Startups
Too small for a reservation tool? Do the math first.
A founder or the first platform hire, watching the AWS bill among ten other things. A single missed renewal on a lean fleet can cost more than a year of the tool that would have caught it, and that tool is free at this size.
A founder or the first platform hire who owns the AWS bill among ten other things.
- 1–10 reservations, all in one AWS account
- Nobody's job title includes "reservation renewals"
- You've wondered whether a tool like this is even worth it at your size
Where the money leaks
Same size, same three leaks.
The leak
The renewal nobody put on a calendar
A one-year term ends with no warning, and usage reverts to the on-demand rate. On a lean account there's no dedicated owner to notice, sometimes for weeks.
What Reserver does
Expiry radar, free on Watch. Reserver tracks every reservation's end date and flags it before the term lapses. Connect a read-only role and it's watching from day one.
The leak
The instance that never got reserved
A cache node or app tier goes live, runs steady for months, and nobody circles back to reserve it. There's no quarterly review forcing the question.
What Reserver does
One inventory scan, one answer. Reserver scans what's actually running against what's actually reserved and shows the gap. No waiting for a review that was never going to happen.
The leak
The "we'll get to it" backlog item
Reservation math competes with shipping the product. It stays a backlog item until a bill spike forces the question.
What Reserver does
The math done for you, always current. Savings and missed-renewal cost are computed from your own spend the moment you connect. No backlog required.
A renewal missed by 14 days ≈ $92. On Watch, catching it costs nothing.
Free, forever, and it already surfaces real, spendable savings on a small, steady fleet.
Tracking this by hand runs about 5.6 hours a year, worth about $536 at a fully loaded rate. It's nobody's job at this size, and Watch is free.
Objections
Straight answers for startups
We still run on AWS credits. Should we reserve yet?
Yes, for the steady part, with No Upfront. A credit can pay the hourly rate but never an upfront fee. Read the AWS credits guide for the rules and the math.
We have never bought a reservation. Where do we start?
Pick one instance that runs all year and buy 1-year No Upfront. Read the first-purchase guide for what must match and where to click.
We're too small for a reservation tool, is this worth it?
Usually, yes. On the real, lean single-account fleet in the case study below, one missed renewal and one never-reserved tier together outweighed a year of the tool that would have caught them. Watch, built for exactly this size, is free, forever.
We already glance at the AWS bill every month, isn't that enough?
A monthly glance catches the disasters, not the gap in between. Reserved Instances don't auto-renew, and a routine bill check can run for weeks before it notices a lapsed term. See the case study below for exactly how long. Watch's expiry radar flags the date before it lapses, so nobody has to remember to look.
Do we need to give Reserver write access to buy anything?
No. Reserver uses a read-only IAM role limited to Describe/List calls. It tells you what to buy, and you make the purchase yourself. A separate, narrowly scoped purchase role is on the roadmap, opt-in when it ships.
Proof, not a promise
A real account this size.
RDS · ElastiCache · EC2 · 1 account
Six instances, one missed renewal: $2,195 found
A real, lean, single-account fleet, the size a founder or a small platform team runs. We priced it at the account's own AWS on-demand and Reserved Instance rates for the exact classes named. The customer asked us to anonymize it. A missed renewal and a never-reserved tier both have a price.
Read the study →Built for this size
Watch: $0 free, forever
The same flat price whether you track 10 reservations or 10,000, never a percentage of what you save.
What's it worth
See what reservations save you.
Pick your size, or drag the slider to your own AWS compute spend. The calculator uses the same conservative math Reserver runs on your account.
A renewal missed by 14 days on one reservation ≈ $92. On Watch, catching it costs nothing.
Carry these numbers to the waitlist →Carries only the totals shown above, never reservation IDs, ARNs, or account details. Nothing leaves your browser until you submit.
Estimates. Actual savings depend on instance class, term, payment option, and how much of your fleet is steady. Reserver shows the exact math for your account.
Stop overpaying for a steady fleet.
Reserver is in early access. Join the list, and we will onboard you when we have capacity. Your first recommendation lands within minutes of connecting.