AWS Web Hosting

Amazon Lightsail is the easiest way for small businesses to launch and manage websites, web apps, and databases in the cloud. With simple pricing, built-in networking, and one-click deployment of popular applications like WordPress and Magento, Lightsail removes the complexity of traditional cloud services while offering the reliability of AWS infrastructure.

If your hosting provider is failing to keep you afloat, turn to AWS for the perfect solution for SMBs looking to scale confidently without breaking the bank.

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How does AWS Web Hosting Work?

Lightsail For eCommerce

Amazon Lightsail makes it simple for small businesses to launch secure, high-performance online stores without needing a full IT team. With preconfigured options for Magento and other eCommerce platforms, predictable monthly pricing, and built-in SSL, Lightsail gives you everything you need to start selling fast and scale confidently—on infrastructure trusted by the world’s biggest brands.

Lightsail For Web Hosting

Whether you're running a portfolio, blog, or business site, Amazon Lightsail offers a powerful yet easy-to-use web hosting solution. One-click installs for WordPress and other CMS platforms, bundled resources, and simplified DNS management mean you can get online in minutes—with all the speed and reliability of AWS at a small business price.

What platforms does Amazon Lightsail support?

Amazon Lightsail supports a variety of popular content management systems (CMS) through preconfigured application blueprints. These include:

  • WordPress – Ideal for blogs, business sites, and eCommerce with WooCommerce.
  • Drupal – A powerful CMS for more complex or custom-built websites.
  • Joomla! – A flexible platform for both simple and advanced websites.
  • Magento – Best for feature-rich eCommerce stores.
  • Ghost – A streamlined, open-source CMS focused on blogging and publishing.
  • PrestaShop – Another eCommerce CMS tailored for small to medium businesses.
  • Redmine – While more of a project management tool, it's sometimes used as a CMS-like platform.

These can be launched with a single click via Lightsail’s console using Bitnami-powered stacks, which bundle the CMS with required software like Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

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How much does AWS Web Hosting Cost?

Amazon Lightsail hosting is one of the most affordable platforms out there, beating the prices of all the major low cost hosting providers—GoDaddy, HostGator, BlueHost, DreamHost, and more—however it can be trickier to set up. If you are comfortable working in the AWS console, you can sign up for as little as $3.5 per month, but this only gets you 0.5GB of memory and comes with no support. This approach means you bear the cost of setup, migration, and maintaining your little webhost, but for someone who is into DIY, it can be perfect!

At Metal Toad we offer AWS web hosting using Lightsail for just a little bit more and provide the following:

  1. Professional migration from your existing platform or setup of a new environment of your choice.
  2. Backups and disaster recovery.
  3. Help with customization of your environment (additional fees apply)

  • 16GB

  • 32GB

  • 64GB

16GB

$99/mo*

Ideal for hosting high-performance websites, blogs, or lightweight business applications.

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32GB

$199/mo

Designed for businesses running multiple sites, larger databases, or moderate traffic applications.

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64GB

$449/mo

Built for demanding workloads like eCommerce platforms, production databases, or enterprise-grade applications.

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RAM

16GB

 32GB 64GB
vCPUs

4

8

16
GB of SSD Storage 320GB 640GB 1TB
TB of Data Tansfer

6TB

 7TB 8TB

How does AWS web hosting pricing compare to other VPS providers?

When shopping for hosting it's first important to know the difference between Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and shared hosting (sometimes known as "web hosting). A Virtual Private Server—like Amazon Lightsail—has dedicate resources; the RAM, CPU and storage are yours and are not impacted by other website. On a shared host, your website or application will share resources with other systems. This can lead to inconsistent or degraded performance, which is why VPS hosting costs more. Shared hosting is fine for hobby sites, but any business should have predictable performance.

Once you are comparing apples-to-apples, you'll find that other web hosting providers will often obscure their true cost with an initial discount, which can range from 30% to 71%. That's all great, until the real bill comes due. Here's a look at how AWS web hosting stacks up against the prices of other VPS hosts (last updated May 8, 2025):

Hosting provider ½ GB 1GB 2GB 4GB 8GB 16GB 32GB 64GB Savings with Lightsail
Amazon Lightsail $5 $7 $12 $24 $44 $99* $199* $449* -
SiteGround Logo shared shared shared shared $90 $258 x x $1,920 annual savings
Godaddy logo shared shared $36 $75 $150 $180 x x $972 annual savings
Hostwinds logo shared $11 $22 $40 $80 $147 $225 $366 $576 annual savings
Linode logo shared shared shared $36 $72 $144 $288 $576 $540 annual savings
bluehost logo shared shared shared $66 $98 $144 x x $540 annual savings
Hostgator logo shared shared shared $54 $84 $129 x x $360 annual savings
DreamHost shared shared $25 $47 $93 $115 x x $192 annual savings

* The 16GB, 32GB, & 64GB options include a Metal Toad managed services fee and STILL beat the price of the competitors!

