AWS Lambda vs Cloud Functions for Firebase vs Google Cloud Functions

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AWS Lambda

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Cloud Functions for Firebase

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Google Cloud Functions

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AWS Lambda vs Cloud Functions for Firebase vs Google Cloud Functions: What are the differences?

< AWS Lambda and Cloud Functions for Firebase and Google Cloud Functions are serverless compute services that allow developers to run code without provisioning or managing servers. These services support multiple programming languages and automatically scale based on demand.>

  1. Deployment Options: AWS Lambda allows deployment of functions through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs, while Cloud Functions for Firebase and Google Cloud Functions offer deployment solely through the Firebase CLI or the Google Cloud Console. This difference in deployment options may impact developers' preferred workflow and tools.

  2. Pricing Model: AWS Lambda follows a pay-per-use model where you are billed based on the number of requests and the compute time required to run your functions. In contrast, Cloud Functions for Firebase and Google Cloud Functions also adopt a pay-as-you-go model based on the number of invocations and the resources consumed, but they include a free tier that provides a certain level of usage at no cost.

  3. Supported Integrations: AWS Lambda integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, providing a wide range of possibilities for building serverless applications within the AWS ecosystem. On the other hand, Cloud Functions for Firebase is tightly integrated with Firebase services, offering enhanced capabilities for mobile and web app development, while Google Cloud Functions offer integration with various Google Cloud services, enabling developers to leverage Google's advanced cloud offerings.

  4. Execution Environment: AWS Lambda runs on AWS's proprietary infrastructure, while Cloud Functions for Firebase and Google Cloud Functions run on Google Cloud Platform, allowing developers to choose based on their familiarity with a particular cloud provider's ecosystem. This difference may affect networking configurations, storage options, and other cloud-specific features available to the developers.

  5. Concurrency Limits: AWS Lambda imposes default concurrency and scalability limits per region, while Cloud Functions for Firebase and Google Cloud Functions provide automatic scaling without predefined concurrency limits. Developers using Google's cloud services may have more flexibility in managing concurrent invocations based on their requirements and usage patterns.

  6. Monitoring and Logging: AWS Lambda offers comprehensive monitoring and logging capabilities through Amazon CloudWatch, providing detailed metrics and insights into function performance. In contrast, Cloud Functions for Firebase and Google Cloud Functions provide logging and monitoring through Stackdriver, Google's monitoring and logging solution, which may offer different metrics and visualization options for tracking function execution and diagnosing issues.

In Summary, key differences between AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions for Firebase, and Google Cloud Functions lie in deployment options, pricing models, supported integrations, execution environments, concurrency limits, and monitoring/logging solutions, catering to different developer preferences and requirements.

Advice on AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions for Firebase, and Google Cloud Functions

Need advice on what platform, systems and tools to use.

Evaluating whether to start a new digital business for which we will need to build a website that handles all traffic. Website only right now. May add smartphone apps later. No desktop app will ever be added. Website to serve various countries and languages. B2B and B2C type customers. Need to handle heavy traffic, be low cost, and scale well.

We are open to either build it on AWS or on Microsoft Azure.

Apologies if I'm leaving out some info. My first post. :) Thanks in advance!

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Replies (2)
Anis Zehani

I recommend this : -Spring reactive for back end : the fact it's reactive (async) it consumes half of the resources that a sync platform needs (so less CPU -> less money). -Angular : Web Front end ; it's gives you the possibility to use PWA which is a cheap replacement for a mobile app (but more less popular). -Docker images. -Kubernetes to orchestrate all the containers. -I Use Jenkins / blueocean, ansible for my CI/CD (with Github of course) -AWS of course : u can run a K8S cluster there, make it multi AZ (availability zones) to be highly available, use a load balancer and an auto scaler and ur good to go. -You can store data by taking any managed DB or u can deploy ur own (cheap but risky).

You pay less money, but u need some technical 2 - 3 guys to make that done.

Good luck

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My advice will be Front end: React Backend: Language: Java, Kotlin. Database: SQL: Postgres, MySQL, Aurora NOSQL: Mongo db. Caching: Redis. Public : Spring Webflux for async public facing operation. Admin api: Spring boot, Hibrernate, Rest API. Build Container image. Kuberenetes: AWS EKS, AWS ECS, Google GKE. Use Jenkins for CI/CD pipeline. Buddy works is good for AWS. Static content: Host on AWS S3 bucket, Use Cloudfront or Cloudflare as CDN.

Serverless Solution: Api gateway Lambda, Serveless Aurora (SQL). AWS S3 bucket.

