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Okay, I don't really now where to post this question.. It wasn't received well on SO so I am trying here.

There is only one apparently abstract upside of using Lightsail, simplicity, or significantly simplified interface.

Also, the first page of Lightsail talks about lower charges. My question is how is it considered to reduce charges compared to EC2? Consider $5 Lightsail plan which charges $0.0067/hour of an instance (which is the cheapest) where EC2's same type of instance (t2.nano) costs just $0.0059/hour.

What am I missing? A detailed price comparison would be much appreciated showing how Lightsail costs lower as advertised.

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    This question is out of scope here at Superuser.
    – Ramhound
    Jun 28, 2017 at 4:40

1 Answer 1

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The smallest Lightsail instance actually is a t2.nano ($4.39) with a 20 GiB EBS volume ($2.00) and up to 1 terabyte of outbound data transfer ($90.00), priced at $5.00.

$5.00 is a substantially lower cost than $96.39.

Assuming only 100 gigabytes of outbound data transfer, $5.00 is still significantly less than $15.39.

Or 10 gigabytes, it's still lower, $5.00 < $7.29.

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  • Thanks but isn't there some kind of free data transfer and storage options available in EC2 also? Thank you for that 10 GiB value comparison!
    – Aakash Verma
    Jun 28, 2017 at 5:20
  • Everything in EC2 is pay-as-you-go, except for the 12 month introductory free tier, which includes your first 750 hours of t2.micro, your first 30 GiB EBS (total, not per volume) and your first 15 GiB of outbound data each month across all AWS services.
    – Michael - sqlbot
    Jun 28, 2017 at 6:48
  • Yes, I got to realise that Lightsail is made for VPSs and not for simple computing although EC2 has provisions for pretty much everything. That is since I will have a server with web apps on it so I 'd be having some noticeable data transfers and so it becomes advisable to go for Lightsail then... So that means there is some other significance apart from its simplicity, isn't it?
    – Aakash Verma
    Jun 28, 2017 at 7:25
  • Just one last question, so there's no way I can make the free tier of EC2 last after one year or use Lightsail for free after the first month using the same Amazon account?
    – Aakash Verma
    Jun 28, 2017 at 7:26
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    @Tim, I agree that the free tier is generous, but I think you might have misinterpreted the question -- it's asking why Lightsail claims to be a lower cost offering than EC2 since it didn't appear that way when comparing the Lightsail price to the equivalent t2 class, a conclusion that was premised on an incomplete understanding of what the Lightsail VPS price includes that the EC2 instance price doesn't include (an EBS volume and outbound bandwidth).
    – Michael - sqlbot
    Jul 6, 2017 at 22:45

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