Tool profile
Cloud platform for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, and managed services.
Large enterprises standardizing on a primary cloud vendor
Hyperscaler with the broadest service catalog: EC2 to AI chips, data stores, networking, and compliance programs for regulated enterprises.
aws.amazon.com/free (March 2026) states that new customers receive up to $200 USD in credits ($100 at sign-up and up to $100 more while exploring), can use the Free Plan for up to ~6 months without switching to paid, and still benefit from 30+ services with always-free monthly allotments once on a Paid Plan. Everything beyond published free allotments is pay-as-you-go per service—model data transfer, managed datastores, and support separately.
Treat AWS as an Infrastructure commitment: IAM, network design, and FinOps are part of the product. Compare Azure and Google Cloud where procurement or data/analytics stacks pull differently.
Quick fit
Editorial take
AWS changed its onboarding mechanics after July 15, 2025, so older blog posts are actively misleading now. The key distinction is between the newer Free account plan, earned credits, and normal pay-as-you-go service pricing.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
Compare with
Pressure-test this pick against nearby alternatives.
Apache Kafka
Free planEvent streaming and event-driven architectures
Open-source distributed event streaming platform for high-throughput pipelines, pub/sub, and stream-processing ecosystems.
Choose Kafka when replayable event streams and ecosystem breadth matter more than the lightest possible operational footprint.
Pricing snapshot
AWS documents a Free account plan for eligible new customers created after July 15, 2025 that includes $100 in credits at sign-up, up to another $100 in earned credits, and access to the free account experience for up to six months. Beyond credits and always-free monthly allotments on 30+ services, AWS is standard pay-as-you-go by service.
Arcjet
Free planApplication runtime security
Runtime security toolkit for modern applications and AI systems that helps teams enforce quotas, block bots, prevent prompt abuse, and ship app-level protections in code.
Closer to application-runtime security and abuse-prevention tooling than to classic perimeter appliances.
