Show HN: CloudSwag.com - prepaid Amazon EC2 Gift Certificates | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: CloudSwag.com - prepaid Amazon EC2 Gift Certificates

cloudswag.com

17 pointscm6 comments

I know that at prices this low a huge markup may still not be a huge price to pay to save time, but the markup really is pretty big.

  1 day = 940% markup ($4.52 more)
  1 week = 197% markup ($6.64 more)
  1 month = 73% ($10.60 more)

But... as said, while the % looks big, if it saved me hassle then who cares about a few bucks. I guess my issue is that the page doesn't sell me on that being the case, so it seems like just getting EC2 service (possibly with less access) and for a higher price.

You're neglecting to factor in bandwidth and EBS-usage (because, keep in mind, EC2 micro instances MUST be EBS backed). 10GB of outbound data transfer is another $1.10, plus another $.50-$1.00 in EBS costs per instance.e

You could try also marketing it to Freelancers who need to develop an EC2 app for a client. This way the client can easily provide the freelancer with a development box for a week or a month.

can someone give a standard amazon gift card instead?

I believe standard amazon gift cards can be used to pay for AWS charges, but it would be after-the-fact, not prepaid.

Except that you can just add an Amazon gift card to your account and they'll apply it to future charges until it runs out, which is basically the same thing as being prepaid.

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