This seems to be an unpopular opinion on HN, but you are correct. It is possible to generate millions in revenue with 1 or 2 devs. If you manage to do that, paying a higher than average price for AWS is a no brainer.
How much revenue you can generate per developer is totally irrelevant. If you generate millions in revenue but server costs eats it all up, paying a 3x+ premium to run on AWS can easily bankrupt you. By all means, if your server costs are inconsequential to your bottom line, go nuts.
I've just moved a client off EC2 because the premium they were paying would have been a massive problem. The 85% reduction in hosting cost has bought them months of extra runway. Their operational costs related to their hosting also dropped - there's simply been fewer issues to deal with.
I'm sure there are instances where AWS is fine. But there are also plenty of cases where it is a matter of survival to cut those costs.
All good points. I should have been more specific. You can generate > $1M in profit with 1 or 2 devs, and in that case, AWS is a no brainer. In my experience, it is much more difficult to manage dedicated hardware in multiple data centers for high availability with only 1 or 2 devs. The opportunity costs alone in that case can kill you.
But I don't live in a world where runway is a consideration so YMMV. At the time I commented, the parent post was getting downvoted. I've seen that knee jerk reaction on HN multiple times, and that is what prompted my comment.
Origin systems and Id Software did for years, Plenty of Fish had one dev, Minecraft, Stack Overflow, Instagram, Flappy Bird... there have been a lot, and it's probably getting more common in recent years.
It's kind of hard to get numbers though since most private companies don't trumpet their revenue numbers or engineering headcount.
I've just moved a client off EC2 because the premium they were paying would have been a massive problem. The 85% reduction in hosting cost has bought them months of extra runway. Their operational costs related to their hosting also dropped - there's simply been fewer issues to deal with.
I'm sure there are instances where AWS is fine. But there are also plenty of cases where it is a matter of survival to cut those costs.