Linode vs. AWS Hosting Comparison: Which One Is Right For Me?

You may have perhaps designed a beautiful-looking website that your potential audience cannot ignore. It is important to outdo competitors in the niche industry to survive and flourish. Web hosting service is one such component that cannot be ignored.

Rather, it is a must-have to make your website live and be found by potential visitors. Otherwise, your business will never take off or be available to others online. But with so many providers out there in the market, selecting the best one can be a cumbersome task. Perhaps, you are interested in comparing Linode vs. AWS (Amazon Web Services) to determine which one to choose for your website. 

Both are decent providers. They are quite committed to providing their customers with value worth their investment. Both also stand out from their competitors due to their unique features offered. They target mainly high-end clients offering top-notch services. You will not be billed on long-term contracts. Rather, they bill you based on whatever resources you have used. It is necessary to conduct thorough research on them to know which one is a perfect match for your website. 

About Linode

This American-based VPS (virtual private server) provider has its headquarters in Philadelphia, United States. The name ‘Linode’ is considered a combination of two words, namely, ‘Linux’ and ‘Node.’ Christopher Aker established this company in 2003. He imagined providing government agencies, companies, and website developers with seamless hosting services. With a single site, you are likely to avail of impressive services. Linode managed to register 400,000+ clients by early 2019.

About AWS

Amazon Web Services is considered part of Amazon Co. and offers its clients a wide range of cloud computing assistance. It also includes web hosting services. It was established way back in 2002. However, it started to grow in popularity only in 2012 after holding a customer event. This event managed to convey the message that it offers services beyond consumer products and books. It managed to demonstrate its commitment towards innovation and deliver top-notch web hosting services and overcome competition. 

AWS, in October 2013, was awarded the CIA (Criminal Intelligence Agency) contract for a whopping $600 million. It used this partnership to its benefit to demonstrate its service quality rendered. By 2015, it managed to enroll active monthly users over a million. It included 5,000 educational institutions and 2,000 government agencies spread across 190 countries. 

Linode vs. AWS – Reliability

Both companies have invested heavily in their resources to provide their clients with very high reliability. 

Linode

This company assures its linnets with 99.9% uptime which is quite impressive. Being domain professionals, they monitor their servers round the clock to ensure identifying and addressing unwanted issues.

Amazon

Amazon has installed top-quality cloud hosting infrastructure available in the industry, like data centers and modern servers. Amazon assures its clients with full redundancy on registering with any of its plans. It also offers server cloning and automated backups.

Their servers do support 99.9% uptime, which is quite decent to ensure uptime. Moreover, to demonstrate its technical superiority and high reliability, they boast of catering to high-profile clients. It includes top companies in the world like Unilever, Airbnb, and Netflix. 

Linode vs. AWS – Features

To select the best web service provider that perfectly matches your website requirements, you need to evaluate their features comprehensively. 

Linode

This company offers its clients numerous exciting features like Intel E5 processors and SSDs (solid-state drives). Such features are essential to improve Linode server speed and overall performance. They also offer their clients with StackScripts to enable effortless website management at all times.

StackScripts offers greater flexibility to customize web content deployments like videos and images. Since Linode targets mainly those customers having a computing background, the features offered to come with lots of flexibility. For instance, you have the option to upgrade to a bigger RAM or bandwidth to increase your site speed and performance. 

AWS

They provide a variety of features to provide scheduled backups, elastic load balancer, and content delivery. The main features on offer are classified into 4 major categories: databases, storage, content delivery, and networking. On registering with their services, you will be provided with complete control of all essential features. You can also customize them as desired to match your specific site and niche needs.

Besides these, you are also provided with many third-party APIs (application programming interfaces) and programs. Using the APIs, you can use your website to get easy access to AWS or other platforms to ensure easy control. Thus, there is no compulsion to install an AWS interface along with another one meant for your site. To get direct access to AWS on your site, you need to use the most appropriate API available. 

Linode vs. AWS – Plans & Pricing

You need to be aware of the financial implications before finalizing any web hosting plan. They come with recurring charges, and hence, you need to know how much you will be paying in the long term. 

Linode

They offer flexible prices that start from just $5 a month on their standard plan. It includes 5TB bandwidth, 24 GB RAM, and 20 GB SSD storage space. Their highest plan costs about $960 a month. It targets primarily high-end clients like government agencies.

Every month, hourly billing is calculated automatically once you surpass your assigned monthly cap. For instance, you may have selected their lowest plan and surpassed the assigned 20 GB SSD storage. You are allowed to continue availing of their hosting services provided you pay some additional charges. Hence, Linode comes with a straightforward and easy-to-understand pricing structure. 

AWS

Their pricing is somewhat expensive and quite complex. Some Amazon sellers were also found to have high price tags. They are generally those who use this popular Amazon marketplace for promoting their products like consumables and books. However, you can derive resizable, reliable, and secure cloud computing services.

