AWS Lightsail’s features and benchmark result

AWS Lightsail official site

• AWS Lightsail Official web site
• Official blog
• Official Twitter
• Admin page for users

AWS Lightsail’s feature

AWS Lightsail’s backend is ec2 instance, so there is some difference between normal VPS.
For example, the performance of instance can drop sharply suddenly if server has constant access.
AWS Lightsail is the service to make use of AWS with more easiness but actually this is suitable for people who have correct understanding of AWS.

Same features between AWS EC2 and Amazon Lightsail (but different from other normal VPS)

AWS Lightsail behaves like AWS ec2, so if you consume hidden CPU credit totally, the performance of the instance drops sharply.
For example, in the case of the instance with 0.5GB RAM, the performance can drop by 1/20 and in that case.
If it happens, serving the service will become hard because server is busy but it lose capacity.
So you have to avoid such kind of situation.

If you are using more than 5% of cpu constantly in the current VPS, you have to check plan’s capacity carefully.

And if you stop the instance, your instance’s IP address will change when you restart the insntace, which is same with ec2 instance but is different from other VPS’s instances.

Difference between Amazon Lightsail and AWS ec2

1. Price of the instance is
– cheaper than ec2’s on demand plan.
– cheaper or same compared to 1 year prepayment plan of c2
– higher than ec2 with 3 year usage contract with prepayment

2. Amount of free tier of transfer is much larger.
If you use AWS ec2 and use 1TB transfer, you will be charged 0.114/GB * 1000 = $114 for the month.
But if you use Amazon lightsail, you will not be charged until you use 1TB transfer.

Note: In the case of AWS ec2, “data in” will not be counted but in the case of AWS lightsail “data in” will also be counted.

Demerit of Lightsail compared to AWS ec2

1. AWS EC2 has option to avoid performance down but Lightsail doesn’t have such kind of option.
So if you expect that your site can become popular, it is hard to use Amazon Lightsail.

2. You will not be charged if you stop ec2 instance but in the case of lightsail, you will be charged even if you stop Amazon lightsail’s instance.

3. VPC(Virtual Private Cloud) of Lightsail is specific to Lightsail, so if you want to make Amazon Lightsail communicate with AWS ec2 through local network, you have to use VPC peer connection, which will charge you for the communication.

4. Lightsail doesn’t have cost saving option like Reserved Instance and Spot Instance of AWS ec2.

5. Role of IAM cannot be attached with Lightsail. So you cannot implement authentification based on roles attached with lightsail’s instance.

6. Amazon ightsail doesn’t have security group, so you cannot manage security thorough AWS’s security group.

Amazon lightsail’s specific feature: Support of moving to ec2 instance

You can move to AWS ec2 server through snapshot of AmazonLightsail.
So if capacity of lightsail becomes not enough, you can move to AWS ec2, which is great though it means that you are moving to public cloud, not to superior VPS.

So what is the suitable usage for Amazon lightsail?

Considering above points, suitable usages are
– Use for web sites where traffic can be expected and it will not become much
– Make use of large amount of network transfer

So though Amazon ightsail looks for AWS beginners but actually Amazon lightsail is more suitable for the users of AWS who can judge what is advantage and disadvantage.

If you want to avoid above demerit, then you should use AWS ec2 or other company’s VPS.

Amazon Lightsail’s plan list

If amount of transfer exceeds free tier, $0.14/GB will be charged in the case of Tokyo DC.

Amazon Lightsail’s function

Amazon Lightsail’s benchmark (Unixbench)