Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- ✦ EC2 Compute
- ✦ S3 Storage
- ✦ Lambda Serverless
- ✦ Compute Instances
- ✦ Kubernetes
- ✦ Managed Databases
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Linode (Akamai Cloud) are both Cloud Hosting tools. Compare features, pricing, and ratings below to find the best fit for your team.
When to Choose Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)
The question that matters: “In what situation will I regret choosing A over B after 3 months?”
AWS ECS/EKS deploys new container revisions while health checks verify readiness and API Gateway shifts traffic - all without dropping a single request.
S3 stores assets and CloudFront caches them at 600+ edge locations globally, serving a 50MB file to Tokyo in 50ms instead of 2 seconds.
NodeBalancers reroute traffic away from degraded Managed Database primaries in under 30 seconds, with regional read replicas absorbing queries during recovery.
Raw footage in Object Storage triggers a Kubernetes job across four Compute Instances, converting a 2-hour video to three formats in just 18 minutes.
Linode Kubernetes scales pods at 70% CPU and sheds them 5 minutes after traffic drops, with Firewalls auto-restricting database access to the current pod set.
Pricing Comparison & PlansHigh· Verified May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Plans
Free tier available
AWS Free Tier
FreeBest for: Ideal for new users to explore AWS services without upfront costs
- ✓Access to over 30 always-free services up to specified limits
- ✓$100 USD credits upon sign-up for new customers
- ✓Earn up to an additional $100 USD credits by exploring foundational services
- ✓Free account plan for up to 6 months, no charges until upgrade to paid plan
- ✓Ideal for experimenting and building proof of concepts
Pay-as-you-go (On-Demand)
Contact SalesBest for: Offers maximum flexibility with no long-term commitments
- ✓Pay only for the individual services you need
- ✓No upfront costs or long-term contracts
- ✓Pay for services only for as long as you use them
- ✓Easily adapt to changing business needs without overcommitting budgets
- ✓Billed per hour, per second, per GB, or per request depending on the service
Savings Plans
Contact SalesBest for: Provides significant discounts over On-Demand pricing in exchange for a 1-year or 3-year commitment to a consistent amount of compute usage.
- ✓Save over On-Demand pricing with a commitment to a specific amount ($/hour) of usage
- ✓Discounts up to 72% compared to On-Demand rates
- ✓Includes Compute Savings Plans (up to 66% off, flexible across EC2, Fargate, Lambda)
- ✓Includes EC2 Instance Savings Plans (up to 72% off, specific instance family in a region)
- ✓Includes Database Savings Plans (up to 35% off, covers various database services)
Reserved Instances
Contact SalesBest for: Offers a discount compared to On-Demand pricing by committing to a specific instance configuration for a 1-year or 3-year term.
- ✓Significant discount (up to 75%) compared to On-Demand Instance pricing
- ✓Capacity reservation when used in a specific Availability Zone
- ✓Available for Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS
- ✓Standard RIs offer flexibility to change AZ, instance size, networking type
- ✓Convertible RIs offer flexibility to change instance families, OS, tenancies (up to 66% discount)
Spot Instances
Contact SalesBest for: Leverages unused EC2 capacity for up to 90% savings compared to On-Demand prices
- ✓Access to unused AWS capacity
- ✓Up to 90% discount off On-Demand prices
- ✓Pay-as-you-go model for interruptible workloads
- ✓Ideal for fault-tolerant and interruption-tolerant workloads
- ✓Instances can be reclaimed by AWS with a two-minute warning
Enterprise Discount Program (EDP)
Contact SalesBest for: Designed for large enterprises with substantial AWS spend, offering custom discounts and terms based on negotiated agreements.
- ✓Tailored discount program for enterprise cloud users
- ✓Requires demonstrated history of significant AWS cloud usage (typically $1M+ annually)
- ✓Negotiated discounts on total AWS billing
- ✓Commitment period typically 1-5 years
- ✓Access to benefits like Enterprise Support, dedicated teams, prototyping support, and training credits
Linode (Akamai Cloud) Plans
Paid plans only
Cloud Firewalls
Free- ✓Robust cloud-based firewall solution
- ✓Create, configure, and add stateful network-based firewalls
- ✓Compatible with Linodes, Linode Interfaces, and NodeBalancers
Block Storage
$0.1/GB/mo- ✓NVMe SSD storage
- ✓Volumes from 10 GB to 16 TB
- ✓8,000 sustained IOPS
- ✓350 MB/s sustained throughput
- ✓Scalable storage independent of compute
Backups (for 1 GB Shared CPU instance)
$2/mo- ✓File-based backup solution for compute instances
- ✓Supports ext3 and ext4 file systems
- ✓Automated daily, weekly, or biweekly snapshots
Nanode 1 GB
$5/mo- ✓1 GB RAM
- ✓1 vCPU
- ✓25 GB NVMe SSD Storage
- ✓1 TB Network Transfer
- ✓40 Gbps Inbound Network
Object Storage
$5/mo- ✓250 GB storage included
