Actually they were just passing on the underlying cost of the AWS ELB to you. The previous setup worked by provisioning a dedicated ELB for each app. ELBs cost

Actually they were just passing on the underlying cost of the AWS ELB to you. The previous setup worked by provisioning a dedicated ELB for each app. ELBs cost $18/mo plus bandwidth charges. Expensive? For low value apps, yes. But far from a "pure and unadulterated money grab."