“Top cloud providers” can mean several different things. AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud dominate cloud infrastructure, while Salesforce, SAP, Workday, ServiceNow, Adobe, and similar companies sell finished software applications. They compete in related markets, but they are not interchangeable—and their market-share figures should not be placed in one ranking.
For a household, freelancer, or small business, the practical question is usually not which provider is biggest. It is which service offers the right combination of price, reliability, features, data location, support, and switching costs.
The biggest cloud infrastructure providers
Cloud infrastructure providers rent computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, security tools, and artificial-intelligence services over the internet. The customer pays for usage or commits to a contract instead of buying and operating all the underlying hardware.
The three leading global providers are commonly called the hyperscalers:
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#1 Best Overall
| Provider | Latest cited infrastructure-services share | Common strengths |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | 28% in Synergy Research Group’s Q1 2026 worldwide infrastructure-services measure | Broad service range, global footprint, databases, serverless computing, containers, and mature infrastructure tools |
| Microsoft Azure | 21% in the same Synergy measure | Microsoft software integration, enterprise licensing, identity, security, hybrid cloud, and government use |
| Google Cloud | 14% in the same Synergy measure | Data analytics, Kubernetes, cloud-native development, networking, and AI |
These figures cover IaaS, PaaS, and hosted private-cloud services. Gartner’s separate 2024 public-cloud IaaS comparison produced different numbers: Amazon 37.7%, Microsoft 23.9%, Google 9.0%, Alibaba 7.2%, and Huawei 4.1%. The difference is not a contradiction. The two firms measured different parts of the market.
1. Amazon Web Services
AWS is the largest of the three major public-cloud infrastructure providers in both cited comparisons. It offers services for virtual machines, object storage, relational and non-relational databases, networking, containers, analytics, security, serverless applications, and AI-model access.
AWS lists 39 geographic Regions and 123 Availability Zones on its global-infrastructure page, although that inventory changes as new locations open. Each Region contains at least three Availability Zones: physically separate locations connected by low-latency networking. Spreading an application across zones can reduce the effect of a single facility failure, but it does not automatically make the application resilient.
AWS and hybrid cloud
AWS Outposts places AWS-designed infrastructure in a customer’s data center or colocation facility. It allows selected AWS services to run locally while connecting to a parent AWS Region. Outposts is not a complete local copy of AWS, so a buyer must check the exact services, hardware, capacity, maintenance model, and Region dependency.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsAWS also identifies VMware Cloud on AWS and Outposts as hybrid-cloud options. For a small business, these products are generally relevant only when there is a specific reason to keep systems on-site—such as latency, regulation, hardware dependencies, or an existing enterprise VMware environment.
An AWS pricing and availability detail
AWS Availability Zone letters are not always universal physical-location labels. For accounts created before November 2025, AWS independently mapped letters such as us-east-1a in some older Regions. The same letter in two accounts might therefore refer to different physical zones. AWS Availability Zone IDs, such as use1-az1, identify the physical location consistently across accounts.
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This matters when businesses coordinate deployments across separate AWS accounts. A configuration that assumes every account’s us-east-1a is the same location can undermine redundancy planning.
2. Microsoft Azure
Azure is Microsoft’s public-cloud platform. It is especially important for organizations already using Windows Server, SQL Server, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft 365, GitHub, Power Platform, or Microsoft enterprise licensing programs.
Azure provides the standard infrastructure services—compute, storage, networking, databases, containers, security, analytics, and AI—while also connecting them to Microsoft’s identity, productivity, and management products. That integration can reduce administrative friction, but the financial benefit depends on the customer’s existing licenses, negotiated discounts, workload design, and support requirements.
Azure hybrid and multicloud tools
Azure Arc lets customers connect and manage servers, Kubernetes clusters, databases, and other resources outside Azure through Azure management and governance tools. It is primarily a control-plane and management approach. It does not turn every external server into native Azure infrastructure or provide identical features everywhere.
