[corin_]

I know that at prices this low a huge markup may still not be a huge price to pay to save time, but the markup really is pretty big.

  1 day = 940% markup ($4.52 more)
  1 week = 197% markup ($6.64 more)
  1 month = 73% ($10.60 more)

But... as said, while the % looks big, if it saved me hassle then who cares about a few bucks. I guess my issue is that the page doesn't sell me on that being the case, so it seems like just getting EC2 service (possibly with less access) and for a higher price.

[cm]

You're neglecting to factor in bandwidth and EBS-usage (because, keep in mind, EC2 micro instances MUST be EBS backed). 10GB of outbound data transfer is another $1.10, plus another $.50-$1.00 in EBS costs per instance.e