The Ohio, North Virginia and Oregon Are The Cheapest AWS Region For ec2

Are you looking to deploy a service on AWS? In this case, choosing an AWS region is your first decision. Choosing a region also comes with a lot of liberties; for example, you will be able to use AWS Management Console, SDK, or CLI. 

S3, EC2, RDS, and Lambda-based US regions Ohio, North Virginia, and Oregon are the cheapest, followed by EU areas Stockholm, Ireland, and London, Asia Pacific AWS locations Tokyo and Seoul, and South America’s Sao Paulo, the most costly.

Before We Dive Into It, Let’s Know The Reasons Why You Should Choose The Right Aws Region For Your Services.

• AWS customers often select a region based on proximity to themselves or their end users.
• Proximity is not the sole factor to consider when choosing a region.
• Other important factors include:
• AWS cost implications.
• Selection of features available in a specific AWS region.
• Speed and resiliency of AWS components in the region.
• The goal is to enhance application growth on AWS by considering these additional factors.

Considerations for Selecting Cost-Effective AWS Regions with Latency in Mind

• You can check the costs for certain configurations in the current AWS region, prompting a search for cheaper alternatives in different regions.
• Comparison example: N. California versus Oregon.
  • N. California can be about 20% more expensive than N. Virginia.
  • Oregon typically matches N. Virginia in pricing.
• You can think about using Oregon more, but take into consideration how fast it connects (latency).
• Do speed tests to see how long it takes for computers in different AWS places to talk to each other (latency tests).
• You can also check how long it takes for a message (ping) to go back and forth 1,000 times between computers in different places.

Note these tests can only help in choosing the right region. However, they should not be considered as a deciding factor.

Top 10 Cheapest AWS Regions 

Before we dive into knowing more, let’s get an overview of some of the popular AWS regions. 

• The cheapest AWS regions and also cheapest ec2 region in the U.S. are Ohio, North Virginia, and Oregon. They have the lowest prices for services like S3, EC2, RDS, and Lambda.
• Next in line for affordable prices are the E.U. regions, like Stockholm, Ireland, and London.
• After that, the Asia Pacific regions, such as Tokyo and Seoul, are more expensive.
• The most costly AWS region is in South America, particularly Sao Paulo.

Ohio 

If you’ve chosen Ohio as your AWS region, woot! Woot! Because it is one of the cheapest regions for AWS services. Why? There are several reasons for that:

• First of all, it is centrally located, making it accessible.
• Then, it’s more budget-friendly compared to Oregon, without compromising on the range of services offered.
• Plus, you won’t really notice any significant difference in data transfer speeds (latency) compared to Oregon. 
• An added bonus is savings on inter-data center transfer fees, particularly if you’re also operating in Virginia. 

North Virginia

Some users consider N. Virginia has the region with the least reliability when it comes to uptime. However, what makes it a cost-effective cheapest AWS region is the services it offers. According to reports, Virginia has the most services (215) offered by AWS, with Oregon (207 services) and Ireland (204 services) close behind. However, the small difference in the number of services among these top regions doesn’t really explain why Virginia has more downtime.

Oregon

The AWS US West region in Oregon is a good choice and cheapest region in AWS if you’re looking to save money. There are several reasons why. It has great prices for different services. It’s really useful for businesses on the West Coast of the U.S. Plus, it has a strong setup, and it’s good at connecting with other areas.

Also, despite the more services like in North Virginia, it doesn’t face outrages or data latencies. The good news is that Oregon only had 5 outages in the whole of 2022, which further makes it a good region to operate in.

Stockholm

While only some cost-effective regions are in America, some of them are situated in the E.U. as well, and Stockholm is one good region. On average, running computer tasks (compute loads) in Stockholm costs about 5% less than in Ireland. 

This is also true for the costs of EBS storage and setting aside specific amounts of input/output operations per second (provisioned IOPS) – they are also about 5% cheaper in Stockholm compared to Ireland. 

However, when it comes to using S3, a type of storage service, the prices are the same in both Ireland and Stockholm. But in Frankfurt, using S3 is more expensive.

Ireland

The next most popular region is Ireland in the E.U. The AWS EU region in Ireland is a popular choice for many because it’s right in the middle of Europe and offers a wide range of services. 

It has a strong setup and lots of customers, which leads to good prices and a good range of customers. For businesses in Europe or those serving European customers, it often turns out to be a budget-friendly option. 

London

London is also the cheapest region for AWS because it is one of the easily connected cities and offers great prices on AWS services. Also, it has a lot of active customers, making it a good choice to deploy your service. 

What Are the Most Expensive Places for an AWS Region?

While we have discussed the cheapest regions, let’s also know more about the expensive places so that you don’t consider choosing them.

Tokyo 

Well, as of now, Tokyo stands as one of the most expensive regions. But the situation is expected to change soon. On just 19 Jan of 2024 

On January 19, 2024, Amazon Web Services (AWS) shared big news. 

They’re going to spend a huge amount, 2.26 trillion yen, to make their cloud services in Tokyo and Osaka even better by 2027. This is because more and more people in Japan want to use their cloud services.

Seoul

Well, many people consider Seoul as the closest AWS region to Korea.

However, it’s important to note that Seoul is one of the more expensive AWS regions. So, for those who are okay with a bit more delay in data transfer (latency). So, when you are looking to save costs, considering other regions might be a good trade-off.

South America

The AWS region we’re talking about is quite small in terms of its capacity. In simple words, it only has a small amount of space or power for lots of users. Setting up a new region like this can be expensive because the costs that stay the same (like building the infrastructure) are high, especially when spread over a smaller number of users. It’s likely that this Suo Polo was set up because some big companies specifically asked for AWS services in South America and were willing to use and pay for them despite the higher costs.

Conclusion 

Choosing the right AWS region is crucial for balancing costs, available services, and performance. For cost-effectiveness, U.S. regions like Ohio, North Virginia, and Oregon are top choices. Ohio offers a central location and low prices, North Virginia provides the most services despite some downtime issues, and Oregon is ideal for West Coast businesses with its strong infrastructure and affordability. 

In Europe, Stockholm and Ireland are budget-friendly options with a good range of services. However, be cautious with more expensive regions like Tokyo, Seoul, and South America, where costs are higher due to various factors. Selecting an AWS region requires considering these aspects to best meet your specific needs and optimize your AWS deployment.