# Page 2 | Amazon EC2 Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 2 - Is Amazon EC2 the right Virtual Machine solution for you? Explore 173 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/219781/EC2/reviews --- Amazon EC2 4.7 (173) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/219781/EC2/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 2 - Reviews of Amazon EC2 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 26-50 of 173 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use VL Vinicius L. Software Engineering Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "So Powerful Computing Services" February 26, 2025 4.0 It helps me manage and host my web servers. Pros Amazon EC2 simply offers so many awesome features. Cons Its princing is not the best in the market. Switched from [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/) Azure didn't furnish some services we were expecting. Amazon EC2 did. Review Source LW Laina W. Customer Specialist Market Research Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Amazon Ec2 great for our needs" December 13, 2024 5.0 Pros Great way to scale your cloud computing for business. Love that they charge by the second giving better value. Cons It took some time to set up but that's to be expected and worth the time for results. Alternatives considered [Domo](https://www.capterra.com/p/119119/Domo/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 Liked the pricing option and the ease of set up. Review Source TZ Terence Z. Technical Support Specialist Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "reliable and scalable" December 27, 2024 5.0 Overall it is amazing to use as the best feature about EC2 is the auto-scalability which saves a lot of money compared to other solutions. Pros The biggest pro about using EC2 is that it is auto-scaling. So this allows for the most cost-efficient solution currently in my situation and allows for the ramp up in resources when necessary as well. Cons No cons about Amazon EC2, it is great and reliable for my use case. Review Source FT Fran T. Clinical Research Coordinator Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Amazon Review " September 26, 2024 5.0 Good experience w little trouble. Will be using again in the future Pros Accessibility, ease of use, all age friendly Cons Not much to not like. Maybe color scheme could be different Review Source Muhammad Aamer K. Full stak developer Real Estate Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Amazon EC2 is a great option in cloud computing" November 29, 2023 5.0 My overall experience with EC2 is literally awesome why? because i used it for my webapps that i created with django and i got no issue at all the installation and configuration is easy establishing a remote connection is easy i used it for running my python scripts and i connected it with amazon RDS and i got nooo issue at all i am very happy and i recommend EC2 to all of you try to use it's free version atleast Pros I like EC2 for the features like i can create instance of any OS (Windows, Linux) more over it gives you a one year free trial and you can use it from you local machine connecting through many sources i usually used the putty Cons the one thing that i like the least about EC2 is that machine you get with free trial is very basic and slow so if you need a free trail and you want to test your script od piece of software that is a bit more resources consuming you may not be able to use it Review Source Matthew N. Technical Lead Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "EC2 Leads the Industry for a Reason" May 17, 2021 5.0 We've hosted with them for many years. Despite some little drawbacks, we wouldn't consider switching to another cloud provider. A technical project can thrive in the AWS ecosystem, with EC2 as the foundation for server capacity. Pros Superb pricing. Very reliable. Lots of choices. Great dashboard tools. When connected with CloudWatch, monitoring is great. Tools for networking and security are very flexible. Perfect tool to pull out of the technical toolbox when you need a server. Cons The variety of choices and configuration options increases the level of complexity. Ideally you know what you're doing before you get started. Windows pricing is a bit steep, but one is better off not running servers on Windows anyways. For paying customers with a certain volume, they need to include a free support level that at least allows bug reporting. We pay them more than $10K/month, and it's crazy we can't even send them a support email or do a chat without paying hundreds more per month. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[DigitalOcean](https://www.capterra.com/p/205055/DigitalOcean/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 AWS had the most mature and comprehensive offerings at the time. Azure has caught up a lot and has some compelling offerings. But, the AWS ecosystem is still our preference for the best functionality, flexibility, breadth of offerings, and pricing. Review Source Raamnaaraayan R. Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Deploying our containers is efficient for business application as EC2 provides effective isolation" April 2, 2022 5.0 1\. We utilize EC2 services offered by Amazon for our container deployments through Docker in Testing & Production environments. 2. Since the infrastructure is provided by AWS, we needn't worry about regional downtime or security updates as they are fully managed by Amazon. 3. We define our docker containers within EC2 instance and we can trust in the isolation between the containers are properly maintained. 