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 44 Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling reviews

1,632 Views
1,401 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AWS Lambda

Read 83 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 Jan 12, 2025

AWS Lambda and Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling both compete in the cloud computing category, with Lambda having the upper hand for users seeking serverless solutions, while EC2 is preferred for those requiring robust infrastructure management.

Features: AWS Lambda offers a serverless architecture, cost-efficient scaling, and robust integration capabilities, enabling quick deployments and flexibility in language support. It is ideal for automated, event-driven tasks without infrastructure management concerns. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling provides infrastructure as a service with significant control over deployment, load balancers integration, and elasticity, allowing resources to adjust based on demand, making it stable for traditional applications.

Room for Improvement: AWS Lambda could improve cold start latency, extend execution time limits beyond 15 minutes, and enhance integration with external providers and language support. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling needs enhancements in cost-efficiency, user interface, and integration capabilities, as users find the pricing model complex.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS Lambda is praised for its ease of use and minimal setup, suitable for users with various technical backgrounds, while receiving generally strong customer support. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, though requiring more initial setup, offers greater control over deployment. Its technical support receives mixed reviews.

Pricing and ROI: AWS Lambda employs a pay-as-you-go model without upfront infrastructure costs, presenting cost efficiency for projects with fluctuating demands. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling’s usage-based pricing can potentially be expensive if not managed well, yet provides significant ROI for businesses needing stable, scalable infrastructure.

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lambda vs. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

March 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

8.8

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

"The initial setup of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is easy...Since we are an enterprise-sized company and a client of Amazon, the response from the technical support team was immediate."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is scaling your intra based on the request. Additionally, you are able to map the solution with any load balancer, such as public or private load balancers."

"It's good performance-wise."

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

"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."

"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."

"The solution incorporates ease of maintenance and reduction in operational overhead and costs. Patching is also easy."

"It uses features like target tracking scaling policy, which automatically maintains CPU utilization levels."

More Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling pros

"What I like best about AWS Lambda is that it's feature-rich, and I appreciate that. I also like that it's stable and supports many languages."

"The most valuable features of AWS Lambda are a serverless and event-driven architecture."

"It is serverless and scalable. It can scale infinitely. You don't have to worry about the size of the servers that you're pre-allocating. You don't have to build server scale-out models. Auto scale and other similar features are just inherent in Lambda. So, for atomic and fairly non-persistent transactional units of work, Lambda works very well."

"The programming language and the integration with other AWS services are the most valuable features."

"The fact that it is serverless is really important."

"The support from AWS Lambda is very good, they are responsive."

"It's also suitable for companies of any size. For example, we're a large enterprise, and we've used Lambda without any problems in the last 10 months."

"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."

More AWS Lambda pros

Cons

"Scalability can be improved."

"There is room for improvement in the scalability."

"The product does not explain why a particular instance is terminated."

"For future improvements, I suggest focusing on cost reduction."

"The pricing could be reduced."

"The spinning up in the solution can be much faster...The product should have a faster scalability option."

"It should work for the cloud, cloud monitoring features, and DevOps processes. It should automatically enable features for downscaling and upscaling."

"I would like to see the security portal improved in the future."

More Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling cons

"Its price should be improved. Its pricing is on the higher side. I am not sure if it currently supports the Go language. If it doesn't support the Go language, they can introduce it."

"I wish to see better execution time in the next release."

"AWS Lambda could be improved with better stability."

"AWS Lambda could be improved by increasing the size of the payload. Also, sometimes Lambda doesn't implement well for bigger solutions."

"Lambda would benefit from a debugging feature as well."

"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."

"It could be cheaper."

"We face some problems with the event-driven execution model."

More AWS Lambda cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is not expensive."

"The tool's pricing is good and not expensive."

"The product is quite expensive."

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

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"I have not explored the price of the solution extensively, but from what I have seen the price is alright."

"The licences for this solution are based on the number of instances. This determines the EC2 type that is used and this is then priced accordingly."

"Compared to the performance, the price is quite high. I would rate it a ten because it is expensive. There are additional costs including bandwidth costs, data transfer costs, and load balancing costs."

More Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling pricing and cost advice

"The solution is part of the AWS subscription model that is paid annually."

"AWS Lambda is inexpensive."

"The solution's price is average."

"This is a product that is pay-per-use, as opposed to a licensing fee."

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

"We only need to pay for the compute time our code consumes."

"The price is expensive and is based on usage. The more users you have the higher the cost."

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

More AWS Lambda pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Real Estate/Law Firm

Educational Organization

69%

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...

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

The pricing structure from AWS is really complex and depends on factors like the region and specific services used. Prices can vary significantly even within the same service across different locat...

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What needs improvement with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?

There is a need for improvement in understanding the pricing structure, as it is complex and depends on several factors such as the location of data centers.

See all answers

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

AWS Batch vs Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Compared 7% 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 54% of the time

Apache NiFi vs AWS Lambda

Compared 16% 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

March 2025

Download Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lambda

March 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

March 2025

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