Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Knative VS Azure Functions

Compare Knative VS Azure Functions and see what are their differences

Knative logo Knative

Knative provides a set of components for building modern, source-centric, and container-based applications that can run anywhere.

Azure Functions logo Azure Functions

Azure Functions is a serverless event driven experience that extends the existing Azure App Service platform.
  • Knative Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27
  • Azure Functions Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-26

Knative features and specs

  • Serverless Capabilities
    Knative provides powerful serverless capabilities, allowing developers to deploy and manage applications without the need to manage infrastructure. This enables automatic scaling based on demand.
  • Kubernetes Integration
    Because Knative is built on top of Kubernetes, it integrates seamlessly with existing Kubernetes clusters, leveraging Kubernetes features and security policies.
  • Event-Driven Architecture
    Knative offers a robust event-driven architecture that enables applications to efficiently react to events, increasing responsiveness and reducing resource consumption.
  • Flexibility
    Knative provides developers with flexibility to use any programming language, runtime, or framework, allowing diverse applications to be deployed and managed.
  • Open Source Community
    Knative has a strong open-source community, offering extensive resources, continuous development, and a wealth of shared knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Knative

  • Complexity
    Deploying and managing Knative can introduce complexity, especially for teams unfamiliar with Kubernetes or serverless paradigms.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a significant learning curve associated with Knative, which can be daunting for new users or teams without Kubernetes experience.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Knative on Kubernetes requires considerable resources, which might not be cost-effective for small-scale applications or organizations.
  • Maturity
    As a relatively new technology, Knative may encounter issues related to maturity, stability, and support compared to more established platforms.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    Although growing, Knative's ecosystem is still limited compared to other serverless solutions, which might restrict available plugins and integrations.

Azure Functions features and specs

  • Scalability
    Azure Functions offers automatic scaling based on demand, which means it can handle varying workloads without manual adjustments.
  • Cost-effective
    With its consumption-based pricing model, you only pay for the compute resources used during function execution, making it cost-effective for many scenarios.
  • Simplified Development
    Developers can focus on writing code without worrying about infrastructure management, including server provisioning and maintenance.
  • Multiple Language Support
    Azure Functions supports a wide range of programming languages, including C#, JavaScript, Python, and more, offering flexibility for developers.
  • Integration with Azure Services
    Azure Functions seamlessly integrates with other Azure services like Cosmos DB, Blob Storage, and Event Hubs, enabling the creation of complex workflows.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Functions

  • Cold Start Latency
    Functions in a serverless environment can experience latency during initial invocation after being dormant, which might impact performance for time-sensitive applications.
  • Execution Timeout
    Azure Functions have a maximum execution timeout, which can be limiting for long-running processes and might require architectural adjustments.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Leveraging Azure-specific features can lead to vendor lock-in, making it difficult to migrate to other cloud platforms without significant refactoring.
  • Limited Debugging and Monitoring
    Debugging Azure Functions can be less straightforward compared to traditional applications, with constraints in local debugging and monitoring capabilities.
  • Complex Pricing Model
    The pricing model can become complex, especially for applications with unpredictable workloads, making it challenging to estimate costs accurately.

Knative videos

What is Knative?

More videos:

  • Review - Introduction to Knative | Cloud Academy
  • Review - Knative a Year Later: Serverless, Kubernetes and You (Cloud Next '19)

Azure Functions videos

How to build a movie review app with Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Functions | Azure Makers Series

More videos:

  • Review - Go serverless: Event-driven applications with Azure Functions | Azure Friday
  • Review - Azure Friday | Serverless Apps with Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Functions

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Knative and Azure Functions)
Cloud Computing
62 62%
38% 38
Cloud Hosting
52 52%
48% 48
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
App Deployment
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 Knative and Azure Functions

Knative Reviews

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Azure Functions Reviews

Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
Azure Functions is particularly useful for developers working with .NET technologies or those already using Azure services.
Source: signoz.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Knative should be more popular than Azure Functions. It has been mentiond 16 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.

Knative mentions (16)

  • Building Microservices Using Knative
    As described above, Knative provides a rich ecosystem for managing and executing microservices that can be developed in a variety of programming languages. Any language that can be crafted into a web service and packaged as a kubernetes container is a viable execution candidate for a Knative service. Since 2018, Knative has evolved as a viable microservices platform and in 2022 was accepted by the CNCF at the... - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • A Brief History Of Serverless
    In 2018, Google announced an OSS project called Knative. Knative was meant to be executed on top of Kubernetes and streamline the deployment of applications on the platform. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Rethinking Serverless with Flame
    Https://knative.dev/ - (CloudRun API is based on this OSS project). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Running Serverless Functions on Kubernetes
    Serverless functions are pieces of code that take an HTTP request object and provide a response. With serverless functions, your application is composed of modular functions that respond to events and can be scaled independently. In this article, you learned about Knative and how to run serverless functions on Kubernetes using Knative and the func CLI. You can learn more about Knative on knative.dev, and a cheat... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • DevOpsCon Munich 2022 - Human Interactions that Matter
    That night Sebastian Meyen - the chief content officer at S&S Media took the speakers out and I had a great, deep conversation with Zbynek Roubalik - one of the maintainers of both Knative and KEDA. He got me all excited about the GPTchat. I even tried to play with it that same night when I came back to the hotel. But I got bored after 20 minutes. It still feels like talking to a machine... I don't see the threat... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

Azure Functions mentions (3)

  • Manage serverless APIs with Apache APISIX
    This article shows with the simple example how to manage Java-based serverless APIs build with Azure functions. It uses azure-functions plugin to integrate Apache APISIX API Gateway with Azure Serverless Function that invokes the HTTP trigger functions and return the response from Azure Cloud. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • The Power of GitHub Actions for Streamlining DevOps Workflows
    GitHub Actions for Azure: This GitHub Action allows developers to automate tasks on the Microsoft Azure platform. With this action, developers can easily integrate Azure services into their workflows, such as Azure Functions, App Services, and Kubernetes. This can help streamline DevOps workflows by automating tasks such as deployment, testing, and scaling on the Azure platform. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • NoOps: What Does the Future Hold for DevOps Engineers?
    NoOps is best suited for born-in-the-cloud environments that leverage PaaS and serverless solutions. Microservices and API-based application architectures fit the bill perfectly, as they offer fine-grained modularity along with automation. Leading cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP have a laser focus on providing more services and capabilities in PaaS and serverless, which would help accelerate the... - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Knative and Azure Functions, you can also consider the following products

AWS Lambda - Automatic, event-driven compute service

Fission.io - Fission.io is a serverless framework for Kubernetes that supports many concepts such as event triggers, parallel execution, and statelessness.

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

Google Cloud Run - Bringing serverless to containers

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.

Nuclio - Nuclio is an open source serverless platform.