3 teams that moved to Google Cloud
3 teams moved to Google Cloud. Most left GitHub Actions (1) or imgix (1). The typical team cut 72% of its bill. Each team's old bill, running cost and net saving.
Google Cloud appears here as the place teams moved to, not away from, and the three moves have little in common apart from that. Hardcover replaced imgix, about $1,000 a month, with self-hosted Imaginary on Cloud Run behind a CDN, and reports a running cost of about $1. Harmonic moved CI from GitHub's hosted runners to self-hosted runners on GKE. spoo.me moved its MongoDB database off Atlas onto a Google Cloud machine.
Harmonic's case is the most informative. Sang Mercado says the GitHub bill fell 91%, but once the GKE costs are counted the net saving is about 44%, or about $38,000 a year. Its old bill and running cost here are reconstructed from those stated percentages. Hardcover's near-total cut sits at the other extreme. spoo.me shows no running cost because its machine runs on credits from YC SUS.
Together the three report about $4,300 a month saved, most of it Harmonic's. Two of the three moves count real Google Cloud spending in the new cost; the third depends on credits. The moves date from 2023 and 2026. Teams that left Google Cloud itself are on its vendor page, where all three went to Hetzner.
Written from these stories, updated Nov 2026. Numbers as each team reported them. How this ledger works
- Website
- cloud.google.com
What they left for Google Cloud
Left GitHub Actions1 team · $3,167/mo saved · cut 44% of the bill
| Team and what they built | Since | Old bill | Running cost | Net saved | Bill cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HarmonicSelf-hosted CI runners on GKE · GitHub · Google Cloud Harmonic moved CI off GitHub-hosted runners onto self-hosted runners on GKE in a week. Sang Mercado says the GitHub bill fell 91% and the saving is about 44%, or $38K a year, after GCP costs; the old bill and running costs here are worked back from those figures. | Oct 2026 | $7,167/mo | $4,000/mo | $3,167/mo | 44% |
Left imgix1 team · $999/mo saved · cut 100% of the bill
| Team and what they built | Since | Old bill | Running cost | Net saved | Bill cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HardcoverSelf-hosted Imaginary on Cloud Run · Google Cloud Hardcover replaced imgix, $1,000 a month, with self-hosted Imaginary on Google Cloud Run behind a CDN, at about $1 a month. | Sep 2023 | $1,000/mo | $1/mo | $999/mo | 100% |
Left MongoDB Atlas1 team · $100/mo saved
| Team and what they built | Since | Old bill | Running cost | Net saved | Bill cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| spoo.meSelf-hosted MongoDB on a GCP box on credits Aditya Singhi was paying $100 a month out of pocket for MongoDB Atlas to run spoo.me, their open-source product with no revenue, and about ₹60,000 over its final six months. They killed the Atlas cluster and moved the database to a self-hosted GCP box running on credits from YC SUS, so it now costs nothing. | Jul 2026 | $100/mo | not disclosed | $100/mo | — |