I'm currently using AWS with the free credit offer and have set up a few services like an EC2 instance, Cloud 53, and a VPC to host two extremely low-traffic websites for personal use. However, I've noticed a significant increase in costs; I went from having no charges to around $30/month in just a couple of months. My Cost Explorer isn't functioning properly, showing empty graphs or just a solid color. I can see that each service is charging me about $6-7/month, but when I initially set this up, I expected costs of only $7-10/month.
One site is a simple static HTML page with two pages, and the other is a WordPress site hosted on EC2. In total, I've only had about 200 visitors over three months. I'm puzzled as to why I'm incurring these costs for such low usage and wonder if AWS is the right platform for me. Any advice on how to figure out what's causing this increase in my AWS bill and tips to lower it would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
Consider whether you truly need AWS for such a low-traffic scenario. Alternatives like Netlify or Cloudflare could keep your hosting costs minimal, potentially as low as $0 to $5 depending on your usage.
It seems like you could be paying around $5 for an IP, $5 for the EBS volume, and other similar charges. For very light traffic, you might look into using AWS Lambda or Fargate with an S3 database to avoid the costs of keeping an instance running constantly.
When using the Cost Explorer, change how the data is grouped on the right side. This should give you a clearer idea of your spending. Also, try to learn more about the services you don’t fully understand, as they might be impacting your cost significantly.
You should be able to see a detailed bill broken down by each service and region. Make sure you check if you’ve used up your free tier credits, as that could cause unexpected charges.
Consider revising your EC2 configurations. There might be more cost-effective instance types or options you could be using that suit your needs better.
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