Amazon Free, Sort Of
October 27, 2010 - by badnima
Slow clap for Amazon announcing their "free" AWS service. We've been giving developers free access to get started building applications in the cloud for four years, so feel free to come to use for advice. People excited to run something on AWS just have to wade through confusing terms and conditions and find a credit card to put it on... wait, what?! Yes, Amazon free requires you to give them your credit card number!
Because if your app uses more than 25 hours of SimpleDB, it's no longer free. Or if it sends more than 15GB in a month, no longer free. So how do you know if your app will actually be free? You can't know, until you check your email to see if you have a bill. If you don't get a bill, it's free. And if the app keeps running for more than 365 days, it stops being free. So this new Amazon offer seems to be free in about the same way that the cheese sitting in front of a mouse trap is free. If you move quickly and tread gently, it's free cheese.
You want a better "free" that is actually "free" and designed specifically for developers building today's mobile and web-apps? Try Joyent's Facebook, Yahoo or MySpace Free Developer Programs. No credit card required.
And if that doesn't work for you, just drop us a line at joyentdev@joyent.com because we probably have a program that will fit your needs. Yes shocking, we will actually respond to your emails and phone calls. Because we want you to be successful.
Original photo by Flickr user Tambako the Jaguar.