It's not just about the money

Saving money is great, but more important than costs savings, AWS Web Hosting with Metal Toad brings your business the scalability and open-ended potential of Amazon Web Services. Don't stay trapped with small-time bargain hosts when you can unlock your businesses potential with Amazon Lightsail!

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We build the most valuable, safest solutions for our customers and have a significant amount of experience across all the major public Cloud providers. 

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Speak with our team to understand how Metal Toad can help you drive innovation, growth and success. 

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AWS Web Hosting FAQ

Learn more about AWS web hosting on Amazon Lightsail before you buy. Also feel free to ask us a question.

What is Amazon Lightsail?

Amazon Lightsail is the simplest way to get started with AWS web hosting, offering an all-in-one cloud solution for developers, small businesses, students, and anyone looking to build and host applications with ease. It provides virtual servers, storage, databases, networking, and more—everything you need to launch websites or web apps quickly. With built-in tools like containers, CDN, load balancers, and DNS management, Lightsail delivers powerful capabilities at a low, predictable monthly price.

What is a Virtual Private Server?

A virtual private server (VPS), or "instance," offers far greater control, security, and reliability than traditional shared web hosting—while still being cost-effective. Unlike shared hosting, where resources are split between many users, a VPS provides dedicated compute power, giving you more stability and flexibility for running websites and web applications in a secure, high-availability environment.

What are the benefits of a Virtual Private Server on AWS?

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) on AWS offers the perfect balance of performance, control, and affordability. Unlike shared hosting, a VPS provides dedicated resources—such as CPU, memory, and storage—ensuring faster load times and more reliable performance. It gives users full administrative access to configure the environment to their specific needs, making it ideal for hosting websites, web applications, or custom software. Plus, with built-in scalability, you can easily upgrade as your business grows.

Are Lightsail plans the same across AWS Regions?

Regions will have different specifications, such as an additional vCPU, compared to plans in other Regions.

As of May 2025, Amazon Lightsail is available in the following AWS Regions:

North America

  • US East (N. Virginia) – us-east-1
  • US East (Ohio) – us-east-2
  • US West (Oregon) – us-west-2
  • Canada (Central) – ca-central-1

Europe

  • Europe (Frankfurt) – eu-central-1
  • Europe (Ireland) – eu-west-1
  • Europe (London) – eu-west-2
  • Europe (Paris) – eu-west-3
  • Europe (Stockholm) – eu-north-1

Asia Pacific

  • Asia Pacific (Mumbai) – ap-south-1
  • Asia Pacific (Seoul) – ap-northeast-2
  • Asia Pacific (Singapore) – ap-southeast-1
  • Asia Pacific (Sydney) – ap-southeast-2
  • Asia Pacific (Tokyo) – ap-northeast-1

Note: While Lightsail is available in these regions, certain features or newer instance types may be introduced in select regions before becoming globally available.

What software can I run on my Lightsail VPS?

Lightsail offers a range of operating system and application templates that are automatically installed when you create a new Lightsail instance. Application templates include WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, Ghost, Magento, Redmine, LAMP, Nginx (LEMP), MEAN, Node.js, Django, and more.

Does Lightsail offer an API?

Yes. Everything you do in the Lightsail console is backed by a publicly available API. Learn how to install and use the Lightsail CLI and API.

How much does AWS charge for Lightsail static IPs?

Static IPs are not charged extra when attached to a Lightsail instance. Static IPs cannot be attached to IPv6-only instances. IPv4 addresses are a scarce resource and Lightsail is committed to helping to use them efficiently, so AWS charges a small $0.005 USD/hour fee for static IPs not attached to an instance for more than 1 hour.

What does Metal Toad provide with AWS Web Hosting?

Metal Toad provides professional setup of your AWS Lightsail instance as well as monitoring, SSL Certificate setup, backups, and recovery services.

Can I buy Lightsail directly from AWS?

Yes. Amazon Lightsail is a publicly available service that anyone can sign up for.

Can I increase the size of my attached disk?

Yes, you can increase the size of a Lightsail disk by taking a disk snapshot and then creating a new, larger disk from snapshot. If you are a Metal Toad AWS web hosting customer, this is a free service.

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