# Google Cloud Spanner vs YugabyteDB

**Leader by Vioscale score:** YugabyteDB

| Attribute | Google Cloud Spanner | YugabyteDB |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 43.9 (39% (low)) | 58.7 (71% (medium)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Google Cloud's globally distributed, multi-model database supporting relational, graph, key-value, and search capabilities with native PostgreSQL interface and Gemini AI integration. | A distributed SQL database designed for mission-critical transactional data, available as open source software or managed cloud services with multi-region and high-availability capabilities. |
| features.capabilities | `{"isolation":"serializable","sql_model":"full_sql","deployment":"managed","consistency":"strong","replication":"consensus","extensibility":true,"license_class":"proprietary","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","automatic_failover":true,"wire_compatibility":"postgres"}` | `{"isolation":"serializable","sql_model":"full_sql","deployment":"self_hosted","consistency":"strong","replication":"consensus","extensibility":true,"json_document":true,"license_class":"permissive","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","automatic_failover":true,"wire_compatibility":"postgres"}` |
| integrations.count | 5 | 1 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform"},{"name":"Gemini CLI"},{"name":"Model Context Protocol (MCP)"},{"name":"Agent Development Kit (ADK)"},{"name":"Data Agent Kit"}]` | `[{"name":"Arctype SQL Client"}]` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","summary":"Usage-based pricing: compute capacity (nodes/processing units, hourly), storage (monthly), backups, data replication, network bandwidth. Free 90-day trial instances. Optional 1-year and 3-year committed use discounts. Three editions available: Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://cloud.google.com/spanner","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T12:40:26.715Z","freeTrialDays":90,"billingPeriods":["hour","month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"$125/vCPU/month","features":["PostgreSQL API (YSQL)","Cassandra API (YCQL)","Change Data Capture","Single-region fault tolerance","PostgreSQL extensions","Role Based Access Control","Encryption in transit and at rest","VPC Peering and Private Link","Data migration with YugabyteDB Voyager","REST API and CLI automation","Automated backups and security patching","Built-in metrics and alerts"],"components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"vCPU","amount":125,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Good for startups and scale-ups needing seamless scalability, availability, and zone-level resilience.","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Professional","summary":"$167/vCPU/month","features":["All Standard features","Multi-region stretched clusters","Read Replicas","Row-level geo-partitioning for data residency","Performance Advisor","Export metrics to 3rd party tools","Export audit logs","Send alerts to external tools"],"components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"vCPU","amount":167,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For global businesses that need advanced multi-region capabilities, region-level resilience, scalability, and/or compliance with data residency requirements.","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing - contact sales","features":["All Professional features","Customer Managed Keys (CMK) encryption at rest","Single Sign On via OpenID Connect (OIDC)"],"description":"Designed for enterprises needing advanced multi-region capabilities, higher performance and availability, or enterprise security features.","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery"},{"name":"Enterprise Integrations"}],"summary":"From $125/vCPU/month. Free tier available. Storage and data transfer costs additional.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.yugabyte.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T12:42:28.770Z","startingPrice":{"amount":125,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | high |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |

## Capabilities (Relational Databases)

| Capability | Google Cloud Spanner | YugabyteDB |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| SQL model | Full SQL | Full SQL |
| **Transactions** |  |  |
| ACID transactions | Full | Full |
| Highest isolation level | Serializable | Serializable |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | Strong | Strong |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale | Natively distributed | Natively distributed |
| **Replication** |  |  |
| Replication | Consensus (Raft/Paxos) | Consensus (Raft/Paxos) |
| **Availability** |  |  |
| Automatic failover / HA | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Managed | Self-hosted |
| Serverless / scale-to-zero | - | - |
| **Compatibility** |  |  |
| Wire compatibility | Postgres protocol | Postgres protocol |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Extensions / plugins / UDFs | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Proprietary | Permissive OSS |
| **Data types** |  |  |
| JSON / document support | - | ✓ |
| Geo / spatial | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:59:30.209Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*