TIP: I see a lot of people calculating off-the-cuff AWS prices for comparable hardware somewhere else and declaring how expensive it is. Don't forget that 3yr

TIP: I see a lot of people calculating off-the-cuff AWS prices for comparable hardware somewhere else and declaring how expensive it is. Don't forget that 3yr reserved pricing is 48% cheaper than the on-demand costs, so once you know what your hardware reqs are on EC2, you can purchase some reserved instance and more or less cut your costs in half. Pricing out any hardware configuration on EC2 using the on-demand pricing is tear-inducing. For Day 1 release, probably not an option. But at the 6-month mark you probably have a much better idea of what hardware your startup needs and can adjust accordingly. 2 CENTS: For the folks that need something better than a Micro and less expensive than a Large, don't forget about the Medium instances. They aren't in the primary section but down in the "High CPU" section; they are an excellent fit for work that isn't quite big enough for a Large.