AWS vs Azure: a price tie, so here's what decides it
On price, AWS and Azure are even for a Linux server: a 2 vCPU, 8 GB machine is $81.23 a month on AWS and $78.53 on Azure, and both charge about 9 cents for each GB that leaves. What separates them is your licences, your databases and how each one prices support. On American Cloud that server is $64.13, with traffic and support included.
Price ties; licences, databases and support decide
The server price won't pick for you. The gap is $2.70 a month, and at 5,000 GB out it's still under $20. Add the cheapest support plan with an engineer on call 24x7 and the order can flip: AWS charges 9% of the bill, Azure a flat $100.
So decide on the rest. If you own Windows Server or SQL Server licences with Software Assurance, Azure lets you reuse them. If you need Oracle or Db2 run for you, Amazon RDS runs both. If you run Linux and open-source databases, neither applies, and you're just buying a server. Then the two lines that grow both bills, outbound data and paid support, are the two we don't charge for.
Line by line, for one Linux server and the extras
US East on AWS, East US on Azure, Linux, list prices for a 730-hour month, one server alone on the account. Both rivals use Intel, general-purpose sizes that don't burst (m7i.large and D2s_v5). Google Cloud gets its own comparison.
How one Linux server's bill builds up
The server from the table, then 5,000 GB of outbound data on top, then the cheapest support plan that answers at 3 a.m.
How one Linux server's bill builds up ($ a month)
The server alone
- American Cloud
- $64.13
- AWS
- $81.23
- Azure
- $78.53
Plus 5,000 GB out
- American Cloud
- $64.13
- AWS
- $522.23
- Azure
- $504.83
Plus 24x7 support
- American Cloud
- $64.13
- AWS
- $569.24
- Azure
- $604.83
What actually separates AWS and Azure
Licences you already own
Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you apply Windows Server and SQL Server licences that have Software Assurance, and active Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE subscriptions, to Azure. During a move you get 180 days to run Windows and SQL Server workloads on your own servers and in Azure at once. If you mostly run Windows, this is the line that changes your Azure bill.
Support that scales with spend, or doesn't
AWS prices Business Support+ as a share of the month's AWS charges: 9% up to $10,000, then 7%, 5% and 3% in steps, with a $29 floor. Azure charges a flat fee for each plan. On a $500 AWS bill the fee is $45. On a $2,000 bill it's $180, and Azure's around-the-clock plan is still $100.
Which databases each one runs for you
Both run PostgreSQL and MySQL for you, so open-source databases won't decide it. The rest of the lists will: MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, Db2 and Aurora are on Amazon RDS, and Azure SQL Database and Cosmos DB are Microsoft's own.
Linux servers, with support you don't pay extra for
When something breaks, you open chat in the portal and support replies in under 2 minutes. That's on every account, with no support plan to buy and no percentage of your bill.
A server's price is three numbers a month: $10 per vCPU, $5 per GB of RAM and $1 per 16 GB of disk, plus $1 for a public IP. Outbound data adds nothing, at 5 GB or 5,000. Put your own sizes into the calculator on our pricing page.
Questions people ask
Do AWS and Azure include technical support?
Not on their free plans. AWS Basic covers account, billing and quota questions, not technical ones, and Azure's Basic plan has no technical support at all. On American Cloud, chat and tickets come with every account.
How do I move a Linux app from AWS to American Cloud?
Build the servers here, copy the data with rsync while the old ones keep serving, move buckets with rclone, then switch DNS. Our docs have an AWS migration guide in the Deploy with AI section, and hundreds of customers have moved here from AWS or DigitalOcean.
Compare other clouds
- AWS alternatives →
- DigitalOcean vs Vultr →
The same 2 vCPU, 8 GB size on both, priced at 1, 5, 10 and 20 TB of outbound traffic a month.
- All cloud alternatives →
Run the Linux side on American Cloud
Create an account, start one server, and ask support anything on chat while you set it up.