Evaluating CloudSource
What it costs to run
The licence is $1,499 once. After that your only bill is AWS. Here is how to work out what yours would be, with worked examples at three sizes.
These are estimates, not quotes. AWS pricing varies by region, changes over time, and depends on choices only you can make. Use the figures below to get the shape of the bill, then confirm with the AWS Pricing Calculator for your own region and configuration.
What you actually pay for
CloudSource uses four AWS services. Three of them cost meaningful money; one is usually rounding error unless you publish a lot of video.
| Service | What it does | What drives the cost |
|---|---|---|
| Elastic Beanstalk | Runs the admin panel and the delivery API | EC2 instance size and how many are running. Usually your largest line. |
| Database | Stores models, entries and users | Instance size and allocated storage. Second largest line. |
| S3 | Stores media | Gigabytes stored, then requests. Cheap until your library is very large. |
| CloudFront | Caches API responses and media at the edge | Data transferred out. Scales with traffic, but caching blunts it. |
| MediaConvert | Transcodes uploaded video | Minutes of video processed. Zero if you do not upload video. |
Three worked examples
Monthly figures, on-demand pricing, one region. Reserved instances or a Savings Plan typically take 30–40% off the compute and database lines if you commit for a year.
Single brand site
One space, a few thousand products, modest traffic, images only.
| Line | Assumption | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Application hosting | 1 × small instance | ~$18 |
| Database | Small single-AZ instance, 20 GB | ~$18 |
| S3 storage | 50 GB of media | ~$2 |
| CloudFront | 200 GB transferred out | ~$17 |
| MediaConvert | No video | $0 |
| Estimated total | ~$55/month |
Multi-brand retailer
Four or five spaces for separate brands and regions, larger catalogue, campaign video, meaningful traffic.
| Line | Assumption | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Application hosting | 2 × medium instances, load balanced | ~$90 |
| Database | Medium multi-AZ instance, 100 GB | ~$135 |
| S3 storage | 500 GB of media | ~$12 |
| CloudFront | 2 TB transferred out | ~$170 |
| MediaConvert | ~2 hours of video per month | ~$18 |
| Estimated total | ~$425/month |
Evaluation or staging
A single environment to import your content into and point a staging storefront at, before you commit to anything.
| Line | Assumption | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Application hosting | 1 × micro instance | ~$9 |
| Database | Micro single-AZ instance, 20 GB | ~$15 |
| S3 and CloudFront | Low volume | ~$3 |
| Estimated total | ~$27/month |
Note the range. The gap between the small and large examples is almost entirely CloudFront data transfer and database sizing. If you are trying to predict your bill, start by estimating those two.
Comparing like for like
A subscription CMS bundles hosting into the platform fee, so compare total cost of ownership rather than licence against licence.
| Over three years | CloudSource | SaaS at $300/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Licence or subscription | $1,499 | $10,800 |
| Infrastructure | $1,980 at $55/mo | Included |
| Total, single brand site | $3,479 | $10,800 |
| Total, multi-brand retailer | $16,799 at $425/mo | Higher tier, typically more |
The honest read: at small scale the saving is large and obvious. At larger scale the infrastructure bill catches up with a mid-tier subscription, and the argument shifts from cost to control — your region, your data, your source code, no metered limits during peak trading.
Levers that move the number
- Reserved capacity. A one-year commitment on compute and database typically saves 30–40%.
- Cache aggressively. Published content changes rarely. Longer CloudFront TTLs cut both origin load and data transfer.
- Right-size the database. Single-AZ is fine for staging. Only pay for multi-AZ where downtime genuinely costs you.
- Compress images on upload. Storage is cheap, but transfer is not, and oversized packshots are paid for on every request.
- Turn staging off overnight. Non-production environments do not need to run at 3am.
- Consolidate spaces. Spaces are logical, not separate infrastructure — running six costs no more than running one.