4. We can leverage to stop the EC2 instances in case we need to retain the application configurations for a later point in time and start it again for future use. 5. Hosting multiple backend cloud-based applications is feasible with EC2 and all configurational changes can be viewed completely in its CLI. Pros 1\. Amazon EC2 offers exceptional capabilities to deploy our customer-centric application in cloud platform at ease. 2. We can effectively utilize its AMI to spin up any type of EC2 instances with any OS based on our business requirements within minutes. 3. Its auto-load balancing feature is helpful when we carry out web hosting with diversified incoming requests from the user. 4. We can also retain snapshots of our EC2 instances which can be used anytime to replicate our application configurations & deployments. 5. As it offers licensing within the charges of its EC2 instances, we are able to utilize various vendor applications and not worry about license renewal or request. Cons 1\. If you wish to perform custom updates, it needs updating a lot of security patches along with its Amazon Machine Image which is quite complex. 2, Network configurations & ACL should be maintained properly so that there isn't any connectivity issues with our EC2-hosted applications. 3. We need to ensure to terminate the EC2 instances if we no longer require the service of it. Charges may incur if its left unchecked. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CIO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "AWS EC2 a great virtual machine service" November 16, 2022 5.0 The creation of cloud architectures with great cost management services. We are maintaining several clients' infrastructures on the Cloud, and we can use a common set of tools to do it all in the most efficient manner. The elasticity of services allows us to react to business requirements in no time. Pros The ability to scale horizontally and vertically in automatic ways through configurations or by setting alarms. It is very easy to manage hundreds of instances from a central dashboard during stress' times for the application. It is also very easy to version and create templates to automate the creation of this resources and there are always ways of monitoring their health and even ways to avoid leaving instances on that don't represent income to the business. Cons There is not an overwhelming bad point. The service works ok and makes what it must without complications. Since it is one of the first services from AWS, it has evolved and matured greatly. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 It was the perfect fit for the client's current architecture. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Director, Internet Strategy Publishing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "EC2 - the computing in cloud computing" May 31, 2022 5.0 I think EC2 was the first service we signed up for when we moved to AWS years ago. It was an eye-opening experience: we used to own hardware, and now we can just click buttons and make hardware appear? Insane. And yet, it worked. And still does. We have around 100 instances of varying sorts running at all times, most of them running either individual applications or (more recently) hosting a whole bunch of Docker containers via ECS. (This is the more powerful and better way to do things these days.) The other huge boon for us was when AWS announced their Application Load Balancer. What this allows you to do is inspect every request and route it to specific targets if the request meets certain criteria. Got a staging server at staging.example.com? Just add that route to your ALB, and send it to your staging machine. Done. It's so simple, but so powerful. Like much of AWS, the UI on EC2 has not quite kept up with the times. The almighty ALB, for instance, is hidden under a single small item in the left-nav, called "Load Balancers." Which is accurate, but doesn't exactly give them their due. Lots of other issues like that -- not always easy to find what you want to find, especially if you don't know exactly what you are looking for. But overall it's better than many other parts of AWS, so not complaining too much. If you're on AWS at all, you're likely using EC2 already. Definitely don't forget to integrate CloudWatch so you can easily get logging! Pros \* ALB is a game-changer for managing multiple websites \* Instant scaling up if needed \* Spawn as many servers or instances as you like, in whatever categories you like \* Tag your instances to keep track of them Cons \* Spawning instances is so much fun -- but it gets expensive \* The UI on huge services (like the ALB) is kind of crazy. Why is it hidden in the small left nav? \* Navigating to the right instance is not always easy Alternatives considered [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 AWS offered so much more than Google at the time -- Amazon's whole suite of services just feels that much more robust and well-developed. Not always elegant to use, but works. Review Source DM Dhavan M. Software Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best AWS service for IaaS in cloud" June 22, 2023 5.0 With EC2 I have an overall good experience. It is very easy and simple to manage resources. It is also providing a high level of security. Pros I like the way EC2 provide flexibility to choose different kind of instances based on the requirement. It also provide flexibility to configure it as well as take it down automatically based on need Cons I can't think of anything which I don't like Review Source Saulo A. CTO Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The best PaaS" November 4, 2021 5.0 I've been using AWS for over 10 years and I don't remember having any problems, except for the ones I caused myself. It's extremely reliable, safe and affordable. Pros Elastic Bean Stalk is a very simple and reliable platform as a service. You can configure various aspects of your application like deploy, autoscaling and database. Lambda is also an extremely useful resource for small service development without having to set up a complete framework for it. Cons Some functions are hard to learn like IAM for example. Also, managing costs well can be a challenge as there are many options to choose from. