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AWS Lambda vs Amazon EC2 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Ranking in Compute Service
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
65
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
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 is 6.3%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 20.8%, down from 26.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

KatlegoMabila - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers customization and flexibility with great support
Scalability depends on whether the client wants to scale up or scale down. It decreases resources based on demand. The great aspect of scalability is the flexibility to allow business success to optimize resource solutions and cost efficiency. Another crucial aspect of scalability is auto-scaling. When you have the opportunity to auto-scale, it can't always be available for everything. If you have chosen to integrate with auto-scaling, it's marvellous and doesn't require additional effort. Auto-scaling gives you the edge by using the capacity you have efficiently, scaling up or down as needed. These flexibilities within the EC2 feature instances of AWS play a crucial role in helping me utilize AWS EC2 Intelligent efficiently.
Wai L Lin O - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"EC2 provides a lot of flexibility. If you don't want to have a separate on-premise database, you can put it on the cloud with EC2. You can adjust the instance type according to your needs. You select a size and get a certain amount of specific memory, CPUs, etc. You set the redirect limit, and from there, you install the software, database servers, application servers, and whatever you want."
"EC2 instances on AWS allow users to run virtual servers based on the CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity."
"EC2 is secure and stable, and we have no complaints about it on AWS."
"The best features of Amazon EC2 are its high performance and security."
"My favorite feature of this solution is the flexibility of instance types, which allows for the cost to be tailored to the usage amount and type."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon EC2 is the computing capacity."
"Amazon EC2 is really reliable and provides great flexibility."
"The most valuable features of Amazon EC2 are content delivery and adaptability."
"What I like most about AWS Lambda is that it's very easy to deploy."
"The solution offers good performance."
"We moved our users into the Amazon Cognito pool, so it helps us to standardize our security practices, approaches, etc. We can customize Lambda for authentication to integrate it with API Gateway and other services."
"The main features of this solution are the ability to integrate multiple AWS applications or external applications very quickly and organize all of them. Additionally, it is easy to use and you can run various programming languages, such as Python, Go, and Java."
"The serverless computing feature eliminates the need to manage servers, provision, or scale."
"We have no issues with the technical support."
"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 stability is good."
 

Cons

"The only issue with EC2 is that it makes it difficult to install an LLS certificate on your WordPress website that you have deployed inside that virtual machine. That becomes complicated."
"Currently in the autoscaling process if we have multiple issues we are not able to connect some of the VPC through the SMS."
"The GUI used to deploy EC2 must be improved."
"The monitoring part could be improved. When we're building and configuring things or doing database replication, EC2's monitoring could provide more information. It's hard to find the information I need in the graphs they provide."
"The initial deployment was complex."
"Regional acceleration could improve. If I am hosting a website and I want the experience to be faster they should have this feature to allow for increased speeds."
"Amazon EC2 could improve the stability."
"This solution could be improved with better pricing. If you continue using this solution over a long period of time, your costs may accumulate."
"I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"If you are setting it up on hybrid solution, there is a lot of work that needs to go in."
"We can write anything as code, but the solution will not give proper error information."
"We don't have the inbuilt modules in AWS Lambda. If more modules were built into or integrated with AWS Lambda, that would help developers to code."
"Lambda could be improved in the sense that some of the things done with Lambda function take some time. So the performance could be better and faster."
"The metrics and reporting for this solution could be improved."
"Regarding layers, you need to manually zip and install them. This step needs practice, and you might need to do it three to four times to get a hang of it."
"I would like to see the five zero four AWS Lambda invocation fixed. This is basically a time-out error."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For our usage, the cost is approximately $20,000 to $23,000 per month."
"The license fee for Amazon EC2 is higher than its competitors."
"Reducing the price of the solution could lead to an improvement."
"It's competitive but can vary based on instance types and usage patterns."
"The solution has different pricing models, and its cost differs when you purchase it for one year or three years."
"The tool's pricing is not cheap."
"EC2 pricing is somewhat transparent, in that AWS provides pricing for all instance types. However, the number of pricing options can be confusing."
"The price of Amazon EC2 could improve. The Google Cloud Platform is more cost-effective."
"For licensing, we pay a yearly subscription."
"AWS Lambda cost is pretty decent."
"AWS Lambda license is paid on a monthly basis."
"AWS is slightly more expensive than Azure."
"AWS Lambda is inexpensive."
"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."
"AWS Lambda is a cheap solution."
"The solution's price is average."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Retailer
6%
University
6%
Educational Organization
67%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
4%
Manufacturing Company
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EC2?
The scalability and elasticity are helpful.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EC2?
I'm going to mention again that there is quite a bit of complexity within the pricing of EC2 instances. I'm just going to give it six out of ten since there are various standards, upfront and commi...
What needs improvement with Amazon EC2?
There is not much to be improved or enhanced. One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense. Sometimes, clients don't understand the structures. Thes...
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...
What do you like most about AWS Lambda?
The tool scales automatically based on the number of incoming requests.
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, EC2
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Expedia, TimeInc., Novaris, airbnb, Lamborghini
Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Lambda vs. Amazon EC2 and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.