Successful Cloud Exit: How We Helped Everysize Leave AWS and Save 80% of Their Costs

Eugen Falkenstein had a memorable moment on the German show „Höhle der Löwen“ (Shark Tank) in 2017 — panned by the celebrity investors, but walked away with an unofficial traffic record and record sales right after. Today the only German sneaker search engine helps over 2 million customers find the right shoe in the right size at the best price. When Eugen landed on our doorstep a few years ago, the seven-person team had one specific problem: their AWS bill had doubled over two years — without any meaningful increase in resource needs. What followed was one of the most successful cloud migrations we've facilitated at We Manage – 80% cost reduction with regained flexibility on top.

The Starting Point: Trapped in the AWS Cost Spiral

Everysize is the only search engine in the German web that finds sneakers at the best prices in the desired shoe size. Like many others, the seven-person team had chosen what seemed like the straightforward path: "We were with Amazon AWS from the start because that's what everyone does," recalls Eugen Falkenstein.

However, what initially seemed like a pragmatic decision increasingly became a problem. "Increasingly complicated pricing models followed. Eventually, we were paying AWS a five-figure amount per month, twice as much as in the beginning – with almost constant resource requirements," reports Falkenstein. Monthly AWS costs had risen to over €4,000, while agility simultaneously decreased due to complex dependencies.

Why Everysize Came to Us

When we first met Eugen – incidentally through a private connection, "Our wives knew each other" – it quickly became clear that more was needed than just another service provider. Falkenstein was looking for a genuine partner: "For that, you need someone who really understands your business model and contributes their own ideas to implement that on a technical infrastructure, without vendor lock-in."

His requirements were clearly defined: 24/7 service, technical competence, and the balance between professional service and partnership at eye level. "I don't see myself just as a customer, but also as a partner and colleague. I like to spontaneously throw ideas across the table. That only works with teammates who maintain the balance between service and being on equal footing."

Three Reasons AWS No Longer Fit Everysize

Our first analysis made it clear: Everysize was using only a fraction of what AWS was built for. Roughly 80% of compute went into predictable backend routines — product data management, feed import, BI preparation. "Compute-intensive, but everything well calculable," as Falkenstein puts it. For that kind of workload, a hyperscaler's flexibility advantages are simply oversized. Three points eventually tipped the scales:

1. The cost curve ran against the business model. AWS bills doubled over two years without any meaningful increase in resource needs. Each new pricing model, each adjusted tier added a few more percent on top. For a bootstrapped team that earns every euro itself, this trajectory is not sustainable.

2. Vendor lock-in had never been part of the design. AWS-specific managed services felt like accelerators in the beginning, but came at the price of making a provider switch more expensive every year. Multi-cloud readiness was never an architectural requirement — just a later wish.

3. The service partner had turned into a service provider. The previous agency grew, processes became more formal. Partnership consulting turned into ticket processing — done well, but not what a seven-person team needs to operate as equals.

The Migration: Developing Tailored Solutions

After a successful trial project, we gradually took over the operation and optimization of Everysize's Elasticsearch installation. The migration to Hetzner Cloud extended over eighteen months – deliberately cautious and without risk to ongoing operations.

"The migration from hyperscaler to classic hoster doesn't always go one-to-one," Falkenstein admits. This is exactly where we could apply our expertise: We developed tailored solutions for a powerful MySQL cluster on the new infrastructure and migrated complex components like the URL shortener for social media marketing.

It was important to us not just to migrate, but to optimize. We automated most IT processes to guarantee 24/7 availability and implemented proactive monitoring and alerting.

What We Actually Built Under the Hood

A few components required real engineering work. The three most interesting in short:

A self-operated MySQL cluster instead of AWS RDS. Set up on Hetzner servers as a highly available cluster — same availability, same performance, roughly one tenth of the cost. The operations effort hasn't disappeared, it's shifted: from the AWS console onto our on-call rotation.

A URL shortener for social media marketing. Previously an expensive SaaS service with tracking limits, now a lean service on owned infrastructure — no external dependency, no monthly license fees.

Elasticsearch as the technical heart. The actual sneaker search runs on our Managed Cloud Servers — configured via Ansible, monitored around the clock. Parts of the backend are built in Symfony; we offer that stack as a managed service to other customers as well.

The whole setup is multi-cloud-ready today: Hetzner for the predictable bulk of operations, Google Cloud for targeted workloads. That keeps the negotiating position with every individual host intact — the lesson Everysize translated from AWS into their own architectural baseline.

The Collaboration: DevOps Reimagined

Particularly successful was the close integration with development agency Intradesys, which is simultaneously rewriting the complete search engine code. "Thomas and I develop the prototypes, for which Andy then designs and builds the optimal IT infrastructure," describes Falkenstein's working method.

This agile, asynchronous collaboration via Slack and email made it possible to respond quickly to new requirements without getting lost in lengthy coordination processes. "Through asynchronicity, we get more focus, calm, and consideration," says Falkenstein.

The Results: More Than Just Cost Savings

The numbers speak for themselves: annual server costs dropped from €50,000 to just under €10,000 – a savings of 80%. But the qualitative improvements were at least equally important:

Higher Reliability: "In emergencies, I no longer have to activate my service providers. Today Andy proactively notifies me and has usually already solved the problem, even at night or on weekends," reports Falkenstein.

Regained Agility: "We implement new ideas within a few weeks today. We've regained our nimbleness and can fully leverage our strengths as a small digital company in the market again."

Current Projects and Future Plans

Everysize is already using their newly gained technical sovereignty for ambitious future projects. We're supporting them in modernizing their content management system and building their own marketplace for sneakers. "We might want to internationalize our business in the next step," considers Falkenstein.

All these initiatives are only possible because the IT infrastructure functions again as a strategic enabler rather than a cost factor.

What Other Companies Can Learn

The Everysize case exemplifies that a cloud exit can be more than pure cost reduction. It's about regaining technical sovereignty and entrepreneurial flexibility.

"As an online entrepreneur, we don't print a finished book. We spell out our business strategy in technology. For that, you must constantly optimize and develop your IT processes," Falkenstein summarizes the philosophy.

For us at We Manage, this project was particularly satisfying because it shows what becomes possible when technical expertise meets genuine partnership. As Falkenstein puts it: We are "the professional sysadmin I would need in-house, but who would have too little to do with me" – just externally and with the full flexibility of a partnership.

Conclusion

Our collaboration with Everysize proves that with the right analysis, tailored solutions, and genuine partnership, even complex cloud dependencies can be successfully resolved. The result is not only drastically reduced costs but, above all, the recovery of technical flexibility that is vital for innovative companies.

Concretely, we run the entire operation for Everysize — on top of our Managed Cloud Servers, with CDN integration via Cloudflare and ongoing Cloud Consulting on provider choice, migration, and architecture. You can find more details on the setup in our Everysize case study.

If you're running a bootstrapped team and find yourself in a similar spot, our startup offering might be a good entry point — or let's talk directly about how we can help you achieve greater technical sovereignty and optimized costs.