Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon EC2 vs Amazon Virtual Private Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EC2
Ranking in Compute Service
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
Ranking in Compute Service
7th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 is 5.7%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

KatlegoMabila - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers customization and flexibility with great support
Scalability depends on whether the client wants to scale up or scale down. It decreases resources based on demand. The great aspect of scalability is the flexibility to allow business success to optimize resource solutions and cost efficiency. Another crucial aspect of scalability is auto-scaling. When you have the opportunity to auto-scale, it can't always be available for everything. If you have chosen to integrate with auto-scaling, it's marvellous and doesn't require additional effort. Auto-scaling gives you the edge by using the capacity you have efficiently, scaling up or down as needed. These flexibilities within the EC2 feature instances of AWS play a crucial role in helping me utilize AWS EC2 Intelligent efficiently.
Dineshkumar Thulasiraman - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers auto-scaling policies, security groups are very useful and good support
VPC itself is pretty good, but understanding it well is key. One of the challenges for beginners is understanding IP address ranges and subnet concepts. For example, why use a /16 CIDR block for a VPC versus a /24? It's important to understand these concepts before creating a VPC. Once you understand the basics, you can leverage VPC features based on your architecture. For example, a three-tier architecture (web application, database, etc.) can benefit from public and private subnets. The web application can reside in a public subnet for internet access, while the database can reside in a private subnet for security, only accessible through the web application. This helps isolate resources and improve performance. So, the first step is understanding VPC creation and then using subnets (public and private) based on your architecture. Public subnets can connect to the internet, while private subnets cannot by default. For internet access in a private subnet, you can use a NAT Gateway and route tables. Other components include the internet gateway (for public subnet internet access), Elastic IPs (static IP addresses), and more advanced options like VPN connections, AWS PrivateLink, etc. Once you grasp these basic concepts, you can explore the more advanced features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I believe that cloud solutions are better than physical servers."
"The scalability of Amazon EC2 is good. However, the stability can depend on what service I am using."
"An advantage of Amazon is that it offers a wide range of infrastructure services with an easy way to configure them."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to have standard operating systems along with the Windows, Linux operating systems, and their maintenance-free structure, which we prefer."
"The best features of Amazon EC2 are its high performance and security."
"My company uses the tool for cloud monitoring. We have a production, staging, deployment, and testing environment in AWS. However, we do not use the managed service of AWS yet. My team uses the required parameters for security like VPC, firewall, gates of security as well as the external layer of the app."
"The most valuable features are the scalability options, low maintenance, and options to upgrade. AWS support is also pretty good. The generation upgrade is pretty simple and standardized."
"EC2 is secure and stable, and we have no complaints about it on AWS."
"The initial setup is easy. I've deployed VPCs many times."
"We can set up our own data center."
"The product can be used to isolate environments."
"The product's initial setup phase is simple since my company manages it with the use of Terraform."
"The main feature I like about Amazon VPC is its security capabilities, including security groups and subnets."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"With an AWS virtual private cloud, you're in charge of what you use. It's pay-as-you-go."
"The documentation is very clear."
 

Cons

"One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense."
"The product could benefit from offering more mixed instance types that combine features from different series to suit diverse workload requirements better."
"Support doesn't share or give insights on OS-based issues. That needs to improve because if someone is buying an EC2 instance with the Windows server and SQL license, the client expects that there will be a minimum level of support."
"The only issue with EC2 is that it makes it difficult to install an LLS certificate on your WordPress website that you have deployed inside that virtual machine. That becomes complicated."
"Accessibility must be improved."
"Amazon EC2's pricing could be better."
"The GUI used to deploy EC2 must be improved."
"I think the whole AWS stack is very disconnected from each other. in the .NET space, everything just works nicely together. In the AWS stack, there is a lot of head scratching."
"They should release a trial version."
"The solution has to be more robust and scalable."
"You should be able to toggle off some cloud services when you don't need them and switch them on when necessary."
"There could be better documentation for specific services."
"The overall integration capabilities of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud with third-party tools need to improve."
"VPC itself is pretty good, but understanding it well is key. One of the challenges for beginners is understanding IP address ranges and subnet concepts."
"It would be beneficial to introduce more managed features and enhance customization options in the product."
"There are some differences in the route tables between public and private subnets, which is something that is not properly documented."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are using a pay-as-you-go model."
"The price of Amazon EC2 could improve. The Google Cloud Platform is more cost-effective."
"For our usage, the cost is approximately $20,000 to $23,000 per month."
"EC2 pricing is somewhat transparent, in that AWS provides pricing for all instance types. However, the number of pricing options can be confusing."
"When we did the deployment of Amazon EC2 we found it to be less expensive than other solutions."
"The tool's pricing is not cheap."
"The use of Amazon EC2 does not incur any licensing fees."
"The price is reasonable, but there is definitely an opportunity to lower it in instances which are of a higher configuration, because they have been typically used for the long term."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"Amazon is not very transparent with pricing. It's quite complicated to see where you're spending and how you can track it. I was spending $30,000 a year and $3600 monthly on top of that initial payment. However, I have been able to bring the cost down for this year."
"We can use the tool for free."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"The product is expensive."
"VPC itself is free to create and use."
"VPC tends to offer competitive pricing compared to other services."
"The product is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Compute Service solutions are best for your needs.
848,989 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EC2?
The scalability and elasticity are helpful.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EC2?
I'm going to mention again that there is quite a bit of complexity within the pricing of EC2 instances. I'm just going to give it six out of ten since there are various standards, upfront and commi...
What needs improvement with Amazon EC2?
There is not much to be improved or enhanced. One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense. Sometimes, clients don't understand the structures. Thes...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Virtual Private Cloud?
The cost of Amazon VPC depends on the components you put inside the VPC and the traffic volume. While the direct cost of the VPC is usually not problematic, the associated components and their traf...
What needs improvement with Amazon Virtual Private Cloud?
I would look at database options for improvements. There is a specific configuration where I was using a Windows Server, and I could not configure RDS Oracle on it. I believe they need to revise ho...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, EC2
Amazon VPC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Expedia, TimeInc., Novaris, airbnb, Lamborghini
Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EC2 vs. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,989 professionals have used our research since 2012.