Azure Local is the current name for Azure Stack HCI. Microsoft changed the name on November 19, 2024. Existing APIs, PowerShell cmdlets, Azure CLI commands, resource-provider namespaces, deployments, pricing, and service-level agreements were not changed by the rename. Older documentation may therefore use “Azure Stack HCI” even when it refers to the current product family.
Azure Local releases have a six-month support period. Azure Stack HCI/Azure Local version 23H2 reached end of support in April 2026, so anyone operating it should check the upgrade and support position rather than relying on an old deployment guide.
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Oracle Database@Azure
Oracle Database@Azure is another example of why cloud labels need care. It is not simply an Azure-native database. Oracle describes it as Oracle database infrastructure running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure but colocated in Microsoft Azure data centers. Customers can combine it with Azure services and use Azure portal and API integrations.
That arrangement may be useful for an organization with substantial Oracle investment, but it can also create a more complicated billing, support, licensing, and responsibility model than a database service supplied entirely by one provider.
3. Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the third-largest of the three hyperscalers in the cited Synergy infrastructure-services data. It is strongly associated with data analytics, Kubernetes, containerized application development, networking, serverless services, and AI.
Notable products include Google Kubernetes Engine, BigQuery, Cloud Run, Vertex AI, and Google’s managed data services. These can be attractive to software companies, data-heavy businesses, and technical teams already comfortable with Google’s tooling.
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Google publishes comparisons mapping AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud services. Those comparisons are useful starting points, but matching names do not mean matching behavior. Pricing, quotas, APIs, hardware, service limits, and regional availability can differ substantially.
Google Distributed Cloud
Google Distributed Cloud is Google’s current distributed-cloud family for running Google infrastructure and services at customer-controlled locations, at the edge, or in constrained environments. Google’s 2026 announcements describe capabilities for running Gemini and other AI services where data resides, including sovereignty-sensitive environments.
Older articles may describe Anthos as Google’s entire hybrid-cloud strategy. Anthos remains relevant as a technology and historical product name, but Google’s current positioning increasingly centers on the broader Google Distributed Cloud portfolio.
Hybrid cloud and multicloud are different
| Term | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid cloud | A combination of a customer-controlled environment and a public cloud | An on-premises database connected to Azure |
| Multicloud | Use of two or more public-cloud providers | A workload split between AWS and Google Cloud |
| Both | A private environment connected to two or more public clouds | A data center connected to Azure and Google Cloud |
Using multiple providers does not automatically improve resilience. It can create a second failure domain, but it also adds identity systems, network connections, monitoring tools, contracts, skills, data-replication processes, and potential egress charges.
Costs that are easy to miss
- Data transfer: Moving data into a provider may be inexpensive or free in some cases, while transferring it out or between regions can create material charges.
- Managed services: A low-cost virtual machine can become an expensive architecture once databases, backups, logging, monitoring, security tools, load balancing, and support are added.
- Private connectivity: Dedicated links and interconnects can involve setup fees, port charges, provider fees, and third-party network costs.
- Commitments: Reserved capacity, savings plans, and enterprise agreements can lower unit prices but may impose usage commitments. A discount is not a saving if the business does not use the committed capacity.
- Labor: Engineers need time to design, secure, monitor, patch, optimize, and recover the environment. A cheaper headline instance price may not produce a cheaper total cost.
- Regional limits: A provider’s total Region count does not guarantee that every service, processor type, AI model, or compliance feature is available in every Region.
