Cost Reference

This article provides cost data to help you evaluate self-hosted Pigsty, cloud RDS costs, and typical DBA salaries.

Overview

The following data shows approximate differences in cost. Cloud prices and discounts vary with time, region, instance size, and purchase model.

EC2	Core·Month	RDS	Core·Month
DHH Self-Hosted Core-Month Price (192C 384G)	25.32	Junior Open Source DB DBA Reference Salary	¥15K/person·month
IDC Self-Hosted (Dedicated Physical: 64C384G)	19.53	Mid-Level Open Source DB DBA Reference Salary	¥30K/person·month
IDC Self-Hosted (Container, 500% Oversold)	7	Senior Open Source DB DBA Reference Salary	¥60K/person·month
UCloud Elastic VM (8C16G, Oversold)	25	ORACLE Database License	10000
Aliyun ECS 2x Memory (Dedicated, No Oversold)	107	Aliyun RDS PG 2x Memory (Dedicated)	260
Aliyun ECS 4x Memory (Dedicated, No Oversold)	138	Aliyun RDS PG 4x Memory (Dedicated)	320
Aliyun ECS 8x Memory (Dedicated, No Oversold)	180	Aliyun RDS PG 8x Memory (Dedicated)	410
AWS C5D.METAL 96C 200G (Monthly No Prepaid)	100	AWS RDS PostgreSQL db.T2 (2x)	440
AWS C5D.METAL 96C 200G (3-Year Prepaid)	80	AWS RDS PostgreSQL db.M5 (4x)	611
AWS C7A.METAL 192C 384G (3-Year Prepaid)	104.8	AWS RDS PostgreSQL db.R6G (8x)	786

RDS Cost Reference

Payment Model	Price	Annualized (¥10K)
IDC Self-Hosted (Single Physical Machine)	¥75K / 5 years	1.5
IDC Self-Hosted (2-3 Machines for HA)	¥150K / 5 years	3.0 ~ 4.5
Aliyun RDS On-Demand	¥87.36/hour	76.5
Aliyun RDS Monthly (Baseline)	¥42K / month	50
Aliyun RDS Annual (85% off)	¥425,095 / year	42.5
Aliyun RDS 3-Year Prepaid (50% off)	¥750,168 / 3 years	25
AWS On-Demand	$25,817 / month	217
AWS 1-Year No Prepaid	$22,827 / month	191.7
AWS 3-Year Full Prepaid	$120K + $17.5K/month	175
AWS China/Ningxia On-Demand	¥197,489 / month	237
AWS China/Ningxia 1-Year No Prepaid	¥143,176 / month	171
AWS China/Ningxia 3-Year Full Prepaid	¥647K + ¥116K/month	160.6

The following table compares self-hosted and cloud database costs:

Method	Annualized (¥10K)
IDC Hosted Server 64C / 384G / 3.2TB NVME SSD 660K IOPS (2-3 Machines)	3.0 ~ 4.5
Aliyun RDS PG HA Edition pg.x4m.8xlarge.2c, 64C / 256GB / 3.2TB ESSD PL3	25 ~ 50
AWS RDS PG HA Edition db.m5.16xlarge, 64C / 256GB / 3.2TB io1 x 80k IOPS	160 ~ 217

ECS Cost Reference

Pure Compute Price Comparison (Excluding NVMe SSD / ESSD PL3)

For Aliyun, the monthly price for compute alone is 5-7x the self-hosted baseline. The 5-year prepaid price is 2x the self-hosted baseline.

Payment Model	Unit Price (¥/Core·Month)	Relative to Standard	Self-Hosted Premium Multiple
On-Demand (1.5x)	¥ 202	160 %	9.2 ~ 11.2
Monthly (Standard)	¥ 126	100 %	5.7 ~ 7.0
1-Year Prepaid (65% off)	¥ 83.7	66 %	3.8 ~ 4.7
2-Year Prepaid (55% off)	¥ 70.6	56 %	3.2 ~ 3.9
3-Year Prepaid (44% off)	¥ 55.1	44 %	2.5 ~ 3.1
4-Year Prepaid (35% off)	¥ 45	35 %	2.0 ~ 2.5
5-Year Prepaid (30% off)	¥ 38.5	30 %	1.8 ~ 2.1

DHH @ 2023	¥ 22.0
Tantan IDC Self-Hosted	¥ 18.0

Equivalent Price Comparison Including NVMe SSD / ESSD PL3

With common NVMe SSD specifications included, the monthly price is 11-14x the self-hosted baseline. The 5-year prepaid price is about 9x.

