Amazon AWS web hosting plans offer different
solutions including data storage, data processing with computing tools, and
hosting solutions. However, there is one common point underlying this wide
variety of Amazon AWS web hosting plans: and that’s pricing.
In fact, the solutions offered by
Amazon follow the pay as you
go, model. This means that users and companies that use these
services pay according to the services they actually use and can use the infrastructure
on demand without necessarily activating long-term plans.
This kind of solution allows you to
eliminate the initial investment and have variable costs based on specific
needs and not on fixed fees. In this article, AWS web hosting plans: prices and services
we will see the factors behind the costs, this can be an advantage or a
disadvantage depending on the case.
Before returning to the topic of cost
variability, let’s look at what solutions Amazon Web Services offers.
Amazon
AWS: services
For
those looking for a hosting solution, Amazon AWS web hosting plans provides several services that
can fit different needs from those looking for a VPS cloud hosting service to
those who need a dedicated server instead.
Amazon’s Lightsail service is
recommended for those who want to build a website or blog and expect to have
low traffic volumes. For static sites, on the other hand, you can use Amazon
S3, which is generally one of the most used services for those who need a
storage solution. For a site that needs more resources you can use Amazon EC2.
Amazon AWS: pricing
Amazon AWS services vary in price
depending on the resources used. With the exception of Amazon Lightsail which
is offered with fixed plans and predictable prices.
Let’s take a look at Amazon AWS prices
based on estimated consumption that varies depending on the resources required
and traffic available.
Amazon AWS Lightsail Service Pricing
Amazon Lightsail is suggested for
websites using common CMSs such as WordPress, Drupal, Magento or Joomla. The
proposed solutions allow you to choose between Linux and Windows servers and
prices vary depending on the resources included in the plan.
Amazon AWS Pricing – Lightsail Linux
Server
|
Monthly cost |
RAM |
Processor |
Storage space |
Traffic limit |
|
3,50 dollars/month (about 2,95 €) |
Memory: 512 MB |
1 Core |
20 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 1 TB |
|
5 dollars/month (4,22 €) |
Memory: 1 GB |
1 Core |
40 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 2 TB |
|
10 dollars/month (8,43 €) |
Memory: 2 GB |
1 Core |
60 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 3 TB |
|
20 dollars/month (16,86 €) |
Memory: 4 GB |
2 Core |
80 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 4 TB |
|
40 dollars/month (33,72 €) |
Memory: 8 GB |
2 Core |
160 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 5 TB |
|
80 dollars/month (67,45 €) |
Memory: 16 GB |
4 Core |
320 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 6 TB |
|
160 dollars/month (134,90 €) |
Memory: 32 GB |
8 Core |
640 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 7 TB |
Amazon AWS Pricing – Lightsail
Windows Server
|
Monthly cost |
RAM |
Processor |
Storage space |
Traffic limit |
|
8 dollars/month (about 6,74 €) |
Memory: 512 MB |
1 Core |
30 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 1 TB |
|
12 dollars/month (10,12 €) |
Memory: 1 GB |
1 Core |
40 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 2 TB |
|
20 dollars/month (16,86 €) |
Memory: 2 GB |
1 Core |
60 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 3 TB |
|
40 dollars/month (33,72 €) |
Memory: 4 GB |
2 Core |
80 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 4 TB |
|
70 dollars/month (59,02 €) |
Memory: 8 GB |
2 Core |
160 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 5 TB |
|
120 dollars/month (101,17 €) |
Memory: 16 GB |
4 Core |
320 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 6 TB |
|
240 dollars/month (202,34 €) |
Memory: 32 GB |
8 Core |
640 GB SSD |
Data Transfer: 7 TB |
Each solution provides a threshold of
traffic included in the plan, in case the threshold of outgoing traffic is
exceeded an additional charge will be
made to cover the difference.
Amazon AWS: prices and services
– EC2 pricing
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing)
is one of the most widely used Amazon AWS services and allows you to take
advantage of dedicated or on-demand resources.
You can opt to use on-demand instances
and pay, then based on the resources used or use Savings Plans, which are
periodic plans of one year or 3 years. Choosing annual plans allow you to reduce costs
compared to on-demand plans.
In this table, you can see an overview
of the monthly prices of EC2.
