Amazon AWS (Lightsail / EC2)

General cloud · since 2006 · USA / Seattle, Washington

Fair

3.2

/ 5 ★

From~$8/mo

UptimeEC2 99.99% region SLA; Lightsail high availability; enterprise-grade network

1-click MT4/MT5No (self-setup)

SupportBasic support free; paid support tiers; extensive docs; no MT-specific help

TrialLightsail Windows offers ~3 months free on select plans; AWS free tier (Linux-oriented)

HQUSA / Seattle, Washington

Server locations

Proximity to your broker's datacenter is the single biggest factor for an EA. Equinix LD4 (London), NY4 (New York), TY3 (Tokyo) and FR2 (Frankfurt) are where most brokers host.

📍 N. Virginia📍 Ohio📍 Oregon📍 London📍 Frankfurt📍 Paris📍 Ireland📍 Tokyo📍 Singapore📍 Sydney📍 Mumbai📍 Sao Paulo

Plans

Lightsail Windows (smallest) · ~$9.50/mo (Windows license included)1 vCPU, ~1GB RAM, SSD

Lightsail Windows mid · ~$22/mo2 vCPU, 4GB RAM

EC2 t3.small Windows On-Demand · ~$0.04+/hr incl. Windows license (~$30+/mo)2 vCPU, 2GB RAM

Pros

✓enterprise-grade reliability and network

✓Windows license bundled in Lightsail price (predictable)

✓massive global regions

✓free intro months

✓can scale to EC2

Cons

✗no 1-click MT4/MT5 image

✗EC2 Windows license premium roughly doubles Linux cost

✗billing/setup complexity (esp. EC2)

✗not latency-optimized to brokers

✗data-transfer overage fees

Breakdown by axis

The score (out of 100) is the sum of 7 axes, same yardstick for everyone. Note: latency here is claimed (from provider/reviews), not yet measured by us.

Location & latency8/26 pts

Why: General-purpose cloud, not optimized to brokers datacenters

Uptime / reliability16/18 pts

Why: 100% / 99.99% SLA

Value & specs9/18 pts

Why: Tight base RAM (<2GB) for MT4/MT5

Ease of use (MT4/MT5)16/16 pts

Why: 1-click / preinstalled MT4/MT5, Windows included

Support6/10 pts

Why: Support available

Reputation & transparency0/7 pts

Why: Reputation red flags

Trial & flexibility1/5 pts

Why: No clear free trial or refund

Notes

Most reliable/global but pricier and complex; Lightsail bundles the Windows license, EC2 charges a license premium; DIY MetaTrader, not broker-tuned.

Sources

Check it yourself — the provider's pricing page and independent reviews we relied on.

🔗 Amazon Lightsail pricing 🔗 Lightsail instance bundles