Amazon is much more than a place to shop online, as the tech company continues to grow with new offerings in the cloud solutions space.
That being said, if you’re intrigued by Amazon Web Services for your business, you may be wondering: what is Amazon Lightsail? I had the same thought, so I did my fair share of research, and here’s what I can share with you!
What Is Amazon Lightsail In [currentyear]?
Amazon Lightsail is an Amazon Web Services program offering a virtual private server (VPS) for developers and businesses who want to build and host cloud applications in [currentyear]. Lightsail is a cost-effective option for virtual machines, databases, and containers with budget-friendly bundles and comprehensive security, ensuring highly available storage and DNS management around the clock.
If you want to know more about Amazon Lightsail and if it would work for your business, keep reading to discover how and why it’s used!
How Does Amazon Lightsail Work?
Amazon Lightsail works as a virtual private server for building and hosting cloud applications on the web.
This AWS program offers extensive computer, networking, and storage resources to help developers launch projects with virtual machines, load balancers, containers, and databases.
Lightsail is considered an instance, otherwise known as a virtual private server, so it keeps websites and apps seamlessly running for an affordable price.
It offers custom resources with the scalability and security developers have come to expect from AWS.
On Lightsail, there are several pre-configured virtual private servers to choose from, which is ideal for simple management interfaces.
What Can You Do with Amazon Lightsail?
Lightsail is best used for running web applications and websites, such as blogs and online stores. It also comes in handy for simple software.
If you want to make a website or an app quickly, Lightsail is a great option as it automatically sets up security, networking, and access according to your preferences.
Lightsail has pre-built applications such as Prestashop, WordPress, Magento, and Joomla, which help with the fast and efficient setup of e-commerce sites and blogs.
In addition to custom websites, Lightsail has LAMP, MEAN, Nginx, and Node.js. development stacks ready to go so users can get their systems up and running within minutes.
If you’re a small business owner or developer, you can scale Lightsail as your computing needs grow or shift resources to Amazon EC2 on the broader AWS environment.
Either way, Lightsail offers a highly secure and reliable cloud platform.
Who Uses Amazon Lightsail?
Amazon Lightsail is a preferred virtual private server for many growing companies across industries such as food processing, education, and healthcare, just to name a few.
Small and medium-sized businesses often use Lightsail to fulfill their simple web application requirements, such as business software launch, file storage, file sharing, financial software, and data backup.
Not only is Lightsail good for building small business applications, but it also works for establishing test environments for risk-free idea generation and exploration.
While developers often use Lightsail at the start, they have the option to migrate to a larger platform like Amazon EC2 as the business grows.
So, if you are getting started on a new project and you want room to explore, or your computing needs are quite straightforward, then Amazon Lightsail is a simple and affordable solution to consider.
How Much Does Amazon Lightsail Cost?
Amazon Lightsail advertises three months free on select bundles with the AWS Free Tier, and just in general, this virtual private server is known for its low, predictable pricing.
With Lightsail, all the necessary server resources are bundled into one plan, including:
- Static IP address
- DNS management
- Intuitive management console
- One-click RDP access on Windows
- One-click SSH terminal access on Linux/Unix
- Highly available SSD storage and API
- Server monitoring
If your needs surpass the AWS Free Tier, you will need to pay a small fee for Lightsail services, depending on the level of computer resources required.
Amazon Lightsail costs are detailed on the AWS pricing page, which includes different virtual server sizes and setups ranging from $3.50 to $240 USD/month.
Additional costs apply for containers, object storage, managed databases, CDN distributions, load balancer, block storage, and manual/automatic instance and disk snapshots.
Just keep in mind that prices may vary per region, particularly the costs for going over your storage or data allowance.
To learn more, you can also read our posts on what is Amazon FBA, what is Amazon Route 53, and what is Amazon Kinesis.
Conclusion
Amazon Lightsail is a leading cloud-based private server for developers and growing businesses, as this platform provides extensive networking, computing, and storage capabilities.
It’s most commonly used to deploy websites and manage applications within the cloud, as Lightsail servers include containers, databases, and virtual machines to ensure fast project launches and a high level of security.
