Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Linode (Akamai) Pricing (2026)
Compare / Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Linode (Akamai)
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25 seats

Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Linode (Akamai)

Cloud Infrastructure pricing comparison · 2026

Amazon Web Services (AWS) pricing ranges from $0–$50000/month, while Linode (Akamai) ranges from $5–$1152/month. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is typically 37% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.

Visit
See pricing on each vendor's site
Above-the-fold path — each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Amazon pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Linode pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Cloud Infrastructure
Side-by-side · live
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers pay-as-you-go cloud infrastructure with no upfront commit
verified 6w ago
$240 $398
View pricing →
Linode (Akamai)
Linode, now part of Akamai Technologies, offers public flat-rate cloud compute pricing sta
verified 6w ago
$240 $398
View pricing →
Verdict · Vendr median · year 1
Linode saves $158 vs Amazon · 25 seats
Cheapest $240
Spread 40%
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
On-Demand — t3.medium
$9.1K/yr
year 1 license · $30/seat
Linode 2 GB (Shared CPU)
$3.6K/yr
year 1 license · $12/seat
What buyers actually pay
median, annual
Vendr deal-flow data. The real benchmark, not list price.
Median annual
$398/yr
Vendr · n=164
↓ Lowest median
Median annual
$240/yr
Vendr · n=3 · limited data
REF · 01

Sources & confidence

Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.

Where this data comes from
Vendr · TrustRadius · Reddit · BBB · official docs
Sources 16 sourced facts
12 hidden-cost · 1 contract · Vendr median · 2 review platforms
Last verified 1mo ago
Confidence Medium confidence
Sources 14 sourced facts
9 hidden-cost · 2 contract · Vendr median · 2 review platforms
Last verified 1mo ago
Confidence Medium confidence
REF · 02

Plans at a glance

Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.

Tier ladder
Click a tier to lock the cost row to it. Locking surfaces a tier-specific Visit CTA.
REF · 03

Hidden costs

Each cost is severity-ranked, with the dollar range quoted from its source (Vendr, Reddit, TrustRadius, BBB, official docs) — never our estimate.

Beyond the sticker
Severity-ranked, sourced
5 documented
  • Phantom Charges for Deleted/Unused Resources
    5-25% of license costs
    3 sources
  • Data Egress / Network Transfer Costs
    10-30% of license costs
    2 sources
  • EC2 T-Series Unlimited Mode Burst Credits
    $0.05/vCPU-hour above baseline
    1 source
  • EBS Storage Costs for Data-Intensive Workloads
    $45/TB/month (EBS st1, us-east)
    1 source
  • S3 Tables Premium Storage & Compaction Fees
    15-37% above standard S3 costs
    1 source
5 documented
  • Data Transfer Overage Charges
    $5/TB over included transfer
    1 source
  • Account Activation Denials and Onboarding Friction
    0-10% of users denied, time cost variable
    3 sources
  • Billing Continues After Resource Deletion Confusion
    Variable — full monthly rate continues until resource destroyed
    2 sources
  • Unplanned Maintenance and Server Migrations
    5-10% of license costs in downtime impact
    1 source
  • Price Premium vs. Competing VPS Providers
    20-50% higher than lowest-cost alternatives
    2 sources
REF · 04

Contract terms

The fine print, surfaced. Green = buyer-friendly. Each clause backed by a quoted source.

Amazon
Linode
Auto-renewal
✓ No
Yes
Cancellation
—
Any time — hourly billing stops when resource is destroyed
Commitment
None for On-Demand; 1 or 3 years for Savings Plans/Reserved Instances
None — pay-as-you-go hourly billing
Price escalation
AWS has historically not increased existing service prices; new features and services may be priced higher. Community reports proxy price increases via new service charges (e.g., Lambda Init, S3 GET/PUT fees added over time)
No published price escalation schedule found in sources
Can downgrade
✓ Yes
✓ Yes
Based on 3 verified sources (Vendr · TrustRadius · BBB)
REF · 05

What users say

Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.

