Microsoft Azure vs Amazon Lightsail
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We have tested 11 VPS plans from Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail. This page is a summary and a comparison of all test results for those providers.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure was founded in 2008.
It is headquartered in the USA.
It offers VPS, Database, Storage and Networking hosting products.
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- India
- Norway
- Singapore
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
Amazon Lightsail
Amazon Lightsail was founded in 2016.
It is headquartered in the USA.
It offers VPS hosting products.
- Australia
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- India
- Ireland
- Japan
- Singapore
- South Korea
- United Kingdom
- United States
VPS Plans
| Plan Name | Monthly Price | CPU cores | Memory (GB) | Disk Space (GB) | Data Transfer (GB) | Latest trial | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1GB 1core | $5.00 | 1 | 1.0 | 40 | 2000 | Jul 12 2021 |
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2GB 1core | $10.00 | 1 | 2.0 | 60 | 3000 | Dec 23 2020 |
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4GB 2cores | $20.00 | 2 | 4.0 | 80 | 4000 | Mar 21 2021 |
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B2s | $30.37 | 2 | 4.0 | 8 | 100 | Mar 13 2021 |
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A1 v2 | $31.39 | 1 | 2.0 | 10 | 200 | Jul 24 2021 |
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8GB 2cores | $40.00 | 2 | 8.0 | 160 | 5000 | Oct 04 2020 |
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F2s v2 | $61.00 | 2 | 4.0 | 16 | 0 | Dec 15 2020 |
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D2a v4 | $69.12 | 2 | 8.0 | 50 | 0 | Jul 17 2020 |
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D2 v3 | $69.12 | 2 | 8.0 | 50 | 0 | May 10 2020 |
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D2as v4 | $70.08 | 2 | 8.0 | 16 | 0 | Oct 23 2021 |
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D2ds v4 | $81.36 | 2 | 8.0 | 75 | 0 | Sep 29 2020 |
Compare specs for all plans from all providers
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.
Screen all VPS from Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail| Plan Name | Web Perf | Raw CPU Power | Perf Stability | Disk IO Perf | Network Perf | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1GB 1core
$5.00 |
D | F | D | F | E |
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2GB 1core
$10.00 |
D | F | C | E | D |
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4GB 2cores
$20.00 |
C | E | C | F | C |
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B2s
$30.37 |
C | D | D | F | C |
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A1 v2
$31.39 |
F | F | E | F | E |
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8GB 2cores
$40.00 |
B | E | C | E | C |
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F2s v2
$61.00 |
B | C | D | F | B |
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D2a v4
$69.12 |
B | C | B | F | A |
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D2 v3
$69.12 |
C | D | B | E | B |
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D2as v4
$70.08 |
B | C | D | E | C |
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D2ds v4
$81.36 |
B | C | D | E | A |
Features and Datacenters
This list is a subset of the features each provider may offer.
CPUs
These are the CPUs we have seen in Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail instances in the past 18 months.
| All Microsoft Azure CPUs | All Amazon Lightsail CPUs |
|
AMD EPYC 7452 32-Core Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2673 v3 @ 2.40GHz Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8168 CPU @ 2.70GHz Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8171M CPU @ 2.60GHz Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8272CL CPU @ 2.60GHz |
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2676 v3 @ 2.40GHz Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2686 v4 @ 2.30GHz |
Performance Consistency
The provider consistency score shows how much variation can be expected between 2 servers of the same type at the same provider. A high consistency score (>65) means the performance of all servers of the provider is consistent over many trials and many plans.
Providers who don't have enough data yet at VPSBenchmarks don't have a consistency score.
Screenshots
VPS Instance Provisioning Time
This is the average time it took to create an instance for Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail from instance order to instance accepting connections.
| Microsoft Azure | Amazon Lightsail | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of instance creations in sample | 7 | 6 |
| Average provisioning time | 75s | 56s |
Performance in Depth...
These are some of the test results that are used to determine the grades above.
Web Response Times
We ran a database intensive web application at various levels of load on cloud servers from Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail. This is the average response time measured locally on the VPS for each plan we tested.
Local Response Time per Plan
Lower is better
Maximum HTTP Load
We ran a database intensive web application at various levels of load on cloud servers from Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail. This is the maximum rate of HTTP requests that each server handled without timing out.
Maximum HTTP request rate
Higher is better
Sysbench CPU Performance
We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail. These are the Sysbench CPU test results:
Rate of operations
Higher is better
Sysbench Disk IO Performance
We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail. These are the Sysbench Disk IO Random Read test results:
Rate of operations
Higher is better
Review and compare all Sysbench numbers on the Sysbench Comparison page for Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail.
Network Transfers
We have performed large file transfers from the Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail 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
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
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