The REAL Cost Of AWS (And How To Avoid It)

Summary

In this video, the speaker addresses concerns about the cost of recommended services for small projects and startups, arguing that they are more cost-effective than AWS. They highlight generous free tiers, the hidden costs of in-house development, and the time-saving benefits of using these services. The speaker emphasizes that these tools not only save time but also reduce costs through efficient scaling and caching, ultimately providing a better return on investment for businesses.

Takeaways

• 💡 The services recommended have very generous free tiers, which can accommodate small projects and startups without incurring costs.
• 📊 The cost of setting up and maintaining infrastructure on AWS can be high in terms of time and effort, which is often overlooked when considering 'cheaper' alternatives.
• 💼 Engineers may undervalue their time, but the time spent on setup and maintenance can be significant and costly for a company.
• 🔒 Job security can be a factor when using complex, self-hosted solutions, as it can be challenging to find a replacement with the same setup knowledge.
• 💼 For companies, especially startups, it's more cost-effective to focus on developing unique business features rather than optimizing AWS costs.
• 🚀 Services like Vercel, PlanetScale, Clerk, and others offer benefits like 'scale to zero', which means you only pay for the resources you actively use.
• 💰 These services can lead to actual cost savings by allowing for efficient scaling, caching, and reduced need for server maintenance.
• 🛠️ Using services like Vercel's edge functions can significantly reduce compute costs due to their低廉的 invocation pricing and caching capabilities.
• 💡 The speaker emphasizes that these services are recommended based on their time, money, and energy-saving benefits, not because of sponsorships.
• 💼 The speaker challenges the notion that self-hosting is always cheaper, arguing that it often costs more in the long run due to the complexity and maintenance involved.

Q & A

What is the main concern people have about the services recommended on the channel?

People are concerned that the services recommended are more expensive than using AWS directly, especially for low budget teams.

How does the speaker refute the claim that AWS is cheaper?

The speaker refutes this by explaining the generous free tiers of the services recommended, the cost savings in terms of developer time, and the actual cost savings due to the services' features.

What is the significance of the free tier for services like PlanetScale?

The free tier for services like PlanetScale is very generous, offering a billion row reads and 10 million row writes per month for free, which is more than enough for many small projects.

How much does it cost to go over the free tier limits on PlanetScale?

If you go over the free tier limits on PlanetScale, it costs one dollar per billion reads and one dollar and fifty cents per million writes.

What is the speaker's opinion on the pricing of services like Clerk compared to Auth0?

The speaker believes that the pricing of Clerk is very similar to professional solutions like Auth0, with a hobby tier that is affordable and doesn't require a credit card.

Why is the time spent by engineers setting up and maintaining services considered expensive?

The time spent by engineers is considered expensive because it can take days or weeks to solve problems and set up services like CI/CD, databases, and serverless traffic handling, which translates to a significant cost in terms of lost productivity.

What is the benefit of using recommended services in terms of job security?

Using recommended services can increase job security because the complex setup an engineer creates becomes reliant on their expertise, making it harder to replace them.

What is the speaker's advice for companies regarding the cost of developer time?

The speaker advises companies to understand the value of their engineers' time and to let them focus on tasks that drive unique business differentiators rather than optimizing AWS costs.

How do services like Vercel and PlanetScale help in reducing actual costs?

Services like Vercel and PlanetScale help reduce costs by allowing scale to zero, meaning you only pay for the compute you use, and by providing features that minimize the need for unused compute.

What is the cost of using Vercel's edge functions in the pro tier?

The cost of using Vercel's edge functions in the pro tier is 65 cents per million invocations.

Why does the speaker recommend services like Vercel, PlanetScale, Clerk, and others?

The speaker recommends these services because they save time, money, and energy, and make it faster to develop the right solution for users at any scale.