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Decisions about AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions for Firebase, and Google Cloud Functions
Clifford Crerar
Software Engineer at Bidvest Advisory Services · | 9 upvotes · 68.2K views

Run cloud service containers instead of cloud-native services

  • Running containers means that your microservices are not "cooked" into a cloud provider's architecture.
  • Moving from one cloud to the next means that you simply spin up new instances of your containers in the new cloud using that cloud's container service.
  • Start redirecting your traffic to the new resources.
  • Turn off the containers in the cloud you migrated from.
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When adding a new feature to Checkly rearchitecting some older piece, I tend to pick Heroku for rolling it out. But not always, because sometimes I pick AWS Lambda . The short story:

  • Developer Experience trumps everything.
  • AWS Lambda is cheap. Up to a limit though. This impact not only your wallet.
  • If you need geographic spread, AWS is lonely at the top.
The setup

Recently, I was doing a brainstorm at a startup here in Berlin on the future of their infrastructure. They were ready to move on from their initial, almost 100% Ec2 + Chef based setup. Everything was on the table. But we crossed out a lot quite quickly:

  • Pure, uncut, self hosted Kubernetes — way too much complexity
  • Managed Kubernetes in various flavors — still too much complexity
  • Zeit — Maybe, but no Docker support
  • Elastic Beanstalk — Maybe, bit old but does the job
  • Heroku
  • Lambda

It became clear a mix of PaaS and FaaS was the way to go. What a surprise! That is exactly what I use for Checkly! But when do you pick which model?

I chopped that question up into the following categories:

  • Developer Experience / DX 🤓
  • Ops Experience / OX 🐂 (?)
  • Cost 💵
  • Lock in 🔐

Read the full post linked below for all details

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Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
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Pros of AWS Lambda
Pros of Cloud Functions for Firebase
Pros of Google Cloud Functions
  • 129
    No infrastructure
  • 83
    Cheap
  • 70
    Quick
  • 59
    Stateless
  • 47
    No deploy, no server, great sleep
  • 12
    AWS Lambda went down taking many sites with it
  • 6
    Event Driven Governance
  • 6
    Extensive API
  • 6
    Auto scale and cost effective
  • 6
    Easy to deploy
  • 5
    VPC Support
  • 3
    Integrated with various AWS services
  • 4
    Up and running
  • 1
    Multi-region
  • 1
    Affordable
  • 7
    Serverless Applications
  • 5
    Its not AWS
  • 4
    Simplicity
  • 3
    Free Tiers and Trainging
  • 2
    Simple config with GitLab CI/CD
  • 1
    Built-in Webhook trigger
  • 1
    Typescript Support
  • 1
    Blaze, pay as you go
  • 1
    Customer Support

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of AWS Lambda
Cons of Cloud Functions for Firebase
Cons of Google Cloud Functions
  • 7
    Cant execute ruby or go
  • 3
    Compute time limited
  • 1
    Can't execute PHP w/o significant effort
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 1
      Node.js only
    • 0
      Typescript Support
    • 0
      Blaze, pay as you go

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is AWS Lambda?

    AWS Lambda is a compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages the underlying compute resources for you. You can use AWS Lambda to extend other AWS services with custom logic, or create your own back-end services that operate at AWS scale, performance, and security.

    What is Cloud Functions for Firebase?

    Cloud Functions for Firebase lets you create functions that are triggered by Firebase products, such as changes to data in the Realtime Database, uploads to Cloud Storage, new user sign ups via Authentication, and conversion events in Analytics.

    What is Google Cloud Functions?

    Construct applications from bite-sized business logic billed to the nearest 100 milliseconds, only while your code is running

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    What companies use AWS Lambda?
    What companies use Cloud Functions for Firebase?
    What companies use Google Cloud Functions?

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    What tools integrate with AWS Lambda?
    What tools integrate with Cloud Functions for Firebase?
    What tools integrate with Google Cloud Functions?

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    What are some alternatives to AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions for Firebase, and Google Cloud Functions?
    Serverless
    Build applications comprised of microservices that run in response to events, auto-scale for you, and only charge you when they run. This lowers the total cost of maintaining your apps, enabling you to build more logic, faster. The Framework uses new event-driven compute services, like AWS Lambda, Google CloudFunctions, and more.
    Azure Functions
    Azure Functions is an event driven, compute-on-demand experience that extends the existing Azure application platform with capabilities to implement code triggered by events occurring in virtually any Azure or 3rd party service as well as on-premises systems.
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk
    Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.
    AWS Step Functions
    AWS Step Functions makes it easy to coordinate the components of distributed applications and microservices using visual workflows. Building applications from individual components that each perform a discrete function lets you scale and change applications quickly.
    Google App Engine
    Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.
    See all alternatives