Amazon Web Services is a great way to save on your web hosting costs. You can find out how to save on your web hosting cost by reading this guide.
What is Amazon Web Services?
Amazon Web Services is a cloud-based system that allows businesses to access and use the latest technology and software for their online services. Amazon Web Services offers a variety of different services, including web hosting, software development, data storage, and more.
How Does Amazon Web Services Work
With Amazon Web Services, you can access the latest technology and software in the cloud. You can also use the system to create or manage your online services. The main difference between Amazon Web Services and other systems is that Amazon Web Services is subscription-based. This means that you pay a set amount of money each month for access to the system’s features and services.
The Costs of Amazon Web Services
The cost of using Amazon Web Services vary depending on how much traffic you’re expecting to experience from your online service(s). Additionally, there are various monthly charges associated with each type of service offered by Amazon Web Services: web hosting, software development, data storage, etc.
Amazon Web Services Web Hosting Cost
The total cost of hosting your personal website on AWS will vary depending on your usage. Typically, it will cost $1-3/month if you are outside the AWS Free Tier limits. If you are eligible for AWS Free Tier and within the limits, hosting your personal website will cost around $0.50/month.
Amazon Lightsail
| 512GB RAM / 1vCPU | 2GB RAM / 1vCPU | 8GB RAM / 2vCPU | 32GB RAM / 8vCPU | |
| Initial term starting price | $3.50 per month | $10 per month | $40 per month | $160 per month |
| Price on renewal | Same as above | Same as above | Same as above | Same as above |
| vCPU cores | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| RAM | 512MB | 2GB | 8GB RAM | 32GB RAM |
| Storage | 20GB SSD (temporary storage only) | 60GB SSD (temporary storage only) | 160GB SSD (temporary storage only) | 640GB SSD (temporary storage only) |
| Bandwidth | 1TB | 3TB | 5TB | 7TB |
| Dedicated IPs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Data center locations | 84 availability zones over 26 regions across the globe. Covers a total of 245 countries. |
If you’re looking to keep costs down and server configuration time at a minimum while retaining some customizability and scalability, Amazon Lightsail may be right for you. It’s a cloud VPS with preconfigured networking, security, and access settings.
There’s a fair number of predefined plans to choose from, and you can modify resource levels at any time. Amazon Lightsail also supports easy-to-install server images for hosting stacks and content management systems like WordPress.
512GB RAM / 1vCPU
Amazon Lightsail’s entry-level plan is available for a low $3.50 per month. While you’ll only be getting 512MB of RAM and one burstable vCPU to work with, this may be enough for a landing page or a text-heavy blog. You’ll also get 1TB transfer and 20GB SSD storage.
It’s important to note that storage included with Amazon Lightsail is temporary system storage – this kind of storage is deleted upon termination of your instance and cannot be backed up. If you need to keep persistent storage, you’ll have to pay extra for it.
That said, this plan gets you access to all Amazon Lightsail features, including server monitoring, an easy-to-use management console, and a static IP address. This is pretty good value, especially for a price that’s lower than many competitors can offer.
2GB RAM / 1vCPU
This plan provides you with more resources for your buck and should be suitable for most low-traffic websites. At just $10 per month, it’s very affordable.
Thanks to Amazon Lightsail’s inherent flexibility, you can scale up either temporarily or permanently if you experience an increase in traffic. For this reason, the mid-tier plan is a good choice for growing sites with frequent surges in traffic, such as for news or e-commerce.
Another advantage is that Amazon Lightsail’s low prices require no commitment. Some competing hosts can offer a similar price for a comparable server, but only if you pay up front for multiple years of hosting.
8GB RAM / 2vCPU
If you need more resources for a popular site, this plan may be right for you. This plan offers an increase in processing power with an extra CPU core, but it comes at a significantly higher price.
Every Amazon Lightsail plan includes a free, preconfigured cloud firewall, which can be adjusted further to meet your specific needs. There’s also the AWS Trusted Advisor, an AI which detects security vulnerabilities and suggests potential fixes.
While this plan doesn’t offer value for money on par with the preceding options, pricing is still competitive with other popular cloud services.
32GB RAM / 8vCPU
This is the best possible Lightsail instance, but also the most expensive. It’s best suited to businesses or resellers requiring hosting for multiple high-traffic sites.
You can enhance performance and reliability further by connecting to a CDN, adding a managed database, and more. It’s also possible to build a cloud-based network of duplicate Lightsail instances with load balancers to serve very heavy traffic.
Unfortunately, Amazon Lightsail is a little too expensive here. You can build a similar server with Kamatera for a significantly lower price, while enjoying a higher level of customizability and scalability.
Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2)
Unlike Amazon Lightsail, Amazon EC2 encompasses a wide range of instances. Hardware types and resource quantities vary greatly. Some offer a balanced set of resources perfect for web hosting, while others specialize in more processing power or high availability with rapid access.
This variety may be enticing if you’re looking to set up multiple instance configurations, but EC2 can also simply be used for flexible web hosting, from basic prototypes to mission-critical websites that require the utmost in performance. EC2 is far less user-friendly than Lightsail, but much more scalable and customizable.
t2.nano
If you’re looking for a cheap starting point for a lightweight site or prototype, the T2 series is your best bet. The t2.nano is the least expensive of the bunch.
The t2.nano only offers 512MB RAM and 1 vCPU which may be bursted for short periods, similar to the basic Amazon Lightsail plan. How long you can burst for is governed by CPU credits, which are accrued when you’re using less CPU than a baseline of around 6%.
