Cassette vs AWS EC2

AWS is the everything store of cloud computing. Cassette is the corner shop that has exactly what you need.

The Short Version

The AWS Experience

Let's be honest about what launching an EC2 instance actually involves:

1. Choose an AMI (Amazon Machine Image). There are thousands. Which Ubuntu? Amazon Linux? Amazon Linux 2? 2023? With or without ECS optimization?

2. Choose an instance type. t2.micro? t3.micro? t3a.micro? t4g.micro? What's the difference? (Answer: generations, processors, pricing tiers, burstable vs. dedicated credits)

3. Configure networking. VPC, subnet, security group, elastic IP. If you don't know what these are, you're about to learn—whether you want to or not.

4. Add storage. EBS gp2? gp3? io1? Provisioned IOPS? What size? The default 8GB fills up faster than you'd think.

5. Configure security group. Which ports? From where? The defaults are either too open or too closed.

6. Create a key pair. Download the .pem file. Don't lose it. chmod 400. Remember where you saved it.

7. Launch. Wait. Check status. Wait more. Find the public IP. SSH in. Install updates. Install what you actually need.

You wanted a server. You got a certification program.

The Cassette Experience

1. Pick a size. Small, Medium, or Large.
2. Wait 60 seconds.
3. SSH in. Your keys are already there.

That's it. The machine is Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with updates applied. SSH is configured. The firewall allows web traffic and SSH, blocks everything else. Backups start automatically tonight.

The Billing Horror Stories

AWS billing is so complex it spawned an entire industry of cost optimization consultants. Let that sink in.

An EC2 instance bills by:
- Compute hours (on-demand, reserved, spot—each with different pricing)
- EBS storage (per GB-month)
- EBS I/O (sometimes per million requests)
- Data transfer out (per GB, tiered)
- Data transfer between regions (per GB)
- Elastic IP (free when attached, charges when not)
- Snapshots (per GB-month)
- CloudWatch (free tier, then per metric, per alarm, per dashboard)

A free tier instance that does anything useful will cost you $20-50/month once you add realistic storage and bandwidth.

Cassette pricing: $12, $29, or $99 per month. That's the bill. Every month. No surprises.

The 200+ Services Problem

AWS has over 200 services. Even experienced engineers don't know what half of them do.

To run a basic web app on AWS properly, you might use:
- EC2 (compute)
- EBS (storage)
- RDS (database)
- ElastiCache (Redis/caching)
- ELB (load balancer)
- Route 53 (DNS)
- ACM (SSL certificates)
- S3 (file storage)
- CloudFront (CDN)
- IAM (permissions)
- VPC (networking)
- Security Groups (firewalls)
- CloudWatch (monitoring)
- SNS (alerts)

Each service has its own console, its own pricing, its own documentation. Each requires IAM permissions. Each can fail independently.

Cassette's answer: One server. Install what you need. Your Postgres, Redis, and app all run on the same machine, talking over localhost. No network hops, no service discovery, no IAM policies.

When AWS Makes Sense

AWS is the right choice when:
- You need global scale with data centers everywhere
- Your team has dedicated infrastructure engineers
- You're spending $100k+/month and can negotiate enterprise discounts
- You need compliance certifications (HIPAA, FedRAMP, etc.)
- You're already deep in the AWS ecosystem

When Cassette Makes Sense

Cassette is the right choice when:
- You want a server, not a platform to learn
- You're building something that will serve thousands (even millions) of requests
- Your team should focus on product, not infrastructure
- You want to predict your costs with 100% accuracy
- You deploy with Docker, Kamal, Dokku, or git push
- You value simplicity over infinite configurability

The Cloud Exodus Is Real

37signals moved Basecamp and HEY from AWS to their own servers, saving nearly $1.5 million per year. Dropbox left AWS for custom infrastructure. Geico abandoned the cloud.

Why? Because the economies of scale promised by hyperscale cloud providers now run in reverse. A single well-configured server costs less and performs better than the equivalent AWS setup for most workloads.

Modern frameworks are efficient. A Rails app on a $29/month Cassette can handle the same traffic that once required multiple EC2 instances, an RDS database, and an ElastiCache cluster.

The Philosophy

AWS treats infrastructure as a utility to be metered. Every byte transferred, every disk operation, every minute of uptime gets counted and billed.

Cassette treats infrastructure as a tool you own. Here's a computer. It's fast, it's reliable, it's yours. Do what you want with it.

The difference matters. When infrastructure is metered, you optimize for the meter. When it's yours, you optimize for shipping.

Stop paying the complexity tax. Join the waitlist and get back to building.