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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
6th
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
84
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 is 5.7%, down from 7.5% 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

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

"Amazon EC2 is highly scalable."
"Amazon EC2's flexibility and ease of configuration were found to be very valuable."
"The tool's performance, reliability, security and flexibility are good. We can use it remotely. The autoscaling functionality of EC2 is quite good. I appreciate the DevOps suite for tracking development tasks. This functionality is important for pure software development."
"EC2 is flexible when we need to increase its resources (memory, boosting, and storage) based on our usage. That is the power of EC2."
"What I found most valuable in Amazon EC2 is that you only pay for what you use, versus an on-premise deployment that requires you to pay for the cost of the server. When it's on-premise, you'll need to meet more specifications and requirements, and the purchasing process even takes time. As Amazon EC2 is cloud-based, you'll only pay when you use the service."
"The product is easy to set up."
"The most valuable features of Amazon EC2 are ease of use and the services offered."
"The product helps us with scalability. We also need not have data centers."
"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 solution runs on the latest cloud technology so it is easy to deploy cloud-native projects."
"The most valuable feature is that there is no need to implement it in a server because it is a service."
"It enables the launch of thousands of instances simultaneously,"
"Lambda has improved our organization by making it possible to transform data."
"The automation feature is valuable."
"AWS Lambda is interlinked with CloudWatch. When we have any errors we can directly go there and check the CloudWatch logs. Additionally, we can run it very fast and we can increase the RAM size and other components."
"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."
 

Cons

"The price could be better, and it could be more affordable. Because I run my own servers, the prices are quite high."
"I would like to see as much automation for data validation as possible in the future."
"Pricing-wise, it is a bit high."
"We faced a challenge in regard to billing. It took a lot of time because our state is set up in Kenya, so we needed to pay in Kenya currency. We have to go around in circles."
"In terms of improvement, they could build some client-side desktop tools that provide easier connectivity to Amazon."
"Nothing is really missing in terms of features."
"Lacks sufficient tools to help users minimize their costs."
"The initial deployment was complex."
"I think that perhaps Lambda could explore its functionality more."
"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."
"There's room for improvement in the testing setup."
"The product needs some updating as far as ease-of-customization and configuration opportunities to work with solutions outside of the cloud."
"AWS Lambda could be improved by increasing the size of the payload. Also, sometimes Lambda doesn't implement well for bigger solutions."
"There is room for improvement in user-friendliness. When comparing this solution to others it is not as user-friendly."
"Lambda has limitations on the amount of memory you can use and is not a good solution for long running processes."
"There were some timeout issues with AWS Lambda as the options provided didn't suit our business cases."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is reasonable, but there is definitely an opportunity to lower it in instances which are of a higher configuration, because they have been typically used for the long term."
"It's competitive but can vary based on instance types and usage patterns."
"The licensing of Amazon EC2 is expensive. Microsoft Windows Servers are expensive to license."
"It is not an expensive solution."
"It's expensive, and it could be cheaper."
"I use the free tier, although I have paid for some services that are not free. The overall cost of this solution depends on the services you use."
"It has helped to reduce costs with infrastructure."
"There is a license required to use this solution and we pay on a monthly basis."
"AWS Lambda is a cheap solution."
"Lambda is a good and cheap solution and I would recommend it to those without a huge payload."
"We don't need to pay for licensing to use Lambda."
"AWS Lambda is a very inexpensive solution. They charge for the number of times we run it. If you run AWS Lambda for one time, they charge around 50 cents or 25 cents for the use. I don't know the exact price, but it's less than a dollar."
"The pricing is on-demand and based on runs or times that are billed out monthly."
"AWS Lambda is inexpensive."
"Price-wise, AWS Lambda is a five out of ten."
"You're not paying for a server if you're not using it, which is another reason I like it. So, you're not paying if you're not using it. It scales, and you're charged based on usage. It all depends on the use case. Some can be extremely inexpensive if you have very low volume transaction rates. That way, you don't have to fire up and absorb the cost of the servers just sitting there waiting for a transaction to come through. You're only paying when you use it. So, depending upon the use model, Lambda could be highly efficient relative to an EC2 solution. You don't have to have things reallocated."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
6%
Educational Organization
67%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
5%
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: April 2025.
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