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What's the Difference Between Amazon EC2 and Amazon Lightsail?

Compare Amazon EC2 and Amazon Lightsail side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

Compare side-by-side

Comparisons
Amazon EC2
Amazon Lightsail
Category

Compute, Virtual Machines

Compute, VPS

Description

Secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload

Easy-to-use virtual private server (VPS) instances, containers, storage, databases, and more at a cost-effective monthly price.

Best for
  • Web hosting
  • Batch processing
  • HPC
  • Machine learning training
  • Gaming servers
  • Simple web apps
  • Websites
  • Dev/test environments
  • Small business apps
Key features
  • Auto Scaling
  • Elastic Load Balancing
  • GPU instances
  • Bare metal instances
  • Nitro System
  • Fixed pricing
  • Pre-configured blueprints
  • Managed databases
  • Load balancers
  • CDN distributions
Pricing model

On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Savings Plans

Fixed monthly plans starting at $3.50/mo

Free tier

Yes

Yes

Expert take

“EC2 gives you full control over the compute environment with 750+ instance types. For workloads that need sustained CPU, GPU acceleration, or specific OS configurations, EC2 remains the most flexible option on AWS.”
— Riku Kobayashi, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

“Lightsail is ideal when you want predictable monthly pricing without needing to understand VPCs, subnets, or security groups. You can always export to EC2 later when your workload outgrows the fixed plans.”
— Riku Kobayashi, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

Product page

When to use Amazon EC2 or Amazon Lightsail

Use Amazon EC2 when:

  • Web hosting
  • Batch processing
  • HPC
  • Machine learning training
  • Gaming servers

Learn more about Amazon EC2 »

Use Amazon Lightsail when:

  • Simple web apps
  • Websites
  • Dev/test environments
  • Small business apps

Learn more about Amazon Lightsail »

AWS product comparisons

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