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/)[Heroku](https://www.capterra.com/p/158191/Heroku/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 Previous knowledge of features, pricing and startup program. Switched from [Dreamhost VPS](https://www.capterra.com/p/237876/Dreamhost-VPS/) Pricing, Support, Reliability, and Features Available Only on AWS Review Source EM Eric M. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "AWS EC2 is probably not what you want." January 6, 2022 5.0 Of my experience with many other providers like Oracle Cloud, Liquid Web, Azure, Linode, Digital Ocean, AWS is by far the most frustrating and one of the most expensive. I only use AWS when I have a client that demands it or is already locked into it. I never ever recommend it. Pros AWS has good name recognition. If you're an IT Service provider, or if you own a company for which you want to get funding, name-dropping AWS could give you some additional credibility. AWS has every feature you could hope for in an IaaS system. Cons AWS has every feature you could hope for in an IaaS system. I've very rarely seen any organization or application that needs anywhere close to what AWS offers. Most people use EC2, Lambda, Database services, Kubernetes services, and maybe Kafka. But most less expensive, and less complicated providers have all of these features too. As a user, you have to set up all of the underlying infrastructure like network groups, overly complicated (but not better) security configurations, etc. Most of the work setting up an environment on AWS is setting up things you don't really need. You'll receive bills from AWS and chances are, it will be considerably more than you estimated, and you'll have to spend considerable time finding where the cost is coming from, and changes are, you'll have a lot of trouble shutting down the unneeded items. Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 Some of my clients demand it, and others are already locked into it. Review Source Filippo C. Senior Data Scientist Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "AWS EC2 is the ideal service to set up working servers" October 30, 2023 5.0 Amazon EC2 is the tool we use to create the server needed for data storage, big data processing and web applications. It is highly recommended in combination with other AWS services (for example Redshift, EMR, Route 53 and others) to get a solid and reliable cloud infrastructure for data management platforms. Pros A wide range of machine type is available to fit every need. EC2 clusters can be further customized (e.g. with additional storage) and networking and security are easily managed. Cons Amazon EC2 setup and administration is not straightforward since it requires a solid IT background. Review Source sagar J. System Administrator Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Get ready your instance with few clicks" May 17, 2021 4.0 Easy configuration Easy to access with go performance Easy to customized Easy to suspend and terminate Preferable to go with EC-2 anytime. Pros AWS EC2 allows you to create an instance i.e Elastic compute within a few clicks. For AWS EC2 you do not need to be worried about the installation and partitions and etc configurations. Instead of selecting the things you just choose your requirement and get it configured with fully installed Everything within few clicks. Here you get save your time Here you get to save you money as you have to pay only as you required. You have to option as well for free tier to the testing purpose of EC2. Even you have to option to choose a flavor as per your requirement you can have an option to choose the categories wise instance You can just say that: easy simple deployment with EC2 Cons If you have to configure the instance-EC2 you have to pay as per the billing criteria. You are not allowed to configured or customized your free tier instance-EC2. If you are not paying for your instance-EC2 your instance will be suspended. Alternatives considered [vSphere](https://www.capterra.com/p/93512/VMware-Horizon/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 AWS EC2 comes with Advanced features Easy to established connectivity with databases, firewalls, VPNs, Easy to install and experience good performance Switched from [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[vSphere](https://www.capterra.com/p/93512/VMware-Horizon/) Better performance Easy to understand Easy to access cost saving - as pay as use Review Source DU Diego U. CTO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "AWS EC2 is the crown jewel of the cloud computing crown" May 24, 2022 5.0 I have been working with AWS for 2 years, undoubtedly is one of the best cloud computing solutions in the market. Pros Easy to deploy Easy to configure Fast and reliable tools Fully customizable Cons Console user management Roles assignment is tricky Cost is a little higher than competitors Alternatives considered [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 I found it easy to use Switched from [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/) Found AWS easy to use Review Source MS Maha S. Assistant Professor Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Amazon EC2: Simplified Server Deployment in the Cloud" August 30, 2023 4.0 Can't imagine configuring all these server deployments and publishing them online to be used by clients