Amazon EC2
AWS's virtual servers, with hundreds of instance types and flexible ways to pay.
Updated · AppBreakup editorial · Web
Is Amazon EC2 free?
No, it's a paid product
- Free tier credits:
- Up to $200 for new customers, over 6 months
- Free tier:
- Yes
Checked on Amazon EC2's site Nov 8, 2026
Full Amazon EC2 pricing and plansSwitch from Amazon EC2 to
All 5
Amazon LightsailCompareStarting price (with IPv4): $5 USD/month
DigitalOcean DropletsCompareStarting price: $4 a month (512 MiB, 1 vCPU)
VultrComparePaid
- Verified facts
- 6 of 6
- Alternatives ranked
- 5
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is the core virtual server service of Amazon Web Services. You pick an instance type from a very long list, from tiny burstable machines to large GPU and memory-heavy servers, choose an operating system image, and run it in any AWS region. Networking, block storage (EBS), load balancers and auto scaling are separate services you combine around it. Billing is flexible: On-Demand instances are charged per second with no commitment, Savings Plans cut the price in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment, and Spot Instances sell spare capacity at a deep discount but can be reclaimed. A free tier lets new accounts try small instances. EC2 suits teams that need scale, specific hardware or the rest of AWS next to their servers. For a single simple VPS it is more work and harder to price than Lightsail or DigitalOcean, since bandwidth, storage and IP addresses are billed separately.
Best for: Teams that need many instance types, regions or deep AWS integration rather than a simple VPS..
Amazon EC2 pricing (checked Nov 8, 2026)
Each line is quoted from Amazon EC2's own site, with the page it came from.
| Plan or term | What it says | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | Per second | Nov 8, 2026 | aws.amazon.com |
| Savings Plans | Up to 72% off On-Demand | Nov 8, 2026 | aws.amazon.com |
| Spot discount | Up to 90% off On-Demand | Nov 8, 2026 | aws.amazon.com |
| Free tier | Yes | Nov 8, 2026 | aws.amazon.com |
| Free tier credits | Up to $200 for new customers, over 6 months | Nov 8, 2026 | aws.amazon.com |
| Inter-AZ data transfer | $0.01/GB in each direction | Nov 8, 2026 | aws.amazon.com |
Pros and cons
What works
- Huge choice of instance types, including GPUs and Arm
- Per-second billing on common operating systems
- Spot and Savings Plans can cut costs sharply
- Sits next to the rest of AWS (S3, RDS, IAM)
Why people leave
- Data transfer, storage and IPs are billed separately, making costs hard to predict
- Steeper learning curve than flat-priced VPS hosts
- Spot capacity can be taken back at short notice
Amazon EC2 vs Amazon Lightsail, DigitalOcean Droplets and Vultr
From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.
| Attribute | Amazon EC2 | Amazon Lightsail | DigitalOcean Droplets | Vultr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Verified price | Up to $200 for new customers, over 6 months | $5 USD/month | $4 a month (512 MiB, 1 vCPU) | — |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes, under AWS Free Tier | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No |
| Platforms | Web | Web, Linux, Windows | Web, Linux | Web |
Full Amazon EC2 vs Amazon Lightsail comparisonFull Amazon EC2 vs DigitalOcean Droplets comparisonFull Amazon EC2 vs Vultr comparison
Top Amazon EC2 alternatives
See all 5- 1Amazon Lightsail68.8
AWS's own simple VPS with bundled storage and transfer at a flat monthly price.
- 2DigitalOcean Droplets64.8
Simpler VPS with predictable monthly pricing and included bandwidth, popular with small teams.
- 3Vultr59.6
Cheap VPS and GPU servers in many locations, with flat hourly and monthly prices.
- 4
Linode59.4Akamai's developer cloud: straightforward VPS plans with generous included transfer.
- 5
OVHcloud57.5European provider with low-cost VPS and dedicated servers and no egress surprises on many plans.
Why people left Amazon EC2
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
No switching stories yet. If you moved away from Amazon EC2, review the app you switched to and tell us why.
Reviews
No approved reviews yet. How we verify reviewers
Write a review of Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2: common questions
What is Amazon EC2?
Amazon EC2: AWS's virtual servers, with hundreds of instance types and flexible ways to pay. Best for teams that need many instance types, regions or deep AWS integration rather than a simple VPS. Available for Web.
Is Amazon EC2 free?
No, Amazon EC2 is a paid product. Savings Plans: Up to 72% off On-Demand (checked on Amazon EC2's own site).
How much does Amazon EC2 cost?
Amazon EC2 is a paid product. Billing: Per second; Savings Plans: Up to 72% off On-Demand; Spot discount: Up to 90% off On-Demand; Free tier: Yes. Checked on Amazon EC2's own site, November 2026.
Is Amazon EC2 open source?
No, Amazon EC2 is not open source.
What platforms does Amazon EC2 run on?
Amazon EC2 is available for Web.
What are the best alternatives to Amazon EC2?
The highest-ranked Amazon EC2 alternatives right now are Amazon Lightsail, DigitalOcean Droplets and Vultr. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.
Amazon EC2 vs Amazon Lightsail: what's the difference?
Both Amazon EC2 and Amazon Lightsail are paid products. Verified prices: Amazon EC2 Up to $200 for new customers, over 6 months, Amazon Lightsail $5 USD/month. Only Amazon Lightsail runs on Linux and Windows.