5 ms·

A bit tangential, but I've always hated how opaque AWS makes the process of picking instance types, since they hide the specs and prices behind layers of comple

by mihaic 5y ago

A bit tangential, but I've always hated how opaque AWS makes the process of picking instance types, since they hide the specs and prices behind layers of complexity, mostly to make it easy for developers to waste the company's budget. Does anyone know any browser extension for instance to place information inline, such as specs and monthly/yearly pricing?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
storyinmemo 5y ago
Not inline, but https://instances.vantage.sh/ https://instances.vantage.sh/ is the way I've been looking at it for 5+ years.
- belter 5y ago
  In case anybody is curious, this is done with the AWS Pricing API: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/price-changes.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2...
  - fs111 5y ago
    The pricing api is so weird. It basically downloads a CSV file and serves that up through code. Also none of the names in there match anything else in the AWS nomenclature. It talks about SKUs and in general feels like somebody leaked an internal API by accident. The official docs literally tell you to manually search the file in a text editor.
- g8oz 5y ago
  Works for EC2 but not RDS.
Griffinsauce 5y ago
If you have the option, you can also vote with your wallet and go somewhere else. I found the upfront pricing of DigitalOcean very refreshing after AWS.
stillicidious 5y ago
It's by design, many features of EC2 are unrelated to the chip itself. For example burstable scheduling, availability of enclaves, IO and networking bandwidth and a variety hypervisor features are all tied to the instance family. These are often far more important to a buildout than the exact chip you're running on
nijave 5y ago
Types https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/ Prices https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ Is there something missing from these? Admittedly they can be a bit hard to find sometimes but I think that's a problem with AWS docs in general
big-malloc 5y ago
I gave up on the official site and now use https://ec2.shop https://ec2.shop — really nice for doing a quick price comparison
- slownews45 5y ago
  Most of these third parties are using official API's to get pricing data, if there is something with a hidden price do ask and someone can probably help you figure it out. One reason AWS got popular is that it actually was historically much HARDER to get pricing from your internal IT team / vendors like IBM etc. So AWS wasn't the cheapest (by any means) but was pretty clear on cost. So it's interesting to hear that AWS is purposely hiding pricing and making price complicated to "waste company's budgets".
slownews45 5y ago
"mostly to make it easy for developers to waste the company's budget." Is this the case? I can't even find cloudflare's egress pricing online AT ALL. With AWS I can find pricing for anything I want. Is there a specific instance price that you are trying to find and can't, you may be able to post here and someone can help you. The prices are on the AWS site, and also exposed via API's so there are a ton of third party services for them as well. I wasn't aware that AWS had set up pricing "mostly to make it easy for developers to waste the company's budget". If you need help saving money AWS offers some services for this directly and again third parties can help you if you are struggling.
- judge2020 5y ago
  > cloudflare's egress pricing online AT ALL. Cloudflare charges $0 for egress for the main service as long as it's for serving a website (eg. serving binaries or random other files isn't allowed if it's disproportionate to regular website visitors). for anything else, the pricing pages are usually close by - The Workers[0] site has pricing at the bottom, and R2 will also have $0 in egress pricing[1]. 0: https://cloudflare.com/workers https://cloudflare.com/workers 1: https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-r2-object-storage/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-r2-object-storage/
  - slownews45 5y ago
    The reason people need / use high egress (ie, far above the 1TB etc AWS gives per month) is for things like video sites, software updates / distribution etc. I've been burned (too many times) by these "free" claims. Will you absolutely guarantee (and pay me if needed) that I can host a large video website on cloudflare with no egress? This will be in PB not TB. What I have found is that these sites with "free" are inevitably scams, that the types of loads that actually need high traffic egress result in that middle of the night email to squeeze you into some high cost plan (which does in fact have an egress price). That said, if you will cover overage charges - I'll spin up a website on cloudflare. Do you understand bandwidth needs of video hosting sites? I'm sure porn sites are in 10-15PB per day range (ie, > 300PB/month).

by mihaic 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

storyinmemo 5y ago

Not inline, but https://instances.vantage.sh/ https://instances.vantage.sh/ is the way I've been looking at it for 5+ years.

belter 5y ago
In case anybody is curious, this is done with the AWS Pricing API: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/price-changes.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2...
- fs111 5y ago
  The pricing api is so weird. It basically downloads a CSV file and serves that up through code. Also none of the names in there match anything else in the AWS nomenclature. It talks about SKUs and in general feels like somebody leaked an internal API by accident. The official docs literally tell you to manually search the file in a text editor.
g8oz 5y ago
Works for EC2 but not RDS.

Griffinsauce 5y ago

If you have the option, you can also vote with your wallet and go somewhere else. I found the upfront pricing of DigitalOcean very refreshing after AWS.

stillicidious 5y ago

It's by design, many features of EC2 are unrelated to the chip itself. For example burstable scheduling, availability of enclaves, IO and networking bandwidth and a variety hypervisor features are all tied to the instance family. These are often far more important to a buildout than the exact chip you're running on

nijave 5y ago

Types https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/ Prices https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ Is there something missing from these? Admittedly they can be a bit hard to find sometimes but I think that's a problem with AWS docs in general

big-malloc 5y ago

I gave up on the official site and now use https://ec2.shop https://ec2.shop — really nice for doing a quick price comparison

slownews45 5y ago
Most of these third parties are using official API's to get pricing data, if there is something with a hidden price do ask and someone can probably help you figure it out. One reason AWS got popular is that it actually was historically much HARDER to get pricing from your internal IT team / vendors like IBM etc. So AWS wasn't the cheapest (by any means) but was pretty clear on cost. So it's interesting to hear that AWS is purposely hiding pricing and making price complicated to "waste company's budgets".

slownews45 5y ago

"mostly to make it easy for developers to waste the company's budget." Is this the case? I can't even find cloudflare's egress pricing online AT ALL. With AWS I can find pricing for anything I want. Is there a specific instance price that you are trying to find and can't, you may be able to post here and someone can help you. The prices are on the AWS site, and also exposed via API's so there are a ton of third party services for them as well. I wasn't aware that AWS had set up pricing "mostly to make it easy for developers to waste the company's budget". If you need help saving money AWS offers some services for this directly and again third parties can help you if you are struggling.

judge2020 5y ago
> cloudflare's egress pricing online AT ALL. Cloudflare charges $0 for egress for the main service as long as it's for serving a website (eg. serving binaries or random other files isn't allowed if it's disproportionate to regular website visitors). for anything else, the pricing pages are usually close by - The Workers[0] site has pricing at the bottom, and R2 will also have $0 in egress pricing[1]. 0: https://cloudflare.com/workers https://cloudflare.com/workers 1: https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-r2-object-storage/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-r2-object-storage/
- slownews45 5y ago
  The reason people need / use high egress (ie, far above the 1TB etc AWS gives per month) is for things like video sites, software updates / distribution etc. I've been burned (too many times) by these "free" claims. Will you absolutely guarantee (and pay me if needed) that I can host a large video website on cloudflare with no egress? This will be in PB not TB. What I have found is that these sites with "free" are inevitably scams, that the types of loads that actually need high traffic egress result in that middle of the night email to squeeze you into some high cost plan (which does in fact have an egress price). That said, if you will cover overage charges - I'll spin up a website on cloudflare. Do you understand bandwidth needs of video hosting sites? I'm sure porn sites are in 10-15PB per day range (ie, > 300PB/month).