Amazon EC2 Review

Amazon EC2


This provider is related to Amazon Lightsail

Lightsail is the low price, simple VPS offering from Amazon


Features and Usability

Features not included in the VPS price are marked as missing below.

Last updated on November 29 2018.

Feature Value Comment
Hourly Billing  Yes
DDOS Protection  No

Not included by default but AWS offers lots of tools to mitigate DDOS attacks for a fee.
Backups  No

Available but charged at the EBS pricing rate.
Control Panel  Builtin
SSH Keys Setup  Yes
Total Number of Datacenters  10
Number of Datacenter Continents  4
Monitoring Charts  Yes

Here again, the charts are the most detailed and varied of all providers.
Admin REST API  Yes

URL: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html
Upgrade VPS from admin console  No
Mobile Friendly UI  No
Reverse DNS  Yes

Possible but only on optional Elastic IP addresses. Those addresses are free while attached to an instance.
Accepted Forms of Payment  Credit cards
Hidden CPU Model  No
Affiliate Program  No
Firewall  Yes

Allows creation of "security groups" with inbound and outbound rules. A security group can be assigned to an instance.

In VPSBenchmark's opinion

Feature Value Comment
UI Friendliness 
  • Most full featured UI of all providers.
  • Many steps to go through to create a VPS.
  • Alarms can be setup for free.
Quality of Service 
Compare Features

Amazon EC2 Extra Services

In addition to features included in the VPS plan, Amazon EC2 also offers the following services (possibly for a fee):

Backups   Block storage   Object storage   Load balancer   Floating IP addresses  
Teams   Datastores   Serverless   DDoS protection   Kubernetes  
GPU instances  

VPS Instance Provisioning Time

For each Amazon EC2 VPS trial, we measured how long it took to provision the server.

See also VPS provisioning times for all providers.

Average Provisioning Time Min Provisioning Time Max Provisioning Time Number of VPS Samples
37s 20s 45s 5

Admin UI Screenshots


Cloud Storage Prices

For a comparison of storage features and prices from all providers, please check the Cloud Storage page.

Storage Type Price / GB / month Restriction Description
Object $0.020 Standard AWS S3 also offers infrequent access and Glacier object storage for lower prices.
https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/
Block $0.100 General purpose SSD AWS also offer cold HDD for $0.025/GB/month.
https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/

Compare all Amazon EC2 plans in the Screener

The Screener shows all Amazon EC2 plans side by side with their grades in 5 categories.

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Amazon EC2 Plans


Plan Specifications

URL http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/
Price per month $7.49
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $5.26
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 10
Num Cores 1
Memory GB 1.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization Xen
Data Transfer GB 100
Burstable CPU
Per core CPU allocation: 10%
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 35

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
B F E E C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - t2-micro. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the t2-micro plan

This plan was tested 8 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the t2-micro plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
May 06 2018 Web Sysbench 63ms 275ms
Aug 20 2017 Web Sysbench 94ms 447ms
Dec 17 2016 Web Sysbench 161ms 2150ms
May 21 2016 Web Sysbench 40ms 154ms
Dec 07 2015 Web Sysbench 31ms 134ms
Jul 19 2015 Web Sysbench 35ms 137ms
Mar 09 2015 Web Sysbench 38ms 200ms
Mar 02 2015 Web Sysbench 36ms 180ms

Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
Price per month $7.49
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $4.75
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 20
Num Cores 2
Memory GB 1.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization Nitro
Data Transfer GB 0
Burstable CPU
Per core CPU allocation: 10%
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 42

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
C D E F B
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - t3.micro. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the t3.micro plan

This plan was tested 1 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the t3.micro plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Jun 03 2019 Web Sysbench 72ms 282ms

Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
Price per month $14.98
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $9.49
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 8
Num Cores 2
Memory GB 2.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization KVM
Data Transfer GB 1000
Burstable CPU
Per core CPU allocation: 20%
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 63

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
B B D A C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - t3.small. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the t3.small plan

This plan was tested 1 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the t3.small plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Jan 29 2019 Web Sysbench 62ms 265ms

Plan Specifications

URL http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/
Price per month $16.56
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $10.51
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 8
Num Cores 1
Memory GB 2.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization Xen
Data Transfer GB 250
Burstable CPU
Per core CPU allocation: 20%
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 50

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
B F D C C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - t2-small. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the t2-small plan

This plan was tested 5 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the t2-small plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Mar 24 2018 Web Sysbench 53ms 240ms
May 27 2017 Web Sysbench 45ms 207ms
Oct 16 2016 Web Sysbench 72ms 345ms
Oct 06 2014 Web Sysbench 38ms 184ms
Sep 29 2014 Web Sysbench 36ms 168ms

ARM Graviton Processor

Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/a1/
Price per month $18.36
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $11.75
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 20
Num Cores 1
Memory GB 2.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization Nitro
Data Transfer GB 100
Burstable CPU No
Dedicated No

Performance Test Results

We conducted 2 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - a1.medium. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Sysbench Test Network Transfers
Review Review
Compare Compare

Trials

This plan went through "light" testing 1 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all light trials run on the a1.medium plan.

Light trials are sysbench and transfer tests only.


Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
Price per month $29.95
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $19.05
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 8
Num Cores 2
Memory GB 4.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization KVM
Data Transfer GB 200
Burstable CPU
Per core CPU allocation: 20%
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 54

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
B D D C B
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - t3-medium. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the t3-medium plan

This plan was tested 1 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the t3-medium plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Aug 22 2018 Web Sysbench 54ms 270ms

Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
Price per month $33.41
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $20.95
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 8
Num Cores 2
Memory GB 4.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization KVM
Data Transfer GB 250
Burstable CPU
Per core CPU allocation: 20%
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 53

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
B C D C D
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - t2-medium. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the t2-medium plan

This plan was tested 3 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the t2-medium plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Jul 22 2018 Web Sysbench 52ms 263ms
Jan 14 2018 Web Sysbench 52ms 230ms
Apr 08 2017 Web Sysbench 46ms 222ms

Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
Price per month $62.00
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $40.15
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 20
Num Cores 2
Memory GB 8.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization KVM
Data Transfer GB 100
Burstable CPU No
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 51

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
C D C C C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - m5a.large. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the m5a.large plan

This plan was tested 1 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the m5a.large plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Mar 31 2019 Web Sysbench 65ms 260ms

Plan Specifications

URL https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
Price per month $69.12
Warning: storage costs are not included in this price.
Warning: network bandwidth costs are not included in this price.
Discount or Surcharge for long or short term use Discount
Discounted monthly price: $44.53
Minimum continuous use for discount: 365 days
Disk GB 20
Num Cores 2
Memory GB 8.0
Hourly Billing Yes
Virtualization KVM
Data Transfer GB 200
Burstable CPU No
Dedicated No

Plan Grades

Screen Amazon EC2 VPS Plans

Grades are calculated by combining results from web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Grade A is best, grade F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

More details about grades calculation

Overall Score: 65

Web Performance Raw CPU Power Performance Stability Disk IO Performance Network Performance
B C C C C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Performance Test Results

We conducted 5 different types of tests for Amazon EC2 - m5.large. Review the results and compare this plan to its competitors.

Web Test Sysbench Test Remote Timing Test Endurance Test Network Transfers
Review Review Review Review Review
Compare Compare Compare Compare Compare

Performance trials run on the m5.large plan

This plan was tested 1 times at vpsbenchmarks.com. The table below shows all trials run on the m5.large plan and the web response times for every one of those.

Start of Trial Web Results Sysbench Results Avg web response time P99 web response time
Nov 14 2018 Web Sysbench 50ms 280ms

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