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AWS Amplify VS Terraform

Compare AWS Amplify VS Terraform and see what are their differences

AWS Amplify logo AWS Amplify

JavaScript library for app development using cloud services

Terraform logo Terraform

Tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently.
  • AWS Amplify Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-07-18
  • Terraform Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-24

AWS Amplify features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    AWS Amplify provides a straightforward and user-friendly interface, making it easier for developers to deploy, manage, and scale full-stack applications.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    Amplify seamlessly integrates with a wide range of AWS services such as DynamoDB, S3, Lambda, and more, allowing developers to leverage the power of the AWS ecosystem.
  • Speed of Deployment
    It enables rapid deployment of web and mobile applications, reducing the time to market for new features and updates.
  • Automated Workflows
    With features like CI/CD, Amplify automates many aspects of the development workflow, particularly deploying and hosting applications, which saves time and reduces manual effort.
  • Scalability
    Amplify inherits AWS's robust scalability features, enabling your application to handle a growing number of users seamlessly.
  • Custom Domain Management
    The service offers easy management of custom domains and SSL certificates, enhancing the security and professionalism of your application.
  • Real-time and Offline Support
    Provides built-in support for real-time data and offline functionality, which is important for modern web and mobile applications.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Amplify

  • Cost
    While Amplify offers a range of pricing plans, costs can accumulate quickly depending on the usage of various AWS services, especially for startups and small businesses.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using Amplify extensively can lead to significant dependency on AWS services, making it difficult to migrate to other cloud providers in the future.
  • Learning Curve
    Although it's user-friendly, there can still be a learning curve for those unfamiliar with the wider AWS ecosystem, which might require an investment in training and education.
  • Limited Customization
    While it covers a broad range of functionalities, some developers find the customization options limited compared to setting up and managing AWS services independently.
  • Complexity for Simple Apps
    For simpler applications, the full suite of AWS Amplify's features might be overkill, introducing unnecessary complexity.
  • Debugging Challenges
    Debugging issues can sometimes be more complicated due to the abstraction layers that Amplify adds, which can make it less transparent compared to traditional setups.

Terraform features and specs

  • Infrastructure as Code
    Terraform allows you to define your infrastructure in configuration files that can be versioned and stored in a version control system. This makes it easy to track changes, roll back if necessary, and collaborate with team members.
  • Multi-Cloud Support
    Terraform supports various cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others. This allows you to manage your entire infrastructure using a single tool, regardless of the underlying provider.
  • Immutability
    Terraform promotes immutable infrastructure, meaning once a component is created, it is not modified in place but replaced if changes are needed. This leads to more predictable and stable deployments.
  • State Management
    Terraform maintains the state of your infrastructure, which helps in tracking resource changes over time and making incremental updates. This is crucial for applying changes in a controlled manner.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Terraform has a large and active community, along with a rich ecosystem of providers and modules. This makes it easier to find support, share solutions, and leverage pre-built components.

Possible disadvantages of Terraform

  • Complex State Management
    While state management is a significant feature, managing state files can become complex and risky. Issues like state file corruption or sharing between team members can lead to challenges.
  • Learning Curve
    Terraform has a steep learning curve for beginners, especially those who are not familiar with infrastructure as code concepts or the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL).
  • Partial Updates
    Terraform's plan and apply operations are not atomic, meaning that partial updates can sometimes leave your infrastructure in an inconsistent state if an error occurs during execution.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies between resources can be challenging in Terraform. Misconfigured dependencies can lead to issues during resource creation, deletion, or updates.
  • Cost Management
    While Terraform is excellent for provisioning resources, it does not have built-in cost management or optimization features. Users need to rely on third-party tools to manage and optimize costs.