instantaneously without the cloud IaaS services provided by Amazon EC2. Pros I implemented several server scripts on EC2 Virtual Machines of the M4 instance profile. Using SSH and remote desktop it feels like working on a local server. Dynamic IP management makes advertising cloud servers to the outside world a very simplified task. I tested applications servers (Apache, Apache Tomcat, IIS, Glassfish, etc) on top of the EC2 cloud as well as database servers such as MySQL and DB2. The system is as "elastic" as advertised with a true pay-as-you-go model. That was the main inception behind realizing an actual "utility-computing" based cloud system by Amazon. Cons The security configuration consisting of generating the private/public keys are not that simply packaged for the beginner developer. But many improvement have been made on this front by Amazon. Switched from [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/) Cheaper and more flexible Review Source Carlos Alberto G. Socio Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Experience to grow" September 29, 2020 5.0 I have been able to solve many types of problems, from simple hostings, to applications that have grown and needed to scale. The configurations are simple for the most part, and you can really grow without the need for large expenses or investments of time in implementing astronomical solutions. Pros I think the whole EC2 environment is impressive, the set of tools allows for implementations of all kinds and on the scale that is necessary. Currently there are many configuration options, the user interfaces have improved making the use fluid and very easy to understand. All the implementations that I have had to carry out have been fast and the integrations with the existing resources have not been a problem. Cons In my case, I would like to have some extra tool available to manage the operating system of the instances. Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 The price commands many times, but in this case the amount of options and possibilities offered by the platform. Switched from [MyWebsite](https://www.capterra.com/p/170967/1-1-MyWebsite/) Poor support and few tools Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Full Stack Developer Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Very good cloud service to host application servers!" February 9, 2021 5.0 Amazon EC2 has allowed us to host our application server very quickly and easily without worrying about the setup process and security measures, as it takes care of that. Amazon EC2 also has a lot of services for server monitoring and the ability to scale up or scale down servers when required which reduces operational costs as we only scale up when there is heavy load & scale down otherwise only paying for what we use. I am happy with Amazon EC2 Pros Amazon EC2 has a wide variety of instances with various operating systems and hardware options to choose from, this ensures that we are able to select the server we need and have to pay only for that which helps in cost saving. It has options to interact with the server via application libraries, command line terminal & its dashboard which helps in managing the server. Amazon AWS also has other products that integrate really well and easily with Amazon EC2 making it the go-to choice for hosting application servers. Cons Amazon EC2 has a learning curve that a beginner may find difficult to grasp easily & quickly also its dashboard user interface is quite complex with a lot of options and it is easy for someone to get confused and overwhelmed by it. Alternatives considered [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 The variety of services offered by Amazon is much greater and the fact that it has a very wide user community Review Source AA Adebayo A. Software Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Top cloud service" December 8, 2022 5.0 We used Amazon EC2 to host an open source reporting tool and the experience was great. One issue we had was the instance always restarting which changes the IP address and ends up affecting our configuration. But overall the experience was great as soon as we got a hang of how to deploy and manage it. Pros I like how very configurable Amazon EC2 is. This gives a user greater control and flexibility when deploying a workload. There are also excellent documentation that gives step by step instructions on how to deploy and configure your EC 2 instance.The customer support is also great from what I have experienced. I used a premium support so the experience may differ from those that are not using premium support. Cons The downside to having all the control is that it can be very challenging and complex sometimes. The documentation is great but it can be sometimes hard to find content related to issues you are facing. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 We started with EC2 because we had won some credits and it helped us to understand how to configure, deploy and manage an EC2 instance. We continued using it after the credit has been exhausted since we had a great experience with it. Review Source Darian P. Senior Developer Insurance Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Review of Amazon EC2" May 19, 2022 5.0 Overall I think EC2 is a good product especially if cost is not as important. The ability to configure everything through the cloud plus the reliability of AWS is very hard to beat. Pros We like how quick it is to setup and clone instances with EC2. When doing development it is fairly easy to spin up test instances for little cost. Speaking of cost, since EC2 has so many options/tiers it is quite simple to choose a plan/tier that minimizes our costs but maximizes our output. The security aspect of EC2 is also