Let us review Amazon Lightsail features and pricing in this article. Frequently, people term Amazon Lightsail as AWS Lightsail also. If you are a beginner then Amazon Lightsail is for you.
AWS Lightsail is suitable for small websites, blogs and e-commerce websites. Amazon Lightsail features competes with traditional VPS servers.
In our opinion, Amazon Lightsail is the best hosting solution for students, freshers, new bloggers and small website owners.
What is AWS Lightsail ?
Amazon Lightsail is like a virtual private server backed by Amazon Web services. Furthermore, it is easy to setup and backed by powerful APIs from AWS.
AWS Lightsail is suitable for small websites, blogs and e-commerce applications. You can start hosting a website, web application and projects in a while with Amazon Lightsail.
In fact, you can install required softwares in a click using Amazon Lightsail console. For example, You can install OS, MEAN or LAMP stack in 2-3 minutes. It means, while launching Amazon Lightsail instance you can install required OS, development stack and application for your company.
So, you can install Linux/Unix/Windows OS instantly. Apart from that, bloggers can install popular CMS applications like WordPress & Joomla in a click. While launching instance you just need to choose pre-configured applications to install.
You can select the required OS and application at the time of creating Amazon Lightsail instance itself. Further, Lightsail will take care of installation of these softwares.
Likewise, traditional VPS servers, Amazon Lightsail has pre-installation features. So after looking all AWS Lightsail features, traditional VPS hosing concept will come in your mind. In other words, AWS Lightsail has set almost all features of tradition VPS servers in Lightsail.
Comparing Amazon Lightsail Vs tradition VPS hosting services
Likewise traditional VPS services, with Amazon Lightsail you can manage your instance with easy AWS console and APIs.
Certainly, Amazon Lightsail is a strong competitor for traditional VPS server. In fact, you might have heard about DreamHost, BlueHost, HostGator hosting companies. Basically, these companies are leaders in tradition VPS hosting.
Additionally, you can visit this link to check about DreamHost VPS server. Moreover, I use DreamHost VPS for my many websites.
Basically, Lightsail almost gives you everything which you get in traditional VPS servers. Moreover, with AWS Lightsail, you gets a reliable, scalable and cost effective server. In fact, with Amazon Lightsail you get relax about bandwidth and website downtime.
However, In my opinion Amazon Lightsail will become developers choice compare to the traditional virtual private hosting servers. Traditional hosting companies are also changing their infrastructure to compete with Amazon Lightsail.
Moreover, I have one strong example of DreamHost. Because, it offers basic VPS for almost $10. Likewise Amazon Lightsail, you can upgrade your instance in DreamHost hosting panel without loosing traffic & data.
What are the main reasons behind launch of Amazon Lightsail ?
There are multiple reasons behind the launch of Amazon Lightsail.
Above all reasons, first reason is AWS pricing. Because, Beginners get scared of AWS pricing. So, Amazon launched Lightsail to attract economical business owners by providing a fixed pricing solution.
AWS Lightsail pricing is designed in order to attract all kind of business owners. We will discuss more about Amazon Lightsail pricing further in this article.
However, Second reason is to attract CDN and traditional VPS hosting customers. If you see the Lightsail features, you find all the features available which we get in traditional VPS hosting also. Additionally, we all know the reliability and scalability of AWS Lightsail.
So, In my view above two reasons are the most significant reason for launch of AWS Lightsail.
AWS Lightsail pricing
Amazon Lightsail basic price starts from $3.5. In fact, It’s value for your money. Moreover, AWS Lightsail pricing plan is different for Linux/Unix and Windows. For example, here is the table which defines cost for each OS separately.
Amazon Lightsail pricing plan for Linux/Unix
| $3.50 USD/Month | 512 MB Memory 1 Core Processor 20 GB SSD Disk 1 TB Transfer* |
| $5 USD/Month | 1 GB Memory 1 Core Processor 40 GB SSD Disk 2 TB Transfer* |
| $10 USD/Month | 2 GB Memory 1 Core Processor 60 GB SSD Disk 3 TB Transfer* |
| $20 USD/Month | 4 GB Memory 2 Core Processor 80 GB SSD Disk 4 TB Transfer* |
| $40 USD/Month | 8 GB Memory 2 Core Processor 160 GB SSD Disk 5 TB Transfer* |
| $80 USD/Month | 16 GB Memory 4 Core Processor 320 GB SSD Disk 6 TB Transfer* |
| $160 USD/Month | 32 GB Memory 8 Core Processor 640 GB SSD Disk 7 TB Transfer* |
Amazon Lightsail pricing plan for Windows
| $8 USD/Month | 512 MB Memory 1 Core Processor 30 GB SSD Disk 1 TB Transfer* |
| $12 USD/Month | 1 GB Memory 1 Core Processor 40 GB SSD Disk 2 TB Transfer* |
| $20 USD/Month | 2 GB Memory 1 Core Processor 60 GB SSD Disk 3 TB Transfer* |
| $40 USD/Month | 4 GB Memory 2 Core Processor 80 GB SSD Disk 4 TB Transfer* |
| $70 USD/Month | 8 GB Memory 2 Core Processor 160 GB SSD Disk 5 TB Transfer* |
| $120 USD/Month | 16 GB Memory 4 Core Processor 320 GB SSD Disk 6 TB Transfer* |
| $240 USD/Month | 32 GB Memory 8 Core Processor 640 GB SSD Disk 7 TB Transfer* |
What is included in all Amazon Lightsail plans ?
Additionally, mentioned features are included in all Lightsail plans.
- Static IP address
- Intuitive management console
- DNS management
- 1-click SSH terminal access (Linux/Unix)
- 1-click RDP access (Windows)
- Powerful API
- Highly available SSD storage
- Server monitoring
AWS Lightsail pre-configured softwares
Here is the list of preconfigured softwares, you can will get with Amazon Lightsail.
Operating Systems : Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD, OpenSUSE, Windows Server.
Applications : WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Ghost, PrestaShop, Magento, Redmine, Plesk, CPanel & WHM.
Stack : WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Ghost, PrestaShop, Magento, Redmine, Plesk, CPanel & WHM.
Moreover, Please visit official website of Amazon Lightsail for more information.
Amazon Lightsail features you must know
We mentioned multiple times that AWS Lightsail is also like a VPS hosting. However , there are still more thing to tell.
Apart from hosting a website, you can use AWS Lightsail as a CDN also. Moreover, you can enjoy Load balancing also.
You can manage and migrate your databases also. Basically, you can manage all kind of databases. In fact, Amazon Lightsail is a good solution for managing and hosting your database.
For example, you can launch MySQL, PostgreSQL databases in a while using AWS Lightsail.
Above all, one more thing to consider is Containers. Yes, You can install and configure containers like Docker also. It is easy.
Moreover, as you grow, you can upgrade to EC2 anytime. In addition to this, you can also use inbuilt web services provided by AWS.
Conclusion :
Finally, we have analysed and explained most of the features of Amazon Lightsail. So, if you are a beginner start with AWS Lightsail, you can start.
Not only hosting but you will get a feeling of CDN with Lightsail. So, you will save lot of money by choosing AWS Lightsail. Moreover, you will get a tremendous speed and scalability for your website.
In fact, people think AWS is costlier compare to other hosting service providers. But it is a game of long run to decide. If your website has lot of traffic then AWS hosting is good for you.
Lightsail contains variety of inbuilt softwares which provides you similar benefits like EC2. For example you can use Amazon Lightsail S3 for as your CDN network.
Read our interesting topic – How to Install Java on Amazon Linux instance of Amazon Lightsail.