AWS Amplify videos

Firebase vs AWS Amplify

More videos:

  • Review - Delivering Mobile Apps Using AWS Mobile Services
  • Review - What is AWS Amplify
  • Tutorial - AWS Amplify with React Tutorial - 1. Setup
  • Review - What is AWS Amplify? Pros and Cons?
  • Tutorial - AWS Amplify in Plain English | Getting Started Tutorial for Beginners

Terraform videos

Wampler Terraform | Reverb Tone Report Demo

More videos:

  • Review - MOD PEDAL POWERHOUSE! Wampler TERRAFORM
  • Demo - IT'S FINALLY HERE! | Wampler Terraform Demo | It's as good as you hoped!!!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS Amplify and Terraform)
Developer Tools
59 59%
41% 41
DevOps Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Realtime Backend / API
100 100%
0% 0
App Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare AWS Amplify and Terraform

AWS Amplify Reviews

Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amplify is a comprehensive development platform designed to provide the tools necessary to build scalable mobile and web applications. AWS Amplify offers a suite of services that mirror many of the core functionalities of Firebase, such as authentication, analytics, and storage, while leveraging the robust infrastructure of AWS.
Source: signoz.io
Best Serverless Backend Tools of 2023: Pros & Cons, Features & Code Examples
AWS Amplify packs several tools in the Amazon ecosystem to allow you to build full-stack web and mobile apps in hours.
Source: www.rowy.io
What is AWS Amplify? - AWS Amplify Alternatives
This article briefly introduces you to "What is AWS Amplify." All aspects of AWS Amplify, including its features, integrations, pricing models, benefits, and drawbacks, will be explored in detail by the end of this article. We'll also explain how it may be applied to develop and launch applications quickly. Here, you'll know exactly what AWS Amplify is and whether it's a...
Source: mindmajix.com
2023 Firebase Alternatives: Top 10 Open-Source & Free
AWS Amplify is acknowledged as one of the best Firebase alternatives because of its full-stack development products. Amazon Web Services launched this cloud platform in 2017, and it has the ability to confer huge support to build the backend and client side of mobile and web applications. Similarly, the developer team can also benefit from the outstanding hosting of this CSP.
Exploring alternatives to Vercel: A guide for web developers
AWS Amplify is a powerful platform that goes beyond static site hosting, offering a full suite of tools for building, deploying, and managing modern web and mobile applications. Amplify is part of the broader AWS ecosystem, providing deep integration with other AWS services.
Source: fleek.xyz

Terraform Reviews

Do not use AWS CloudFormation
Terraform, on the other hand, will occupy your shell until the directly-involved AWS service coughs up an error. No additional tooling is required. Terraform will just relay the error message from the affected service indicating what you’ve done wrong.
Top 5 Ansible Alternatives in 2022: Server Automation Solutions by Alexander Fashakin on the 19th Aug 2021 facebook Linked In Twitter
Although Terraform and Ansible are both server automation tools, there are still a few significant differences between the two. For example, Terraform is declarative while Ansible allows for both procedural configurations and declarative configurations. Also, Ansible works best as a configuration management tool while Terraform leans towards cloud orchestration.
35+ Of The Best CI/CD Tools: Organized By Category
Terraform is compatible with a wide range of Cloud providers, including Azure, VMWare, and AWS. If you’re subscribed to multiple cloud providers, Terraform is a great way to ensure that they have consistent configurations.
Why we use Terraform and not Chef, Puppet, Ansible, SaltStack, or CloudFormation
Example: Terraform and Ansible. You use Terraform to deploy all the underlying infrastructure, including the network topology (i.e., VPCs, subnets, route tables), data stores (e.g., MySQL, Redis), load balancers, and servers. You then use Ansible to deploy your apps on top of those servers.This is an easy approach to start with, as there is no extra infrastructure to run...
Ansible overtakes Chef and Puppet as the top cloud configuration management tool
Breaking these results down year-over-year, use of Ansible grew from 36% in 2018 to 41% in 2019--surpassing Chef, which grew from 36% to 37%, as well as Puppet, which grew from 34% to 37%. Rounding out the list is Terraform, which experienced a jump from 20% to 31%, and Salt, which increased in usage from 13% to 18%.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Terraform seems to be a lot more popular than AWS Amplify. While we know about 32 links to Terraform, we've tracked only 2 mentions of AWS Amplify. 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.

