Amazon Lightsail vs IBM Public Cloud comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.9, while IBM is ranked #15 with an average rating of 6.7. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.0% mindshare in PSP, compared to IBM’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Amazon Lightsail

Read 13 Amazon Lightsail reviews

1,022 Views
1,022 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Public Cloud

Read 18 IBM Public Cloud reviews

2,495 Views
2,320 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Amazon Lightsail

IBM Public Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

IBM Public Cloud and Amazon Lightsail compete in cloud solutions, with Amazon Lightsail having an upper hand in accessibility and simplicity, while IBM Public Cloud excels in robust enterprise features.

Features: IBM Public Cloud provides AI integration, large-scale data processing, and compliance certifications, suitable for enterprises. Amazon Lightsail offers virtual servers, databases, and networking services, designed for small businesses and developers seeking ease and speed.

Room for Improvement: IBM Public Cloud could improve deployment speed and integrate more intuitive user interfaces for small businesses. Amazon Lightsail might enhance scalability options, bolster security features, and offer more enterprise-grade support for growing businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Lightsail ensures intuitive deployment through pre-configured blueprints and extensive documentation, suitable for quick launches. IBM Public Cloud offers extensive support for complex environments, which, while thorough, may require longer setup times for comprehensive operations.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Public Cloud has higher initial setup costs but offers ROI with its scalability and extensive features for large enterprises. Amazon Lightsail provides a cost-effective model with predictable monthly costs, yielding favorable ROI for smaller operations given its lower expenses.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Lightsail vs. IBM Public Cloud Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail vs. IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

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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

IBM Public Cloud

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IoT Platforms (8th)

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 IBM Public Cloud is 3.1%, down from 4.0% 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%
IBM Public Cloud	3.1%
Other	94.9%

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.

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Premnath Jaganathan

Product Manager at Uop Ipl

Affordability and security improve our cloud experience while learning new systems

I'm not working with any AI features in IBM Public Cloud, but they are in the process of building it.I am very satisfied with the security that IBM Public Cloud provides. I would rate IBM Public Cloud eight out of ten, where one is worst and ten is the best.

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 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."

"EC2 instances are pre-configured and upgraded, so you can simply select and instantly pay for an EC2 instance to set up WordPress, Node.js, or a server container using Docker."

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

"Amazon Lightsail is a virtual instance that is a service of Amazon AWS, designed to store data securely and provide applications through the cloud at an affordable cost to the SME sector."

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

"The initial setup is pretty easy."

"The most valuable features are the usability and customer service."

"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."

More Amazon Lightsail pros

"It provides robust analytics and management tools to give customers complete visibility into their environment and infrastructure."

"This is a predictable and dependable service."

"The price of IBM Cloud is most valuable for us. The service is personable and gives us a good rapport. I can't say it's the best, but it was enough for our needs."

"What I like most in IBM Public Cloud is how easy it is to create serverless functions. They are called IBM functions, but in AWS, they are called Lambda functions. Those are pretty standard, and another thing I like the most is that you have fewer restrictions on the amount of data you can transfer across those functions. IBM Public Cloud is way more flexible than AWS. I also like that IBM Public Cloud is pretty straightforward to integrate. As long as you have all the tools IBM provides you, getting everything up and running is straightforward."

"There is no installation for this product because it is a cloud product."

"The initial setup was very easy. It's quite straightforward. Deployment took about fifteen minutes. Everything is well organized."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations."

"It is easy to deploy what you need for the initial setup"

More IBM Public Cloud pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Currently, there is limited support available while installing or configuring it, and resources are primarily available through community-contributed articles."

"The product's network features need enhancement."

"When you need to add some custom rules to Amazon Lightsail, the auto scaling feature is a bit difficult."

"It would be beneficial if Lightsail allowed easier upgrade and change processes, similar to EC2 instances, without needing to fully back up and reinstall configurations."

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

More Amazon Lightsail cons

"It could be more secure."

"The product should offer more computing, similar to Amazon."

"There is not a lot of support for this solution, which is something that needs to be improved."

"Maybe performance enhancers and reports could be better improved. If they do so, it would be better. Of all the drawbacks I saw, this would be the biggest enhancement."

"The initial setup and the pricing are areas that need improvement."

"It will be challenging to implement if you do not have any experience."

"While they have about 99% of what we need, the only exception, perhaps, was the push notification feature that was discontinued. They delayed the replacement product."

"They do not have a very good virtual network implemented, and the VPC is the most important feature that needs to be improved."

More IBM Public Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"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 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."

"It's very cheap."

"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."

"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."

"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."

"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."

"The price of IBM Cloud is very cheap compared to competitors AWS and Azure."

"In order to be competitive, you have to commit to a contract for at least one year, but you pay a fixed monthly fee."

"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."

More IBM Public Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

University

11%

Educational Organization

University

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

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	13
Midsize Enterprise	2
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

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?

IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud?

The front end is not pervasive, so it is very difficult get the status of your current services or account from a mobile device.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Public Cloud?

The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations.

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

More Amazon Lightsail Competitors

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 33% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 31% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 17% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Public Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail

September 2025

Download Amazon Lightsail product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Download IBM Public Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM Bluemix

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)

IBM Cloud is a full-stack cloud platform that spans public, private and hybrid environments. Build with a robust suite of advanced data and AI tools, and draw on deep industry expertise to help you on your journey to the cloud.

IBM

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail vs. IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Free Report: Amazon Lightsail vs. IBM Public Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Lightsail vs. IBM Public Cloud and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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