If you haven't checked out App Engine in a while, you really should. Especially check out the App Engine "Flexible" editions, which make it really easy to run on App Engine withOUT getting locked in.
I run a NodeJS GraphQL server in App Engine Flexible, and it is basically just like running it in a Docker container. It's also pretty trivial to run in Google Cloud Run if I so desired, there is even a tool to assist: https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/app-engine-cloud-run-...
If you're just now looking in to GAE, you should likely be using Cloud Run instead. My company is busily migrating everything there and reaping the benefits.
Converting (it's more of a conversion than a migration) from flexible GAE to cloud run is super easy, check out the conversion tool I posted in my previous comment.
Basically, your code shouldn't really need to change at all, it's really just your deployment scripts and configs that need to be updated. At their heart flexible GAE and cloud run are both just running Docker containers.
GAE Flex is super old at this point and I've never personally met someone who migrated between them (they're pretty different offerings imho). Moving between either GAE to Run has been pretty seamless though.
Agreed, would have gone with their managed app platform if I was using one of the supported techs. For search I use a $5/mo meilisearch DO droplet that took almost no time to set up and I never have to pay attention to.
Price and functionality. It’s incredibly easy to use, unlike AWS and Google Cloud. The downfall is that you have a bit less control, but that’s never been an issue for me. Their servers have been incredibly reliable, they offer managed databases now, load balancer, S3 compatible Spaces. Everything I’ve needed so far, predictable and affordable pricing, and none of the complexity.
App engine (and Google's cloud in general) is pretty fantastic. I find it much easier to navigate and use than AWS (as someone whose day job isn't running infra on clouds), and I would have gladly put my side projects in there and recommended it to my clients... if only it wasn't Google and its history of randomly locking people out of their Google account, thus the entire Google ecosystem, without appeal.
