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Amazon EC2

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

Table of Contents

Amazon EC2 - 2026 Pricing, Features, Reviews & Alternatives

All user reviews are verified by in-house moderators and provider data by our software research team. Learn more

Amazon EC2 overview

What is Amazon EC2?

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to facilitate web-scale computing for developers. Select a pre-configured, templated Amazon Machine Image (AMI) to get up and running immediately. Alternatively you can create an AMI with your applications, libraries, data, and associated configuration settings. Configure security and network access on your Amazon EC2 instance. Choose which instance type(s) you want, then start, terminate, and monitor as many instances of your AMI as needed, using the web service APIs or the variety of management tools provided. Determine whether you want to run in multiple locations, utilize static IP endpoints, or attach persistent block storage to your instances.

Who uses Amazon EC2?

By industry, Amazon EC2 reviewers are most commonly professionals in information technology and services (29%). The most frequent use case for Amazon EC2 cited by reviewers is virtual machine (55% of reviewers).

What do users say about Amazon EC2 pricing?

Reviewers indicate that Amazon EC2 offers good value for money due to flexible pricing, cost-saving features, and scalable options. However, some reviewers find the pricing complex, report unexpected costs, and feel support services increase overall expenses.

What are the most popular integrations for Amazon EC2?

The Amazon EC2 integrations most frequently cited by reviewers are: Amazon S3 (a cloud storage product rated 4.7 out of 5 for its integration with Amazon EC2), Amazon RDS (a database product, 4.8), and Amazon CloudWatch (a cloud management product, 4.5).

Starting price

Free

Alternatives

with better value for money

Pros & Cons

Virtualization

Assistance

Provisioning

Affordability

Permissions

Amazon EC2’s user interface

Ease of use rating:

4.7

(173)

Amazon EC2 pros, cons and reviews insights

To determine these pros and cons insights, we analyzed responses from

Overall rating

Reviews sentiment

1-2(2)

3-4(42)

5(129)

What do users say about Amazon EC2?

Reviewers indicate Amazon EC2 offers flexible, scalable cloud computing with a wide variety of instance types and robust integration with other AWS services. They appreciate its reliability, security, and ability to automate deployments, finding it suitable for diverse workloads and easy to set up for experienced users. They value the pay-as-you-go pricing and cost-saving options, though they mention the pricing structure is complex and requires careful monitoring to avoid unexpected charges.

Users say the interface and dashboard can be overwhelming for beginners, with a steep learning curve and some confusing configurations. They report customer support is not always readily available without extra fees, and managing costs and instances can be challenging. They find the service highly customizable but note that initial setup and security configurations require technical expertise.

Select to learn more

Who uses Amazon EC2?

Based on 173 verified user reviews.

Company size

Small Businesses

Enterprises

Midsize Businesses

Top industries

Information Technology and Services

Computer Software

Education Management

Internet

Others

Use cases

Virtual Machine

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Database

Virtualization

Cloud Security

Amazon EC2's key features

Most critical features, based on insights from Amazon EC2 users:

Backup and recovery

4.6

(41)

Cloud computing

4.8

(42)

Access controls/permissions

4.3

(29)

Secure data storage

4.5

(32)

Data security

4.7

(27)

Load balancing

4.7

(26)

All Amazon EC2 features

Features rating:

4.7

(173)

User management

4.3

(11)

Third-Party integrations

4.5

(10)

Predictive analytics

3.0

(1)

Performance monitoring

4.2

(17)

Service level agreement (sla) management

4.2

(6)

Collaboration tools

4.0

(1)

Performance metrics

4.0

(1)

Multiple data sources

4.0

(1)

Customizable reports

5.0

(1)

Forecasting

4.7

(3)

Role-Based permissions

4.3

(7)

Data import/export

4.0

(2)

Data mapping

4.7

(3)

Server monitoring

4.5

(19)

Data storage management

4.5

(22)

Network monitoring

4.2

(19)

Real-Time monitoring

4.3

(9)

Configuration management

4.3

(20)

Monitoring

4.6

(7)

Reporting & statistics

4.8

(4)

Data visualization

4.0

(9)

API

4.3

(22)

Reporting/Analytics

4.0

(24)

Log access

4.2

(10)

Compliance management

4.1

(7)

Application management

3.8

(4)

Real-Time data

4.8

(6)

Search/Filter

4.4

(8)

Data dictionary management

4.4

(7)

Data migration

4.3

(15)

Activity dashboard

4.0

(3)

Real-Time analytics

(0)

Database support

(0)

Data warehousing

(0)

Dashboard creation

(0)

Configurable workflow

(0)

Cloud application security

(0)

Templates

(0)

Activity Management

(0)

