AWS Lambda vs Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling comparison

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and AWS Lambda are both solutions in the Compute Service category. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.8, while AWS Lambda is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling holds a 10.8% mindshare in CS, compared to AWS Lambda’s 21.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of AWS Lambda users who would recommend it.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Read 46 Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling reviews

1,632 Views
1,401 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AWS Lambda

Read 84 AWS Lambda reviews

4,528 Views
2,369 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

AWS Lambda

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

AWS Lambda and Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling both cater to server management without direct infrastructure oversight, competing in the cloud services domain. Lambda has the upper hand due to its serverless structure and lower operational costs, which appeal to developers seeking agility and scalability.

Features: AWS Lambda offers a serverless architecture that simplifies deployment without the need to manage infrastructure, supports multiple programming languages, and ensures scalability. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling focuses on resource management through automatic capacity adjustment to maintain performance, providing flexibility and high availability for traffic spikes.

Room for Improvement: AWS Lambda can improve its external integration capabilities, enhance security, and address cold-start delays. It also needs a broader language support range and an enhanced user interface. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling users express concerns about its pricing structure, particularly for unoptimized scaling usage. There's a call for improved technical support and better setup documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS Lambda is praised for its straightforward deployment in public cloud environments, though users note variability in technical support quality. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is also easy to deploy but needs improvements in technical support, with users seeking more intuitive guidance during deployment.

Pricing and ROI: AWS Lambda's pay-per-use model makes it cost-effective for fluctuating workloads, offering strong ROI by minimizing server maintenance costs. It is generally inexpensive for small applications. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling has a flexible usage-based pricing model, yielding cost savings if well-managed but can become costly with continuous scaling, impacting ROI if not optimized.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Lambda vs. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lambda vs. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Ranking in Compute Service

3rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

AWS Lambda

Ranking in Compute Service

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is 10.8%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 21.0%, down from 23.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Compute Service

Featured Reviews

Erick Karanja

Technical Lead at Cellulant Kenya

Scaling is as easy as hitting a button and setup is straightforward

AWS has already made improvements. In the past, if you provisioned a large EC2 instance and underutilized it, you still paid a premium. Now, AWS encourages using Kubernetes, where you primarily pay for the compute power you actually use in production. There is room for improvement. You might end up paying a high price if you're not careful and you provision a server that's underutilized. AWS has left it to engineers to figure out solutions. If you find the cost too high, you can move to Kubernetes, which might be a better solution for you than large EC2 instances. So, the improvements need to come from the user side, not the provider. Software engineers and engineering teams need to know their limits with EC2 instances. They need to recognize when it's time to transition their applications to Kubernetes. This means building with the cloud in mind from the start, making it easier to move solutions to the cloud without suffering upgrades and integration issues.

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Wai L Lin O

Cloud Engineer - Supervisor at KBZ Bank

A serverless solution with easy integration features

We use AWS Lambda because it provides a solution for our needs without requiring us to manage our infrastructure. With the tool, we only pay for the resources we use. Additionally, it is straightforward to implement and integrates with other services like API Gateway. The tool's serverless nature has had the most significant impact on our workflow. I find it particularly attractive because it eliminates the need for managing servers. In my previous experience, managing upgrades and updates was quite challenging. The solution's integration process with other AWS services was relatively easy. We primarily use AWS services such as EventBridge for scheduling processes and log management.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"One of the most important benefits is that a company can optimize resources because Auto Scaling deploys resources when needed. For example, for Black Friday, a company can deploy 100 servers for a couple of days. When Black Friday is over, the company can delete those servers."

"Having a load balancer in between is very helpful when you have huge traffic."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"What we have found most valuable are the purchasing of usage at the time and small storage."

"I like the fact that you don't need to pay for it when you aren't using it, especially in a disaster recovery scenario. The pricing is transparent, so you know what you're going to pay for it."

"Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling operates at a different level, working in parallel to efficiently manage workload distribution. Primarily, it focuses on orchestration rather than directly managing EC2 instances for deployment and configuration. It uses automated processes to deploy and manage ports, leveraging Application Load Balancers to effectively handle data communication and management."

"Can handle traffic spikes so the system doesn't overload."

"With the ability to set up rules based on demand, network, or traffic, the service offers a necessary level of adaptability."

More Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling pros

"AWS Lambda's best features are log analysis and event triggering and actioning."

"The most valuable feature is that it scans the cloud system and if they are any security anomalies it triggers an email."

"The cool thing about AWS Lambda is that AWS does all the management. For compression, it is all about making the data small and then making it regular size again. We have an encode function and a decode function. AWS Lambda schedules each of those for us. It has a load balancer and all the fancy stuff, depending on the demand. The most valuable part of AWS Lambda is that I only need to write the software. I need to write two functions, and my cloud developer turns them into two AWS Lambda instances. That's it."

"We are building a Twitter-like application in the boot camp. I have used Lamda for the integration of the post-confirmation page in the application. This will help you get your one-time password via mail. You can log in with the help of a post-confirmation page. We didn’t want to setup an instance specifically for confirmation. We used the Lambda function so that it goes back to sleep after pushing up."

"The tool scales automatically based on the number of incoming requests."

"The ability to scale up and down very quickly helps because we can maintain our system performance and business at a low cost."

"Technical support has been great in general."

"AWS Lambda's event-driven architecture is highly valuable."

More AWS Lambda pros

Cons

"Could integrate more with other platforms."

"Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can provide more discounts when using the machines the solution uses."

"Automation is very hard."

"The product should improve vertical scaling features."

"EC2 is doing what it is intended to do, and I have no specific improvements to suggest."

"The product's setup is complex for an intermediate user."

"The solution is not cheap."

"The primary area for improvement is the pricing model."

More Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling cons

"We need to invest time in learning the tool's language variant. We have encountered instances of downtime as well."

"AWS Lambda's GUI could be improved with a twist or tweak in its look and feel to make it more impressive."

"I want to see support for longer applications. I need the 15-minute time-out window to improve."

"The runtime could be improved. There are certain use cases where I need a Lambda function to run longer."

"I would like the layers to have a bigger volume. I would like to be able to add more. I don't want to be limited by the layer."

"The first time Lambda is started up, it takes some time to spin up an instance for serving the consumer requests. AWS has been trying to solve this in a variety of ways but have not yet managed to do so."

"Lambda's dashboard could be more user-friendly and customizable. I want the dashboard to have more information to quickly identify what functions and events are running. Also, we want to be able to add more trigger points, push notifications, and events."

"A very minor improvement would be to simplify the instructions on setting a trigger, as I had to read through them multiple times at the start."

More AWS Lambda cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is not fixed and it is based on usage."

"The solution pricing varies by service region is mid-range."

"The solution's licensing is based on a pay-as-you-go model. You only pay for the resources you use, whether it's RAM, processing power, or storage. So, it's calculated based on the time you use those resources, typically billed in hours or minutes."

"As far back as I can remember, I have experience with two types of subscriptions. The first was my personal AWS base, and the second was a corporate license. I can't say much about the corporate license, but I recall they sent the bill every month for the personal subscription, though I could be mistaken."

"It's cost-effective."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"When we want to use more services, we need to pay more. It's a monthly subscription, rather than licensed-based. Pricing or fees for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling could be improved."

"The product is expensive."

More Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling pricing and cost advice

"It costs maybe less than $10 per month in my use case."

"Its pricing is on the higher side."

"I would rate the tool’s pricing a nine out of ten. The solution’s pricing works on a pay-as-you-go basis."

"The price of the solution is reasonable and it is a pay-per-use model. It is very good for cost optimization."

"Price-wise, AWS Lambda is a five out of ten."

"Lambda is an affordable solution. They offer free requests every month and charge per the compute time. If you are working in a big organization, usually AWS offer a savings plan where you get approximately 70% discount on pricing."

"I think the price is okay. However, if they add more functionality, they can have better prices. In fact, they should have better and more flexible packages for clients who have greater consumption of Lambda."

"The solution follows a pay-as-you-go licensing model, which results in cost savings."

More AWS Lambda pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Real Estate/Law Firm

Educational Organization

67%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?

The solution removes the need for hardware. We can easily create servers or machines. Just by clicking or specifying our requirements, like memory size or disk space, it's set up for us. The tool e...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?

The pricing of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is moderate. It's not too expensive because we only pay for what we use. While there are cheaper options, the services provided are worth the cost. Previously...

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What needs improvement with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?

While Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is continually updated and has improved over time, the dashboard has become more complex and tricky for new users. The interface was easier to navigate in earlier vers...

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Which is better, AWS Lambda or Batch?

AWS Lambda is a serverless solution. It doesn’t require any infrastructure, which allows for cost savings. There is no setup process to deal with, as the entire solution is in the cloud. If you use...

See all answers

What do you like most about AWS Lambda?

The tool scales automatically based on the number of incoming requests.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Lambda?

AWS Lambda is cheaper compared to running an instance continuously. You only pay for what you use, making it cost-effective.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 67% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Apache NiFi vs Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Compared 5% of the time

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AWS Batch vs AWS Lambda

Compared 52% of the time

Apache NiFi vs AWS Lambda

Compared 17% of the time

Apache Spark vs AWS Lambda

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon EC2 vs AWS Lambda

Compared 4% of the time

Google Cloud Dataflow vs AWS Lambda

Compared 3% of the time

More AWS Lambda Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

AWS Lambda

April 2025

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Also Known As

AWS RAM

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Overview

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling helps you maintain application availability and allows you to automatically add or remove EC2 instances according to conditions you define. ... Dynamic scaling responds to changing demand and predictive scaling automatically schedules the right number of EC2 instances based on predicted demand.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS Lambda is a compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. AWS Lambda executes your code only when needed and scales automatically, from a few requests per day to thousands per second. You pay only for the compute time you consume - there is no charge when your code is not running. With AWS Lambda, you can run code for virtually any type of application or backend service - all with zero administration. AWS Lambda runs your code on a high-availability compute infrastructure and performs all of the administration of the compute resources, including server and operating system maintenance, capacity provisioning and automatic scaling, code monitoring and logging. All you need to do is supply your code in one of the languages that AWS Lambda supports (currently Node.js, Java, C# and Python).

You can use AWS Lambda to run your code in response to events, such as changes to data in an Amazon S3 bucket or an Amazon DynamoDB table; to run your code in response to HTTP requests using Amazon API Gateway; or invoke your code using API calls made using AWS SDKs. With these capabilities, you can use Lambda to easily build data processing triggers for AWS services like Amazon S3 and Amazon DynamoDB process streaming data stored in Amazon Kinesis, or create your own back end that operates at AWS scale, performance, and security.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Netflix

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lambda vs. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

April 2025

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