Amazon API Gateway VS Application Load Balance

Compare Amazon API Gateway VS Application Load Balance and see what are their differences

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Amazon API Gateway

Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale

Application Load Balance

Automatically distribute incoming traffic across multiple targets using an Application Load Balancer.

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2023-03-12

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2023-01-05

Application Load Balance

Website: docs.aws.amazon.com

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Amazon API Gateway features and specs

Scalability
API Gateway automatically scales to handle the number of requests your API receives, ensuring high availability and reliability.
Ease of Integration
Seamlessly integrates with other AWS services like Lambda, DynamoDB, and IAM, enabling a cohesive environment for developing serverless applications.
Built-in Security
Provides features such as IAM roles, API keys, and AWS WAF integration for safeguarding your APIs from potential threats.
Monitoring and Logging
Supports CloudWatch integration for monitoring API requests and responses, helping you maintain observability and troubleshoot issues effectively.
Cost-Effective
You only pay for the requests made to your APIs and the amount of data transferred out, making it a cost-effective solution for many use cases.
Caching
Built-in caching at the API Gateway level can improve performance and reduce latency for frequently accessed data.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon API Gateway

Complexity in Configuration
Setting up and managing API Gateway can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with AWS services and cloud infrastructure.
Cold Start Latency
When integrated with AWS Lambda, cold starts can introduce latency which can affect the performance of your API.
Cost for High Throughput
While cost-effective for low to moderate usage, the costs can escalate with high throughput and large data transfers.
Debugging Issues
Diagnosis can be complicated due to the multi-tenant nature of the service and the need to dive into multiple AWS logs and services.
Limited Customization
There might be constraints regarding customizations and fine-tuning your APIs compared to self-hosting solutions.
Vendor Lock-in
Dependence on AWS infrastructure can lead to vendor lock-in, making it challenging to migrate to other cloud providers or solutions.

Application Load Balance features and specs

Layer 7 Processing
Application Load Balancer operates at the application layer (Layer 7), allowing it to make routing decisions based on advanced content-based rules, such as the HTTP headers, request URL, and query string.
Advanced Routing
ALB supports dynamic host-based and path-based routing, enabling requests to be dispatched to different backend services based on the URL pattern or the host domain, which is particularly useful for microservices architectures.
WebSocket and HTTP/2 Support
Supports sticky sessions and WebSocket, allowing for long-lived sessions and bidirectional communication between clients and servers. It also supports HTTP/2, providing improved performance over HTTP/1.1.
Integrated Security Features
ALB integrates with AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) to secure applications and protect against common web exploits. It also supports TLS offloading, simplifying encryption management.
Monitoring and Logging
Offers detailed CloudWatch metrics and logs to monitor traffic patterns, latency, and other critical operational details. This helps in proactively troubleshooting and optimizing performance.

Possible disadvantages of Application Load Balance

Complex Configuration
Setting up and configuring ALB might be more complex compared to Network Load Balancers or Classic Load Balancers, especially with intricate routing and security rules.
Higher Costs
Application Load Balancers can be more expensive due to advanced features and capabilities, particularly when handling high traffic levels, compared to simpler load balancing solutions.
Limited Protocol Support
ALB is primarily designed for HTTP/HTTPS traffic and may not be suitable if your application needs to handle TCP/UDP-based protocols directly.
Performance Overhead
Operating at Layer 7 can introduce slight latency due to the additional processing required for content-based routing and SSL termination.

Amazon API Gateway videos

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Building APIs with Amazon API Gateway

Application Load Balance videos

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AWS ALB | AWS Application Load Balancer | What is Application Load Balancer AWS | Intellipaat

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Amazon API Gateway and Application Load Balance)

Application Load Balance

API Tools

100 100%

API Tools

0% 0

Cloud Computing

71 71%

Cloud Computing

29% 29

APIs

100 100%

APIs

0% 0

Cloud Hosting

70 70%

Cloud Hosting

30% 30

User comments

Share your experience with using Amazon API Gateway and Application Load Balance. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon API Gateway should be more popular than Application Load Balance. It has been mentiond 107 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Amazon API Gateway mentions (107)

10 Lightweight API Gateways for Your Next Project
AWS API Gateway is Amazon’s managed gateway service, designed to work seamlessly within the AWS ecosystem. It supports both REST and WebSocket APIs, with HTTP APIs being the lightweight, lower-cost option for simple proxying and routing use cases. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
4 Cognito User Pools features you might not know about
This opens up a world of customization options for controlling app access. For example, we can embed custom data in the ID token for the front-end client to use, enabling guards to restrict content. Alternatively, we can add custom scopes to the access token and implement fine-grained access control in an API Gateway API. All it takes is some Lambda function code, and Cognito triggers it at the right time. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
Verifying Cognito access tokens - Comparing three JWT packages for Lambda authorizers
When the built-in Amazon API Gateway authorization methods don’t fully meet our needs, we can set up Lambda authorizers to manage the access control process. Even when using Cognito user pools and Cognito access tokens, there may still be a need for custom authorization logic. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
Implementing advanced authorization with AWS Lambda for endpoint-specific access
The API Gateway includes an endpoint structured like this:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
Turning APIs into Revenue: Passive Income Strategies for Developers
Amazon Web Services exemplifies this approach with automatic volume discounts that encourage increased usage while maximizing revenue at each consumption level. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago

Application Load Balance mentions (23)

Authenticating users in the load balancer with Cognito
Say that we have an application running behind a public-facing Application Load Balancer (ALB). The load balancer's target can be any supported target, including ECS containers, EC2 instances or even Lambda functions. Because the application is only available to authenticated users, we want to find a solution to identify them. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
A Practical Guide To Deploying A Complex, Production Level, Three-tier Architecture On AWS
The Load balancer is the entry point to the application. The Application Load Balancer, residing in the presentation layer, will route traffic through the AutoScaling Group to logic-tier instances residing in the logic layer. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
The RoboNet Artificial Media Protocol - How a new internet protocol can make AI regulation more human
Eg. AWS can have their Load Balancer tuned for OSI layer 7 rules for ramp content, exactly what everyone would need to redirect RAMP headers/signatures/etc straight into its proper routes/servers. Source: almost 2 years ago
Creating Application Load Balancer rules for fast feature stack deployments
The service in question uses ECS Fargate behind a private Application Load Balancer (ALB). The engineering team placed an HTTP API Gateway before the ALB that performs the authentication. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
Introduction to Cloud Load-Balancers
What is an Application Load Balancer? Https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/introduction.html. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago