Top 18 Most Affordable AWS Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a range of budget-friendly services that cater to businesses and individuals. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 cheapest AWS services and their pricing models.
1. AWS Lambda
Amazon Lambda is a serverless compute service triggered by events like HTTP / HTTPS requests or database updates.
- Requests: First 1M requests/month free; $0.20 per additional 1M requests.
- Compute Time: $0.0000166667 per GB-second.
- Provisioned Concurrency: Starting at $0.0000041667 per GB-second.
2. Amazon S3 Glacier
Amazon Glacier is designed for low-cost archival storage, perfect for infrequently accessed data.
- Storage:
- S3 Glacier: $0.004 per GB/month.
- Glacier Deep Archive: $0.00099 per GB/month.
- Retrieval:
- Expedited: $0.03 per GB.
- Bulk: Lowest-cost option.
3. Amazon Lex
Amazon Lex helps create conversational bots with text and voice recognition.
- Voice Requests: $0.004 per request.
- Text Requests: $0.00075 per request.
- Free Tier: Available for the first year.
4. Amazon Polly
Amazon Polly converts text into speech, with various language and voice options.
- Plain Text: $4.00 per million characters.
- SSML: $16 per million characters.
- Free Tier: 5M characters/month for 12 months.
5. Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) for faster data delivery to users worldwide.
- Data Transfer: Starts at $0.085 per GB for the first 10 TB/month.
- Requests:
- HTTP: $0.0075 per 10,000 requests.
- HTTPS: $0.010 per 10,000 requests.
6. Amazon Lightsail
Amazon Lightsail offers easy-to-use virtual private server (VPS) instances, containers, storage, databases, and more at a cost-effective monthly price.
- Plans: Start at $3.50/month (512 MB) to $160/month (16 vCPUs, 32 GB memory).
- Data Transfer: Each plan includes specific quotas, with overage charges.
7. Amazon SQS
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) allows secure message queuing between components.
- Standard Queues: $0.40 per million requests after the free 1M/month.
- FIFO Queues: $0.50 per million requests.
- Storage: $0.008 per GB-month for retained messages.
8. Amazon SNS
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) handles message delivery to subscribers and notifications.
- Requests: Free tier includes 1M requests/month; $0.50 per additional 1M.
- SMS/Email Delivery: Additional charges, with SMS costs varying by destination.
9. AWS IoT Core
AWS IoT Core connects devices for data collection and interaction with cloud applications.
- Messaging: Starts at $1.00 per million messages, with a free tier available.
- Additional Services: Separate fees for device management, etc.
10. Amazon Athena
Amazon Athena provides serverless SQL querying on data in Amazon S3.
- Data Scanned: $5.00 per TB scanned.
- Provisioned Capacity: $0.30 per DPU hour.
- Other Costs: Additional for AWS Glue Data Catalog and federated queries.
11. Amazon CloudWatch
Provides monitoring and observability services, including metrics, logs, and alarms, which is essential for keeping track of cloud resources and applications.
- Requests: Costs depend on the number of custom metrics, dashboards, and logs ingested.
- Compute Time: Alarms and events incur charges based on usage.
- Provisioned Concurrency: Charges for custom Lambda invocations via CloudWatch alarms are based on Lambda’s tiered pricing.
12. Amazon SES (Simple Email Service)
A cost-effective, scalable email service for sending marketing, notification, and transactional emails.
- Requests: $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent.
- Compute Time: Not applicable, SES is priced on requests alone.
- Provisioned Concurrency: N/A.
13. Amazon EventBridge
A serverless event bus for building event-driven applications, helping connect different AWS services and SaaS applications.
- Requests: $1 per million events published.
- Compute Time: Costs may increase with high-volume event rules and targets.
- Provisioned Concurrency: Not relevant, as EventBridge is event-driven.
14. Amazon Inspector
An automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS by identifying vulnerabilities.
- Requests: Pricing is based on the number of resource assessments.
- Compute Time: Not billed separately; assessment duration and findings affect cost.
- Provisioned Concurrency: Not applicable to Inspector.
15. AWS Step Functions
A serverless orchestration service that allows you to coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows, ideal for tasks requiring sequential or parallel steps.
- Requests: Standard workflows are billed at $0.000025 per state transition; Express workflows cost $1 per million requests.
- Compute Time: Charges are incurred for state transitions and duration of Express workflows.
- Provisioned Concurrency: Express workflows are billed for memory and duration.
16. Amazon API Gateway
Enables developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale, especially useful for serverless and microservices architectures.
- Requests: REST API costs $3.50 per million requests; WebSocket and HTTP APIs start at $1 per million.
- Compute Time: Execution duration affects pricing in usage tiers.
- Provisioned Concurrency: Directly influenced by request and concurrency configurations.
17. AWS CodeBuild
A fully managed build service for compiling source code, running tests, and producing software packages ready for deployment.
- Requests: Priced based on the build duration, with charges starting at $0.005 per build minute for on-demand.
- Compute Time: Build time determines cost.
- Provisioned Concurrency: N/A for builds but scales with project demands.
18. AWS CodePipeline
Automates the end-to-end software release process, helping you continuously deliver code updates.
- Requests: A flat monthly fee per pipeline with unlimited executions.
- Compute Time: Builds in conjunction with CodeBuild may add costs.
- Provisioned Concurrency: N/A; scales based on stages and frequency.
Note: AWS prices are subject to change; check the AWS Pricing Page for the most current details.
Conclusion
These affordable AWS services allow you to leverage cloud power while keeping costs low. Start exploring these cost-efficient options for scalable, reliable infrastructure.