SQL Server Standard pricing confusion

Question

When I google how much SQL Server Standard costs, I land on Microsoft's site and it looks like it would be 899/yr
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/sql-server/sql-server-2019-pricing

But then when I create a new RDS instance, the minimum instance that i can get is db.m5.large, which costs 1,500/yr.
It goes up to around 3,000/yr if I choose the default instance that I am offered.

Why so expensive on AWS?

Answer

Hello,

I understand you wanted to know why RDS SQL Server has a higher price than MS offering - Although I am not an expert in AWS billing, but just wanted to share my two cents on the matter.

When a customer purchases from the MS website - the customer only gets the license.

AWS on the other hand provides the server, back-end networking, storage, Multi-AZ (if selected) - basically the complete package and ready to use "server" that too fully licensed - On top of that, RDS also offers features of no hardware maintenance from customer end, patching etc so that customer can focus only on the application code - comparing that only with the software license - the price is bound to go up.

For more in depth detail of the RDS billing - please check https://aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing/

[] DB instance billing for Amazon RDS - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/User_DBInstanceBilling.html

Hope I was able to shed some light on the matter.

SQL Server Standard pricing confusion

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