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Amazon AWS vs Amazon Lightsail comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon AWS
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
253
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (2nd)
Amazon Lightsail
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS is 16.5%, down from 19.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon Lightsail is 1.5%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
PaaS Clouds
 

Featured Reviews

Arun Srivastav - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 20, 2024
Allows for automatic scaling of resources and provides built-in firewalls and security features, eliminating the need for external security solutions
One thing that's a bit different is that we're still accustomed to speaking to someone directly. AWS doesn't offer that kind of support. It's only through bots. You're speaking to chatbots, and that can sometimes be frustrating because there's no person on the other side. AI is not a substitute for a person. AWS marketplace is very strong, but somehow AWS doesn't promote it much. They have a huge customer base across the globe, and if products were launched in their marketplace, they could sell like hotcakes. They should improve their marketplace and promote the same product across the globe. They can take a cut, but they should promote it. That's something they don't do very much. So, AWS should promote its marketplace software. The company should promote it aggressively. Currently, they keep it very subtle. If you ask for it, they'll help you out. But they don't seem to advertise, "You're building a product on our platform? Why don't you sell it in our marketplace?" Improvement in AI: AWS is a little behind Microsoft Azure in terms of AI. AWS is still getting there, but the kind of examples and help files available in Azure for AI are much better. So AWS still needs to work on its AI functionality.
Vitor Gabriel Reis Lux Barboza - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 30, 2024
Provides preconfigured templates for common setups and allows for easy configuration of firewall settings directly from the console
There were templates for Ubuntu, for instance, that I used. I used it if I remember, going to 20.04, I guess. It was ready, and I just used the template and it worked well. There is a template for Windows Server, but I didn't test them. Also, the configurations over the firewall in the console work very good for the purpose that we need to isolate it from the internet but allow the connection from specific IP addresses in specific ports. So the filtering in the Lightsail Firewall works good. And I am able to isolate the virtual machine well from the internet in order to avoid DDoS attacks and stuff like that.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Their technical support is really good. I am very satisfied."
"AWS has large community support."
"Provisioning and resource administration include billing dashboards, which are very extensive."
"It improves the speed for us to access vendors."
"The storage is most valuable. The gateway and documentation are also quite good."
"Cloud Management has been a valuable feature."
"I like that it's easy to use."
"The initial setup is easy. The deployment is fast."
"EC2 instances are pre-configured and upgraded, so you can simply select and instantly pay for an EC2 instance to set up WordPress, Node.js, or a server container using Docker."
"The most valuable features are the usability and customer service."
"One of the product's most valuable features is its fixed pricing, which makes it ideal for small projects and websites that do not require scaling."
"The instances optimized for WordPress are very lightweight and straightforward in configuration."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"In Lightsail, they simplified to do it in as few clicks as possible. So, around ten clicks, I have a virtual machine deployed."
"We use Amazon Lightsail for hosting security components in-house and AI modules."
 

Cons

"Their support can be improved. In some cases, their support is not as proficient as it can be. They should be quicker at getting back."
"The networking models used in AWS, while functional, do have room for improvement. This is especially the fact, considering that they are built/presented from a systems perspective."
"Like anything, Amazon AWS has room for improvement, but it's not bad."
"Faster API response times and an improved console experience would be better. Enhanced performance across APIs and the console would streamline our workflows."
"The pricing of AWS is very unclear. They make it quite confusing."
"Some of the storage services could be cheaper."
"Somehow Amazon associated their marketplace as a place to find images of various installs (preconfigured software) and was late in the game enabling and promoting SaaS-based solutions. Thus, the AWS marketplace has near zero awareness in the mind of the prospect to find solutions to various problems plaguing them."
"The dashboard can be improved a little bit to provide more information."
"I don't see this solution as enterprise-ready, for bigger companies like banks."
"The solution could be smoother than it is."
"Currently, there is limited support available while installing or configuring it, and resources are primarily available through community-contributed articles."
"The product's network features need enhancement."
"Backward compatibility and the flexibility to choose software versions while installing would be improvements."
"When you need to add some custom rules to Amazon Lightsail, the auto scaling feature is a bit difficult."
"To improve, I feel the disk management is too basic. I can't easily partition the disk for the operating system. I have to follow the main configuration that is already set up in the template. To partition the disk, I would need to deploy the operating system first and then make changes, but it's not an ideal method. I would recommend improving the disk management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With Amazon AWS, you pay as you go."
"The solution is on a subscription-based model, and it is pay-as-you-go. The price could be cheaper."
"We have a monthly subscription for Amazon AWS."
"One of the best thing in Amazon AWS is you are billed for the service you use."
"The solution is expensive, and I rate it an eight out of ten."
"Billing for cloud services can be difficult at times."
"They have different pricing models for each suite of services."
"Licensing fees depend on the contract. It can be monthly or on-demand resources."
"Amazon Lightsail is a bit cheaper than Amazon EC2."
"The prices are better than EC2 machines, for instance, because they are simplified management, but it works well, and I am able to run everything that I need on it."
"A few months ago, Lightsail's pricing increased, likely due to the addition of the new VPC feature."
"The services that it provides are good for the price."
"It's very cheap."
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Comparison Review

it_user8586 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 14, 2013
Amazon vs Rackspace vs Microsoft vs Google: Cloud Hosting Services Comparison
Amazon Web Services, Rackspace OpenStack, Microsoft Windows Azure and Google are the major cloud hosting and storage service providers. Athough Amazon is top of them and is oldest in cloud market, Rackspace, Microsoft and Google are giving tough competition to each other and to Amazon also for…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
27%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does OpenShift compare with Amazon AWS?
Open Shift makes managing infrastructure easy because of self-healing and automatic scaling. There is also a wonderful dashboard mechanism to alert us in case the application is over-committing or ...
How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS?
How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS? Amazon AWS offers options both in terms of upgrading and expanding capabilities as well as acquiring greater storage space. These upgrades can ...
Looking to compare Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure
We like Google Firebase hosting and authentication and also the excellent cloud functionality. Our team found the flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL to be very useful...
What do you like most about Amazon Lightsail?
In Lightsail, they simplified to do it in as few clicks as possible. So, around ten clicks, I have a virtual machine deployed.
What needs improvement with Amazon Lightsail?
Backward compatibility and the flexibility to choose software versions while installing would be improvements. Currently, only the latest versions are available, which is good for security, however...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Web Services, AWS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Pinterest, General Electric, Pfizer, Netflix, and Nasdaq.
Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon AWS vs. Amazon Lightsail and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.