AWS Lambda icon

AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service that runs code in response to events and automatically manages the computing resources. It allows users to run code without provisioning servers.

What is AWS Lambda?

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows users to run code without having to provision or manage servers. With Lambda, users can upload code and Lambda takes care of everything required to run and scale the code in response to events.

When an event occurs (e.g., file upload, API call), Lambda runs the user-uploaded code. The code can be written in various languages including Node.js, Python, Java, C# and more. The code can trigger other AWS services and Lambda can scale up or down automatically based on demand.

Key benefits of AWS Lambda include:

  • No servers to manage - Lambda completely abstracts away servers
  • Continuous scaling - Scales up and down automatically
  • Pay per use - Pay only for compute time consumed
  • Integrates with other AWS services - Triggers other AWS services
  • Supports multiple languages - Code can be written in Node.js, Python, Java etc

Lambda is used to build serverless applications, process streaming data, create backends for mobile apps and react to various event sources. It can help reduce operational complexity and lower costs for applications that have variable workloads or occasional spikes in traffic.

The Best AWS Lambda Alternatives

Top Apps like AWS Lambda

PythonAnywhere, Google App Engine, OpenFaas, Google Cloud Functions, Knative are some alternatives to AWS Lambda.

PythonAnywhere

PythonAnywhere is an online integrated development environment and web hosting service based on the Python programming language. It allows developers to code, test, debug and deploy Python applications from a web browser without having to set up a local programming environment or manage servers.Some key features of PythonAnywhere include...

Google App Engine

Google App Engine is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering from Google Cloud. It allows developers to build highly scalable web and mobile applications without having to worry about infrastructure management. Some key features of Google App Engine include:Automatic scaling - App Engine automatically scales applications up and down based on...

OpenFaas

OpenFaas is an open source framework designed to make it easier to deploy serverless functions and microservices. It provides a platform for rapidly building functions that auto-scale and include metrics and monitoring out of the box.Some key features of OpenFaas:Language agnostic - supports functions written in any languageAuto-scaling...

Google Cloud Functions

Google Cloud Functions is a serverless compute service offered by Google Cloud Platform. It allows developers to run pieces of code in the cloud in response to events happening in other Google Cloud services without having to manage the underlying infrastructure.Some key features of Google Cloud Functions include:Event-driven...

Knative

Knative is an open source Kubernetes-based platform for deploying and running serverless workloads. It enables developers to focus on writing stateless, event-driven functions that can scale up and down automatically based on demand.Some key features and benefits of Knative include:Simplified scale-to-zero and event driven architectures on KubernetesAutomatically scales...