Java on Google App Engine

App Engine offers you a choice between two environments for Java applications: standard environment and flexible environment. Both environments have the same code-centric developer workflow, scale quickly and efficiently to handle increasing demand, and enable you to use Googleโ€™s proven serving technology to build your web, mobile, and IoT applications quickly and with minimal operational overhead. While the available environments have a lot in common, they differ in a few important ways.

Choose your preferred environment

  • Optimized to scale nearly instantaneously to handle huge traffic spikes.

  • Most cost-effective for applications that have significant periods where they are not serving traffic.

  • OpenJDK based Java runtime supports the standard public Java library.

  • Doesn't impose a security manager--your code won't be restricted by Java permissions issues.

  • Free tier.

  • Ubuntu OS

  • The Java 8 runtime is no longer supported.

  • Full open source language runtimes.

  • Use any framework, library, or binary of your choice.

  • Code is portable to anywhere that supports Docker containers.

  • Most cost-effective for applications that serve traffic continuously.

  • No free tier. Application always has a minimum number of running instances. Most cost-effective for applications that serve traffic continuously.

  • Ubuntu OS

Choosing an environment

You can run an App Engine application in two environments, the standard environment and the flexible environment. See a summary of differences between the two environments.