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AWS Lambda vs Apache Spark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 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
5.6
Apache Spark provides up to 50% cost savings, boosting efficiency and reducing expenses significantly in machine learning analytics.
Sentiment score
6.8
AWS Lambda increases ROI by reducing costs through pay-per-use, auto-scaling, and eliminating infrastructure expenses, boosting efficiency.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Apache Spark offers vibrant community support and resources, with commercial support available through vendors like Cloudera and Hadoop.
Sentiment score
6.8
AWS Lambda support is mixed; excellent for some but criticized for delays and costs, with reliance on documentation.
I would rate the technical support of Apache Spark an eight because when we had questions, we found solutions, and it was straightforward.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
I have received support via newsgroups or guidance on specific discussions, which is what I would expect in an open-source situation.
Data Architect at Devtech
If it is a priority issue, they will give the response quicker, but if it is moderate, they take some time.
Consultant at Deloitte
When we raise a ticket or have an issue, the support team is responsive.
Co Founder And CTO at Gamucopia Creatives
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Apache Spark's scalability and versatility enable efficient large-scale data processing, making it a reliable choice for diverse teams.
Sentiment score
7.7
AWS Lambda efficiently scales automatically, integrates seamlessly with AWS, and adapts to varying traffic, minimizing costs and manual intervention.
When it comes to the increased needs of my customers trying to grow, AWS Lambda is not an issue to grow with them.
Assistant Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Whenever the number of requests increases, the system automatically scales up to the target we have set and scales down once the requests are resolved.
Co Founder And CTO at Gamucopia Creatives
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Apache Spark is praised for its robust stability and reliability, with high user ratings despite minor configuration challenges.
Sentiment score
8.1
AWS Lambda is stable and reliable, managing scaling and uptime well, with minor latency issues and strong service integration.
MapReduce needs to perform numerous disk input and output operations, while Apache Spark can use memory to store and process data.
Data Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Without a doubt, we have had some crashes because each situation is different, and while the prototype in my environment is stable, we do not know everything at other customer sites.
Data Architect at Devtech
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Spark needs improvements in real-time querying, user-friendliness, logging, large dataset handling, and expanded programming language support.
AWS Lambda faces challenges with latency, execution limits, integration, monitoring, pricing, performance, deployment complexity, and supporting extensive workloads.
Various tools like Informatica, TIBCO, or Talend offer specific aspects, licensing can be costly;
Data Architect at Devtech
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
Regarding scaling, we can add up to 1,000 execution environments for every 10 seconds per function, per region.
Consultant at Deloitte
AWS Lambda needs to improve cold start time.
Co Founder And CTO at Gamucopia Creatives
 

Setup Cost

Apache Spark is cost-effective but can incur high infrastructure costs, especially in cloud setups like Databricks, with setup time variability.
AWS Lambda's flexible, cost-effective pricing with no upfront costs suits enterprises with low-frequency workloads and varied deployments.
 

Valuable Features

Apache Spark provides scalable, in-memory data processing with flexible support for distributed computing, streaming, and machine learning integration.
AWS Lambda provides serverless scalability, cost efficiency, and integrates with AWS services, supporting multiple languages with high performance.
The most important part is that everything can be connected, and the data exchange across overseas connections is fast and reliable.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
Apache Spark is the solution, and within it, you have PySpark, which is the API for Apache Spark to write and run Python code.
Data Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Data Architect at Devtech
Automatic scaling is a valuable feature. When the number of requests increases, the system automatically scales up to the target we have set and scales down once the requests are resolved.
Co Founder And CTO at Gamucopia Creatives
As it is serverless, AWS Lambda has more scope for building scalable architectures.
Consultant at Deloitte
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Spark
Ranking in Compute Service
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), Java Frameworks (2nd)
AWS Lambda
Ranking in Compute Service
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 9.0%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 14.2%, down from 21.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Lambda14.2%
Apache Spark9.0%
Other76.8%
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Rajaraman Ramachandran - PeerSpot reviewer
Co Founder And CTO at Gamucopia Creatives
Has enabled us to manage compute resources efficiently while supporting multiple languages
AWS Lambda needs to improve cold start time. Some AWS Lambda functions require a cold start, and if you need AWS Lambda to provide quick responses, you need some of the AWS Lambdas to be always on, which is risky. We need AWS Lambda's cold start time to be reduced so that we can use it much faster than now. We need a better way to handle the cold start. We should be able to start AWS Lambda much before in a predictable way instead of just calling and then having it start.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark?
I attempted to use Apache Spark in one of our customer projects, but after the initial test, our customer moved to another technology and another database system. I do not have any final remarks on...
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 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.
What needs improvement with AWS Lambda?
I haven't used AWS Lambda's auto-scaling feature yet, so I cannot provide a rating or evaluation. In my opinion, AWS Lambda can be improved. As it is serverless, from our end, we don't need to mana...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Lambda vs. Apache Spark and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.