AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Amazon Lightsail comparison

Amazon Lightsail and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Amazon Lightsail is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.9, while AWS Elastic Beanstalk is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.8. Amazon Lightsail holds a 2.0% mindshare in PSP, compared to AWS Elastic Beanstalk’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Lightsail users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS Elastic Beanstalk users who would recommend it.

Amazon Lightsail

Read 13 Amazon Lightsail reviews

1,022 Views
1,022 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Read 11 AWS Elastic Beanstalk reviews

419 Views
419 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon Lightsail

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Amazon Lightsail and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are cloud computing solutions within AWS's ecosytem, targeting diverse user needs. AWS Elastic Beanstalk, with its enhanced scalability and customization features, holds an advantage for complex and large-scale applications, while Amazon Lightsail is preferred for simpler, more budget-friendly setups.

Features: Amazon Lightsail provides simple, scalable instances that include networking, storage, and DNS management. It's ideal for users needing straightforward application hosting. AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports complex applications with automatic scaling, load balancing, and integration with various AWS services.

Room for Improvement: Amazon Lightsail could enhance its capabilities for larger applications and offer additional configuration options for more flexibility. Meanwhile, AWS Elastic Beanstalk can improve its cost structure for smaller projects and provide more straightforward setup processes for beginner users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Lightsail's deployment process is catered to low-complexity setups and quick launches, and its customer service efficiently handles basic inquiries. AWS Elastic Beanstalk manages deployment complexities with customizable environments, excelling in addressing complex customer queries with expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon Lightsail offers predictable, low-cost pricing starting at $5 per month, suited for small projects with minimal configuration, resulting in decent ROI for simple applications. AWS Elastic Beanstalk, with comprehensive features, presents potentially higher costs but delivers substantial ROI for enterprises needing robust, scalable solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Amazon Lightsail Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Amazon Lightsail

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 867,370 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Lightsail

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Amazon Lightsail is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Elastic Beanstalk is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon Lightsail	2.0%
AWS Elastic Beanstalk	0.5%
Other	97.5%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

VictorAugusto De Souza E Silva

Cloud Engineer at Leek Solucoes

Has simplified website migration and reduced hosting costs significantly

Amazon Lightsail should have some kind of scale service. To be more clear, if I need to scale up my instance or VPS, I need to create a snapshot and create a new instance from this snapshot with more resources, such as CPU, RAM, or disk. It would be beneficial to have a welcome instance where we can just set the instance, go there to edit and select a greater instance from large to x-large or 2x-large. I do not see the need to scale down, but it would be good too. When we are on an x-large for testing purposes and need to do a rollback to a large one, we need to scale down. We do not have this capability on Amazon Lightsail.

Read full review

Kevin-Davis

Global CTO AWS Business Group at Eviden

Efficient deployment and management of web apps with integration into cloud services

One area where AWS Elastic Beanstalk struggles is with the complexity of deployments. As deployments become more complex, technical constraints can become a burden. This can lead to a situation where I might be better off building my own deployment mechanism. Additionally, CloudFormation controlling AWS Elastic Beanstalk in more complex environments is poorly supported, which can make management challenging.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The benefit of using Amazon Lightsail over the AWS console management is that it is a small platform that is easy to understand, as it has only the instance, DNS, Route 53, snapshots, backups, and load balancing network."

"Implementations are completed with a few clicks, allowing efficient transitions to other development stages, and setup is easy whether for online support or basic business requirements."

"The intuitive management console of Amazon Lightsail is very good because it is simple; with just a few clicks, I can set a blog online, a WordPress blog online, a new e-commerce online, or just a new application with NodeJS."

"One of the product's most valuable features is its fixed pricing, which makes it ideal for small projects and websites that do not require scaling."

"In Lightsail, they simplified to do it in as few clicks as possible. So, around ten clicks, I have a virtual machine deployed."

"Amazon Lightsail is easy to use and very cost-effective compared to other services such as Azure and Google."

"I find Lightsail particularly valuable for hosting WordPress as it is easier to set up than a bare metal server, which requires extensive configuration and package installations."

More Amazon Lightsail pros

"Elastic Beanstalk simplifies deploying and managing applications."

"I highly recommend it to others and frequently discuss it with customers."

"AWS Elastic Beanstalk helps improve my efficiency, saves time, and streamlines application hosting in the cloud."

"The feature I like most about Elastic Beanstalk is the way I do not have to do anything, just deploy my app."

"Elastic Beanstalk is very easy to use, providing infrastructure to deploy our third-party application to the cloud within 15 to 20 minutes."

"I find the versioning to be especially valuable on AWS Elastic Beanstalk."

"The management of environments is a valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature of Elastic Beanstalk is its ease of use and management."

More AWS Elastic Beanstalk pros

Cons

"I don't see this solution as enterprise-ready, for bigger companies like banks."

"Amazon Lightsail should have some kind of scale service. To be more clear, if I need to scale up my instance or VPS, I need to create a snapshot and create a new instance from this snapshot with more resources, such as CPU, RAM, or disk."

"Backward compatibility and the flexibility to choose software versions while installing would be improvements."

"The solution could be smoother than it is."

"The disadvantage I see is data storage; if any data crash occurs in the cloud server, that will lead to significant losses for the customer."