AWS Amplify mentions (2)

  • Comprehensive Guide for Understanding the Self-Taught Web Developer Path in 2025
    Mastering fundamental skills is essential. Focus on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, ensuring confidence in areas like Flexbox, responsive design, and jQuery. Practical experience is gained through personal projects, which should be original and functional. Start with a portfolio site, ensuring performance and accessibility using tools like Lighthouse, and expand to projects like utility apps leveraging APIs. Hosting on... - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Advance Features and Deploying the Project (Nerd Streetwear Online Store) Part III
    AWS Amplify: Strengths: AWS Amplify is a robust platform for deploying full-stack applications. It’s backed by AWS infrastructure and offers scalability and a wide range of services, including hosting, authentication, and real-time data. Integration: Amplify integrates with popular Git services and offers a CI/CD pipeline that supports automatic deployments. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Remix Authentication with Amazon Cognito
    Many guides for integrating Amazon's Cognito service recommend using AWS's Amplify library. While Amplify works well for the traditional, client-side rendered single-page application (SPA), it doesn't yet support newer SSR paradigms. At the time of this writing, AWS Amplify doesn't support SSR in Remix source, though Amplify's Hosting service recently added support for SSR in Next versions 12 and greater. While... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • DC Bat Cowls with Amplify Gen 2 Fullstack Typescript
    I built an application that helps users find the DC Bat Cowls trait rarity using Amplify Gen 2 with Typescript. What a Bat Cowl is can be found here. The marketplace for them is here. Summary on Bat Cowls is a really cool project that has enabled me to create our own DC Comic... And created our own super villain within the DC Universe. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Build a React genAI APP with Amazon Bedrock & AWS SDK
    In this blog you will learn how to use Amazon Cognito credentials and IAM Roles to invoke Amazon Bedrock API in a react-based application with JavaScript and the CloudScape design system. You will deploy all the resources and host the app using AWS Amplify. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago

Terraform mentions (32)

  • Scaffolding Serverless Web Application on AWS
    Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you build, change, and version infrastructure safely and efficiently. Terraform code is in the terraform directory. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Integrating Terraform with CI/CD Pipelines
    In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards automation of infrastructure deployment processes. One popular tool that has emerged as a key player in this space is Terraform, an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) software tool developed by HashiCorp. This article will explore how Terraform can be integrated into continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines using GitHub Actions as an... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Deploying Your Outdoor Activities Map with Terraform
    Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-code software tool created by HashiCorp. It allows you to define and manage your infrastructure as code, making it easy to provision and manage resources across multiple cloud providers. With Terraform, you can ensure consistent and repeatable deployments, making it an ideal choice for automating your cloud infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Trigger CI using Terraform Cloud
    Continuous Integration(CI) pipelines needs a target infrastructure to which the CI artifacts are deployed. The deployments are handled by CI or we can leverage Continuous Deployment pipelines. Modern day architecture uses automation tools like terraform, ansible to provision the target infrastructure, this type of provisioning is called IaaC. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Using Let's Encrypt with the Puppet Enterprise console
    Had an itch I've been meaning to scratch for a while. I build my Puppet environment using Terraform, which makes it nice and easy to tear things down and rebuild them. That is great, but it does leave me with an issue when it comes to the console SSL certificates. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS Amplify and Terraform, you can also consider the following products

Firebase - Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications for mobile and web.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Parse - Build applications faster with object and file storage, user authentication, push notifications, dashboard and more out of the box.

Puppet Enterprise - Get started with Puppet Enterprise, or upgrade or expand.

Amazon AWS - Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Free to join, pay only for what you use.

Packer - Packer is an open-source software for creating identical machine images from a single source configuration.