very intuitive requiring that we have keys to access any particular server. This is an upgrade compared to when we had everything locally. Cons This is not built out of the box but we have had the situation come up where we wanted to start and stop an instance on a schedule. EC2 does not have a built in solution to handle both of these steps. Although I mentioned the flexibility of the configurations, the cost still is quite high especially coming from a local solution. However from our perspective it was worth it for the other features it provides. Review Source JB Joel B. Technology Consultant Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The Standard for Cloud Computing" May 8, 2018 5.0 Pros The ability to spool up a server in a few minutes has always blown my mind. I had a recent server failure that resulted in me spooling up a new server to replace it. I was able to get the job done in under two hours. It would have been much faster than that if I had done it before, but there was some learning required in the process. I've documented the process, so the next time this happens, I will be able to get back up and running in minutes. Having been in IT my whole life, this ability is quite amazing. It was the stuff of dreams over a decade ago and now I get to live it out. There are way too many good things to say about EC2. I can have multiple servers spread across the world so I can service my customers locally, instead of them having to traverse continents and oceans to hit up a server. I can attach and detach storage so I can start working from where I last started. The list goes on and on. I want to say that there is a plethora of helpful information available to those who need support. The Amazon support information is great as well as YouTube and other informational sites. If you're Google-Fu is up to date, you can get the help you need without having to pick up the phone. Cons The biggest con to EC2 is the shear vastness of features, tools, and functionality. For people who are new and want to start off, there is not an easy or simple "get started here" path that I have found. There is so much to learn, and so much you will never know, that getting some help at the beginning should really be considered. Review Source NL Nir L. VP R&D, DevOps, and Product Telecommunications Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Top level elastic virtual machines" August 16, 2023 5.0 Overall I am, over the years, very happy with both the cost and quality of the EC2 platform specifically and the AWS services generally. It is my first choice for cloud infrastructure. Pros Easy to set up both manually and scripted, with a very wide variety of machine types so you can select the most cost-effective machines for your different needs. It's hosted on one of the most popular cloud platforms there are so expect to get high-quality infrastructure for a fair cost. Cons Permissions are complicated to set up, and load balancing is rather costly. Also, changing instance type requires a restart which is less than optimal. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 In my humble opinion EC2 is easier to manage and set up than other platforms. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Software Engineer Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Extensible with Plentiful Integrations " May 10, 2020 4.0 EC2 gives us the ability to automate a lot of our infrastructure installations. Along with the ability to bid on spot machines to make our server costs low. Pros Amazon EC2 handles a lot of our server infrastructure and has in incredible amount of features to help deploy our products in a fast and scaleable fashion. Having integrations with other software allows us to use EC2 in an automated simple "key-turn" clusters. Cons The thing a least like about EC2 is how rigid creating resources are. Editing things like machine sizes, flavors, and such is not as intuitive. Along with having different sections/consoles for managing instance configurations like networks or security groups. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Reason for choosing Amazon EC2 EC2 had the most stable APIs at the time and seemed more mature than other cloud offerings. Review Source Silas M. CEO Program Development Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Melhores servidores com custo beneficio" February 12, 2023 5.0 Nao troco por nada, sempre será minha plataforma de computação em nuvem. Pros Facilidade de criação e gerenciamento de servidores. Cons Poderia ter mais programas para startups, mesmo com algumas possibilidades gratuitos, pesa um pouco no bolso no fim do mês. Alternatives considered [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/) Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Marketing Professional Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "It gives you exactly what it should" May 16, 2022 5.0 After I figured out the complicated interface, I was being able to use my virtual machine and it was working 100% of the time and I had an amazing experience with it. Definitely suggest to anyone. The price is still high but much cheaper than Google or Microsft Pros My virtual machine was always up, like I've never seen it ran out or restart or anything. It was always running which is what I was looking for in a server, Consistency. Cons The Amazon AWS platform is too confusing, like they think you have to be an Amazon employee to understand the interface, too many buttons, too much information that I (as a marketing professional) don't need to know or I won't ever use. They really need to work on a simple platform for people who are not an engineer and let us just choose a simple plan and go with it. 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