Marathon Cloud vs Google Developer Device Platform
Developer Device Platform (DDP) replaces Firebase Test Lab. It runs Android instrumentation tests on emulators and physical devices and XCTest on physical iPhones through gcloud beta device-run, inside a Google Cloud project with billing enabled. Preview pricing of $0.017 per emulator minute and $0.083 per physical device minute ends in April 2027, when it rises to $0.06 and $0.20 per minute. Marathon Cloud runs Android emulators and iOS simulators at $2 and $3 per hour billed per second, and sizes the device pool for each run.
| Google Developer Device Platform | Marathon Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Android price from April 2027 | $0.06 per emulator minute ($3.60 per hour), billed per second with a 1-minute minimum; or $200 per emulator slot per month. | $2 per hour per Android emulator, billed per second. |
| iOS price from April 2027 | Physical iPhones only: $0.20 per device minute ($12 per hour); or $250 per device slot per month. | $3 per hour per iOS simulator, billed per second. |
| Price until April 2027 | Preview pricing: $0.017 per emulator minute (about $1 per hour) and $0.083 per physical device minute (about $5 per hour). | $2 per hour per Android device, $3 per hour per iOS device, billed per second. 50 free device hours to start. |
| Status | Preview under Google Cloud Pre-GA terms; replaces Firebase Test Lab, which shuts down on September 30, 2027. | In production; self-serve sign-up with 50 free device hours. |
| iOS | XCTest on physical iPhones only, with app and test bundles re-signed using a lab provisioning profile. | XCUITest and Maestro on iOS simulators. |
| Frameworks | Android instrumentation and iOS XCTest; no commitment to Appium, Flutter Driver, React Native/Jest or Cucumber. | Espresso, XCUITest and Maestro. |
| Sharding | You choose the devices and pass uniform or smart sharding flags with a shard count and target duration; up to 20 shards on physical and 200 on virtual devices. | Device pool sized from your suite's history, targeting 15 minutes per run. |
| Retries | --flaky-test-attempts sets a fixed number of attempts; retries are per shard unless --flaky-test-retry-level=test is set, and reruns are billed like normal executions. | Failed tests rerun on a different device; tests with a flaky history are retried preventively. |
| Setup | Google Cloud project with billing enabled, gcloud beta device-run, results written to a Cloud Storage bucket. | One CLI command with the app and test bundle. |
| Getting started | Requires billing enabled; Firebase Test Lab’s no-billing Spark usage does not carry over. | Self-serve: sign up, 50 free device hours, no credit card, one CLI command. No parallel count to buy — the pool is sized per run. |
Competitor facts verified 2026-10-04 from the vendor's public pages.
A Firebase Test Lab replacement whose price does not jump in April 2027
Firebase Test Lab shuts down on September 30, 2027. Its successor ends preview pricing in April 2027: emulators go from $0.017 to $0.06 per minute and physical devices from $0.083 to $0.20 per minute. Marathon Cloud charges $2 per hour for Android and $3 per hour for iOS, billed per second, retries only the failing test driven by its history, and sizes the device pool to target 15 minutes with no flags to tune.
Choose Google Developer Device Platform when
- You need physical Android devices or physical iPhones from a large device catalog.
- You want interactive remote access to devices through Device Streaming.
- You run devices close to 24/7 and a $200–250 monthly slot works out cheaper per hour.
Choose Marathon Cloud when
- You want Android at $2 per hour instead of $3.60 per emulator hour from April 2027.
- You want iOS on simulators at $3 per hour instead of physical iPhones at $12 per hour.
- You want the device pool sized from history, not shard counts and device lists in flags.
What a run costs from April 2027
A suite with 120 minutes of total test time is 2 device-hours. On Marathon Cloud that is $4.00 on Android emulators or $6.00 on iOS simulators. At Developer Device Platform standard rates it is $7.20 on emulators or $24.00 on physical iPhones, before shard startup overhead and 1-minute minimums.