Home
DevOps
Build, Test, Deploy
AWS Tools

AWS Amplify vs Serverless

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

AWS Amplify
513
529
+ 1
13
Serverless
1.9K
1.1K
+ 1
26
Add tool

AWS Amplify vs Serverless: What are the differences?

Developers describe AWS Amplify as "JavaScript Open Source Library with React, React Native Extensions". A JavaScript library for frontend and mobile developers building cloud-enabled applications. The library is a declarative interface across different categories of operations in order to make common tasks easier to add into your application. The default implementation works with Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources but is designed to be open and pluggable for usage with other cloud services that wish to provide an implementation or custom backends. On the other hand, Serverless is detailed as "The most widely-adopted toolkit for building serverless applications". Build applications comprised of microservices that run in response to events, auto-scale for you, and only charge you when they run. This lowers the total cost of maintaining your apps, enabling you to build more logic, faster. The Framework uses new event-driven compute services, like AWS Lambda, Google CloudFunctions, and more.

AWS Amplify and Serverless are primarily classified as "AWS" and "Serverless / Task Processing" tools respectively.

AWS Amplify and Serverless are both open source tools. It seems that Serverless with 31.3K GitHub stars and 3.53K forks on GitHub has more adoption than AWS Amplify with 5.7K GitHub stars and 935 GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, Serverless has a broader approval, being mentioned in 165 company stacks & 236 developers stacks; compared to AWS Amplify, which is listed in 5 company stacks and 10 developer stacks.

Decisions about AWS Amplify and Serverless
Tim Nolet
CTO at Checkly · | 15 upvotes · 291.8K views
Shared insights
on
HerokuHerokuJavaScriptJavaScriptNode.jsNode.jsAWS LambdaAWS LambdaServerlessServerless
at
()

When adding a new feature to Checkly rearchitecting some older piece, I tend to pick Heroku for rolling it out. But not always, because sometimes I pick AWS Lambda . The short story:

  • Developer Experience trumps everything.
  • AWS Lambda is cheap. Up to a limit though. This impact not only your wallet.
  • If you need geographic spread, AWS is lonely at the top.
The setup

Recently, I was doing a brainstorm at a startup here in Berlin on the future of their infrastructure. They were ready to move on from their initial, almost 100% Ec2 + Chef based setup. Everything was on the table. But we crossed out a lot quite quickly:

  • Pure, uncut, self hosted Kubernetes — way too much complexity
  • Managed Kubernetes in various flavors — still too much complexity
  • Zeit — Maybe, but no Docker support
  • Elastic Beanstalk — Maybe, bit old but does the job
  • Heroku
  • Lambda

It became clear a mix of PaaS and FaaS was the way to go. What a surprise! That is exactly what I use for Checkly! But when do you pick which model?

I chopped that question up into the following categories:

  • Developer Experience / DX 🤓
  • Ops Experience / OX 🐂 (?)
  • Cost 💵
  • Lock in 🔐

Read the full post linked below for all details

See more
Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of AWS Amplify
Pros of Serverless
  • 4
    GraphQL
  • 3
    Better with Relations and Security
  • 2
    Cheaper
  • 2
    Flexible Auth options
  • 1
    Continuous deployment
  • 1
    Backed by Amazon
  • 14
    API integration
  • 7
    Supports cloud functions for Google, Azure, and IBM
  • 3
    Lower cost
  • 1
    Auto scale
  • 1
    Openwhisk

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of AWS Amplify
Cons of Serverless
  • 2
    Free tier is limited
  • 1
    Steep Learning Curve
    Be the first to leave a con

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is AWS Amplify?

    A JavaScript library for frontend and mobile developers building cloud-enabled applications. The library is a declarative interface across different categories of operations in order to make common tasks easier to add into your application. The default implementation works with Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources but is designed to be open and pluggable for usage with other cloud services that wish to provide an implementation or custom backends.

    What is Serverless?

    Build applications comprised of microservices that run in response to events, auto-scale for you, and only charge you when they run. This lowers the total cost of maintaining your apps, enabling you to build more logic, faster. The Framework uses new event-driven compute services, like AWS Lambda, Google CloudFunctions, and more.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    Jobs that mention AWS Amplify and Serverless as a desired skillset
    Facilities Program Manager
    CBRE
    Malaysia Selangor Petaling Jaya
    View Job Details
    VantageGlide Smartsheet+3
    What companies use AWS Amplify?
    What companies use Serverless?
    See which teams inside your own company are using AWS Amplify or Serverless.
    Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with AWS Amplify?
    What tools integrate with Serverless?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    What are some alternatives to AWS Amplify and Serverless?
    Firebase
    Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.
    AWS Mobile Hub
    AWS Mobile Hub is the fastest way to build mobile apps powered by AWS. It lets you easily add and configure features for your apps, including user authentication, data storage, backend logic, push notifications, content delivery, and analytics. After you build your app, AWS Mobile Hub gives you easy access to testing on real devices, as well as analytics dashboards to track usage of your app – all from a single, integrated console.
    Beanstalk
    A single process to commit code, review with the team, and deploy the final result to your customers.
    Realm
    The Realm Mobile Platform is a next-generation data layer for applications. Realm is reactive, concurrent, and lightweight, allowing you to work with live, native objects.
    AWS AppSync
    AWS AppSync automatically updates the data in web and mobile applications in real time, and updates data for offline users as soon as they reconnect. AppSync makes it easy to build collaborative mobile and web applications that deliver responsive, collaborative user experiences.
    See all alternatives

    Related Comparisons

    Serverless vs ZappaKnative vs Kubeless vs ServerlessApex vs ServerlessAWS Lambda vs Chalice vs ServerlessAWS Lambda vs Apex vs Serverless

    Trending Comparisons

    Django vs Laravel vs Node.jsBootstrap vs Foundation vs Material-UINode.js vs Spring BootFlyway vs LiquibaseAWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

    Top Comparisons

    HipChat vs Mattermost vs SlackBitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLabBootstrap vs MaterializePostman vs Swagger UI