Amazon Lightsail vs Microsoft Azure comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.8, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.0% mindshare in PSP, compared to Microsoft’s 18.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon Lightsail

Read 12 Amazon Lightsail reviews

1,052 Views
1,052 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure

Read 316 Microsoft Azure reviews

20,523 Views
12,314 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Amazon Lightsail

Microsoft Azure

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Microsoft Azure and Amazon Lightsail operate in the cloud computing and hosting domain. Azure holds a competitive edge due to its extensive range of features, integration capabilities, and scalability that cater to both large enterprises and smaller projects.

Features: Microsoft Azure offers significant benefits like compatibility with Azure Databricks for data processing, robust infrastructure for security with Azure Application Gateway and WAF, and diverse integration options including Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. Azure's presence across numerous geographical zones further bolsters its reliability. Amazon Lightsail stands out with its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, particularly targeting small-scale projects or WordPress hosting with clear pricing and ease of management.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure can enhance user navigation, license model clarity, and consistent technical support. It also faces challenges in cost transparency and needs improved data analysis and streaming support. Amazon Lightsail would benefit from better scalability and more flexible configuration options, along with expanding its network features and improving documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure facilitates flexible deployment across on-premises, public, hybrid, and private clouds, with varying technical support depending on user tier. Azure partners contribute to a generally responsive customer service. Amazon Lightsail is praised for straightforward deployment on public cloud infrastructure, offering a streamlined process at reduced costs but should enhance its support response times.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure's complex pricing model can be higher than competitors, impacting predictability but its scalable resources deliver a good ROI, especially for enterprises integrated into Microsoft environments. Amazon Lightsail provides predictable, flat-rate low-cost services attractive to small businesses, allowing significant savings with a seamless transition to broader AWS services if needed. Pricing for Lightsail packages starts at $5 per month.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Lightsail vs. Microsoft Azure Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail vs. Microsoft Azure

July 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

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

316

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 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 Microsoft Azure is 18.8%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure	18.8%
Amazon Lightsail	2.0%
Other	79.2%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Atul Chauhan

DevOps engineer at Tech Mahindra Limited

Auto-manage features optimize server management and reduce costs

In terms of features, Amazon Lightsail can auto-manage the server with capabilities such as Auto Scaling and Placement Groups. They can auto-manage, and the billing cost is reduced because they have limited technology, which helps to optimize our cost billing for AWS. 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. Amazon Lightsail has five technologies, and because it's easy to use and everyone can understand it, anyone can manage the server or add anything to that server, making it easy to understand. The initial setup is easy to do.

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Nicolas Chabrier

Cloud Strategy B2B leader at Sunrise UPC

Promotes clear, logical structures preventing impractical configurations and offers seamless integration

The only thing is regarding the management of multi-cloud environments. That's not really possible. So basically, it's wonderful if you manage Microsoft clearly and if you manage Microsoft Azure, but if you need to consume external services and have a global overview of all your consumption, it's not the case. Google, for instance, has tools that help you manage multiple environments, which makes sense because Google is really the cloud provider. So that's why they need to be compliant with the others. But for sure, Microsoft's approach is different, and it's wonderful when you're one hundred percent on Azure. But if you'd like to have something more of a multi-cloud strategy, that's a bit of a gap where they could improve.

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

"We use Amazon Lightsail for hosting security components in-house and AI modules."

"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."

"The instances optimized for WordPress are very lightweight and straightforward in configuration."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

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

More Amazon Lightsail pros

"Azure has improved my organization because it is a new technology and so the customers who don't have enough knowledge about the cloud delegate the administration of their cloud infrastructure to us. We incorporate and add a new service to our product lineup about how to manage their Azure. It impacts our business because we're able to incorporate this new service."

"I think the most useful feature has been the remote desktop. It has been very helpful when customers have old applications that are not architected to run remotely."

"Microsoft Azure is flexible and the performance is great."

"Azure is a good networking solution from a WAN perspective."

"Azure allows us to bring applications to life quickly."

"This is a very stable product."

"The redundancy across different regions is the most valuable. It provides a big value for cloud services, especially for Microsoft."

