How Can I Control Costs for My AWS CRUD Web App?

Honestly, if you're just creating a basic CRUD application, you might want to skip AWS entirely. For low costs, consider using a $10 VPS or a dedicated server. Many people find that even scaling up to a load-balanced cluster of dedicated servers can be cheaper than they think!

You might also want to look into using Lambda function URLs if that suits your needs. It could be a simpler way to handle your API without incurring extra costs.

Setting up budgets is a great start! You can create alerts to notify you if you exceed a specified spending threshold. Just keep in mind that these alerts won't block the services—you'll have to manually manage them if your costs go over budget.

You can’t create a strict spending cap on AWS, but you can get pretty close. Set up AWS Budgets with alerts, monitor your Lambda and API Gateway usage with CloudWatch alarms, and consider sensible usage limits. For extra protection, combining API Gateway with authentication is solid, yet if your app is facing the public, adding a WAF would help prevent unwanted traffic. In my experience, most unexpected charges stem from missing throttles rather than malicious use.

Don’t forget about CloudWatch logs; they can add up quickly in costs. There are also various network charges to consider, such as outgoing data and public IPs. Unfortunately, you can't cap your spend; those tools like budgets and cost explorers often have a delay of about 24 hours, which can make it hard to react to sudden spikes.