Short answer
As of October 23, 2026, Amazon Lightsail sells 9 VPS plans from $5.00/month (Linux 512 MB: 2 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB traffic) in 19 locations. It ranks #73 of 160 providers overall. Trustpilot rates it 1.3 from 429 reviews.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest plan: Linux 512 MB at $5.00/month (2 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB traffic).
- Windows Server from $9.50/month (Windows 512 MB, licence included).
- 19 data-center locations in 17 countries: Ashburn, Columbus, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Jakarta and 13 more.
- Free credit: AWS Free Tier for new accounts: $100 in credits at sign-up plus up to $100 more for completing activities (max $200, expires after 6 months); usable on Lightsail. Former….
- Ranks #73 of 160 overall; best placing #46 of 157 for VPS for Developers.
Key facts
| Website | aws.amazon.com |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Seattle, United States |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Cheapest plan | Linux 512 MB, $5.00/month |
| Price per GB RAM (median) | $7.00 |
| Data centers | 19 locations in 17 countries (Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America) |
| Virtualization | KVM (AWS Nitro) |
| Billing | Hourly, monthly |
| Windows Server | Yes Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025 bundles with license included, from $9.50/mo (512 MB) / $14 (1 GB) / $22 (2 GB) / $44 (4 GB); SQL Server Express blueprints also available |
| Operating systems | Amazon Linux 2023, Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream, FreeBSD, openSUSE, Windows Server |
| Storage | No NVMe (SSD) |
| DDoS protection | Yes |
| Backups / snapshots | Paid backups; snapshots: Yes |
| IPv4 / IPv6 | IPv4 included: Yes; IPv6: Yes |
| API | Yes |
| Dedicated CPU plans | Yes |
| Payment methods | Card, sepa, other |
| Trial or credit | AWS Free Tier for new accounts: $100 in credits at sign-up plus up to $100 more for completing activities (max $200, expires after 6 months); usable on Lightsail. Former Lightsail-specific free months are no longer offered to new customers. |
| Money-back | Not published |
| Support | Basic support plan (free) gives 24/7 customer service for account and billing questions, documentation and re:Post community; technical support requires a paid AWS Support plan |
| Email / port 25 | No email rule published |
| Uptime SLA | 99.99% region-level (multi-AZ deployment); 99.5% per single instance |
| Trustpilot | 1.3 / 5 from 429 reviews (profile) |
Plans and prices
9 plans recorded across 2 lines. Monthly list prices in US dollars; the highlighted row is the cheapest.
| Plan | Line | CPU | vCPU | RAM | Storage | Traffic | $/month | $/GB RAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux 512 MB | General Purpose (dual-stack) | Shared | 2 | 512 MB | 20 GB SSD | 1 TB | $5.00 | $10.00 | Static IPv4 included; IPv6-only variant $3.50/mo; burstable with 5% per-vCPU CPU baseline; billed hourly up to the monthly cap; transfer allowance halved in Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo |
| Linux 1 GB | General Purpose (dual-stack) | Shared | 2 | 1 GB | 40 GB SSD | 2 TB | $7.00 | $7.00 | IPv6-only variant $5/mo; 10% CPU baseline |
| Linux 2 GB | General Purpose (dual-stack) | Shared | 2 | 2 GB | 60 GB SSD | 3 TB | $12.00 | $6.00 | IPv6-only variant $10/mo; 20% CPU baseline |
| Linux 4 GB | General Purpose (dual-stack) | Shared | 2 | 4 GB | 80 GB SSD | 4 TB | $24.00 | $6.00 | IPv6-only variant $20/mo; 20% CPU baseline |
| Linux 8 GB | General Purpose (dual-stack) | Shared | 2 | 8 GB | 160 GB SSD | 5 TB | $44.00 | $5.50 | IPv6-only variant $40/mo; 30% CPU baseline |
| Linux 16 GB | General Purpose (dual-stack) | Shared | 4 | 16 GB | 320 GB SSD | 6 TB | $84.00 | $5.25 | IPv6-only variant $80/mo; 40% CPU baseline |
| Compute Optimized 4 GB | Compute Optimized | Dedicated | 2 | 4 GB | 160 GB SSD | 5 TB | $42.00 | $10.50 | Non-burstable compute-optimized bundle (AWS does not market it as dedicated hardware); IPv6-only variant $38/mo |
| Compute Optimized 8 GB | Compute Optimized | Dedicated | 4 | 8 GB | 320 GB SSD | 6 TB | $84.00 | $10.50 | Non-burstable compute-optimized bundle; IPv6-only variant $80/mo |
| Compute Optimized 16 GB | Compute Optimized | Dedicated | 8 | 16 GB | 640 GB SSD | 7 TB | $168.00 | $10.50 | Non-burstable compute-optimized bundle; IPv6-only variant $164/mo |
Priced in USD; no conversion needed
Lightsail Windows VPS prices
Plans that can run Windows Server, with the monthly licence fee added where Lightsail charges one.
| Plan | vCPU | RAM | Storage | $/month | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 512 MB | 2 | 512 MB | — | $9.50 | licence included |
| Windows 1 GB | 2 | 1 GB | — | $14.00 | licence included |
| Windows 2 GB | 2 | 2 GB | — | $22.00 | licence included |
| Windows 4 GB | 2 | 4 GB | — | $44.00 | licence included |
Data-center locations
Amazon Lightsail lets you deploy in 19 locations: 7 in Asia, 6 in Europe, 4 in North America, 1 in South America and 1 in Oceania. Countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and 5 more.
Map of Amazon Lightsail locations
Click a marker to see which providers sell servers there. Marker size reflects the number of providers in that city.
