Amazon Lightsail is a new service in the AWS Compute product family. For those who are new to or have less expertise with the cloud, It is a cloud service that provides bundles of computational power and memory.
In this blog, let’s find out how Lightsail helps while using AWS. We will be discussing the following topics today:
Amazon Lightsail Features
Amazon Lightsail offers simple cloud resources for getting your web application or website up and operating in a matter of minutes. Lightsail features can be used to host static content, link your content to a global audience, or set up your Windows Business server. In many situations, the configuration process is guided by the Lightsail console, which also often comes with components that are fully set up.
Instances
Lightsail provides quick-to-install virtual servers (instances) backed by the strength and dependability of AWS. With the help of the user-friendly Lightsail console or API, you can quickly launch your website, online application, or project.
Lightsail allows you to run a simple operating system (OS), a pre-configured application, or a development stack as you build your instance, including WordPress, Windows, Plesk, LAMP, Nginx, and others. Every Lightsail instance has a built-in firewall that lets you control traffic to your instances depending on the originating IP address, port number, and protocol.
Containers
Lightsail provides a simple method for running containers on the cloud. Customers may now easily and securely execute containerized apps from the internet with the help of Lightsail Container Service.
Customers may run Docker containers on the cloud directly from their developer workflows thanks to Lightsail Containers. Lightsail creates containers using Docker images given by developers. From developer-provided Docker images, Lightsail creates containers.
This Docker in Linux containers approach optimizes resource utilization, accelerates deployment, and ensures consistent performance across diverse computing environments.
Simplified load balancers
Lightsail’s easy load balancing distributed web traffic among your instances, allowing your websites and apps to accommodate traffic fluctuations, avoid outages, and provide a consistent visitor experience.
Furthermore, Lightsail load balancers come with integrated certificate management, which offers free SSL/TLS certificates that you can provide and deploy to a load balancer with just a few clicks. Certificates can be requested and managed directly from the Lightsail interface, and renewals are handled automatically.
Managed databases
Lightsail offers a fully configured MySQL or PostgreSQL database plan that includes memory, processing, storage, and transfer allocations. You may simply grow your databases independently of your virtual servers with Lightsail managed databases, improve application availability, or host standalone databases in the cloud. You may also develop multi-tiered applications within Lightsail by deploying numerous instances connected to a centrally managed database and a load balancer that routes traffic to the instances.
Access to AWS services
To simplify the process, Amazon Lightsail uses a concentrated collection of capabilities including instances, managed databases, and load balancers. However, you are not restricted to those alternatives; you can interface your Lightsail project with any of AWS’s 90+ other services via Amazon VPC peering.
You may control the services in AWS via the AWS management dashboard while continuing to manage them in the Lightsail console daily. It combines the finest of both worlds!
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Benefits of Amazon Lightsail
The most obvious advantage of using Lightsail is that you are always in command. You have complete control over how things are arranged, how your website and applications operate, and how much you will pay at the end of the month. The billing cycle is as straightforward as the Lightsail service itself.
The benefits of using Lightsail to configure your apps, websites, or workloads are as follows:
- Simplified UI: When you join up for Lightsail, the first thing you notice is the significantly simplified user interface. The goal was to have a server up and running with software already installed as soon as possible, therefore it was developed from the bottom up. There are fewer options, fewer prompts, less uncertainty, and more assistance.
- Speed: Users can set up a VPS in seconds by selecting one of Amazon’s pre-configured plans. Even if you’ve never used the cloud before, utilizing Lightsail is simple. These plans provide SSD-based storage, plenty of bandwidth, automatic DNS administration, and a static IP address, so you can get your project up and running quickly.
- Scaling: Despite its simplicity, Lightsail may develop and scale alongside your applications with time. When your apps require advanced capabilities such as managed databases, a content delivery network, or links to other AWS features and services, you have many options.
- Affordable: The low cost of Lightsail service is one of its distinguishing features. Plans begin at $5 per month for the most basic tier, with the first month free. Additionally, there are straightforward costs for the more robust plans that provide sufficient capacity to operate demanding programs and busy websites. The most economical plan is suitable for those just starting, whereas the strong package is perfect for small organizations.
Amazon Lightsail Use cases
Amazon Lightsail can be used for:
- Launching simple web applications – To get online quickly and easily, use pre-configured development stacks such as LAMP, Nginx, MEAN, and Node.js.
- Building small business applications – launching business-specific applications for backups, financial and accounting, information storage, sharing, and more.
- Create custom websites – With pre-configured software such as WordPress, Magento, Prestashop, and Joomla, you can create and customize your blog, e-commerce, or website in just a few clicks.
- Spin up test environments – You can try out new ideas risk-free by creating and deleting simple development sandboxes and test environments.
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Aws Lightsail vs EC2
AWS offers two solutions: Amazon Lightsail and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). So, let’s compare Lightsail to EC2.
| Amazon Lightsail | Amazon EC2 |
| Used for developing simple web apps. | Used for business web applications |
| Lightsail is significantly less expensive than EC2 instances. Lightsail instances have a variety of outgoing fees, such as a 5 TB of internet data transfer limit. | In EC2 instances, outbound expenses are not included. A company using EC2 instances might have to pay $90 for each TB of outgoing data transfer. |
| Lightsail may not be the best choice for applications that require a highly flexible environment or great CPU performance. Lightsail would be ideal for small developers. | Amazon EC2 would be the best option for applications that demand high CPU performance or an environment with lots of configuration options. EC2 is designed for large organizations. |
| Lightsail does not have a dedicated web service interface. Instances of Amazon Lightsail are not immediately available through the AWS administration console. | Amazon EC2 instances are virtual machines that use Amazon’s web service interface. |
AWS Lightsail pricing
You pay a reasonable, dependable price when using Amazon Lightsail. Lightsail combines resources such as RAM, vCPU, as well as solid-state drive (SSD) storage into a single plan, making budgeting simple and straightforward.
AWS Lightsail’s price varies depending on the operating system. Let’s compare the costs for Linux/Unix and Windows.
For Windows:
| Price | Memory | Processor | SSD Disk | Transfer |
| $8 USD | 512 MB | 1 core | 30 GB | 1 TB |
| $12 USD | 1 GB | 1 core | 40 GB | 2 TB |
| $20 USD | 2 GB | 1 core | 60 GB | 3 TB |
| $40 USD | 4 GB | 2 core | 80 GB | 4 TB |
| $70 USD | 8 GB | 2 core | 160 GB | 5 TB |
| $120 USD | 16 GB | 4 core | 320 GB | 6 TB |
| $240 USD | 32 GB | 8 core | 640 GB | 7 TB |
For Linux:
| Price/mo | Memory | Processor | SSD Disk | Transfer |
| $3.50 USD | 512 MB | 1 core | 20 GB | 1 TB |
| $5 USD | 1 GB | 1 core | 40 GB | 2 TB |
| $10 USD | 2 GB | 1 core | 60 GB | 3 TB |
| $20 USD | 4 GB | 2 core | 80 GB | 4 TB |
| $40 USD | 8 GB | 2 core | 160 GB | 5 TB |
| $80 USD | 16 GB | 4 core | 320 GB | 6 TB |
| $160 USD | 32 GB | 8 core | 640 GB | 7 TB |
Conclusion
AWS Lightsail is mostly utilized by first-time cloud users and developers wishing to test out app prototypes, as well as startups and small-scale production studios.
In this article, we learned the significance of Lightsail, the applications for which it may be utilized, and how it differs from EC2.
If you have any doubts or queries related to this technology, do post on AWS Community.