They are just two different solutions that have pros and cons just like any two solutions :) A few that jump out:
- Setup time: Setting up GCP, setting up a certificate, adding a static IP, etc. is not seamless/adds friction
- Autoscaling and rolling updates (no downtime)
- Team management and collaborative environment with usage tracking, permissions, etc.
- Optional integration with a pipelining service for training, tuning, deploying models in a single tool
And a point of clarification: Practically speaking, neither tool is free. Both require a cloud instance so they will cost roughly the same for the end user (Gradient also supports preemptible instances).