Network design is a common failure point. Oracle’s multicloud guidance calls out non-overlapping CIDR ranges, service limits, and tested bandwidth and latency. These are practical requirements, not paperwork: overlapping address ranges can prevent networks from connecting cleanly, while untested latency can break an application that looked sound on an architecture diagram.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.SaaS providers are a separate cloud category
Software as a service (SaaS) vendors sell finished applications over the internet. Customers typically subscribe per user, per month, per transaction, or under an enterprise agreement. They do not normally choose the virtual machines, storage volumes, or database clusters running the application.
| Category | Examples | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| CRM and sales | Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, HubSpot, Oracle CX | Leads, opportunities, customer records, marketing, and service |
| ERP and finance | SAP, Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Accounting, procurement, operations, and enterprise planning |
| HR and finance | Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM | Human resources, payroll-related workflows, talent, and finance |
| IT service management | ServiceNow, Atlassian, BMC | IT operations, ticketing, employee workflows, and automation |
| Productivity and collaboration | Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom | Email, documents, meetings, messaging, and collaboration |
| Creative and design | Adobe Creative Cloud, Autodesk | Design, media, engineering, and creative work |
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a CRM for leads, opportunities, pipeline management, and customer relationships. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is a ready-to-run ERP system delivered through a public-cloud network. Workday describes its applications as SaaS delivered through a one-to-many model, with customers using the same release line and operational infrastructure. ServiceNow combines cloud applications with an application platform designed for workflow software.
A SaaS company may run its application on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or more than one provider. That underlying infrastructure does not make the SaaS vendor equivalent to a hyperscaler. A customer buying Salesforce, for example, is buying a business application and its data, support, integrations, and contract—not raw compute capacity.
Best Value
How to compare providers for a small business
- Define the purchase: Decide whether you need a finished application, such as accounting or CRM software, or infrastructure for an application you operate yourself.
- List the workload: Record users, storage, database needs, expected traffic, backup retention, regions, compliance requirements, and recovery targets.
- Estimate total cost: Include subscriptions or compute, storage, data transfer, backups, support, security, licenses, network connections, and staff time.
- Check exit costs: Confirm how data can be exported, what format it uses, how long extraction takes, and whether contracts or proprietary APIs make switching difficult.
- Test before committing: Measure application performance, backup restoration, network latency, service limits, and billing behavior in the intended Region.
- Review the contract: Check renewal terms, price changes, service credits, data-location commitments, support response times, and responsibility for security.
For many small businesses, a managed SaaS product is financially simpler than operating infrastructure directly. A company with developers, unusual performance requirements, strict data-location needs, or an existing technical team may benefit from AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or a hybrid design. The cheapest provider on a price calculator is not necessarily the cheapest provider after labor and operational risk are included.
FAQ
Are AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud the same type of company as Salesforce or Workday?
No. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud primarily provide infrastructure and platform services. Salesforce and Workday primarily sell finished SaaS applications. A SaaS vendor may run on a hyperscaler, but the products serve different parts of the technology stack.
Which is the largest cloud provider?
AWS is the largest of the three major hyperscalers in the cited measurements. Synergy Research Group reported Q1 2026 worldwide cloud-infrastructure-services shares of 28% for AWS, 21% for Microsoft, and 14% for Google Cloud. Gartner’s separate 2024 public-cloud IaaS figures were different because they measured a narrower market.
Is hybrid cloud the same as multicloud?
No. Hybrid cloud combines a private or customer-controlled environment with a public cloud. Multicloud uses at least two public-cloud providers. An architecture can be both hybrid and multicloud.
Does using two cloud providers automatically lower costs or improve reliability?
No. Two providers may diversify technical and commercial risk, but they can add data-transfer charges, duplicate tools, network complexity, specialist labor, and difficult failover procedures. The design needs tested recovery processes and a full-cost comparison.
The Bottom Line
AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are the leading public-cloud infrastructure providers, but the best choice depends on workload, existing software, location, support, and total cost—not market share alone. Hybrid products extend cloud capabilities into customer-controlled environments, while multicloud uses multiple public clouds and brings additional complexity. SaaS companies such as Salesforce, SAP, Workday, ServiceNow, and Adobe should be compared separately because they sell applications rather than equivalent infrastructure.
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