DevOpsNet

Aren’t they all just managed container services?

Yeah, they’re all “managed”, but to differing degrees. GKE = K8s platform where GCP take care of the underlying infra and control plane. So it’s a “Managed” service in the sense that someone else (namely Google) manages the VMs and the initial control plane setup.

Is that the only difference between them?

Nope, but it’s the most fundamental one. Because you’re getting different levels of “management” from each offering, you’re also getting different features and benefits. For example, with autopilot, the management of the nodes is done by Google, so to a consumer the nodes are locked down. That’s arguably a good thing. It also means that Google take care of all the node maintenance and security.

And I’m guessing the billing is different too?

Correct. The billing is different too. For autopilot, you don’t get charged for unused pods or for any unallocated space. So that’s nice. Check out the pricing calculator for an estimate: https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator

And the other main differences?

Cloud Run is a doddle to work with compared to GKE. Hardly any learning curve worth mentioning. However, it does have some limitations.

Which one should you use?

Cloud Run. And if that doesn’t fit your requirements then use autopilot. And if that doesn’t fit your requirements then use GKE.