- Sydney (Australia)
- Sao Paulo (Brazil)
- Montreal (Canada)
- Paris (France)
- Frankfurt (Germany)
- Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
- Mumbai (India)
- Jakarta (Indonesia)
- Dublin (Ireland)
- Tokyo (Japan)
- Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
- Singapore (Singapore)
- Seoul (South Korea)
- Zaragoza (Spain)
- Stockholm (Sweden)
- London (United Kingdom)
- Ashburn (United States)
- Columbus (United States)
- Portland (United States)
Pros and cons
Strengths
- Fixed monthly bundles include a static IPv4, DNS zone, firewall and 1-10 TB of transfer
- 19 AWS regions on five continents with VPC peering and a snapshot-based upgrade path to EC2
- Windows Server 2016-2025 bundles with the license included start at $9.50/mo
Limitations
- General-purpose bundles are burstable with CPU baselines of only 5-40% per vCPU
- Transfer allowance is halved in Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo; overage costs $0.09-0.17/GB
- Snapshots are charged at $0.05/GB-month and technical support requires a paid AWS Support plan
Acceptable use
The AWS Acceptable Use Policy bans illegal or fraudulent activity and anything that harms the security, integrity or availability of networks, but does not explicitly mention VPNs, proxies, scraping, crypto mining or torrents; abuse complaints are enforced case by case.
Where Lightsail ranks
Positions in the rankings on this site, based on the data above.
- Best VPS for Developers #46 of 157
- Best TeamSpeak VPS #53 of 157
- Free VPS #10 of 27
- Best VPS in Ireland #3 of 8
- Best VPS in Europe #50 of 129
- Best VPS in Singapore #25 of 64
- Best VPS in North America #45 of 113
- Cheap Singapore VPS #17 of 42
- Cloud VPS Hosting #13 of 32
- Best VPS in Asia #35 of 84
- Best VPS for Proxies #66 of 157
- Best VPS in Montreal #8 of 19
- Best Forex VPS #32 of 76
- Best VPS in Singapore #27 of 64
- Best VPS in United States #46 of 109
- Best VPS for a VPN Server (WireGuard, OpenVPN) #67 of 157
- Best Palworld VPS #59 of 137
- Best FiveM VPS #69 of 157
- Best VPS for Discord and Telegram Bots #69 of 157
- Best VPS for Coolify #49 of 111
- Windows VPS Hosting #34 of 77
- VPS with Backups and Snapshots #57 of 127
- Best VPS in London #28 of 62
- Linux VPS Hosting #63 of 139
Alternatives to Lightsail
Providers closest to Amazon Lightsail by region, price and features. LikeVPS, Vultr and VPSServer.com are the nearest matches.
| # | Provider | Plan | $/month | RAM | $/GB RAM | Locations | Windows | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lite 2.0 | $10.00 | 2 GB | $5.00 | 26 | Yes | — | |
| 2 | Regular Performance 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB (vc2-1c-0.5gb) | $2.50 | 512 MB | $5.00 | 32 | Yes | 1.6 (585) | |
| 3 | Entry (1 GB) | $4.00 | 1 GB | $4.00 | 21 | Yes | 1.4 (118) | |
| 4 | VPS-1 | $4.54 | 4 GB | $1.14 | 11 | Yes | 3.8 (8,843) | |
| 5 | Cloud VPS 4 | $6.16 | 8 GB | $0.77 | 10 | Yes | 4.6 (11,470) | |
| 6 | Starter 1xCPU-1GB | $3.50 | 1 GB | $3.50 | 14 | Yes | 3.0 (168) |
Frequently asked questions
How much does Amazon Lightsail VPS cost?
Plans start at $5.00 per month for Linux 512 MB (2 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB traffic); Static IPv4 included; IPv6-only variant $3.50/mo; burstable with 5% per-vCPU CPU baseline; billed hourly up to the monthly cap; transfer allowance halved in Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo. Across its published plans the median price is $7.00 per GB of RAM.
Where are Amazon Lightsail's data centers?
Amazon Lightsail lets you deploy in 19 locations: 7 in Asia, 6 in Europe, 4 in North America, 1 in South America and 1 in Oceania. Countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and 5 more.
Does Amazon Lightsail offer Windows VPS?
Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025 bundles with license included, from $9.50/mo (512 MB) / $14 (1 GB) / $22 (2 GB) / $44 (4 GB); SQL Server Express blueprints also available Cheapest Windows-capable plan: Windows 512 MB at $9.50/month.
Does Amazon Lightsail have hourly billing?
Yes, servers are billed by the hour with a monthly cap.
Is Amazon Lightsail good?
As of October 23, 2026, Amazon Lightsail sells 9 VPS plans from $5.00/month (Linux 512 MB: 2 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB traffic) in 19 locations. It ranks #73 of 160 providers overall. Trustpilot rates it 1.3 from 429 reviews. Strengths: fixed monthly bundles include a static ipv4, dns zone, firewall and 1-10 tb of transfer and 19 aws regions on five continents with vpc peering and a snapshot-based upgrade path to ec2. Limitations: general-purpose bundles are burstable with cpu baselines of only 5-40% per vcpu and transfer allowance is halved in mumbai, sydney, jakarta, malaysia, hong kong and sao paulo; overage costs $0.09-0.17/gb.
Sources
Data was read from these pages (provider data checked October 14, 2026; rankings updated October 23, 2026). Prices change; check the provider's site before buying.
- https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/
- https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/
- https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/features/
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-regions-and-availa...
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/compare-options-choose-lightsail...
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/baseline-cpu-performance.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-aske...
- https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/sla-lightsail-instances-and-block-storage/
- https://aws.amazon.com/free/
- https://aws.amazon.com/aup/
- https://aws.amazon.com/shield/faqs/
- https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/plans/
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/emea-payments.html
- https://www.trustpilot.com/review/aws.amazon.com