Ask HN: Is it just me or is Google Cloud really expensive?

I'm a web dev that builds/runs/prototypes a lot of websites. I have 10-20 running at any given time. They don't receive much traffic, but they all have their own DB, storage, domain, etc.

I'm currently paying $50/mo for a VPS and it's working great.

I was considering switching to Google Cloud to save some money, also get some extra flexibility (can spin up different operating systems, scale as needed, etc).

But I tried spinning up a "small" instance (which costs about $15/month) and it couldn't run nginx + node server without CPU spiking 150% and timing out. I had to upgrade to the standard instance which is about $25/mo to be able to run it without CPU spikes.

Is there anyway to move my current setup to Google cloud in a cost effective way?