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Run code without managing servers, pay only for compute time

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Reviews onG2Capterra
1079 reviews tracked

The Bottom Line

Entry price

Paid plans only

Biggest pro

Industry-standard serverless platform

Biggest con

Cold starts can affect latency

TL;DR - AWS Lambda

  • AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning servers-just upload your function and it scales automatically
  • It executes code in response to events from 200+ AWS services, charging only for compute time used
  • Free tier includes 1M requests/month, then $0.20 per million requests
Pricing: Paid only
Best for: Enterprises & pros
4.6/5 across review platforms

What is AWS Lambda?

Editorial review
Lambda runs your code without servers to manage. Upload a function, configure a trigger, and AWS handles scaling, patching, and availability. You pay only when code executes. Functions respond to HTTP requests, process queue messages, react to database changes-any event can trigger execution. The runtime handles everything except your business logic. Lambda changed how developers think about backends. Instead of maintaining servers, you write functions and let AWS handle the rest.

Available on: Web

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Industry-standard serverless platform
  • Integrates with entire AWS ecosystem
  • Scales automatically to any load
  • Pay only for compute time used
  • Supports many languages and runtimes

Cons

  • Cold starts can affect latency
  • Complex pricing model
  • 15-minute execution time limit
  • Debugging can be challenging
  • Vendor lock-in with AWS services

Ratings Across the Web

4.6(1,079 reviews)

Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more

Key Features

Serverless computeEvent-drivenAuto-scalingPay-per-useMultiple runtimesAWS integration

Pricing Plans

Free Tier

$0

  • 1M free requests/month
  • 400,000 GB-seconds compute
  • Never expires
  • Included with AWS account

Pay-as-you-go

$0.20 / million

  • $0.20 per 1M requests
  • $0.0000166667/GB-second (x86)
  • Memory from 128 MB to 10 GB
  • Billed per millisecond

Graviton2 (ARM)

$0.16 / million

  • 34% better price performance
  • $0.0000133334/GB-second
  • Same functionality as x86
  • Recommended for cost savings

Savings Plans

Up to 17% off

  • 1 or 3 year commitment
  • Compute Savings Plans
  • Flexible across regions
  • Significant discount

How AWS Lambda's pricing compares

At $1.42/mo, AWS Lambda is mid-range of its 3 direct competitors ($0.4 to $19/mo across the set).

Entry paid plan, monthly.

Reviews

4.6/5

Across 1,079 verified user reviews on G2, Capterra

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AWS Lambda FAQ

Is Lambda free?

Generous free tier: 1 million requests and 400,000 GB-seconds per month forever. Many small applications run entirely within free tier.

What is AWS Lambda?

Lambda is AWS's serverless compute service. Run code without managing servers. Pay only for compute time used. Scales automatically.

Lambda vs EC2?

Lambda is serverless with no server management. EC2 gives full control but requires management. Lambda for events and APIs; EC2 for long-running workloads.

What languages does Lambda support?

Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Go, Ruby, and custom runtimes. Node.js and Python are most popular. Can bring any language via custom runtime.

What are Lambda cold starts?

Cold start is delay when Lambda initializes a new container. Can be 100ms to several seconds depending on runtime. Keep functions warm for latency-sensitive apps.