What is Amazon Lightsail?
Amazon Lightsail is an Amazon Web Service (AWS) service that helps you create and launch web applications or websites with just a few steps. You can get as basic or complicated with your website or project’s setup as you’d like, with “pre-packaged” applications (“images”) that launch with a click of a button, or managed databases and load balancers for more granular control.
Amazon Lightsail is effective for quickly setting up blogs, personal websites, databases, or e-commerce stores with low, predictable monthly prices. You can learn more about the service on the AWS Knowledge Base.
Overview of Amazon Lightsail’s features
- Instances: virtual private servers (VPS); click-to-launch operating systems and pre-configured applications are available (WordPress, for example, as we’ll set up in this tutorial)
- Containers: applications packaged into a “unit of software” that you can pick up from one environment to plop down in another computing environment and expect it to function in the same way
- You can think of them like one of those “container homes” that you can just plop onto your land, connect to water and electricity, and viola! All ready to live in!
- Load Balancers: when a surge in traffic occurs (a successful Black Friday sale?), load balancers can “balance the load” of traffic to make sure your servers don’t get overwhelmed, protecting your resources from outages while providing a smooth customer experience
- Managed Databases: fully configured MySQL and PostgreSQL databases
- Block and Object Storage: host static content on the cloud with block and object storage (think: Dropbox)
- CDN Distributions: distribute your content globally by utilizing content delivery network (CDN) distributions, which “places” your content geographically close to your visitors so they can download your resources quickly
- Integrate with various other AWS services through Amazon VPC peering
Costs associated with Amazon Lightsail
- AWS Pricing Calculator: create estimates for your usage
- AWS Billing and Cost Management Console: see your AWS bill and usage reports
- Amazon Lightsail Pricing
- First 90 days is free for the options we are selecting, which is great for testing/learning (please refer to this page for more information about free tier eligibility and potential charges, under the heading “AWS Free Tier“)
Amazon Lightsail utilizes a “fixed-cost pricing model,” which should prevent unwanted surprise bills.