pricing for virtual server

You pay for the server when it's turned on and running, whether you are 'using' it or not (just like the lights! You don't get a discount when you are out of the room!!) Then if you are on the Hobby plan, then you pay 15% on top of that (to the TKL devs - but it all comes on the one Amazon bill).

So if you shut it down when you aren't using it then you won't be charged for the hours it's not running (only the hours and part thereof that the machine is actually ticking over).

Only thing is, when you turn S3 backed instances off (the only type allowed on the Hobby plan) you'll lose your data - so you'll need a backup (unless you want to redo everything, everytime). TKL provide a nice one called TKLBAM (~$0.14/GB - AWS charge, no extra to TKL devs) but I suggest testing your backups (in a new machine) before you kill the one you are about to turn off.

If you've never used AWS before they do offer a free tier (1 free micro instance for a year). Only catch is that you need to either pay the $20/mth Budget plan fee, or get a friend to sign up to TKL Hub (AFAIK they don't actually need to purchase anything - just go through the whole sign up process - including registering an Amazon account). Micro instances aren't very powerful and their CPUs get throttled if you run anything CPU intensive, but TKL offer a 14 day free trial of Micro instances.

So what I'd do if I were you would be, if you can sign up for the Free Tier through Amazon - using the same account as you have registered with TKL Hub (assuming you have got that far - otherwise when you sign up to the Hub make sure you use the same account) do that. Then start up the free trial of micro instances. Send out an invite or 2 to people who may be interested in TKL. Use it lots in that 14 days and if you think it'll work for you either pay the $20/mth or send out more invites. If you decide a micro is no good for you then cancel the Budget plan and go for a Small instance (on the Hobby plan). Or if you plan to run more than one server, then the $20/mth may be better value anyway?

There is an AWS calculator which can help you work out what you are likely to spend (just keep in mind the additional TKL expenses - 15% on all Hobby instances or $20/mth for unlimited instances on the Budget plan.

Hope that helped a bit.

PS I just edited my above post for clarity.

thanks Jeremy

The free tier gives you one Micro instance free for a year. Although Micro instances are pretty cheap if you plan to just run it for a few hours. Although you still pay for the EBS volume by the month (whether the server is running or not - unless on the free tier of course).

FYI Micro instances are only EBS backed, but I personally wouldn't trust it as your only backup. If backup is your plan, then perhaps a local instance (running in a VM even) backing up your data with TKLBAM may be a better option?

And as I said above if you can get a friend to sign up to the Hub then you get Micro instances free (but not other size EBS backed instances).

Spending $20 per month is within my budget. But do I have to pay anything else on top of it?

What I need is to be able to use the instance a few hours daily, make a daily backup and then shut it down. I assume it is EBS backed instances. Please correct me if I am wrong. The next day when I switch on the instance I want to be able to use it immediately without restoring data from my previous backup, so in this case my backup is only restored if I have problems with my instance.

In the above scenario, do I have to spend $20 per month plus the hourly charge for the effective hours the instance is used before shutdown and plus the cost for backup storage?

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I've been away.

Sorry, I forgot to clear my browser cache. After I have cleared my browser cache, I could access my instance again using xxxx.tklapp.com.

And after some further reading I understand that only EBS backed instance can be shutdown and rebooted.