- ✓Additional storage $0.02/GB
- ✓1 TB outbound transfer included
- ✓Additional outbound transfer $0.005/GB
- ✓Class A & B requests with free quotas
NodeBalancer
$10/mo- ✓Fully managed load balancing
- ✓Automated failover
- ✓DDoS protection
- ✓SSL/TLS support
- ✓TCP, HTTP, and HTTPS load balancing
Linode 2 GB
$12/mo- ✓2 GB RAM
- ✓1 vCPU
- ✓50 GB NVMe SSD Storage
- ✓2 TB Network Transfer
- ✓40 Gbps Inbound Network
Linode 4 GB
$24/mo- ✓4 GB RAM
- ✓2 vCPUs
- ✓80 GB NVMe SSD Storage
- ✓4 TB Network Transfer
- ✓40 Gbps Inbound Network
Linode 8 GB
$48/mo- ✓8 GB RAM
- ✓4 vCPUs
- ✓160 GB NVMe SSD Storage
- ✓8 TB Network Transfer
- ✓40 Gbps Inbound Network
Linode 24 GB (High Memory)
$60/mo- ✓24 GB RAM
- ✓2 Dedicated vCPUs
- ✓20 GB NVMe SSD Storage
- ✓5 TB Network Transfer
- ✓40 Gbps Inbound Network
LKE Control Plane (HA)
$60/mo- ✓High-availability control plane for Kubernetes clusters
- ✓Managed Kubernetes Engine
Linode 48 GB (High Memory)
$120/mo- ✓48 GB RAM
- ✓2 Dedicated vCPUs
- ✓20 GB NVMe SSD Storage
- ✓5 TB Network Transfer
- ✓40 Gbps Inbound Network
Capability Breakdown
4 differences found across 18 standardized features
- •EC2 Compute
- •S3 Storage
- •Lambda Serverless
- •RDS Databases
- •CloudFront CDN
- •ECS/EKS Containers
- •API Gateway
- •IAM Security
- •CloudWatch Monitoring
- •Route 53 DNS
- •SageMaker AI/ML
- •VPC Networking
- •Elastic Beanstalk
- •Lightsail
- •200+ Services
- •CloudFormation Templates
- •CodePipeline CI
- •CodeBuild Automation
- •CodeCommit Version
- •CodeArtifact Repos
- •XRay Tracing
- •CloudTrail Logging
- •Config Compliance
- •OpsWorks Management
- •Workspaces Desktop
- •Workdocs Storage
- •Directory Service
- •Cognito Identity
- •Pinpoint Marketing
- •SES Email
- •SQS Messaging
- •SNS Notifications
- •MQ Messaging
- •MSK Streaming
- •Kinesis Analytics
- •Glue ETL
- •Lake Formation
- •OpenSearch Service
- •QuickSight Analytics
- •Rekognition Vision
- •Transcribe Audio
- •Comprehend Text
- •Lex Chatbots
- •Connect Contact
- •Step Functions
- •AppFlow Integration
- •AppSync GraphQL
- •CloudHSM Security
- •Key Management
- •Certificate Manager
- •Shield Protection
- •WAF Firewall
- •Firewall Manager
- •Resource Groups
- •Tag Editor
- •Cost Explorer
- •Budgeting Alerts
- •Trusted Advisor
- •Support Hub
- •Well Architected
- •Control Tower
- •CloudDevelopment Kit
- •AWS Cloud9
- •CodeGuru Review
- •DevOps Guru
- •XRay Insights
- •Performance Hub
- •Compute Instances
- •Kubernetes
- •Managed Databases
- •Object Storage
- •Block Storage
- •NodeBalancers
- •Firewalls
- •DNS Manager
- •Backups
- •StackScripts
- •API
- •CLI
- •Marketplace Apps
- •VPC
- •11 Global Regions
Strengths & Limitations
Evaluative strengths and weaknesses: not feature lists
- +Unmatched breadth of 200+ fully-featured services
- +Most extensive global cloud infrastructure and availability zones
- +Deepest enterprise adoption and third-party ecosystem support
- +Mature, robust services for compute, storage, and databases
- +Pioneering serverless (Lambda) and managed container services
- −Complex pricing models can lead to unexpected, high costs
- −Steep learning curve due to the sheer number of services
- −Data egress fees are significantly higher than competitors'
- −Inconsistent UI/UX across different service consoles
- −Premium support plans are expensive for smaller teams
- +Predictable, flat-rate pricing with no egress fees.
- +Simple, intuitive UI focused on core compute features.
- +Free bundled support included with all service levels.
- +Excellent price-to-performance ratio on CPU and RAM.
- +Now integrated with Akamai's massive edge network.
- −Fewer managed PaaS offerings (e.g., managed databases) than AWS/GCP.
- −Limited global data center footprint compared to hyperscalers.
- −Advanced networking features like VPCs are less mature.
- −No perpetual free tier for micro-services, only a limited-time credit.
- −Marketplace has fewer one-click app deployments than competitors.
At a Glance
Recent Price History
Amazon Web Services (AWS) removed the "Savings Plans & Reserved Instances" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) added a new "Savings Plans" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) removed the "Pay-as-you-go" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) added a new "Pay-as-you-go (On-Demand)" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) added a new "Spot Instances" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Linode (Akamai Cloud) removed the "Linode 8GB" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Linode (Akamai Cloud) removed the "Linode 4GB" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Linode (Akamai Cloud) removed the "Linode 2GB" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Linode (Akamai Cloud) removed the "Nanode 1GB" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Linode (Akamai Cloud) added a new "Bare Metal (Contact Sales)" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Data Trail · Linode (Akamai Cloud)
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