AWS Lambda vs Azure Functions: Which Should You Opt For

AWS Lambda has a SAM CLI tool that helps you run/test Lambda functions locally. Some developers say that you can also run .NET functions in SAM, even though C# is not listed in the official supported runtimes list. You can check this on your own, and see if this works.

Azure lets you debug functions, both locally and remotely. Visual Studio comes with the simple F5 debugging tool meant for Azure Functions.

Performance: Azure gives way to AWS here!

AWS Lambda is much more superior when compared to the runtime performance. It is true that certain improvements have been made to Azure Functions, but it still doesn’t match the capabilities of Lambda. However, more improvements are expected with v2 runtime, which is slated for a release later in the year.

Azure Functions supports Node.js, C#, F#, Python, and PHP. Java is also mentioned in the list, but developers are still confused on how to use it.

AWS Lambda supports Node.js, Python, and Java.

Because PHP is the most popular language, most of the developers turn to Azure.

The triggers and bindings of Azure Functions are an interesting feature. You can define the bindings declaratively by using parameter attributes in the code. The three binding types are input bindings, output bindings, and triggers.

Developers have the freedom to choose a binding and the parameter type that suits their requirements. It is this differentiating feature that makes Microsoft a better option here. And that’s not all. The company is continually innovating with their bindings. Each binding comes with parameter types that can be configured and manipulated.

The architecture of Azure Functions is also quite different when compared to Lambda. App Service acts as an environment for Azure Functions, where the Functions are grouped logically. In Lambda, this is different because they are organizationally independent. App Service can also be dynamic or classic. In dynamic App Service, you pay only for the functions you use (time and memory). The memory allocated for Azure Services is as per app service and not as per function, which is the case with Lambda.

The container architecture of both are also different. Lambda provisions a new architecture to deploy your code on a cold request. The code is taken from the zip file. However, subsequent requests will be handled faster as the containers can be reused.

This is different in Azure Functions because they are not subject to cold or warm requests. The files aren’t frozen in a zip file because they run atop Azure’s WebJobs. However, they do provision resources as per requirement.

You can also say that Azure is a better choice for cloud hosting because they run on a Windows system, while Lambda runs on Linux.

A few differences between the two services lie in the following parameters as well:

As long as your core runtime requirements are met, it is alright to choose any one of these cloud computing services. You can try both and see which of these services would prove to be more useful to you. Understand the practical limitations and read the fine print.

And it is also important to check the availability and consumption of various relevant services within the ecosystem (cloud providers) as well.