Looking into very similar things too. AWS is the most expensive cloud provider I've had to work with, but one thing is for sure, it isn't as bad as Azure in terms of usability and documentation. Anyway, there are cheaper european cloud providers that have many *aaS and per second billing, but they do lag behind the US providers in terms of features and documentation. If you are European and aren't using every feature on US clouds, the price difference can very well be worth it.
YMMV of course.