AWS alternative · IaaS on bare metal
The AWS alternative for work that runs all month is a whole server rented by the month. We set three of ours against the EC2 instances with the same number of threads and the same processor generation, and priced both sides from the published lists.
Each of ours costs 76% to 80% less than its EC2 match, before AWS adds storage or a single gigabyte of traffic.
m5.4xlarge · Xeon Silver 411080% less
c6a.12xlarge · EPYC 741377% less
c6g.16xlarge · Ampere Altra76% less
01 Matched servers
The rule for a fair match: the same number of threads, since an EC2 vCPU is one thread; at least the same memory; and the same processor generation wherever AWS sells it. AWS prices are Linux on demand in US East (N. Virginia), read from Amazon's price list on 19 October 2026 and multiplied by the 730 hours AWS counts in a month. Our prices come from the configurator and already include the disks and the unmetered port.
Primcast
$107.67a month
80% less, or $452.97 a month back in your budget
Build this serverAWS m5.4xlarge
$560.64a month on demand
Primcast
$303.99a month
77% less, with a third more memory than the instance
Build this serverAWS c6a.12xlarge
$1,340.28a month on demand
Primcast
$374.98a month
76% less on the same Arm core design
Build this serverAWS c6g.16xlarge
$1,588.48a month on demand
A server you configure pays a one-time setup fee of $29; EC2 has none. In the other direction, AWS charges extra for every EBS volume and for outbound traffic, and neither is in its column above. Paying for 12 months at once takes 15% off our price. AWS also lowers its rates when you commit to one or three years through Savings Plans, so compare those terms if you already hold them. One caveat on the Intel pair: AWS places an m5 on Skylake or on Cascade Lake, its refresh, at a higher clock than ours, so a single thread on the m5 finishes a little sooner.
02 Traffic
On AWS, every gigabyte your servers send to the internet is billed after the first 100 GB of the month. On a Primcast server the port is unmetered: you pay for its speed, and nothing counts what goes through it.
| Sent out in a month | Added to an AWS bill | Added to a Primcast bill |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 GB | $891 | Nothing |
| 50,000 GB | $4,292.20 | Nothing |
| 100,000 GB | $7,810.20 | Nothing |
| 324,000 GB (a 1 Gbps port, full for 30 days) | $20,082.20 | Nothing |
AWS's rates for US East: $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB, then $0.085, $0.07 and $0.05 as the volume grows, after 100 GB free each month. Incoming traffic is free on both sides. All three servers above include an unmetered 1 Gbps port, and faster ports are a fixed monthly price you pick in the configurator.
03 The trade
Moving off AWS saves the most on work that runs around the clock: databases, game and media servers, build machines, APIs with steady traffic. Both sides of the trade are listed below.
04 Moving
You keep AWS running until the new server has proved itself, so nothing is switched off before you are ready.
Note each instance type, its memory and the outbound traffic on last month's bill. Cost Explorer shows all three.
Send the list on chat. You get a server for each instance with the price from the configurator, worked out the same way as the three above.
Order the server, copy your data across and run your tests against it while your AWS setup keeps serving users.
The final sync needs one short freeze on writes, usually seconds to a couple of minutes. How a migration here runs sets out the full plan.
05 Questions
Yes, for anything that runs all month. A dedicated server gives you the compute of an EC2 instance as a whole physical machine at a fixed monthly price. It does not replace the managed services, so most teams move their servers and databases first and keep a few AWS pieces where they still help.
It depends on the instance, so this page works it out for three of them instead of quoting one figure. Each pair has the same number of threads and the same processor generation, and the percentage beside it compares the two monthly prices before AWS adds storage or traffic. If you send out a lot of data, the egress table shows how much more there is to save.
Because that is what AWS sells. On Intel and AMD instances one vCPU is one hardware thread, so a 16 vCPU instance has 8 physical cores. An 8-core Xeon Silver 4110 with its 16 threads is the like-for-like match. Graviton and Ampere Altra have no second thread per core, so there a vCPU and a core are the same thing.
No. Each server comes with an unmetered port, and the monthly price stays the same however much you send through it. You choose the port speed, and a faster port is a fixed monthly price in the configurator.
Yes. Open the chat and paste your instance types, memory and monthly traffic. The AI on chat answers in seconds, and a person from our team takes over whenever you ask.
Close to none, but not zero. Your AWS setup keeps serving users while the new server is built and tested, and the final sync needs one freeze on writes that usually lasts seconds to a couple of minutes. The full plan is on our migration page.
New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Bucharest. Not every processor is in every city: the configurator lists the cities for each one. Servers in Amsterdam and Bucharest are billed in euros.
Yes. Besides cards, you can pay your invoices in cryptocurrency, renewals included. The crypto payments page lists the coins.
Tell us which instances you run and how much traffic they send. You get the matching servers and the monthly difference, worked out the same way as on this page.