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AWS Lambda vs Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling offers cost savings and high ROI, especially for apps with high loads and experimental uses.
Sentiment score
7.4
AWS Lambda offers high ROI with low costs, automatic scaling, and pay-as-you-go pricing, enhancing development focus.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is praised for responsive support, extensive documentation, and effective issue resolution, despite integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.1
AWS Lambda support receives mixed reviews, praised for enterprise plans but critiqued for response times and personalized cost concerns.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling excels in adaptability, efficiently adjusting resources for stable, cost-effective operations with high scalability ratings.
Sentiment score
7.8
AWS Lambda efficiently scales with traffic, integrates well with AWS, but may raise cost concerns at high volumes.
I would rate how scalable AWS Lambda is a nine on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 would be the lowest and 10 would be the highest level of scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is praised for stability and reliability, with effective auto-recovery despite occasional resource issues.
Sentiment score
8.1
AWS Lambda offers stable, reliable performance with high availability, despite occasional latency issues, suitable for mission-critical applications.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling needs improvements in pricing, automation, scalability, support, integration, customization, UI, connectivity, security, and performance.
AWS Lambda requires improved integration, language support, performance, scalability, user-friendliness, and competitive pricing for enhanced third-party interoperability.
Amazon should provide more detailed training materials for people who are just starting to work with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling offers flexible pricing, with costs influenced by resource usage, instances, and additional services, with potential complexity.
AWS Lambda's pay-per-use pricing is cost-effective for small workloads, offering flexibility and savings over traditional servers.
It operates on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning if a machine is used for only an hour, the pricing will be calculated for that hour only, not the entire month.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling efficiently scales resources, enhances performance, ensures security, and integrates well with AWS services, offering cost efficiency.
AWS Lambda offers serverless architecture, easy integration, auto-scaling, and cost-efficiency for developers prioritizing flexibility and quick deployments.
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling has the capability to multiply itself, which enables it to handle peak loads effectively.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Ranking in Compute Service
3rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
AWS Lambda
Ranking in Compute Service
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is 9.7%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 19.4%, up from 19.1% 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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
12%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

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 costing for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is equivalent to creating Amazon EC2 servers. For instance, if one dollar is paid for a single Amazon EC2 machine, the same cost applies for Amazon EC2 Auto ...
What needs improvement with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?
Amazon should provide more detailed training materials for people who are just starting to work with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling. Documentation should be provided according to region. For example, in I...
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: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.