Compare / Deno Deploy vs AWS Lightsail
Deno Deploy vs AWS Lightsail
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Deno Deploy checked 2026-09-15, AWS Lightsail checked 2026-09-15.
The short version
Deno Deploy wins more of our comparison points, but AWS Lightsail still fits if projects that want predictable AWS — a fixed-price server with a clear upgrade path into the wider AWS ecosystem describes you.
Price Deno Deploy
Deno Deploy is cheaper at most of the stages we model.
Ease Deno Deploy
Deno Deploy is easier to get running: connect GitHub for builds on every push or run deno deploy from the CLI; framework presets configure common JavaScript stacks automatically.
Control AWS Lightsail
AWS Lightsail gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Features Deno Deploy
Deno Deploy comes out ahead on 7 of the 15 features we track, versus 2.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| Deno Deploy | AWS Lightsail | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | JavaScript and TypeScript sites, full-stack framework apps, and APIs that benefit from built-in previews, databases, cron, caching, and telemetry. | Projects that want predictable AWS — a fixed-price server with a clear upgrade path into the wider AWS ecosystem. |
| How deploys work | Connect GitHub for builds on every push or run deno deploy from the CLI; framework presets configure common JavaScript stacks automatically. | Pick a blueprint (WordPress, LAMP, Node.js, plain Linux), get SSH in the browser or your terminal, and manage it like any VPS. |
| The tradeoff | It runs the Deno runtime, not Node itself, and its two-region managed footprint and metered Active CPU, memory, and egress trail broader competitors for heavy traffic. | Costs more per spec than the European VPS crowd, and stopped instances keep billing. |
| Free tier | Free: 1M requests, 20 GiB egress, 10 Active CPU hours, 150 GiB-hours of memory time, 10 active apps, 5 custom domains, and 1 GiB of KV storage per month. | 90-day free trial (750 hours/month) on the $5–$12 Linux bundles and the $15 database. New AWS accounts get $100 in credits immediately and can earn another $100. The Free plan lasts up to six months. |
What you'd realistically pay
Deno Deploy AWS Lightsail
| Project stage | Deno Deploy | AWS Lightsail | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | Free Free — A small app can stay inside the monthly allowance; it pauses if any enforced Free limit is exhausted. | ≈$5/mo Nano — 2 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer. $3.50 as IPv6-only. Free for the first 90 days. | Deno Deploy |
| Steady traffic | ≈$20/mo Pro — Includes 5M requests, 200 GiB egress, 50 Active CPU hours, and 750 GiB-hours of memory time. | ≈$12/mo Small — 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB SSD, 3 TB transfer. | AWS Lightsail |
| Growing | ≈$30/mo Pro + request usage — A representative 10M-request month is $20 plus $10 request overage, before any CPU, memory, storage, or egress overage. | ≈$39/mo Medium + managed database — $24 Medium (4 GB RAM, 4 TB transfer) plus the $15 managed MySQL/PostgreSQL bundle. | Deno Deploy |
Deno Deploy pricing notes
- Pro overages are $2 per million requests, $0.20 per GiB of egress, $0.10 per Active CPU hour, and $0.025 per GiB-hour of memory.
- Active CPU bills only while code runs — waiting on requests or network I/O does not consume the CPU meter.
- Pro includes 5 GiB of sandbox volume storage and 5 GiB of Deno KV; extra storage and KV operations have separate usage rates. Free has no volume storage.
- Free has no paid overage: applications pause when an allowance is exhausted. Free and Pro do not include a reliability SLA.
AWS Lightsail pricing notes
- Billed hourly up to the monthly cap — partial months cost less, but stopped instances still bill.
- IPv6-only bundles are 20–30% cheaper; an unattached static IPv4 costs ~$3.60/month.
- Bundles scale up to 64 vCPU / 256 GB RAM ($1,764/month), with compute- and memory-optimized variants.
