Cloud Infrastructure
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Market-leading cloud provider with 38 regions, most compliance certifications, and Lightsail for simplified VPS at $5/month
Founded 2006United StatesAmazon.com Inc.
Overall Rating
3.5
Trustpilot: 1.3/5 (361 reviews)
Starting Price
$3.50/month
Free SSL
Free Domain
Free Migration
24/7 Support
Pricing Plans
Compare Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s hosting plans
Pros & Cons
What We Like
- Enterprise deployments needing AWS ecosystem
- Developers comfortable with cloud infrastructure
- Businesses needing compliance certifications (HIPAA, PCI, FedRAMP)
- Global deployments with 38 regions
- Those already invested in AWS ecosystem
What Could Be Better
- Beginner wanting simple hosting
- Need included support
- Want managed WordPress
- Budget-conscious without cloud expertise
- Need predictable billing
- Extremely poor Trustpilot rating (1.3) due to billing complaints and support issues
Rating Breakdown
Value for Money
3.0Performance
5.0Support Quality
2.0Security
5.0Features
5.0Ease of Use
2.5Transparency
2.0Overall Rating
Weighted average of all categories
3.5/5
Technical Specifications
Complete feature breakdown across all 158 data points
Storage & Resources
- Storage
- 40 GB SSD
- Storage Type
- SSD
- Bandwidth
- 2000 GB
- Websites
- Not specified
- Databases
- Not specified
Performance
- Uptime Guarantee
- 99.99%
- Uptime SLA Credit
- CDN Included
- CDN Provider
- CloudFront (additional cost)
- HTTP/2
- Brotli Compression
Server Locations
- Location Count
- 38 locations
- Choose Location
- Locations
- US East (Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon)
Security
- Free SSL
- Wildcard SSL
- Dedicated IP
- DDoS Protection
- DDoS Level
- AWS Shield Standard (free); Shield Advanced ($3000/mo+)
- 2FA
Backups & Malware
- Malware Scanning
- Malware Removal
- Firewall
- Backup Frequency
- Manual/Snapshot-based
- On-Demand Backup
- Restore Fee
- Free
Developer Tools
- SSH Access
- Git Deployment
- Cron Jobs
- Redis
- WP-CLI
Language Support
- Node.js
- Python
- Ruby
WordPress
- WP Optimized
- Auto Install
- Auto Updates
- WP Staging
- WooCommerce
- LiteSpeed Cache
- Object Caching
- Multisite
Support
- Live Chat
- Chat Hours
- Paid support plans
- Phone Support
- Phone Hours
- 24/7 with paid support
- Ticket Support
- Priority Support
- KB Quality
- 5/5
- Channels
- Ticket, Phone, Chat, Knowledge Base, Forums
- Languages
- English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
- Email Included
- Account Limit
- 0
- Webmail
- Spam Filter
- Forwarding
Pricing Details
- Monthly Price
- $3.5/mo
- Renewal Price
- $3.5/mo
- 1st Year Cost
- $42
- 2nd Year Cost
- $42
- Setup Fee
- None
- Monthly Billing
Free Inclusions
- Free SSL
- Free Domain
- Free Migration
- Free CDN
Migration
- Free Migration
Control Panel
- cPanel
- Panel Name
- AWS Console / Lightsail Console
- Softaculous
- Site Builder
Compliance
- GDPR
- PCI
- HIPAA
- Certifications
- SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 9001, PCI DSS Level 1, HIPAA, FedRAMP
CMS Platforms
- Drupal
- Joomla
- Magento
- Laravel
- Django
- Next.js
- Rails
- Static Sites
Content Policies
- Adult Content
- Gambling
- legal_only
- Crypto Sites
- Bandwidth Overage
- 2TB included on $5 Lightsail; overage $0.09/GB
- Storage Overage
- Pay for additional volumes/snapshots
Business Features
- API Access
- Reseller Hosting
- White Label
- Green Hosting
Best For (Score)
- Beginners
- 1/5
- Bloggers
- 2/5
- Developers
- 5/5
- eCommerce
- 4/5
- Agencies
- 4/5
- Enterprise
- 5/5
Company Info
- Founded
- 2006
- Headquarters
- United States
- Parent Company
- Amazon.com Inc.