No persistent storage is included with EC2 instances, so you’ll likely have to purchase some Amazon Elastic Block Storage. Despite this, the t2.nano is still very affordable, especially if you reserve the instance for 1 or 3 years. This lowers the price to just a few dollars per month.
t2.medium
The t2.medium is from the same series as the virtual machine above, yet it offers more substantial resources. It includes 2vCPU and 4GB RAM, which can comfortably serve a wide array of sites.
T2.medium features a burstable CPU for short increases in computing power as well as some other improvements. You’ll earn more CPU credits during periods where your baseline CPU power is under 40%.
This instance does not offer the best value if you’d like to pay on-demand, so reserving AWS’ t2.medium for 1 or 3 years will get you better prices.
m6g.xlarge
If you need to run one or multiple sites that experience consistently high traffic, and that require flawless performance for, say, e-commerce transactions, you’ll likely need dedicated resources. With the m6g.xlarge, you get the power of 4vCPU and 16GB RAM.
It’s also worth noting that this instance offers a baseline bandwidth of 1.25Gbps, which can be bursted up to 10Gbps with credits that have been accrued during periods of lower traffic.
The m6g line uses AWS’s own Graviton processors, which offer solid performance for money. Overall, this VM is less expensive than much of the competiton, even if you choose to pay on demand.
m5n.2xlarge
If your company or organization needs the best in performance, you’ll likely need to look at Amazon EC2’s high-end options. The m5n.2xlarge fits this bill, offering 8vCPU and 32GB RAM.
This virtual server benefits from impressive 2nd generation Intel Xeon processors, along with a high baseline bandwidth of 8.25Gbps. If necessary, your bandwidth can be bursted to a whopping 25Gbps – enough to serve massive traffic spikes.
While this is the most expensive instance on the list, you can cut prices down by over 50% if you reserve the m5n.2xlarge for three years.
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
If you’re just looking to host a static site, such as a landing page or marketing site that doesn’t require any server-side scripting, Amazon S3 is certainly worth considering. This service provides object storage solutions called buckets, which can easily be configured for web hosting. You are charged by the GB stored and your overall outbound data transfer.
There’s no need for any server administration – your storage bucket will automatically scale to serve traffic with fast page loading speeds.
As there’s no defined plans with this service, I’ve instead provided three case studies that vary in budget.
AWS Amplify
AWS Amplify offers Back-End as a Service (BaaS) for single-page web apps and static websites. It offers a visual editor and a command-line interface, supported by integrated workflows for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD).
To put it simply, AWS Amplify aims to speed up and enhance the development process for static web apps. It also holds many of the advantages of Amazon S3 – it will automatically scale alongside traffic, along with offering very fast performance. It should work well for developers who need an agile web app development platform without the need for server management.
How do you pay for AWS?
Pay-as-you-go
Pay-as-you-go allows you to easily adapt to changing business needs without overcommitting budgets and improving your responsiveness to changes. With a pay-as-you-go model, you can adapt your business depending on need and not on forecasts, reducing the risk of overprovisioning or missing capacity.
Save when you commit
For AWS Compute and AWS Machine Learning, Savings Plans offer savings over On-Demand in exchange for a commitment to use a specific amount (measured in $/hour) of an AWS service or a category of services, for a one- or three-year period.
Pay less by using more
With AWS, you can get volume based discounts and realize important savings as your usage increases. For services such as S3, pricing is tiered, meaning the more you use, the less you pay per GB. AWS also gives you options to acquire services that help you address your business needs.
The Best Way to Save on Amazon Web Services Web Hosting Cost
Hosting providers often charge different prices for their services. To find the best deal, use a hosting comparison service like HostGator or use the search function on Amazon to compare pricing between providers.
Compare the Prices of Different Hosting Providers
To save money on your Amazon Web Services hosting costs, be sure to compare the prices of different providers. Use a hoster that specializes in AWS services and look at how much they cost per month, month-by-month, or year-over-year. Additionally, factor in any additional fees that may apply such as Extra Storage Space or bandwidth charges.
Find the Right Hosting solution for You
Hosting solutions are all different, so it can be difficult to find the right one for you. However, if you have an interest in AWS and are willing to learn about them, there are many resources available online (like this guide from TheAWSGuy). By reading about hosts and finding the perfect solution for you, you can save big on your next Amazon Web Services hosting bill!
The Bottom Line: How to Save on Amazon Web Services Web Hosting Cost
To save money on Amazon Web Services hosting, use a hosting comparison service. This can help you compare the prices of different hosting providers and find the right solution for your needs.
Compare the Prices of Different Hosting Providers
When looking to host your business on Amazon, it’s important to compare the prices of different providers. You’ll want to select a provider that offers an acceptable price-to-service ratio, as well as one that offers a variety of features and services.
Find the Right Hosting solution for You
It’s also important to consider your specific business needs when choosing an Amazon Web Services hosting solution. Some requirements include: a large amount of storage space, high-speed internet access, and reliable customer service. By finding the right host for your business, you can save money while still enjoying great customer service.
Conclusion
The best way to save on Amazon Web Services web hosting costs is to use a web hosting comparison service. By using a hosting comparison service, you can get an estimate of your total Amazon Web Services bill, which will help you make the best decision for your needs. Additionally, by using different hosting providers, you can find the perfect solution for your needs. Overall, using a hosting comparison service can save you a significant amount of money on your Amazon Web Services web hosting costs.