In particular, we have examined the t3.micro
and t4g.small plans.
|
Instance |
RAM |
Processor |
Storage space |
Traffic limit |
Monthly cost |
Monthly cost with Saving Plans |
|
EC2 (t3.micro) |
1 GB RAM |
2 virtual CPU |
10 GB SSD |
Outbound traffic: 50 GB |
16,05 dollars/month |
8,46 dollars/month (ordering for one year) |
|
EC2 (t3.micro) |
1 GB RAM |
2 virtual CPU |
10 GB SSD |
Outbound traffic: 100 GB |
20,55 dollars/month |
12,96 dollars/month (ordering for one year) |
|
EC2 (t3.micro) |
1 GB RAM |
2 virtual CPU |
10 GB SSD |
Outbound traffic: 250 GB |
34,05 dollars/month |
26,46 dollars/month (ordering for one year) |
|
Ec2 (t4g.small) |
2 GB RAM |
2 virtual CPU |
10 GB SSD |
Outbound traffic: 50 GB |
20,72 dollars/month |
annual plan not available |
|
Ec2 (t4g.small) |
2 GB RAM |
2 virtual CPU |
10 GB SSD |
Outbound traffic: 100 GB |
25,22 dollars/month |
annual plan not available |
|
Ec2 (t4g.small) |
2 GB RAM |
2 virtual CPU |
10 GB SSD |
Outbound traffic: 250 GB |
38,72 dollars/month |
annual plan not available |
Amazon AWS EC2 pricing for on-demand
instances and annual plans
Prices vary according to the resources
required and the hourly rate, from these parameters we derive the costs in the
table on a monthly basis. The costs are estimates obtained from the price
calculator provided by Amazon and are based on the data center in Milan. The
actual price will depend on the number of resources used.
Some of the plans can be ordered
either on-demand or using Saving Plans, the prices in the table refer to the
monthly cost if the plan is ordered for one year with prepayment. Annual plans
provide savings but are not available for all instances (e.g. in the case of
t4g.small).
In addition to on-demand instances and
subscription plans, Amazon EC2 also allows you to request a dedicated server.
Prices vary depending on the configurations, if you want to delve into the cost
issue you can get a better idea by reading our article on how much a
dedicated-server costs.
In the case of Amazon AWS you can also
save money by opting for long-term plans.
For example, a configuration with 36
virtual CPUs, 24 physical cores (d2 instance) and 2 TB of space have a monthly
cost of $5,196.16.
This figure is the maximum monthly cost based on an estimated 730 hours per
month at $6,794 per hour.
Cost variability
Amazon AWS pricing varies flexibly
based on several factors, the same can apply to other cloud providers that
offer customizable services with flexible costs.
Cost flexibility in itself can be a
benefit because you end up paying only for the resources you actually use. If,
however, you fail to accurately estimate usage, you may also risk running into
unexpected costs. For example, a spike in traffic that you didn’t expect could
drive up the cost of a cloud plan, Let’s take a look at what factors the costs
mainly depend on, in this case, we’ll refer to Amazon AWS services, but the
discourse also applies to other cloud providers since prices generally vary
according to the same criteria.
Resources required
As you can imagine the basic cost of
the cloud plan to activate depends on the type of virtual machine used and
therefore on the requirements themselves (RAM, number of CPUs, etc.). Another
important factor is the amount of space required for storage.
As you can see from the comparison in
the table, another important item that modifies the costs is the data transfer. The
amount of bandwidth made available corresponds to a big chunk of the costs and
it is, therefore, important not to underestimate it when making an estimate.
Type of subscription
As we saw earlier in the Amazon AWS
EC2 services table, prices change based on the type of subscription. Annual and
three-year subscription plans save money by reducing the hourly rate compared
to on-demand instances.
Pricing also varies based on the
payment solution you choose, for example, paying upfront can reduce overall
expenses.
Data Center Location
The location of data centers can also
influence pricing to some extent. In our case, we looked at estimates using the
Milan data center, but if you try to price services with another data center
you’ll notice changes.
Support
There is basic support included in
Amazon AWS services that allow customers to access documentation, the support
forum, and contact customer service. For more advanced technical support,
however, you’ll need to activate an additional paid support plan ( the basic
rates are Developer at $29/month or Business at $100/month).
With Amazon AWS, support prices also
vary depending on the services activated. In particular, for the Developer
support plan, they can correspond to 3% of the monthly costs for activated
services. For a Business support plan the costs vary depending on the cost range
of the plan you are using by reducing if the expense is higher:
- 10% of the monthly cost when spending is between 0 and
10k
- 7% of the monthly cost between 10 thousand and 80
thousand dollars
- 5% of the monthly cost between 80 thousand and 250
thousand dollars
- 3% of the monthly cost above $250k.
Conclusion
In this article, Amazon AWS web hosting plans: prices
and services we’ve seen the services made available by Amazon AWS, the pricing
on the plans offered, and the flexibility of the cloud solutions. With hundreds
of instances available, Amazon AWS offers services for every business from the
smallest enterprises to the most complex organizations.
With the suggested pricing model,
Amazon AWS web hosting plans only allows you to pay for the resources you use. However, this
means having to plan ahead for resources and usage time if you want to make an
accurate estimate and not go over your budget.
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