Our ratings
Ease of use Deno Deploy
Pricing clarity
Free tier Deno Deploy
Scaling Deno Deploy
Control AWS Lightsail
Feature by feature
Deno Deploy wins 7, AWS Lightsail wins 2, with 6 even.
Deploy workflow
| Deno Deploy | AWS Lightsail | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes Link GitHub and every pushed commit triggers an integrated build with streamed logs and caching. | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. |
| Preview deploys | Yes Every Git branch has its own timeline and URL, and every revision receives an immutable preview URL. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes The deno deploy command creates, configures, and deploys applications from a terminal or CI pipeline. | Yes The AWS CLI covers Lightsail end to end. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes A timeline can be locked to any previous revision to restore it without rebuilding the application. | Partial Snapshots restore machines ($0.05/GB-month); no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Deno Deploy | AWS Lightsail | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains include automatic Let’s Encrypt certificates; wildcard domains require Pro or higher. | Yes Lightsail DNS zones are included; TLS is yours via certbot or a Lightsail distribution. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Yes A built-in HTTP edge cache respects standard cache headers and supports tag-based global invalidation. | Yes Lightsail distributions add a CloudFront-backed CDN from $2.50/month (first year of 50 GB/month free). |
| Serverless functions | Yes JavaScript and TypeScript applications run in isolated serverless environments that start on demand. | No Not in Lightsail — that is the wider AWS (Lambda), with the à la carte billing this product avoids. |
| Docker containers | No Deno Deploy builds source code for its own Deno runtime and does not accept arbitrary Docker images. | Yes Install Docker on any instance, or use the Lightsail container service from $7/month. |
| SSH / shell access | No There is no interactive SSH shell; use build logs, runtime logs, traces, metrics, or the CLI. | Yes Full root SSH, including a browser-based terminal. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Applications can run in the managed Europe execution region, although database residency depends on the selected database. | Yes Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Paris, Stockholm, and Spain. |
Runtime & operations
| Deno Deploy | AWS Lightsail | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Yes The platform automatically starts multiple isolated application instances across or within regions as traffic requires. | No No autoscaling — resize by restoring a snapshot to a bigger bundle. |
| Scale to zero | Yes Idle apps shut down after about 20–30 seconds per the pricing page, so memory time stops while scaled to zero. | No Stopped instances bill at full rate; only deletion stops charges. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Deno.cron jobs are discovered at deploy time, scheduled by the platform, and monitored in the dashboard. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | Yes Provision Deno KV or managed Prisma Postgres, or attach an externally hosted PostgreSQL database. | Yes Managed MySQL/PostgreSQL bundles from $15/month. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Yes Logs, OpenTelemetry traces, request and outbound-call metrics, filtering, and dashboards are included. | Partial Instance metrics and alarms in the console; deeper monitoring means CloudWatch or your own stack. |
Watch out for
Deno Deploy
- Applications run on Deno rather than Node itself. Node and npm compatibility is broad, including native add-ons and subprocesses, but framework-specific edge cases still exist.
- The managed platform currently has two execution regions, the US and Europe; Deploy Classic had a broader footprint before it shut down in July 2026.
- Free and Pro have no published reliability SLA; a 99.95% SLA is reserved for Enterprise.
- Free-tier apps pause when the monthly allowance is exhausted; there is no paid overage on Free.
- Active CPU bills only while code runs, not while waiting on I/O, but Free includes only 10 Active CPU hours per month.
AWS Lightsail
- Stopped instances bill at the full rate — only deleting an instance (snapshot first, $0.05/GB-month) stops charges.
- Transfer overage costs $0.09/GB in US/EU regions, and some regions (Mumbai, Sydney, São Paulo…) include only half the listed allowance.
- The new-account AWS Free plan expires after 6 months or when credits run out, then the account auto-closes with a 90-day grace period.
- Outgrowing Lightsail means migrating to EC2 — a real project, not a plan toggle.
Read the full reviews: Deno Deploy and AWS Lightsail. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.