"Based on my limited exploration of Amazon Lightsail so far, I would like to see improvements in the console, particularly in user behavior and some cost-related aspects."

"To improve, I feel the disk management is too basic. I can't easily partition the disk for the operating system. I have to follow the main configuration that is already set up in the template. To partition the disk, I would need to deploy the operating system first and then make changes, but it's not an ideal method. I would recommend improving the disk management."

"The product's network features need enhancement."

More Amazon Lightsail cons

"Maybe the company could create more option packages, such as more bundles of configuration."

"Elastic Beanstalk is powerful, however, it could be enhanced in areas where it abstracts infrastructure management, sometimes limiting advanced users who want granular control over resources like EC2 instances, networking, or load balancers."

"The documentation needs to be clearer, particularly relating to editing JSON files before uploading applications."

"The automatic scaling functionality could use improvement."

"Elastic Beanstalk can enhance its customizability further, especially in terms of deployment options."

"AWS Elastic Beanstalk could improve its auto-scaling feature to better detect potential AI-based attacks or misuses that could lead to unexpected costs."

"Elastic Beanstalk can enhance its customizability further, especially in terms of deployment options."

"One area where AWS Elastic Beanstalk struggles is with the complexity of deployments. As deployments become more complex, technical constraints can become a burden."

More AWS Elastic Beanstalk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A few months ago, Lightsail's pricing increased, likely due to the addition of the new VPC feature."

"The affordability of starting at five dollars makes it an attractive option for startups and medium-sized companies, aligning with budget considerations while offering essential cloud services."

"The services that it provides are good for the price."

"The prices are better than EC2 machines, for instance, because they are simplified management, but it works well, and I am able to run everything that I need on it."

"Lightsail is available at an affordable cost starting from five dollars per month."

"Amazon Lightsail is a bit cheaper than Amazon EC2."

"It's very cheap."

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which PaaS Clouds solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

University

11%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

19%

Educational Organization

16%

Outsourcing Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Lightsail?

In Lightsail, they simplified to do it in as few clicks as possible. So, around ten clicks, I have a virtual machine deployed.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Lightsail?

Lightsail is available at an affordable cost starting from five dollars per month. This cost may increase with additional features like a static IP.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Lightsail?

Amazon Lightsail needs more security in the networking because hackers can attack in application layers three and four. The networking layer is basically the hacker's target to break the network, s...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

AWS Elastic Beanstalk itself is free to use, but there are charges for other integrated services like RDS ( /products/amazon-rds-reviews ), ELBs, and EC2s. If only AWS Elastic Beanstalk is used, th...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Elastic Beanstalk can enhance its customizability further, especially in terms of deployment options.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

I have used AWS Elastic Beanstalk ( /products/aws-elastic-beanstalk-reviews ) primarily to manage infrastructure. The main purpose is to offload the complexity of managing servers, operating system...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 32% of the time

Google Cloud vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 30% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 9% of the time

Heroku vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 8% of the time

Render vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 7% of the time

More Amazon Lightsail Competitors

Microsoft Azure vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 33% of the time

Heroku vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 19% of the time

Google App Engine vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 16% of the time

More AWS Elastic Beanstalk Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail

September 2025

Download Amazon Lightsail product report

Buyer's Guide

PaaS Clouds

August 2025

Download AWS Elastic Beanstalk product report

Overview

Lightsail is ideal for simpler workloads, quick deployments, and getting started on AWS. It’s designed to help you start small, and then scale as you grow.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS Elastic Beanstalk streamlines deploying and managing web applications, providing efficient session management, direct log access, and seamless rollback during deployment for uninterrupted operations.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is designed for developers seeking ease of use in provisioning and deployment without any application downtime. With auto-scaling capabilities that enhance application performance, users can deploy directly on EC2 or Dockerized environments. While it supports a range of application frameworks, improvements in integration with CloudFront, auto-scaling against AI-based attacks, and simplified HTTPS integrations are suggested by users. Additionally, expanding Docker support and enhancing documentation can address user challenges, offering a more comprehensive experience.

What features make AWS Elastic Beanstalk efficient?

Direct Log Access: Easily retrieve logs through the console for efficient monitoring.
Session Management: Manages sessions between Elastic Beanstalk and RDS smoothly.
Auto-Scaling: Enhances performance by adjusting resources automatically.
Versioning: Allows application changes without downtime, boosting flexibility.

What benefits do users find in AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Continuous Operation: Seamless rollbacks ensure website functionality during deployments.
Ease of Use: Simplifies the provisioning of applications and environmental configurations.
Flexibility: Offers versatile framework support, catering to different application needs.
Integration: Facilitates integration with services like S3 and LoadBalancer for efficient management.

Organizations adopt AWS Elastic Beanstalk for deploying web applications such as Django, Laravel, native PHP, and .NET Core. They leverage its management capabilities for environmental configurations like Python virtual environments and PHP-FPM. It's a practical tool for educators and businesses managing client migrations, utilizing its seamless integration with AWS services.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Amazon Lightsail

September 2025

Free Report: AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Amazon Lightsail

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Amazon Lightsail and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Amazon Lightsail report.

See our list of best PaaS Clouds vendors.

We monitor all PaaS Clouds reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.