AWS Services Every Startup Should Know About

AWS has over 200 services. That's overwhelming for any team, let alone a startup trying to move fast. Here are the ones that actually matter when you're building your first product—and what each one does in plain English.

Compute: Where Your Code Runs

EC2 — Virtual Servers

EC2 gives you virtual machines in the cloud. You pick the size (CPU, memory), install your software, and run it. Think of it as renting a computer. For most startups, a single EC2 instance is enough to get started. You can scale up the size or add more instances as your traffic grows. Cost: a small instance runs about $15–$50/month.

ECS — Container Orchestration

If your team uses Docker containers (and most modern teams do), ECS manages them for you. It handles deploying, scaling, and restarting containers automatically. ECS with Fargate is especially nice for startups because you don't manage any servers at all—you just define your container and AWS runs it. You pay only for the compute time you use.

Lambda — Serverless Functions

Lambda lets you run code without thinking about servers at all. You upload a function, and AWS runs it whenever it's triggered—by an API call, a file upload, a scheduled event. You pay per execution, so if nobody calls your function, you pay nothing. Lambda is perfect for background tasks, webhooks, and APIs that have unpredictable traffic.

Storage and Databases

S3 — Object Storage

S3 is where you store files: user uploads, images, videos, backups, static website assets. It's practically unlimited, extremely durable (99.999999999% durability—that's eleven nines), and cheap. Most startups spend $1–$10/month on S3. It's one of the first AWS services you'll use and the last one you'll stop using.

RDS — Managed Databases

RDS runs PostgreSQL, MySQL, or other relational databases for you, handling backups, patches, and replication. Running your own database server is a pain—RDS takes that off your plate. For startups, a small RDS instance costs $15–$60/month and saves your team from late-night database emergencies.

Content Delivery and Email

CloudFront — CDN

CloudFront is a content delivery network that caches your static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) at edge locations around the world. Your users get faster load times because the content is served from a server near them, not from a single data center. It also reduces the load on your main servers. Setup takes about 30 minutes and the performance improvement is immediate.

SES — Email

SES (Simple Email Service) sends transactional emails—password resets, order confirmations, notifications. At $0.10 per 1,000 emails, it's dramatically cheaper than services like SendGrid or Mailgun at scale. The tradeoff is that SES requires more setup and doesn't include marketing email features. For transactional email, it's the best deal in the business.

Authentication and AI

Cognito — User Authentication

Building user authentication from scratch is a security risk. Cognito handles signup, login, password reset, multi-factor authentication, and social login (Google, Apple, Facebook) out of the box. It's free for the first 50,000 monthly active users, which covers most startups for a long time.

Bedrock — AI and Foundation Models

Bedrock gives you access to foundation models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, and others through a single API. If you want to add AI features to your product—text generation, summarization, image analysis—Bedrock lets you do it without managing any ML infrastructure. You pay per API call, and you can switch between models easily as the landscape evolves.

One More Thing: AWS Activate

AWS offers the Activate program for startups, which includes up to $100,000 in credits, technical support, and training. If you're affiliated with an accelerator, incubator, or venture studio, you can often qualify for the higher tier of credits. It's free money for infrastructure—apply early.

If you're building on AWS and want help setting up a solid, cost-efficient infrastructure, that's one of the things we do well. We've been building on AWS for over a decade, and we can help you avoid the common pitfalls that lead to surprise bills. Reach out if you want a second pair of eyes on your architecture.