Amazon AWS is a great option for adding cloud-based data warehouse functionality to your SaaS app. One of the biggest questions that any company has about building with AWS, or building SaaS apps in general, is about the cost. AWS is competitively priced against other major options, but there are subtle variations in a project that can significantly change the cost. Let’s look at how much it can cost to build a SaaS application in AWS and which factors can change the price.
How Much Data You Use
One of the biggest factors that will change the cost of building a SaaS app on AWS is how much data you use. AWS is used to not only store data but process it for other applications. Because of this, the price is based on how much data you store and transfer. All prices are given in per-gigabyte and per-hour increments, making the pricing options easier to compare.
If you have a lot of data that you need to store and transfer, your costs will be higher than if you have only a small amount of data. However, AWS’s pricing structures all reduce the amount that you pay per gigabyte when you increase the amount of data that you work with. The more data you use, the less you pay per gigabyte.
What Pricing Structure You Choose
AWS offers a few different pricing structures for SaaS apps. The most common pricing structure is pay-as-you-go. This means that you pay for the resources that you use as you use them. This pricing structure is great for SaaS apps that have fluctuating resource needs.
Another option is reserved instances. With reserved instances, you pay an upfront fee for a certain amount of resources for a set period of time. Essentially, you pay for the resources up-front to make the pricing more predictable. This pricing structure is best for SaaS apps that have predictable resource needs.
Finally, AWS offers spot instances. Spot instances are unused EC2 instances that are offered at a discounted price. At some point, someone created an instance of EC2 and abandoned it. Amazon lets you use that instance as if it were your own, saving them on resources and saving you money through a discounted rate. The catch is that AWS can reclaim these instances at any time, so they are best for non-critical workloads that can be interrupted without issue. If you have basic data management operations, such as creating a static report at the end of the month for example, you could use one of these instances. Once the report is finished, it no longer matters if the instance is reclaimed by Amazon. It's a great way to get the resources that you need for tasks without having to commit to them forever.
Which AWS Products You Include
Another factor that will change the cost of building a SaaS application in AWS is which AWS products you include. AWS offers a wide range of products that can be used to build SaaS apps, including EC2, S3, RDS, and more. The more products you use, the higher your costs will be.
AWS is comprised of a lot of different tools and resources aimed at making things easier for developers. Just like data usage, you only pay for the features and services that you need as long as you use them. Otherwise, you can end your use of them and reduce your costs.
To reduce your costs, you can use only the AWS products that you absolutely need. For example, if you don’t need a relational database, you can use a non-relational database like DynamoDB instead of RDS.
If your company already has access to many of the resources that it needs, then you may not need as much from AWS. This is a great way to supplement what you already have with only the AWS resources that you need to manage a project.
The Overall Scale of the Project
Finally, the overall scale of your SaaS app project will have a big impact on the cost. Building a small SaaS application in AWS will cost less than building a large one simply because it requires less data and fewer resources to manage.
Similarly, building a SaaS app that is used by only a few people will cost less than building one that is used by thousands because of data transfer rates. Ultimately, it will be up to you how far you want to scale your app, but a larger scale often means a significantly higher cost. Fortunately, Amazon has tools to help you estimate the costs of a project that uses AWS.
Start an AWS Project With Help From KitelyTech
Before you jump into an Amazon AWS SaaS app project, get help planning it out from KitelyTech. We help companies develop new SaaS apps with tools like Amazon AWS. Call KitelyTech at (800) 274-2908 so we can help you get the planning for your next SaaS app project just right before you make major investments in tools and resources.
