AWS (Amazon's cloud platform) is where serious software runs when it needs to grow, stay online, and pass a security review. But if you're not technical, “migrating to AWS” can sound like a black box. This page opens the box — what a move really is, how long it takes, what can go wrong (and how we stop it), and what it costs — in plain English.
Your move, in five steps.
In our experience, a move to AWS almost always starts with one of three problems. If any of these sounds like your week, you're in the right place.
A big customer or an investor asks whether your systems are secure — often as a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report (widely recognised security certifications). Your current setup may have no good answer. AWS gives you the controls and the paper trail those reviews expect. We have delivered exactly this, including a SOC 2 project for an agentic AI (software that acts on its own to complete tasks) product on AWS.
Platforms like Heroku or DigitalOcean, or a single rented server, are easy to start on and hard to grow on. Traffic spikes cause slowdowns, you can't get the configuration you need, and there's simply nowhere left to turn the dial. AWS gives you room to grow without re-platforming your whole business every year.
Simpler hosting often looks cheap until you scale — then the monthly bill climbs with no obvious way to bring it down. AWS lets you match spend to what you actually use, and gives us real levers to lower it. Moving isn't only about cost, but for a lot of founders the runaway bill is the final push.
Strip away the jargon and a migration (the move itself) is just five steps. Here is each one, and exactly where you fit. Notice how careful the ending is — that's on purpose.
“It depends” is true but useless, so here's a real number instead of a guess. Timelines move with how many applications you have and how complicated your data is.
On one program we moved 9 applications off Heroku in 6 weeks — with zero outages. That's the honest benchmark to anchor on: a real batch of production software, moved on a schedule, without customers noticing.
One straightforward application, with a clean database and no compliance requirements, can move a good deal faster than a batch of nine. If your setup is small and tidy, so is the timeline — and we'll tell you that on the first call.
Compliance-heavy or multi-application programs take longer, because there's more to rehearse, verify, and document for auditors. Longer doesn't mean riskier — it means we spend more time proving each piece before it goes live.
Every founder's worry about a move is reasonable. Here are the three that come up most, and the specific thing we do so each one doesn't happen to you.
The fear: the cutover goes wrong in the middle of the night and nobody knows what to do. Our prevention: rehearsed cutovers. We practise the exact switch, start to finish, before the real one — so on the night itself there are no unknowns, just a checklist we've already run.
The fear: you switch, it breaks, and you're stuck. Our prevention: rollback points. A rollback point is a saved “undo” — because we keep the old system live and ready, if anything looks wrong we switch straight back to it in minutes, not hours. You're never trapped on the new system.
The fear: downtime, errors, angry emails. Our prevention: a track record, not a promise. We moved 9 applications off Heroku in 6 weeks with zero outages, and completed a separate DigitalOcean-to-AWS move with zero downtime. Boring, uneventful moves are the whole point.
None of this is luck. It's the same disciplined method every time — count everything, copy without deleting, rehearse, keep the old system as a safety net, and only retire it once the numbers prove the new one. Read the full write-ups in our case studies.
There is a funding program from AWS that can help cover the cost of your move. It's called MAP — the AWS Migration Acceleration Program — AWS funding that can offset migration cost.
In plain terms: AWS may co-fund qualifying migrations, subject to AWS eligibility and approval. We handle the qualification paperwork and check whether your move is eligible, so you never have to learn the program yourself.
We never quote a fixed discount, because the amount is decided by AWS, not by us. What we can promise is that we'll pursue the funding on your behalf and tell you straight whether you qualify.
See the migration service →We keep pricing simple and tell you the numbers up front. Here is how migration cost works, in the same words we'd use on a call.
Simple single-app migrations typically land in the $1,000–3,000 range; multi-app and compliance-heavy programs are scoped per workload; AWS MAP co-funding may reduce your cost (subject to AWS approval).
For anything else cost-related — ongoing operations, hardening for a security review, or a larger program — we share full pricing on the first call. No meter running in the background, no numbers invented on the spot: you'll know the shape of the cost before you commit to anything.
This page is written for founders and non-technical leaders on purpose. If you have engineers who want the architecture, tooling, and full case studies, point them at the pages written for them.
The full technical migration service — approach, tooling, and how a move is scoped and delivered end to end.
The Heroku-to-AWS playbook in technical detail: containers, databases, deployment pipelines, and the cutover mechanics.
Moving off DigitalOcean onto AWS — architecture, the data move, and how we achieved zero downtime on the switch.
Plain answers to the questions that come up before every move. Don't see yours? Book a call and ask directly — in plain English.
Book a call →Whether a customer just asked for a security report, your current host is buckling, or the bill keeps climbing — start with a free call directly with our founder. You'll leave with a clear, honest picture of what your move would involve and what it would cost.
★ AWS Advanced Tier Partner · ISO 27001:2022 · Zero-outage migration track record
