If you’re weighing AWS Bitnami against Azure for a new WordPress deployment in 2026, the honest starting point is that Bitnami itself is being phased out on AWS — Blueprints packaged by Bitnami stopped receiving updates on May 19, 2026, and you won’t be able to create new instances with them at all after November 19, 2026, just two months from now. That changes the real comparison: it’s not “Bitnami vs Azure” anymore, it’s “AWS’s own WordPress option vs Azure.”
The Bitnami Timeline You Need to Know
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| May 19, 2026 | Bitnami-packaged Lightsail blueprints stop receiving updates |
| June 1, 2026 | 24-hour brownout of the top 20 Bitnami ECR repositories (early warning) |
| June 10, 2026 | Bitnami containers/Helm charts retired from AWS ECR Public Gallery and AWS Marketplace |
| November 19, 2026 | No new instances can be created from Bitnami-packaged blueprints |
Existing Bitnami-based instances keep running without disruption, and you can still spin up new instances from existing snapshots even after the cutoff — but starting a brand-new WordPress site on Bitnami today means building on infrastructure with a two-month runway left before it’s frozen entirely.
What Actually Replaces Bitnami on AWS
AWS introduced its own native Lightsail WordPress blueprint specifically as the Bitnami replacement, and it’s a real upgrade in a few concrete ways: it enforces Instance Metadata Service v2 (IMDSv2) by default for better security, ships with a guided HTTPS setup using Let’s Encrypt, and comes with popular plugins pre-installed (Jetpack, All in One SEO, WP Mail, Google Analytics for WordPress, All-in-One WP Migration and Backup, AMP, W3 Total Cache). Pricing starts at the same $5/month Bitnami always advertised.
The Real Cost Comparison
The advertised entry price on both platforms undersells what a production site actually costs once you add the pieces a live WordPress site needs:
| Platform | Advertised entry price | Realistic production cost |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Lightsail (native WordPress blueprint) | $5/month | $35–48/month once you add managed database, CDN distribution, and daily snapshots |
| Azure App Service (B1 tier) | ~$13–15/month | $70+/month on P1v2 for real production traffic, plus a separate Azure Database for MySQL instance from ~$12/month (Burstable B1ms) |
Neither platform sells “WordPress” as one product — both are a combination of compute, database, and supporting services assembled together, and the marketed low price only ever covers one piece of that.
Where Each Platform Actually Differs
- AWS Lightsail is closer to a simple VPS — you get a preconfigured server (PHP, MariaDB, phpMyAdmin, WordPress) and manage it fairly directly. It’s the more hands-on, lower-abstraction option.
- Azure App Service bundles more enterprise-grade infrastructure by default: autoscaling, DDoS protection, a Web Application Firewall, and a dedicated instance model separate from shared hosting. It’s a more managed, higher-abstraction platform, which shows up in the price at comparable traffic levels.
- Database: Lightsail can run MariaDB locally on the instance itself for simple sites, or you can add a managed database separately. Azure separates the database out as its own resource (Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server) from the start, which adds a predictable extra line item but also extra reliability (autoscale IOPS, storage auto-grow) than a self-managed on-instance database.
Which to Actually Choose
- Simple site, tight budget, comfortable managing a server yourself — AWS Lightsail’s native WordPress blueprint, not Bitnami, is the reasonable low-cost starting point.
- Need built-in autoscaling, WAF, and DDoS protection without configuring it yourself — Azure App Service’s managed features are worth the higher baseline cost.
- Currently running Bitnami and haven’t migrated yet — your existing instance keeps working, but plan a move to the native Lightsail blueprint (or elsewhere) before you need to spin up a new instance, since that path closes in November.
- Uncertain about future traffic growth — Azure’s autoscaling reduces the risk of a manual resize under load; Lightsail requires more proactive capacity planning as traffic grows.
For the broader hosting decision beyond just these two platforms, see WordPress Hosting in 2026: How to Choose the Right Plan. Weighing AWS against Azure for a specific project? Get in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to migrate off Bitnami immediately?
Not urgently if you already have a running Bitnami instance — it keeps working without disruption. The deadline that matters is for creating new instances, which stops November 19, 2026.
Is the native AWS Lightsail WordPress blueprint as good as Bitnami was?
In several ways it’s an improvement — IMDSv2 security enforced by default, a guided HTTPS setup, and a curated set of pre-installed plugins — at the same starting price point Bitnami advertised.
Is Azure always more expensive than AWS for WordPress?
At comparable traffic and feature levels, generally yes on baseline price, but Azure bundles infrastructure (autoscaling, WAF, DDoS protection) that you’d otherwise have to configure and often pay for separately on AWS — so the real cost gap narrows once you match feature parity rather than sticker price.
Featured image: original illustration.