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

AWS Lambda

25.4K
18.3K
+ 1
432
Vercel

1.3K
806
+ 1
85
Add tool

AWS Lambda vs Zeit Now: What are the differences?

Key Differences between AWS Lambda and Zeit Now

AWS Lambda and Zeit Now are two popular serverless computing platforms that provide developers with the ability to deploy and run applications without the need to manage underlying infrastructure. While both platforms offer similar functionality, there are key differences that set them apart.

  1. Pricing Model: One major difference between AWS Lambda and Zeit Now is their pricing model. AWS Lambda bills users based on the number of requests and the duration of computing time, whereas Zeit Now offers different pricing plans based on the number of projects, users, and deployment sizes. This difference in pricing models allows developers to choose the option that best suits their specific usage patterns and requirements.

  2. Ecosystem and Integrations: AWS Lambda is part of the larger Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem, which means it integrates seamlessly with other AWS services such as Amazon S3, DynamoDB, and SNS. On the other hand, Zeit Now has its own ecosystem and integrations, with features like automatic SSL provisioning and continuous deployment from Git repositories. The choice between AWS Lambda and Zeit Now may depend on the specific services and integrations a developer requires for their application.

  3. Programming Languages: AWS Lambda supports a wide range of programming languages, including Node.js, Python, Java, and C#. In contrast, Zeit Now primarily focuses on supporting modern JavaScript frameworks like Next.js and Node.js. Developers with a preference for a specific programming language may choose AWS Lambda if their desired language is not fully supported by Zeit Now.

  4. Scalability and Performance: Both AWS Lambda and Zeit Now offer high scalability and performance, allowing applications to automatically scale up or down based on demand. However, AWS Lambda provides more granular control over performance by allowing developers to configure memory allocation and execution time limits for individual functions. This level of control may be beneficial for applications requiring fine-tuned performance optimization.

  5. Managed Infrastructure: One of the key advantages of serverless platforms like AWS Lambda and Zeit Now is the elimination of infrastructure management. AWS Lambda takes care of provisioning, scaling, and managing the servers on which the functions run, while Zeit Now handles the deployment and scaling of applications. The choice between the two may come down to the level of control and granularity a developer needs in managing the underlying infrastructure.

  6. Vendor Lock-in: When comparing AWS Lambda and Zeit Now, it's important to consider vendor lock-in. AWS Lambda is a part of the larger AWS ecosystem, which means developers may become more tightly tied to the AWS platform when using Lambda. On the other hand, Zeit Now is designed to be more agnostic and can be used with various other cloud providers. This flexibility can be advantageous for developers who want to avoid vendor lock-in and have the freedom to switch cloud providers in the future.

In summary, AWS Lambda and Zeit Now differ in their pricing models, ecosystem and integrations, supported programming languages, scalability and performance options, level of managed infrastructure, and vendor lock-in considerations. The choice between the two depends on the specific requirements and preferences of the developer or organization.

Decisions about AWS Lambda and Vercel

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 Lambda
Pros of Vercel
  • 129
    No infrastructure
  • 83
    Cheap
  • 70
    Quick
  • 59
    Stateless
  • 47
    No deploy, no server, great sleep
  • 12
    AWS Lambda went down taking many sites with it
  • 6
    Event Driven Governance
  • 6
    Extensive API
  • 6
    Auto scale and cost effective
  • 6
    Easy to deploy
  • 5
    VPC Support
  • 3
    Integrated with various AWS services
  • 23
    Simple deployment
  • 16
    Free tier
  • 13
    Free SSL
  • 12
    Simple setup
  • 8
    Easy custom domain setup
  • 4
    Build and deploy via git push
  • 4
    One tap build
  • 3
    SSR
  • 1
    SSG
  • 1
    Student

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of AWS Lambda
Cons of Vercel
  • 7
    Cant execute ruby or go
  • 3
    Compute time limited
  • 1
    Can't execute PHP w/o significant effort
  • 1
    Pricing Unclear

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

What is AWS Lambda?

AWS Lambda is a compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages the underlying compute resources for you. You can use AWS Lambda to extend other AWS services with custom logic, or create your own back-end services that operate at AWS scale, performance, and security.

What is Vercel?

A cloud platform for serverless deployment. It enables developers to host websites and web services that deploy instantly, scale automatically, and require no supervision, all with minimal configuration.

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

What companies use AWS Lambda?
What companies use Vercel?
See which teams inside your own company are using AWS Lambda or Vercel.
Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

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

What tools integrate with AWS Lambda?
What tools integrate with Vercel?

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

Blog Posts

GitHubPythonNode.js+47
54
72281
GitHubDockerAmazon EC2+23
12
6560
JavaScriptGitHubPython+42
53
21803
What are some alternatives to AWS Lambda and Vercel?
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.
Azure Functions
Azure Functions is an event driven, compute-on-demand experience that extends the existing Azure application platform with capabilities to implement code triggered by events occurring in virtually any Azure or 3rd party service as well as on-premises systems.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.
AWS Step Functions
AWS Step Functions makes it easy to coordinate the components of distributed applications and microservices using visual workflows. Building applications from individual components that each perform a discrete function lets you scale and change applications quickly.
Google App Engine
Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.
See all alternatives