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Amazon Web Services

by Amazon Web Services, Inc. · Platform · also known as AWS

Amazon's public cloud with hundreds of usage-billed services spanning compute (EC2, Lambda), storage (S3), databases (RDS), networking, AI (Bedrock) and analytics

ProprietaryUsage-basedFreemiumEnterpriseCloud
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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

Amazon Web Services is the public cloud platform of Amazon. Its catalogue runs from foundational building blocks, EC2 virtual machines, S3 object storage, VPC networking, IAM identity, to managed databases (RDS for PostgreSQL and MySQL, DynamoDB, Aurora), serverless compute (Lambda), container orchestration (ECS, EKS), the Bedrock service for hosted foundation models, and data and analytics tools such as Athena, Redshift and Glue, deployed across many geographic regions.

Everything is driven by the same APIs through the console, the AWS CLI, SDKs for the main languages, CloudFormation and the Terraform provider. Billing is usage-based with a free tier and reserved or savings-plan discounts for committed use. S3's API has become a de facto standard implemented by MinIO, Cloudflare R2 and others, so many tools in this encyclopedia use S3-compatible storage even when not on AWS.

The platform's breadth is its difficulty: cost management, IAM policy design and service selection require expertise, and egress and cross-service charges can surprise small projects.

Capabilities

  • Virtual machines, serverless functions and container services
  • Object, block and file storage led by S3
  • Managed relational, key-value and graph databases
  • Hosted foundation models through Bedrock and ML tooling through SageMaker
  • Networking, DNS (Route 53), CDN (CloudFront) and identity (IAM)
  • Infrastructure as code with CloudFormation, CDK and Terraform

Typical workflows

  1. Store datasets in S3 and query them with Athena or DuckDB
  2. Run a managed PostgreSQL database for an application
  3. Deploy containers to ECS or EKS behind a load balancer

Strengths

  • Largest service catalogue and global footprint
  • Mature tooling, SDKs and documentation
  • S3 API is an industry standard

Limitations

  • Cost complexity and egress charges
  • Steep learning curve across services and IAM
  • Vendor lock-in for higher-level managed services

Prerequisites

  • AWS account with billing

Who it is for

  • Enterprises and startups
  • Data and ML teams
  • Developers needing managed services

Alternatives & comparison

Google Cloud and Azure are the other hyperscalers with comparable breadth, differing in strengths (data analytics and Kubernetes for Google, Microsoft ecosystem integration for Azure). Hetzner and OVHcloud provide servers and a few storage products at lower cost without the managed catalogue.

  • Cloudflare

    Global network offering authoritative DNS, CDN and reverse-proxy security, a domain registrar, Zero Trust access and the Workers serverless platform

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Fly.io

    Platform that runs Docker images as Fly Machines (Firecracker microVMs) in regions around the world with anycast routing, private networking and managed Postgres

    ProprietaryUsage-based
  • Google Cloud

    Google's public cloud with Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery, Cloud Storage and the Vertex AI platform for Gemini and other models

    ProprietaryUsage-based
  • Hetzner

    German hosting provider known for cost-focused cloud servers, dedicated root servers, Storage Boxes and object storage in Germany, Finland, the United States and Singapore

    ProprietaryPaid
  • Microsoft Azure

    Microsoft's public cloud with virtual machines, AKS, Azure Functions, Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Entra ID identity and Microsoft Foundry for hosted AI models

    ProprietaryUsage-based
  • MinIO (AIStor)

    S3-compatible object storage server; the AGPL community edition was archived in April 2026 and succeeded by MinIO's AIStor Free and AIStor Enterprise editions

    MixedFree
  • OVHcloud

    European cloud and hosting provider offering dedicated bare-metal servers, public and hosted private cloud, VPS, domains and web hosting from data centers in Europe, Canada and elsewhere

    ProprietaryPaid
  • Vercel

    Front-end cloud from the makers of Next.js that deploys web applications from git with preview environments, serverless and edge functions and a global CDN

    ProprietaryFreemium
Compare Amazon Web Services with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

  • Official documentation
    AWS Documentation

    https://docs.aws.amazon.com/

    Supports: capabilities, interfaces, languages

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official site
    Amazon Web Services

    https://aws.amazon.com/

    Supports: name, summary, capabilities

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Pricing page
    AWS Pricing

    https://aws.amazon.com/pricing

    Supports: pricing_model

    checked Nov 1, 2026
Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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Vercel

Vercel Inc. · Cloud & hosting providers

Front-end cloud from the makers of Next.js that deploys web applications from git with preview environments, serverless and edge functions and a global CDN

ProprietaryFreemiumPaidNov 2, 2026

Fly.io

Fly.io, Inc. · Cloud & hosting providers

Platform that runs Docker images as Fly Machines (Firecracker microVMs) in regions around the world with anycast routing, private networking and managed Postgres

ProprietaryUsage-basedPaidNov 2, 2026

Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. · DNS & domains

Global network offering authoritative DNS, CDN and reverse-proxy security, a domain registrar, Zero Trust access and the Workers serverless platform

ProprietaryFreemiumPaidNov 2, 2026

Neon

Neon (Databricks) · Relational databases

Serverless PostgreSQL service with separated storage and compute, instant database branching and scale-to-zero, now part of Databricks

Apache-2.0FreemiumPaidNov 2, 2026

Supabase

Supabase Inc. · Relational databases

Open-source backend platform built around a dedicated PostgreSQL database with auto-generated APIs, authentication, file storage, realtime subscriptions and edge functions

Apache-2.0Open sourceFreemiumSelf-hostedNov 2, 2026