Threat intelligence

(0)

Trend analysis

(0)

Virtual server

(0)

Workflow management

(0)

Amazon EC2 alternatives

Amazon EC2

4.7

(173)

Starting from

No pricing info

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.1

Features

4.7

Value for Money

4.3

Customer Support

4.1

Atlantic.Net Cloud Platform

5.0

(24)

visit website

Starting from

0.01

Per month

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.9

Features

4.9

Value for Money

5.0

Customer Support

4.8

Guardz

4.9

(7)

visit website

Starting from

No pricing info

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.6

Features

4.9

Value for Money

4.3

Customer Support

4.9

Domo

4.3

(329)

visit website

Starting from

No pricing info

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.1

Features

4.3

Value for Money

4.0

Customer Support

4.0

Amazon EC2 pricing

Starting from

No pricing info

Pricing details

Subscription

Free trial

Free plan

Pricing range

User opinions about Amazon EC2 price and value

Value for money rating:

4.3

Of 61 reviews that provide robust commentary on Amazon EC2's price and value, 64% mention it in a positive light.

Reviewers indicate that Amazon EC2 offers good value for money due to its flexible pricing models, including a pay-as-you-go system and a one-year free trial for new users. They appreciate the cost-saving features such as auto-scaling, load balancing, and the ability to choose specific instances and operating systems tailored to their needs, which helps in managing costs effectively. Some users say that the wide variety of machine types allows them to select the most cost-effective options for different requirements. They also mention that the ever-decreasing pricing and the ability to scale resources up or down as needed contribute to its cost efficiency.

However, some reviewers find the pricing structure to be complex and potentially expensive, especially for higher-end machines or when additional services are required. They report that unexpected costs can arise from various settings and associated technologies, making it necessary to monitor usage closely. Some users feel that the free trial offers limited resources, which may not be sufficient for more demanding tasks. Additionally, they mention that support services come at an extra cost, and the overall cost can quickly escalate if not managed properly.

, and

To see what individual users think of Amazon EC2's cost and value, check out the review excerpts below.

“Amazon provide 1 year free tier for new year- EC2 provide good featue like auto scaling, load balancer and data backup- Transfer snapshot backup from one account to another account-”

Harshul V.

Software Developer

“The best advantage of Amazon EC2 is that we can choose VM according to our requirement and deploy instance on it, and we Pay only when used, so it also reduces the pricing aspect.”

Nitin G.

Junior Dev

“What AWS don't tell you is that on top of your EC2 cost comes a whole range of other hidden costs.”

Greg B.

Software engineer

Amazon EC2 integrations (119)

Integrations rated by users

We looked at 173 user reviews to identify which products are mentioned as Amazon EC2 integrations and how users feel about them.

Amazon S3

Integration rating: 4.7 (14)

“To have a seamless integration with a storage service is one of the most important aspects of a cloud computing system.”

“mounted s3 buckets to a network drive on ec2 instance to create perfect local-cloud storage ”

Diego U.

CTO

1/2

Amazon CloudWatch

Integration rating: 4.5 (11)

“Amazon CloudWatch is excellent for log tracking, reporting and metrics analysis.”

Raamnaaraayan R.

Developer

Amazon RDS

Integration rating: 4.9 (12)

Amazon VPC

Integration rating: 5.0 (1)

Amazon EC2 support options

Typical customers

Freelancers

Small businesses

Mid size businesses

Large enterprises

Platforms supported

Web

Android

iPhone/iPad

Training options

Live Online

Webinars

Documentation

Videos

Amazon EC2 FAQs

Q. What type of pricing plans does Amazon EC2 offer?

Amazon EC2 has the following pricing plans:
Free Trial: Available

These products have better value for money

Q. What are the benefits of using Amazon EC2?

Pay only for the resources that you actually consume, like instance-hours or data transfer.

The Amazon EC2 auto-scaling feature allows you to instantaneously increase or decrease capacity. It automatically scales up during spikes to maintain performance and scales down during lulls to save costs.

Amazon EC2 allows you to select a configuration of memory, CPU, instance storage, and the boot partition size that is best for your choice of operating system and application.

Elastic load balancing enables you to achieve even higher fault tolerance in your applications, seamlessly responding to incoming application traffic by providing the amount of load balancing capacity needed.

Q. Who are the typical users of Amazon EC2?

Amazon EC2 has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Non Profit, Small Business

Q. What languages does Amazon EC2 support?

Amazon EC2 supports the following languages:
English

Q. Does Amazon EC2 offer an API?

Yes, Amazon EC2 has an API available for use.

Q. What other apps does Amazon EC2 integrate with?

Amazon EC2 integrates with the following applications:
Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon CloudWatch