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AWS Lambda vs Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
7.8
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
AWS Lambda
Ranking in Compute Service
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is 10.3%, down from 14.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 20.7%, up from 19.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Awais Zahid - PeerSpot reviewer
Pay-as-you-go and efficient with automated workload handling
I have been working with customers who use Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for handling their workload on servers and scaling up the infrastructure as required.  As an instructor and cloud consultant, I help clients maintain and scale their infrastructure using this service to achieve zero downtime…
Andrew-Wong - PeerSpot reviewer
Convenience in deployment process with room for code preview improvement
Having a better preview would be helpful. Sometimes, if my Lambda code is too big, it can be inconvenient as I'm unable to see my code when it exceeds a certain size. AWS has a limit, like a three-megabyte limit, beyond which I cannot view or edit the code easily.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Most of what I've deployed are CI/CD pipelines. AWS is scalable. You can always increase or adjust the resources to meet the specific requirements. I also like choosing an instance in any location, preferably the closest one. We don't have any AWS locations in South Africa, but the latency is about the same as hosting in Europe."
"Having a load balancer in between is very helpful when you have huge traffic."
"The solution includes many features for configuring networks and VPCs."
"The solution incorporates ease of maintenance and reduction in operational overhead and costs. Patching is also easy."
"What we have found most valuable are the purchasing of usage at the time and small storage."
"Applications deployed on EC2 instances can easily integrate with other AWS services. For example, you can connect your EC2 Auto Scaling group to a tool like CloudWatch for health checks and anomaly detection."
"It uses features like target tracking scaling policy, which automatically maintains CPU utilization levels."
"The easy possibility to spin up runtimes according to the needs of the POC, getting a runtime up and running in an easy way, which is accessible over the internet, is valuable for our process."
"Lambda has improved our organization by making it possible to transform data."
"Provides a good, easy path from when you're using an AWS cluster."
"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 installation and configuration of the solution is straightforward."
"The most valuable features are event-based triggers. They're really good for a reactive style when you want things to happen as soon as something else happens."
"Thanks to this solution, we do not need to worry about hardware or resource utilization. It saves us time."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"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."
 

Cons

"As we are transitioning to managing containerized applications, the solution could improve by adding more managed container services as a feature in the solution."
"There is room for improvement in the scalability."
"The solution's configuration process could be better."
"There should be an AWS instance in South Africa, where the latency would be even lower. It might happen soon since AWS has recently opened more data centres in Nigeria. AWS may extend its reach to South Africa, and offer hosted CLI servers there. Most of the problems with AWS are not to do with the solution itself but with configuration. It is something on design, more or less."
"The solution is not cheap."
"The support to manage the processes could be better."
"The primary area for improvement is the pricing model."
"Could integrate more with other platforms."
"AWS Lambda is a bit difficult to set up if someone doesn't know how to code."
"The setup was pretty complex because there were many steps. For me, it was complex because I was somewhat new at it. It could be easier for someone who has done it a bunch of times. I just found that it was a very dense user experience. There's a lot going on during setup."
"We need to invest time in learning the tool's language variant. We have encountered instances of downtime as well."
"Amazon doesn't have enough local support based in our country."
"The runtime for the solution can be improved."
"The overall performance of this solution could be improved. We would also like to have better integration with other AWS features."
"There's room for improvement in the testing setup."
"I want to see support for longer applications. I need the 15-minute time-out window to improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"There is no specific pricing for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, but we have to pay for the number of machines getting scaled up."
"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."
"The solution pricing varies by service region is mid-range."
"I rate Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is not fixed and it is based on usage."
"Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model."
"Pricing could be a little bit more competitive."
"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."
"The solution is part of the AWS subscription model that is paid annually."
"This is a product that is pay-per-use, as opposed to a licensing fee."
"The price of AWS Lambda is priced very low."
"It computes by the cycle, and it's very cheap."
"The cost is based on runtime."
"AWS Lambda's cloud version isn't expensive, and I'd rate its pricing as five out of five."
"The solution is free of cost for the first year, and after that, it becomes expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
13%
Retailer
6%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
Educational Organization
47%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

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...
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...
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...
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?
The pricing of AWS Lambda is reasonable. It's beneficial and cost-effective for users regardless of the number of instances used.
 

Also Known As

AWS RAM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Lambda vs. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.