What is the AWS VPS hosting price? If you are coming to AWS from traditional VPS Server hosting you might be a bit confused since there is no service called VPS. Amazon Lightsail and EC2 are the VPS like services, both of these will give you a private virtual machine you own. EC2 is more basic, Lightsail is much easier to use, providing lots of software like Minecraft and WordPress you can launch with the click of a button. Scroll down to find charts with AWS VPS server pricing.

AWS VPS Hosting Price

What is the Amazon VPS Pricing?

VPS pricing at AWS starts with a $0 3 month free trial. After the trial, the cheapest Linux VPS is $3.50 for a server with 512 MB RAM, 1 Core, 20 GB of storage, and 1 TB of data transfer. The free tier is applicable of instances up to 2GB of RAM.

Why use Amazon AWS for VPS rather than another service which may be cheaper?

Amazon is a great choice because you don’t get locked into a long term contract to get the advertised price! There are several other benefits such as AWS’ great service as well as the added benefit of being able to now add AWS to your resume.

Both Lightsail and EC2 offer free tiers. Lightsail will give you up to 3 months free on certain plans and EC2 offers up to 1 year free, but with less bells and whistles.

VPS Server Pricing for Amazon Lightsail

What is the Amazon AWS VPS service?

AWS has a dedicated service for VPS called Lightsail. Which AWS does offer more complicated services like EC2 and ECS. If you are looking for a simple VPS, with an easy to use console that installs common services for you, like you would find at other VPS provides, then Lightsail is the way to go.

  • Lots of software ready to deploy at the click of a button

  • Pricing is charged hourly, there is no fee for when your server is off

  • 5 Static IPs are included

  • Free Tier! Everything is free for 3 months on certain plans

Linux VPS Server Pricing

All prices on the chart are per month

PriceMemoryProcessorSSD StorageData Transfer
$3.50512 MB1 Core20 GB1 TB
$51 GB1 Core40 GB2 TB
$102 GB1 Core60 GB3 TB
$204 GB2 Core80 GB4 TB
$408 GB2 Core160 GB5 TB
$8016 GB4 Core320 GB6 TB
$16032 GB8 Core640 GB7 TB

AWS VPS hosting price comparison chart

Here is a convenient image I put together you can download comparing Linux the AWS VPS Hosting price.

Windows VPS Server Pricing

All prices on the chart are per month

PriceMemoryProcessorSSD StorageData Transfer
$8512 MB1 Core30 GB1 TB
$121 GB1 Core40 GB2 TB
$202 GB1 Core60 GB3 TB
$404 GB2 Core80 GB4 TB
$708 GB2 Core160 GB5 TB
$12016 GB4 Core320 GB6 TB
$24032 GB8 Core640 GB7 TB

Can You get an Amazon VPS Free?

Can you really get an Amazon VPS Free?

Yes, you certainly can get an Amazon VPS Free! AWS offers a 3 month free trial for VPS up to 2 GB of RAM!

Amazon Lightsail Free Tier

  • First 3 months free on these Linux VPS: $3.50, $5, and $10

  • First 3 months free on these Windows VPS: $8, $12, and $20

  • First 3 months free on the $15 Database

  • First 3 months free on the $10 Container service (Micro -1 node)

  • First 12 months free on CDN

Amazon VPS server price: Link to official Lightsail pricing page.

AWS VPS Server Pricing Overview Video

https://youtu.be/E35IBXQJabw

VPS Server Price Comparison

One big benefit of Amazon Lightsail over other VPS hosts is they charge monthly by default. Other providers often display a monthly price but expect you to pay for a year or 3 years up front to get it.

512 MB VPS Comparison

ProviderCPUStorageData TransferPrice/mo
Amazon Lightsail Linux1 Core20 GB1 Tb$3.50
Amazon Lightsail Windows1 Core30 GB1 TB$8

1 GB Pricing Comparison

ProviderCPUStorageData TransferPrice/mo
Amazon Lightsail Linux1 Core40 GB2 Tb$5
Amazon Lightsail Windows1 Core40 GB2 TB$12
Hostinger Linux1 Core20 GB1 TB$8.99 (or $7.99/mo yearly)

2 GB Pricing Comparison

ProviderMemoryCPUStorageData TransferPrice/mo
Amazon Lightsail Linux2 GB1 Core60 GB3 Tb$10
Amazon Lightsail Windows2 GB1 Core60 GB3 TB$20
Host Gator Linux2 GB2 Cores120 GBUnlimited$23.95 (billed 12mo)
Hostinger Linux2 Gb2 Cores40 GB2 TB$13.99 (or $10.99/mo yearly)

4 GB Pricing Comparison

ProviderCPUStorageData TransferPrice/mo
Amazon Lightsail Linux2 Core80 GB4 Tb$20
Amazon Lightsail Windows2 Core80 GB4 TB$40
Host Gator Linux2 Cores165 GBUnlimited$34.95 (billed 12mo)
Hostinger Linux4 Cores80 GB4 TB$29.99 (or $24.99/mo yearly)
Inmotion Hosting Linux2 Cores90 GB2 TB$29.99 (or $24.99/mo yearly)
Bluehost Linux2 Cores60 GB2 TB$59.99(billed 3mo)

Host Gator Pricing: https://www.hostgator.com/help/article/hosting-price-chart

Hostinger Pricing: https://www.hostinger.com/vps-hosting#slide1

Inmotion Hosting: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/managed-vps-hosting

Bluehost Pricing: https://www.bluehost.com/help/article/virtual-private-server-vps-hosting-prices

AWS VPS Server Pricing Conclusion

AWS VPS server pricing with Lightsail is very competitive with the competition, especially given the generous 3 month free tier and the default month by month pricing not locking you into any contracts. AWS VPS win out in all of the categories we compared. The downside to using the AWS VPS is going to be ease of use. AWS is not going to provide the same level of management or tooling that many other hosting provider will, but given the benefits and access to the hundreds of other services AWS offers this is going to be the right choice for many people. Given the data here, the Amazon VPS hosting price really is their strong suit in the VPS market.

Virtual Server Hosting on Amazon

There are other ways to go about virtual server hosting on Amazon, Amazon Lightsail is a easy option for someone looking for a VPS, for a more full featured virtual server hosting option look to EC2.

VPS Server Pricing for EC2

Check the EC2 on demand prices yourself here: https://instances.vantage.sh/. This site is much easier to use than the official pricing guide, which can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Is Lightsail cheaper than EC2?

Yes, Amazon Lightsail pricing tends to be cheaper than EC2 on-demand. If you are utilizing auto-scaling, EC2 may be cheaper, but if you just have 1 or 2 VPS Lightsail is almost certainly cheaper. An EC2 T3A Micro (1.0 GB, 2 CPU) is $6.77/mo, a 1 GB, 1 CPU Lightsail VPS is $5. Not quite apples to oranges but if you are looking for the cheapest memory Lightsail wins there.


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