Lightsail does require having an AWS account, and I do believe you still have to go through the same setup (verification, sign up with a credit card). But the i

Lightsail does require having an AWS account, and I do believe you still have to go through the same setup (verification, sign up with a credit card). But the interface to create machines is vastly simplified. You choose either the base OS, or an app stack (like Nodejs, or LAMP), then the price you want to pay, then name the machine.