Payment Model	Unit Price (¥/Core·Month)	+ 40GB ESSD PL3	Self-Hosted Premium Multiple
On-Demand (1.5x)	¥ 202	¥ 362	14.3 ~ 18.6
Monthly (Standard)	¥ 126	¥ 286	11.3 ~ 14.7
1-Year Prepaid (65% off)	¥ 83.7	¥ 244	9.6 ~ 12.5
2-Year Prepaid (55% off)	¥ 70.6	¥ 230	9.1 ~ 11.8
3-Year Prepaid (44% off)	¥ 55.1	¥ 215	8.5 ~ 11.0
4-Year Prepaid (35% off)	¥ 45	¥ 205	8.1 ~ 10.5
5-Year Prepaid (30% off)	¥ 38.5	¥ 199	7.9 ~ 10.2

DHH @ 2023	¥ 25.3
Tantan IDC Self-Hosted	¥ 19.5

DHH Case: 192 cores with 12.8TB Gen4 SSD (1c:66); Tantan Case: 64 cores with 3.2T Gen3 MLC SSD (1c:50).
Cloud prices calculated at 40GB ESSD PL3 per core (1 core:4x RAM:40x disk).

EBS Cost Reference

Evaluation Factor	Local PCI-E NVME SSD	Aliyun ESSD PL3	AWS io2 Block Express
Capacity	32TB	32 TB	64 TB
IOPS	4K Random Read: 600K ~ 1.1M, 4K Random Write: 200K ~ 350K	4K Random Read: Max 1M	16K Random IOPS: 256K
Latency	4K Random Read: 75µs, 4K Random Write: 15µs	4K Random Read: 200µs	Random IO: ~500µs (contextually inferred as 16K)
Reliability	UBER < 1e-18, equivalent to 18 nines, MTBF: 2M hours, 5DWPD for 3 years	Data Reliability 9 nines Storage and Data Reliability	Durability: 99.999%, 5 nines (0.001% annual failure rate) io2 Specification
Cost	¥16/TB·month (5-year amortized / 3.2T MLC), 5-year warranty, ¥3000 retail	¥3200/TB·month (original ¥6400, monthly ¥4000), 50% off with 3-year full prepaid	¥1900/TB·month using max spec 65536GB 256K IOPS best discount
SLA	5-year warranty, replacement on failure	Aliyun RDS SLA Availability 99.99%: 15% monthly fee, 99%: 30% monthly fee, 95%: 100% monthly fee	Amazon RDS SLA Availability 99.95%: 15% monthly fee, 99%: 25% monthly fee, 95%: 100% monthly fee

S3 Cost Reference

Date	$/GB·Month	¥/TB·5Years	HDD ¥/TB	SSD ¥/TB
2006.03	0.150	63000	2800
2010.11	0.140	58800	1680
2012.12	0.095	39900	420	15400
2014.04	0.030	12600	371	9051
2016.12	0.023	9660	245	3766
2023.12	0.023	9660	105	280

Other References	High-Perf Storage	Top-Tier Discounted	vs Purchased NVMe SSD	Price Ref
S3 Express	0.160	67200	DHH 12T	1400
EBS io2	0.125 + IOPS	114000	Shannon 3.2T	900

Cloud Exit Collection

Developers once widely accepted “moving to the cloud” and often overlooked alternatives. This collection uses data analysis and firsthand experience to explain the benefits and risks of public cloud rental. Use it as a reference for cost control and efficiency: Cloud Computing Mudslide: Collection.

Cloud Infrastructure Basics

Cloud Business Model

Cloud Exit Odyssey

Cloud Failure Post-Mortems

RDS Failures

Cloud Vendor Profiles

Internet Tech Master Crash Course [Repost]
How State-Owned Enterprises Inside the Door View Cloud Vendors Outside [Repost]
Alibaba Cloud Stuck at State Enterprise Customers’ Door [Repost]
The Amateur Troupes Behind Internet Failures [Repost]
Cloud Vendors View of Customers: Poor, Idle, and Starved for Love [Repost]