Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AWS Elastic Beanstalk VS AWS Lambda

Compare AWS Elastic Beanstalk VS AWS Lambda and see what are their differences

AWS Elastic Beanstalk logo AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Quickly deploy and manage applications in the AWS cloud.

AWS Lambda logo AWS Lambda

Automatic, event-driven compute service
  • AWS Elastic Beanstalk Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-30
  • AWS Lambda Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-29

AWS Elastic Beanstalk features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk simplifies the process of deploying and scaling web applications and services. It automatically handles deployment, from capacity provisioning, load balancing, and auto-scaling to application health monitoring.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    Being part of the AWS ecosystem, Elastic Beanstalk easily integrates with other AWS services like RDS, S3, CloudWatch, and IAM, providing a comprehensive and secure application environment.
  • Multi-language Support
    Elastic Beanstalk supports multiple programming languages and frameworks, such as Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and Docker, making it a versatile choice for developers.
  • Managed Environment
    Elastic Beanstalk provides a fully managed environment, taking care of the server configurations, operating system, and middleware, which allows developers to focus more on writing code.
  • Scalability
    Automatic scaling enables applications deployed on Elastic Beanstalk to handle varying amounts of traffic. The service automatically scales your application up and down based on the demands.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Elastic Beanstalk

  • Abstracted Control
    Elastic Beanstalk abstracts away much of the underlying infrastructure. While this simplifies usage, it also limits the amount of control and customization developers have over their environment.
  • Cost
    While the pricing model can be cost-effective for some use cases, it may become expensive as applications scale or when advanced features and higher-end resources are required.
  • Platform Limitations
    Elastic Beanstalk has certain limitations in terms of supported platforms and regions. Not every AWS service or feature is available in all regions, which could restrict some deployment scenarios.
  • Deploy Time
    Deployments can sometimes be slow, especially for large applications or when multiple environment updates are required. This can impact development and iteration cycles.
  • Debugging Complexity
    While Elastic Beanstalk manages the environment, diagnosing and debugging issues can sometimes be more complex due to the abstracted infrastructure. Developers may need to delve deeper into AWS logs and metrics for troubleshooting.

AWS Lambda features and specs

  • Scalability
    AWS Lambda automatically scales your application by running your code in response to each trigger. This means no manual intervention is required to handle varying levels of traffic.
  • Cost-effectiveness
    You only pay for the compute time you consume. Billing is metered in increments of 100 milliseconds and you are not charged when your code is not running.
  • Reduced Operations Overhead
    AWS Lambda abstracts the infrastructure management layer, so there is no need to manage or provision servers. This allows you to focus more on writing code for your applications.
  • Flexibility
    Supports multiple programming languages such as Python, Node.js, Ruby, Java, Go, and .NET, which allows you to use the language you are most comfortable with.
  • Integration with Other AWS Services
    Seamlessly integrates with many other AWS services such as S3, DynamoDB, RDS, SNS, and more, making it versatile and highly functional.
  • Automatic Scaling and Load Balancing
    Handles thousands of concurrent requests without managing the scaling yourself, making it suitable for applications requiring high availability and reliability.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Lambda

  • Cold Start Latency
    The first request to a Lambda function after it has been idle for a certain period can take longer to execute. This is referred to as a 'cold start' and can impact performance.
  • Resource Limits
    Lambda has defined limits, such as a maximum execution timeout of 15 minutes, memory allocation ranging from 128 MB to 10,240 MB, and temporary storage up to 512 MB.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using AWS Lambda ties you into the AWS ecosystem, making it difficult to migrate to another cloud provider or an on-premises solution without significant modifications to your application.
  • Complexity of Debugging
    Debugging and monitoring distributed, serverless applications can be more complex compared to traditional applications due to the lack of direct access to the underlying infrastructure.
  • Cold Start Issues with VPC
    When Lambda functions are configured to access resources within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), the cold start latency can be exacerbated due to additional VPC networking overhead.
  • Limited Execution Control
    AWS Lambda is designed for stateless, short-running tasks and may not be suitable for long-running processes or tasks requiring complex orchestration.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk videos

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Tutorial | What Is AWS Elastic Beanstalk? | AWS Tutorial | Simplilearn

AWS Lambda videos

AWS Lambda Vs EC2 | Serverless Vs EC2 | EC2 Alternatives

More videos:

  • Tutorial - AWS Lambda Tutorial | AWS Tutorial for Beginners | Intro to AWS Lambda | AWS Training | Edureka
  • Tutorial - AWS Lambda | What is AWS Lambda | AWS Lambda Tutorial for Beginners | Intellipaat

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Lambda)
Cloud Computing
22 22%
78% 78
Cloud Hosting
26 26%
74% 74
Backend As A Service
33 33%
67% 67
Developer Tools
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 AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Lambda

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Reviews

We have no reviews of AWS Elastic Beanstalk yet.
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AWS Lambda Reviews

Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
AWS Lambda is suitable for applications with varying workloads and those already using the AWS ecosystem.
Source: signoz.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS Lambda should be more popular than AWS Elastic Beanstalk. It has been mentiond 273 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.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk mentions (38)

  • Deploying a Rails 7 + React app to AWS via Dokku
    My previous workplace was run by a team that lacked experience in getting an app from zero to production. We had a starter react + rails app in our hands, but the details of the final step--putting our app online for users to consume--was amorphous at best. Our whiteboard was inked with a "let's use Elastic Beanstalk," so I was told to do just that. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: How are you hosting multiple small apps?
    Based on the fact that your ideal is to have a similar experience to heroku than managing your own server setting up reverse proxies take a look at these options: 1) https://dokku.com - lets you turn your light sail instance basically into heroku 2) https://render.com 3) https://fly.io above is not what I do but would be the options I would pursue if I understand your preference and requirement correctly. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Deploying a Django Application to Elastic Beanstalk
    Elastic Beanstalk (EB) is a cloud deployment service provided by Amazon Web Services. It facilitates the deployment and scaling of web applications and services by automating the creation of individual infrastructure components, including EC2 instances, auto-scaling, ELBs, security groups, and other infrastructure components. Using the AWS Management Console and command-line interface, deployment with EB is quick... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Fortifying Your Three-Tier Application: Proactive Measures for Strengthening Your Application Security
    This Terraform code snippet can be used to deploy an AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment:. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • So many options, getting confused
    K8s isn't going to play well with your deployment pattern without some advanced cluster management. Honestly it seems like you would be better serviced with something like https://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/ . Source: almost 2 years ago
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AWS Lambda mentions (273)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Lambda, you can also consider the following products

Google App Engine - A powerful platform to build web and mobile apps that scale automatically.

Amazon S3 - Amazon S3 is an object storage where users can store data from their business on a safe, cloud-based platform. Amazon S3 operates in 54 availability zones within 18 graphic regions and 1 local region.

Now Platform - Get native platform intelligence, so you can predict, prioritize, and proactively manage the work that matters most with the NOW Platform from ServiceNow.

Amazon API Gateway - Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale

Salesforce Platform - Salesforce Platform is a comprehensive PaaS solution that paves the way for the developers to test, build, and mitigate the issues in the cloud application before the final deployment.

Google Cloud Functions - A serverless platform for building event-based microservices.