- Trustpilot
- 1.3/5 (361 reviews)
Our Ratings
- Overall
- 3.5/5
- Value
- 3/5
- Performance
- 5/5
- Support
- 2/5
- Security
- 5/5
- Features
- 5/5
- Ease of Use
- 2.5/5
- Transparency
- 2/5
Managed WordPress
- Available
Regional Info
- Best Countries
- United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, India, Canada
- Currencies
- USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, AUD, SGD, BRL, INR, CAD
- Support Languages
- English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
- Data Sovereignty
- GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001
External Ratings
- Trustpilot
- 1.3/5
- Reviews Count
- 361
- G2 Rating
- 4.6/5
- BBB Rating
- NR
Advanced Technical
- DB Type
- MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/MSSQL/Oracle
- Elasticsearch
Access & Limits
- SSH Tier
- All plans (root access)
- Instant Activation
Additional Pricing
- Exclusions
- Pay-as-you-go; No traditional refund; Free tier available for 12 months
- Payment Methods
- Credit Card, Debit Card, ACH Direct Debit, Wire Transfer, AWS Credits
- Auto Renewal
- Domain Privacy
- SSL Provider
- AWS Certificate Manager (free SSL for AWS resources)
Support Details
- Phone Countries
- Global
- Priority Cost
- $Developer $29/mo; Business $100/mo minimum; Enterprise $15,000/mo+
- Community Forum
- Outsourced
Affiliate Program
- Affiliate Available
- Commission Type
- Per sale
- Commission Amount
- Varies by service; AWS Partner Network available
Additional Policies
- File Hosting
- Proxy/VPN
- BW Overage Cost
- $0.09
- Suspension Policy
- Violation of ToS; non-payment; abuse
- Downloadable Backups
Additional Platforms
- PrestaShop
- Ghost
- Shopify Migration
- Wix Migration
- Squarespace Migration
- Webflow Export
Editorial Notes
- Best For
- Enterprise deployments needing AWS ecosystem; Developers comfortable with cloud infrastructure; Businesses needing compliance certifications (HIPAA, PCI, FedRAMP); Global deployments with 38 regions; Those already invested in AWS ecosystem
- Avoid If
- Beginner wanting simple hosting; Need included support; Want managed WordPress; Budget-conscious without cloud expertise; Need predictable billing
- Known Issues
- Extremely poor Trustpilot rating (1.3) due to billing complaints and support issues; Complex pricing can lead to unexpected bills; Support costs extra (free tier has no support); Not beginner-friendly; EC2 pricing confusing; Lightsail less flexible than competitors
- USP
- Market-leading cloud provider with 38 regions, most compliance certifications, and Lightsail for simplified VPS at $5/month
- Ideal Customer
- Enterprise or developer needing global cloud infrastructure with extensive compliance certifications and AWS ecosystem integration
Competition
- Competitors
- Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, Vultr
- Best Alternative To
- Google Cloud Platform
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS is the market leader in cloud computing with excellent performance and the most compliance certifications. G2 rating 4.6 reflects enterprise satisfaction, though Trustpilot 1.3 reflects billing confusion and support complaints from smaller users.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., launched in 2006. Headquartered in Seattle, WA with 143,000+ employees.
AWS Lightsail starts at $5/month for 1GB RAM, 40GB SSD, and 2TB transfer. EC2 pricing is usage-based and complex. 12-month free tier includes 750 hours of Lightsail or t2.micro EC2.
No. AWS is designed for developers and enterprises. Lightsail is simpler but still requires technical knowledge. Complex pricing can lead to unexpected bills for beginners.
No, AWS does not include email hosting. Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is available for transactional email at additional cost.
Yes, via Lightsail one-click WordPress or manual EC2 installation. Not managed WordPress - you handle updates and security.
AWS guarantees 99.99% uptime for EC2 and 99.9% for Lightsail with SLA credits for downtime.
Yes, pay-as-you-go billing with no long-term contracts. Lightsail has fixed monthly pricing. Delete resources to stop billing.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) head-to-head comparisons
See how Amazon Web Services (AWS) stacks up against other hosts on pricing, performance, and features:
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Further reading on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Guides from our research desk that go deeper on this comparison.
- AWS vs Liquid Web: Which If You're Drowning in Server Management?Spending more time managing servers than building? Here's the honest AWS vs Liquid Web comparison for teams who want the ops burden gone — what each actually offloads, and which fits you.Read guide
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- What Can You Actually Run on $0.50–$3/Month Hosting?Is dirt-cheap hosting a scam or a steal? Here's what you can genuinely run on a $0.50–$3/mo plan, what it quietly can't do, and when the cheapest option is actually the smart one.Read guide