However, unlike S3, the Dreamhost price also includes PHP, databases, and various useful extras, such as one-click installs of popular site software.

One static site I run from Dreamhost sees around 300 visitors a day and offers a 2MB file for download. From the Dreamhost configuration panel, I can see that the site burns through around 350MB of bandwidth per day, even on weekends.

Using a quick rough calculation I can see that's 10.65GB per month, which if served via S3 would cost me absolutely nothing if I signed up to the . This allows up to 15GB of data transfer per month, although I might incur a few dollars across the year because of . The Free Usage Tier allows 20,000 GET requests per month, and my 300 visitors a day typically visit many pages and therefore download many images, each of which incurs a separate GET.

While a comparison with Dreamhost is simply unfair because Dreamhost provides so much more than simple storage, the S3 price is very compelling if you're paying a per-GB or per-TB fee with your existing provider. Plus, S3 will always be fast, and you'll never run out of storage space.

Keir Thomas has been making known his opinion about computing matters since the last century, and more recently has written several best-selling books. You can learn more about him at http://keirthomas.com. His Twitter feed is @keirthomas.