This topic describes the differences between the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances that run on a dedicated host and on a shared host.

The following table lists the differences.
Item ECS instances on a shared host ECS instances on a dedicated host
Network type Virtual private clouds (VPCs) and the classic network are supported. For more information, see Network types. Only VPCs are supported.
Billable item See Billing overview. See Resource billing for ECS instances on a dedicated host.
Billing method

Subscription, pay-as-you-go, preemptible instances, and reserved instances are supported.

Subscription and pay-as-you-go are supported.

Renewal You can specify the renewal period based on your business requirements. When you specify the renewal period, the expiration date of the instance cannot be later than that of the subscription dedicated host. For more information, see Limits.
Economical mode See No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected). After the economical mode is enabled for an instance, the resources of the dedicated host are released when the instance is stopped. These resources include the vCPUs and memory. Resources are reallocated to the dedicated host when the instance is restarted. For more information, see Subscription.
Switch the billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription

Before you switch the billing method of an instance, the instance must meet the prerequisites. For more information, see Change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.

Before you switch the billing method of an instance, the instance must meet the prerequisites. The feature is applicable only to the instances on a pay-as-you-go dedicated host. After the billing method of an ECS instance is switched to subscription, the expiration date of the instance cannot be later than that of the dedicated host.
ECS instance type See Instance families. For information about ECS instance families that are supported by each type of dedicated host, see Dedicated host types.
Create an ECS instance See Create an instance by using the wizard. See Create an ECS instance on a dedicated host.
Upgrade or downgrade an ECS instance See Change instance types. See Upgrade or downgrade a subscription ECS instance.
Adjust public bandwidth See Modify public bandwidth. See Modify public bandwidth.
Assign public IP addresses See Modify public bandwidth. See Modify public bandwidth.
Release an ECS instance
  • Pay-as-you-go ECS instances can be manually or automatically released. For more information, see Release an instance.
  • If you do not renew a subscription ECS instance after it expires, the instance is automatically released. If a pay-as-you-go ECS instance has overdue payments and you do not add funds to the account that owns the ECS instance, the ECS instance is automatically released.
If you do not renew expired dedicated hosts, ECS instances on the hosts are automatically released.