with team members.
- Schedule reports to send at regular intervals.
- Add reports to customizable dashboards.
- Attribute cloud costs to the appropriate groups and find missing costs through powerful, customizable cloud cost allocation.
- Gain insights and target inefficiencies in your organization's Google Cloud BigQuery usage with the DoiT BigQuery Lens (BQ Lens).
- GKE Lens dashboard surfaces preset reports that highlight various aspects of your GKE spend. Drill down into cluster, namespace and app costs to identify areas for improvement.
A key differentiator for DoiT Cloud Analytics is the way it supports multiple clouds, allowing you to manage your costs across Google Cloud and AWS. This reduces the bureaucratic headache of analyzing multicloud costs. Furthermore, there are no additional charges for custom reports or API pulls, although there are some limitations to our API functionality. The DoiT Console does not support automated cost optimization recommendations for GKE or EKS.
What’s next?
At DoiT, we have years of experience helping customers to navigate the cloud to achieve their business goals in the most cost-effective ways. Managing your cloud costs can be challenging, but we offer unlimited technical support to all of our customers. Get in touch to see how you can make the most of your cloud while getting unprecedented insights into your cloud spend.
