I Tried the New AWS Experience Today — Here’s What I Noticed
Today I created a new AWS account because I wanted to try the new AWS experience and see how it is different from the traditional AWS account.
- The signup process is much simpler
The first thing I noticed was the signup experience.
I was able to get started without entering my credit/debit card details. I just signed in and created my AWS environment.
After that, AWS created a project for me called “Future Unicorn.”
I also saw that I had AWS credits available, which made it easier to start exploring without immediately worrying about charges.
- Projects are now part of the experience
This was something I hadn't expected.
Instead of immediately seeing the traditional AWS account experience, I was working inside a Project.
At first, I was a little confused because I was used to the normal AWS Console and account structure.
After exploring it, I understood that the Project contains an AWS account and AWS manages more of the initial setup for you.
For a beginner, I think this makes getting started less confusing.
- The Region is different from what I expected
This was probably the biggest thing I noticed.
Normally, when we use AWS, we can choose a Region such as:
Mumbai — ap-south-1
Singapore — ap-southeast-1
N. Virginia — us-east-1
Stockholm — eu-north-1
Singapore — ap-southeast-1
N. Virginia — us-east-1
Stockholm — eu-north-1
But in my new AWS experience, AWS automatically assigned a Region to my Project.
My Project was assigned:
Europe (Stockholm) — eu-north-1
I tried to change it to Mumbai, but I couldn't find the normal Region selector.
So I asked Amazon Q about it, and it explained that this is expected in the new AWS experience.
The Region is automatically assigned and can't be changed through the normal console.
This was definitely different from what I was used to.
- Not every AWS service is available
Another thing I noticed is that the new Free Plan doesn't give access to every AWS service and feature.
Some services and advanced features are restricted.
So if you're following an older AWS tutorial and you don't see a particular service or option, don't immediately assume you've done something wrong.
It could simply be because you're using the new AWS experience.
I think this is something beginners should know because many AWS tutorials online are based on the traditional account experience.
- I checked the credits and Free Plan
I also checked the billing section after creating the account.
I could see my available credits and how much time was remaining on the Free Plan.
This is useful because you can keep an eye on your usage instead of wondering how much credit you have left.
I also checked the Free Tier section and created a Zero Spend Budget so that I could monitor my usage.
For me, this was one of the first things I wanted to set up before starting hands-on practice.
- I also enabled MFA
After setting up the account, I enabled MFA.
Even though AWS has simplified the signup process, I still think security should be one of the first things we configure.
My basic setup was:
AWS account → MFA → Billing monitoring → Free Tier check → Budget
Now I feel more comfortable starting my AWS labs.
- What if I need the normal AWS experience?
While exploring, I also found that AWS provides an option to activate advanced AWS features.
This is useful if you eventually need more control, additional services, multiple Regions, and other advanced AWS capabilities.
So you don't necessarily have to start with the more complicated experience.
You can start simple and move to the advanced experience when you actually need it.
What surprised me the most?
For me, it was the Region limitation.
I expected to simply select Mumbai because I'm in India, but AWS had already assigned Stockholm (eu-north-1) to my Project.
The second thing that surprised me was how much simpler the initial setup was compared with the traditional AWS account experience.
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