Simplifying cloud computing procedures is their major objective, especially for high-end clients and web developers. They provide their clients with the facility to pay annual, monthly, or hourly payments depending on their convenience. Hourly billing starts at about $0.08 and monthly billing from $57. If you are still confused about which plan to avail of, you can contact the company experts to get valuable guidance. 

Linode vs. AWS – Know the Pros & Cons

Linode:

Pros

• It offers prompt, professional, and responsive support. You can expect your email inquiries to be answered very quickly than imagined.
• It offers affordable hosting services and provides a simple and easy-to-understand billing model. 
• All plans come with free data backups, which is a big plus for those concerned with data security. 
• It has easy to use and simple mobile application and user interface. 

Cons

• IP address changes if you shift your data center or delete a node. But in AWS, there is not noticed any change in your IP address in such circumstances. 
• It does take some time to upgrade your hosting account. The shortest timeframe noticed is around 18 minutes, much longer when compared to AWS. The latter boasts of providing hosting account upgrades within six minutes timeframe. 

AWS

Pros

• It offers lots of options to enable easy scalability. Thus, this company is favored by big enterprises and companies anticipating rapid business growth. 
• It is only Block-level backups where you will be billed for what you plan to use. 
• The well-designed AWS security offers you complete control over the firewall. For this, tables are not used. It is a command-line firewall to enable you to allow/block unwanted traffic. It is a helpful feature and is much useful since tables if incorrectly set up, are likely to lock you out of their server. 
• They offer professional and prompt customer support at all times on multiple channels. You can avail yourself of facilities to seek help like direct call lines, live chat, and email support. 
• Provides flexible storage options enabling you to pay for what you have used. 
• Most components on this platform, like IP address and network interface, can be swapped or changed. This is based on your specific needs to improve performance as well as minimize cost.

Cons

• It comes with a complicated user interface. However, with some knowledge gained from the experts or doing some research, you can figure it out. 
• Although it offers an awesome flexible pricing structure, its application is quite complicated. You are required to pay for each GB of storage and bandwidth used. This means you are likely to end up paying more than bargained in the long run. It is more so as you experience very high site traffic. 

However, when pros & cons are taken into account when comparing Linode vs. AWS, Linode manages to emerge as a winner. It rates a bit higher than AWS. The latter is a global giant and enjoys great popularity among companies and common people alike. But when features and reliability is concerned, it is very much at par with Linode.

However, it is the pricing aspect that has failed to match Linode. Cost is a bit high on AWS services, thus making it tough even for sellers using their platform to promote their wares. 

However, Linode manages to provide its clients with flexible plans while catering to different types of clientele. Although the services are primarily aimed at web designers and developers, their flexible features, pricing, and services attract everyone. 

Linode vs. AWS – Reasons to Choose Each

Linode

• It offers the best possible customer support without any restrictions. It ensures providing 100% free human no-tiered support irrespective of the plan you select for your site. It also includes phone support. 
• It allows you to save precious money. On selecting this platform, you have the potential to save about 100% to 300% when compared to AWS. This is achievable by adopting their generous bundled transfer and predictable flat pricing structure.
• AWS is designed to serve mainly Enterprises. However, Linode’s plans and features will fit you perfectly, irrespective of you being a small or medium business, startup, or developer.
• If you appreciate simplicity, then it is the best choice. It simplifies cloud applications and can launch a server within seconds. You get to use their straightforward API, Cloud Manager, and CLI interface. 
• Non-competitive. With Amazon disrupting lots of industries, there do arise competitive conflict-related issues. It is only likely to invite serious infrastructure questions by businesses and developer teams. Are you able to rely on your technology partner to manage your transactions, store crucial data and support intimate business details? This is more so if your tech partner is found to be your competitor!
• You should avail services of an independent, trustworthy cloud provider who emphasizes more on customers. Linode makes sure that no competing businesses or investors come in the way of their customers. 
• No lock-in. When open cloud and open source are concerned, Linode is a leading host provider in the domain. This means they do not support proprietary services, frameworks, and vendor lock-in. 

AWS

• Almost unlimited scale. This company is known to invest billions annually to deliver higher scale levels, which remains unrivaled in the current cloud market. 
• Linode does some Enterprise business. But AWS is developed mainly to provide endless customization and tackle the complexities faced by large businesses. 
• Qualifying startups can avail of credits up to $100K for a limited time in free infrastructure. For new businesses, it can prove to be a fabulous game-changer. However, as credit runs out, there are chances of getting surprises in the form of high prices and lock-in issues. 

Conclusion

Therefore, going through the above review, you will be better positioned to understand which hosting platform suits your business website needs. The right selection can help enhance your business reach and help overcome niche competitors.