Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Amazon SQS VS Amazon API Gateway

Compare Amazon SQS VS Amazon API Gateway and see what are their differences

Amazon SQS logo Amazon SQS

Amazon Simple Queue Service is a fully managed message queuing service.

Amazon API Gateway logo Amazon API Gateway

Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale
  • Amazon SQS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-22
  • Amazon API Gateway Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-12

Amazon SQS features and specs

  • Scalability
    Amazon SQS scales automatically to handle an unlimited number of messages, ensuring that your application can support any level of demand without manual intervention.
  • Reliability
    Amazon SQS offers guaranteed delivery of messages, with multiple copies of each message stored redundantly across multiple servers and data centers.
  • Flexibility
    SQS supports both standard and FIFO (First In, First Out) queues, giving you the option to choose the type of queue that best suits your application's requirements.
  • Ease of Use
    Amazon SQS is fully managed, meaning you don't need to worry about provisioning or managing infrastructure. Integration is straightforward with a well-documented API.
  • Cost-Effective
    SQS follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you only pay for the number of calls made to the API and the amount of data transferred, making it a cost-effective solution for many use cases.
  • Security
    SQS integrates with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access. Additionally, it supports encryption of messages in transit and at rest, enhancing security.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon SQS

  • Message Limitation
    Each SQS message can body can be up to 256 KB in size during one API call, which might be restrictive for certain applications that require larger message payloads.
  • Latency
    Though generally fast, there can be latency in message delivery, especially when compared to more direct communication methods like WebSocket or gRPC.
  • Complexity in Handling Large Number of Messages
    While SQS can handle a large number of messages, managing a very high throughput can become complex, requiring careful configuration of multiple queues, message batching, and appropriate back-off and retry logic.
  • Cost for High Volume
    While cost-effective for many scenarios, SQS costs can increase significantly with very high volumes of messages due to the per-request pricing, potentially necessitating budget management.
  • Limited Ordering Guarantees
    Standard queues do not ensure the order of message processing. While FIFO queues provide ordering, they come with limitations in terms of throughput and additional costs.
  • Visibility Timeout
    Incorrectly setting the visibility timeout can result in duplicated message processing or delayed message processing, requiring careful consideration and configuration based on the application's characteristics.

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.

Amazon SQS videos

Speed and Reliability at Any Scale: Amazon SQS and Database Services (SVC206) | AWS re:Invent 2013

Amazon API Gateway videos

Building APIs with Amazon API Gateway

More videos:

  • Review - Create API using AWS API Gateway service - Amazon API Gateway p1

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Amazon SQS and Amazon API Gateway)
Data Integration
100 100%
0% 0
API Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Stream Processing
100 100%
0% 0
APIs
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Amazon SQS and Amazon API Gateway

Amazon SQS Reviews

6 Best Kafka Alternatives: 2022’s Must-know List
Amazon SQS offers standard features such as dead-letter queues and costs allocation tags. With Amazon SQS, you can access the web services API in any programming language that supports the AWS SDK.
Source: hevodata.com
Top 15 Kafka Alternatives Popular In 2021
Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) is a fully managed, message queuing service for distributed systems, serverless applications, and microservices. It is known for the dissociation of components and the creation of effective asynchronous processes. It possesses a good SKD and a useful console. Because of its salient features, it is easy to use and hence favored by developers.

Amazon API Gateway Reviews

We have no reviews of Amazon API Gateway yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Amazon API Gateway might be a bit more popular than Amazon SQS. We know about 107 links to it since March 2021 and only 72 links to Amazon SQS. 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 SQS mentions (72)

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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 / 9 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 / 29 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
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Amazon SQS and Amazon API Gateway, you can also consider the following products

RabbitMQ - RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software.

AWS Lambda - Automatic, event-driven compute service

Apache Kafka - Apache Kafka is an open-source message broker project developed by the Apache Software Foundation written in Scala.

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

Amazon SNS - Fully managed pub/sub messaging for microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications

Apigee - Intelligent and complete API platform