Alibaba Cloud vs Amazon EC2
This page was updated with new data on August 14 2019.
We have tested 14 VPS plans from Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2. This page is a summary and comparison of all test results for those 2 providers.
VPS Plans
| Plan Name | Monthly Price | CPU cores | Memory (GB) | Disk Space (GB) | Data Transfer (GB) | Latest trial | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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1GB 1 core | $4.50 | 1 | 1.0 | 40 | 1000 | Feb 10 2019 |
|
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t2-micro | $7.49 | 1 | 1.0 | 10 | 100 | May 06 2018 |
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t3.micro | $7.49 | 2 | 1.0 | 20 | 0 | Jun 03 2019 |
|
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ecs.t5-lc1m1.small | $10.08 | 1 | 1.0 | 40 | 10000 | Nov 16 2018 |
|
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t3.small | $14.98 | 2 | 2.0 | 8 | 1000 | Jan 29 2019 |
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t2-small | $16.56 | 1 | 2.0 | 8 | 250 | Mar 24 2018 |
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a1.medium | $18.36 | 1 | 2.0 | 20 | 100 | Nov 28 2018 |
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ecs-t5-c1m1-large | $25.00 | 2 | 2.0 | 20 | 10000 | Sep 09 2018 |
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t3-medium | $29.95 | 2 | 4.0 | 8 | 200 | Aug 22 2018 |
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t2-medium | $33.41 | 2 | 4.0 | 8 | 250 | Jul 22 2018 |
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ecs.n4.large | $38.88 | 2 | 4.0 | 40 | 0 | Jun 17 2019 |
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m5a.large | $62.00 | 2 | 8.0 | 20 | 100 | Mar 31 2019 |
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ecs.c5.large | $63.00 | 2 | 4.0 | 20 | 1000 | Apr 08 2019 |
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m5.large | $69.12 | 2 | 8.0 | 20 | 200 | Nov 14 2018 |
Performance Grades
To summarize the performance of each VPS plan, we generated grades based on the various tests that were run: web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Each grade focuses on one aspect of the VPS speed or stability (cpu, disk IO, network IO...) and is made of one or more metrics measured during the tests.
Grades are evenly distributed between A and F. A is best, F is worst.
Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.
| Plan Name | Web Perf | Raw CPU Power | Perf Stability | Disk IO Perf | Network Perf | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
1GB 1 core
$4.50 |
C | E | B | E | E |
|
|
t2-micro
$7.49 |
B | F | E | E | C |
|
|
t3.micro
$7.49 |
C | D | E | F | B |
|
|
ecs.t5-lc1m1.small
$10.08 |
C | E | E | E | E |
|
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t3.small
$14.98 |
B | B | D | A | C |
|
|
t2-small
$16.56 |
B | F | D | C | C |
|
|
ecs-t5-c1m1-large
$25.00 |
A | C | C | D | E |
|
|
t3-medium
$29.95 |
B | D | D | C | B |
|
|
t2-medium
$33.41 |
B | C | D | C | D |
|
|
ecs.n4.large
$38.88 |
B | C | B | C | E |
|
|
m5a.large
$62.00 |
C | D | C | C | C |
|
|
ecs.c5.large
$63.00 |
B | B | B | C | E |
|
|
m5.large
$69.12 |
B | C | C | C | C |
VPS Instance Provisioning Time
This is the average time it took to create an instance for Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2 from instance order to instance accepting connections.
| Alibaba Cloud | Amazon EC2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of instance creations in sample | 4 | 5 |
| Provisioning time in seconds | 85s | 37s |
In Depth...
The grades above are based on the following test results.
Web Response Times
We ran a database intensive web application with ~100,000 hits per day for several days on cloud servers from Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2. This is the average response time measured locally on the VPS for each plan we tested.
Local Response Time per Plan
Lower is better
| Provider | Plan | Average response time |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | t2-micro | 63.0ms |
| EC2 | t3.micro | 72.0ms |
| EC2 | t3.small | 62.0ms |
| EC2 | t2-small | 53.0ms |
| EC2 | t3-medium | 55.0ms |
| EC2 | t2-medium | 52.0ms |
| EC2 | m5a.large | 66.0ms |
| EC2 | m5.large | 50.0ms |
| Alibaba | 1GB 1 core | 84.0ms |
| Alibaba | ecs.t5-lc1m1.small | 68.0ms |
| Alibaba | ecs-t5-c1m1-large | 55.0ms |
| Alibaba | ecs.n4.large | 66.0ms |
| Alibaba | ecs.c5.large | 65.0ms |
During the Web Test, we collect response time metrics, CPU metrics and database performance metrics. All of those are measured locally on the VPS running the web server. All metrics can be compared on the Web Performance Comparison page.
Sysbench CPU Performances
We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2. These are the Sysbench CPU test results:
Rate of operations
Higher is better
| Provider | Plan | Operations per second |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | t3.micro | 652.5 |
| EC2 | t3.small | 604.7 |
| EC2 | a1.medium | 897.3 |
| EC2 | t3-medium | 554.2 |
| EC2 | t2-medium | 701.1 |
| EC2 | m5a.large | 540.7 |
| EC2 | m5.large | 644.8 |
| Alibaba | 1GB 1 core | 317.5 |
| Alibaba | ecs.t5-lc1m1.small | 328.4 |
| Alibaba | ecs-t5-c1m1-large | 657.6 |
| Alibaba | ecs.n4.large | 759.2 |
| Alibaba | ecs.c5.large | 556.0 |
Sysbench test results are also available for random disk IO tests, sequential disk IO tests and memory tests.
Review and compare all Sysbench numbers on the Sysbench Comparison page for Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2.
Remote Timings
During the entire duration of the web performance test, we collected web response times from 5 different locations in the world. The chart below reports the connection establishment time + TLS handshake latency from all 5 locations. (That excludes the time spent on the server that is already measured in web response times above and it also excludes the DNS resolution time since it is not dependent on the provider).
Remote Latency per Plan
Lower is better
| Provider | Plan | Average remote request duration |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | t2-micro | 343.6ms |
| EC2 | t3.micro | 357.2ms |
| EC2 | t3.small | 359.8ms |
| EC2 | t2-small | 338.6ms |
| EC2 | t3-medium | 339.8ms |
| EC2 | t2-medium | 344.8ms |
| EC2 | m5a.large | 353.2ms |
| EC2 | m5.large | 338.8ms |
| Alibaba | 1GB 1 core | 504.4ms |
| Alibaba | ecs.t5-lc1m1.small | 335.0ms |
| Alibaba | ecs-t5-c1m1-large | 450.8ms |
| Alibaba | ecs.n4.large | 495.6ms |
| Alibaba | ecs.c5.large | 508.0ms |
Detailed remote timings measurements including connection time, TLS handshake time, and response time can be compared for Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2 on the Remote Timings Comparison page.
Network Transfers
We have performed large file transfers from the Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2 VPS and we measured the speed of downloads and uploads.
The transfers involve multiple files, 10 threads and last for at least 10 seconds at maximum speed. The transfers are repeated 3 times from different servers and only the fastest transfer is reported here.
Download Speed per Plan
Higher is better
| Provider | Plan | Network Download Speed |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | t3.micro | 1673.2Mbps |
| EC2 | t3.small | 418.7Mbps |
| EC2 | a1.medium | 181.8Mbps |
| EC2 | t3-medium | 1850.2Mbps |
| EC2 | t2-medium | 506.8Mbps |
| EC2 | m5a.large | 573.8Mbps |
| EC2 | m5.large | 629.0Mbps |
| Alibaba | 1GB 1 core | 317.7Mbps |
| Alibaba | ecs.t5-lc1m1.small | 80.9Mbps |
| Alibaba | ecs-t5-c1m1-large | 114.8Mbps |
| Alibaba | ecs.n4.large | 110.6Mbps |
| Alibaba | ecs.c5.large | 109.9Mbps |
Network Transfers measurements including download and upload speeds can be compared for Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2 on the Network Transfers Comparison page.
Sustained CPU Endurance Tests
We pushed the CPU of those VPS plans hard for 24 hours straight.
This test shows how fast the VPS can go for long periods of time, how stable the performance is and it also gives clues on how overallocated the VPSs may be.
Average number of operations per hour
Higher is better
| Provider | Plan | Average ops/hour |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | t2-micro | 458.1 |
| EC2 | t3.micro | 2150.7 |
| EC2 | t3.small | 4280.3 |
| EC2 | t2-small | 1017.4 |
| EC2 | t3-medium | 1732.2 |
| EC2 | t2-medium | 2184.5 |
| EC2 | m5a.large | 1901.8 |
| EC2 | m5.large | 4587.6 |
| Alibaba | 1GB 1 core | 1435.6 |
| Alibaba | ecs.t5-lc1m1.small | 957.9 |
| Alibaba | ecs-t5-c1m1-large | 3185.5 |
| Alibaba | ecs.n4.large | 3189.7 |
| Alibaba | ecs.c5.large | 4873.6 |
Review and compare endurance test results for Alibaba Cloud and Amazon EC2 on the Sustained CPU Endurance Comparison page.
Features and Usability
Features not included in the VPS price of the plan will be marked as missing but they may be available for the fee.
| Amazon EC2 Review | Alibaba Cloud Review | |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly Billing | Yes | Yes |
| DDOS Protection | No | Yes |
| Backups | No | Yes |
| Control Panel | Builtin | Custom |
| SSH Keys Setup | Yes | Yes |
| Total Number of Datacenters | 10 | 19 |
| Number of Datacenter Continents | 4 | 4 |
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