User reviews
TrustRadius · Trustpilot · G2
TrustRadius
7.6out of 5 (5)
Trustpilot
1out of 5 (25)
Best for
Developers learning AWS, small experiments, and proof-of-concept projects
Watch out
Unresponsive customer support with tickets going unassigned for weeks
TrustRadius
9out of 5 (5)
Trustpilot
1out of 5 (24)
Best for
Personal projects, low-traffic websites, and development environments
Watch out
Automated account denial/cancellation after submitting credit card details
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Amazon pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Linode pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
License cost is computed from publicly listed plans (real math, list price × seats). Median annual cost is from Vendr's deal flow when available — see source badges. Hidden costs and contract terms each cite their own sources. We do not invent composite scores.
Cloud Infrastructure

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

$0–$50000
/month
7 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Cloud Infrastructure

Linode (Akamai)

$5–$1152
/month
9 plans
Full pricing breakdown →

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Linode (Akamai) both operate in the cloud infrastructure category. This page compares their list pricing.

Plan-by-Plan Pricing

Plan Amazon Web Services (AWS) Linode (Akamai)
Free Tier Free /month $5 /month
On-Demand — t3.micro $7.59 /month $12 /month
On-Demand — t3.medium $30.37 /month $24 /month
Savings Plans Custom $48 /month
Business Support+ $29 /month $36 /month
Enterprise Support $5K /month $43 /month
Unified Operations $50K /month $60 /month
G8 Dedicated (Premium & General) — Custom
Kubernetes (LKE) — $60 /month per cluster (HA control plane)

Cost at Scale

Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

4 scenarios
$7.59/month ($91.08/year)
Single t3.micro Development Server (On-Demand)
$30.37/month ($364.44/year)
Single t3.medium Production Server (On-Demand)
$5,850/month ($70,200/year)
Small Kafka Cluster Storage (130TB, EBS st1, us-east)
See all 4 scenarios →

Linode (Akamai)

6 scenarios
$5/month ($60/year)
Small Developer/Hobby Project
$24/month ($288/year)
Small Business Web Application
$36/month ($432/year)
Production Application with Dedicated CPU
See all 6 scenarios →

Market Intelligence

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Median annual cost
$398
Based on
164 deals

Linode (Akamai)

Median annual cost
$240
Based on
3 deals

What Users Say

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Trustpilot
1out of 5 (25)
TrustRadius
7.6out of 10 (5)
Top complaints
  • Unresponsive customer support with tickets going unassigned for weeks
  • Phantom charges for deleted or auto-provisioned resources
  • AI chatbots replacing human support with no escalation path

Linode (Akamai)

Trustpilot
1out of 5 (24)
TrustRadius
9out of 10 (5)
Top complaints
  • Automated account denial/cancellation after submitting credit card details
  • Unresponsive or unavailable customer support
  • Extended downtime incidents (7-22 hour outages reported)

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) 8 hidden costs

critical
Phantom Charges for Deleted/Unused Resources 5-25% of license costs
high
Data Egress / Network Transfer Costs 10-30% of license costs
high
EC2 T-Series Unlimited Mode Burst Credits $0.05/vCPU-hour above baseline
high
EBS Storage Costs for Data-Intensive Workloads $45/TB/month (EBS st1, us-east)
medium
S3 Tables Premium Storage & Compaction Fees 15-37% above standard S3 costs
See all Amazon Web Services (AWS) hidden costs →

Linode (Akamai) 5 hidden costs

medium
Data Transfer Overage Charges $5/TB over included transfer
high
Account Activation Denials and Onboarding Friction 0-10% of users denied, time cost variable
high
Billing Continues After Resource Deletion Confusion Variable — full monthly rate continues until resource destroyed
medium
Unplanned Maintenance and Server Migrations 5-10% of license costs in downtime impact
medium
Price Premium vs. Competing VPS Providers 20-50% higher than lowest-cost alternatives
See all Linode (Akamai) hidden costs →

Contract Terms

Term Amazon Web Services (AWS) Linode (Akamai)
Auto-renewal No Yes
Cancellation — Any time — hourly billing stops when resource is destroyed
Minimum commitment None for On-Demand; 1 or 3 years for Savings Plans/Reserved Instances None — pay-as-you-go hourly billing
Price escalation AWS has historically not increased existing service prices; new features and services may be priced higher. Community reports proxy price increases via new service charges (e.g., Lambda Init, S3 GET/PUT fees added over time) No published price escalation schedule found in sources
Can downgrade Yes Yes

Continue researching

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Linode (Akamai)

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