"Virtual machine services, in SaaS services, M365, and Data Lake are all popular with our clients."

More Microsoft Azure pros

Cons

"The product's network features need enhancement."

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

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

"The main area for improvement in Lightsail is the difficulty in scaling down resources."

"The solution could be smoother than it is."

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

"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."

More Amazon Lightsail cons

"With Microsoft, our only concern is exchange rates because we're paying in dollars. It's very expensive for us because of the exchange rates. It would help if they partnered with someone locally so we can pay in our local currency."

"The deployment was quite complex."

"The technical support is good, but the response time is poor."

"Azure ARM console can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning."

"Potential improvements to the price calculator tool"

"There are times when using a service in Microsoft Azure can be confusing because you have four or five options that do similar operations. It would be helpful if there was a clear decision tree around those features. Microsoft does provide a lot of decision trees around a lot of their services, but it's not for everything."

"The cost management and billing section features could be improved."

"Microsoft Azure is not always a user-friendly solution. There are too many people who develop this solution. For the end-users, sometimes it's not really fun to use or simple to use. It could be improved."

More Microsoft Azure cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's very cheap."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"It is similar to AWS, where it is on-demand and is billed monthly."

"The pricing for the end-user packages is a bit high. It is full of very interesting services, but I would still like it to be less expensive."

"The subscription models can be confusing and it would be beneficial for them to simplify them. We are on an annual subscription."

"It's an OPEX model, you pay as you go, or you can reserve funds."

"The solution's licensing costs are yearly."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"All cloud services are expensive."

"We're paying in dollars, and it's very expensive for us because of the exchange rates."

More Microsoft Azure pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Aug 14, 2013

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

University

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	136
Midsize Enterprise	52
Large Enterprise	146

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

Which is better - SAP Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure?

One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with bo...

See all answers

How does Microsoft Azure compare to Google Firebase?

I would recommend Google Firebase instead of Microsoft Azure, simply for the array of features that it has to offer. In particular, the Firebase library grants you access to a shared data structure...

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 33% of the time

Heroku vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 8% of the time

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 6% of the time

Google App Engine vs Amazon Lightsail

Compared 6% of the time

More Amazon Lightsail Competitors

Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 12% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

PaaS Clouds

August 2025

Download Amazon Lightsail product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure

August 2025

Download Microsoft Azure product report

Also Known As

No data available

Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure

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)

Microsoft Azure integrates services and offers flexibility, ensuring compatibility with diverse environments. Its scalability, security, and cost-efficient features enhance deployment and management, making it ideal for infrastructure services and application hosting.

Azure provides a comprehensive suite of tools for application deployment, virtual machine management, and data analytics. It allows seamless integration with Power BI and offers a user-friendly interface supported by detailed documentation and technical support. Though users appreciate its capabilities, they sometimes face challenges with costs, setup, and interface complexity, alongside integration and performance issues. Frequent updates and a learning curve are also noted, though Azure's cloud-based security and scalability remain critical for disaster recovery and business continuity.

What are Azure's key features?

Integrated Services: Ensures compatibility with Microsoft and non-Microsoft environments.
Scalability: Supports growing business demands with flexible computing power.
Security: Offers robust cloud-based security features for data protection.
Cost Efficiency: Provides options that optimize costs for diverse requirements.
Application Deployment: Facilitates quick rollout of apps and services.

What benefits should users expect from Azure?

Operational Optimization: Allows companies to streamline processes effectively.
Innovative Efficiency: Empowers businesses to innovate with powerful tools.
Reliable Support: Backed by strong technical support and comprehensive documentation.
Flexible Cloud Solutions: Offers a range of options for cloud migrations and infrastructure management.

Microsoft Azure is widely implemented in industries like financial services, healthcare, and logistics for hosting enterprise applications and vital services. Companies utilize its capabilities for IoT applications, DevOps, and Kubernetes clusters, benefiting from its cloud migrations, data analytics, and active directory support.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

BMW, Toyota, easyJet, NBC Sports, HarperCollins, Aviva, TalkTalk Business, Avanade, and Telenor.

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Lightsail vs. Microsoft Azure

July 2025

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