There is no honest single price for AWS. The platform lists over 240 services, most of them metered, and the pricing conversation for a website normally starts at EC2 or at Lightsail, its fixed-price tier. Lightsail's page lists general-purpose virtual servers at $5 a month for 0.5GB of memory, 2 vCPUs, 20GB of SSD disk and 1TB of transfer; $7 for 1GB and 2TB; $12 for 2GB and 3TB; $24 for 4GB and 4TB; $44 for 8GB and 5TB, with Windows bundles priced higher. That is a real, publishable price - and it covers a server, not a website stack: control panel, backups, CDN and WordPress tooling are separate decisions.
TL;DR
AWS sells metered cloud: over 240 services priced by use, with EC2 at the center and no single monthly figure. Its fixed-price tier is Lightsail, whose virtual servers list from $5 a month for 0.5GB of memory, 2 vCPUs, 20GB of SSD and 1TB of transfer, rising through $7, $12, $24 and $44 for 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB. Hostinger sells shared and cloud web hosting at promotional prices: Premium at $2.99 a month on a 48-month term ($143.52 prepaid, renews at $10.99 a month) for three websites and 20GB of SSD, Unlimited at $3.99 renewing at $16.99, and Cloud Startup at $7.99 renewing at $25.99. Choose Hostinger if the job is running WordPress or a small site and you want it handled; choose AWS - via Lightsail or EC2 - if you expect to grow into a real infrastructure stack and can absorb the complexity.
Hostinger's pricing page is built around a different shape of deal. Premium is listed at $2.99 a month on a 48-month term - $143.52 prepaid against a regular $575.52 - renewing at $10.99 a month, and covers three websites, 20GB of SSD storage, free weekly backups, a CDN, a free domain for the first year and two mailboxes per website. Unlimited is $3.99 a month on the same term ($191.52 prepaid, regular $911.52), renewing at $16.99 with 50GB of NVMe storage and daily backups. Cloud Startup is $7.99 ($383.52 prepaid, regular $1,343.52), renewing at $25.99 with 100GB of NVMe and priority support. An agency tier lists $29 a month on a 24-month term, renewing at $49, with 6 CPU cores, 12GB of RAM, 300GB of NVMe and 100 websites. A 30-day money-back guarantee applies.
The comparison is really about the second year and the tenth feature. Hostinger's renewal prices - $10.99, $16.99, $25.99 - are the numbers you live with, and they still buy a managed environment: backups, CDN, email and a domain are in the box. AWS never renews anything because it never sold you a plan; you pay for what you run, which starts cheap on Lightsail and grows however far you take it - and every part of the website stack beyond the server is a service you add, price and operate yourself.
| Feature | AWS | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $5/month: 0.5GB memory, 2 vCPUs, 20GB SSD, 1TB transfer | Premium $2.99/month on a 48-month term ($143.52 prepaid) |
| Mid tier | $12/month: 2GB memory, 60GB SSD, 3TB transfer | Unlimited $3.99/month (48-month term), renews at $16.99 |
| Top published tier | $44/month: 8GB memory, 160GB SSD, 5TB transfer | Cloud Startup $7.99/month, renews at $25.99; agency $29 renews at $49 |
| Billing model | Fixed monthly server price on Lightsail; metered usage across EC2 and other services | Term prepayment at a promotional monthly rate, billed for the whole term up front |
| Renewal | No renewal - the price is the price; usage services bill as used | $10.99, $16.99 and $25.99 a month by tier after the initial term |
| Website stack | Server only: backups, CDN, email and control panel are separate services | Domain, backups, CDN, email and WordPress tooling included in the plan |
| Support | A separate purchase from compute; documentation and community are free | 24/7 support and free website migration included; priority support on upper tiers |
| Guarantee | Services billed as used; Lightsail carries no multi-year commitment | 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans |
Pick AWS if
AWS makes sense when the website is the beginning of a larger build: Lightsail's $5 to $44 fixed-price servers give a clean start, and the path from there to managed databases, queues and CDNs is on the same account and the same bill. The trade is that every piece beyond the server is yours to choose, price and operate - which is only a good trade if someone on the team will.
Pick Hostinger if
Hostinger suits the common case: WordPress or a small site, a fixed annual prepayment, and a plan that already contains the domain, backups, CDN, email and support. The $2.99 headline requires a 48-month term and renews at $10.99 a month, but even the renewal price undercuts most assembled AWS stacks once the separate services are added up - and someone else handles the plumbing.
No independent ratings or user quotes appear here; we collected none for this pair. All prices were read from aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing and hostinger.com/pricing on 2026-10-13. AWS figures cover the Lightsail tier; EC2 and the wider platform price by usage and are not line-compared here.
For a small website, usually not once the stack is assembled: Lightsail starts at $5 a month for the server alone, while Hostinger's Premium plan lists at $2.99 a month on a 48-month term and includes a domain, backups, CDN and email. AWS becomes competitive when you use its metered services at scale rather than buying a website plan.
Premium renews at $10.99 a month, Unlimited at $16.99 and Cloud Startup at $25.99, after terms prepaid at $2.99, $3.99 and $7.99 a month respectively on 48-month plans. The agency tier lists $29 a month on a 24-month term renewing at $49.
AWS's fixed-price virtual server tier: $5 a month for 0.5GB of memory, 2 vCPUs, 20GB SSD and 1TB of transfer, up to $44 for 8GB and 5TB. It is the part of AWS with a published monthly price; the wider platform bills by usage.
Not with the server. Lightsail covers the virtual server; domains, email, backups, CDN and control panels are separate services on AWS. Hostinger's plans include a free domain for the first year, mailboxes per website and backups as plan features.
AWS: usage-metered services scale in either direction without renegotiating a plan, which suits unpredictable load. Hostinger's plans are fixed buckets of storage and websites; the cloud tiers add resources but stay within the plan structure.
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