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AWS Lambda vs Apache NiFi vs Apache Spark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Apache NiFi is 8.5%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Apache Spark is 11.4%, up from 10.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 21.2%, up from 20.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

Bharghava Raghavendra Beesa - PeerSpot reviewer
The tool enables effective data transformation and integration
There are some areas for improvement, particularly with record-level tasks that take a bit of time. The quality of JSON data processing could be improved, as JSON workloads require manual conversions without a specific process. Enhancing features related to alerting would be helpful, including mobile alerts for pipeline issues. Integration with mobile devices for error alerts would simplify information delivery.
Dunstan Matekenya - PeerSpot reviewer
Open-source solution for data processing with portability
Apache Spark is known for its ease of use. Compared to other available data processing frameworks, it is user-friendly. While many choices now exist, Spark remains easy to use, particularly with Python. You can utilize familiar programming styles similar to Pandas in Python, including object-oriented programming. Another advantage is its portability. I can prototype and perform some initial tasks on my laptop using Spark without needing to be on Databricks or any cloud platform. I can transfer it to Databricks or other platforms, such as AWS. This flexibility allows me to improve processing even on my laptop. For instance, if I'm processing large amounts of data and find my laptop becoming slow, I can quickly switch to Spark. It handles small and large datasets efficiently, making it a versatile tool for various data processing needs.
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

"The initial setup is very easy. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, where one point is difficult, and ten points are easy."
"It's an automated flow, where you can build a flow from source to destination, then do the transformation in between."
"The most valuable features of this solution are ease of use and implementation."
"The most valuable feature has been the range of clients and the range of connectors that we could use."
"The user interface is good and makes it easy to design very popular workflows."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"We can integrate the tool with other applications easily."
"It is highly effective for handling real-time data by working with APIs for immediate and continuous data extraction."
"The deployment of the product is easy."
"The solution is very stable."
"The most crucial feature for us is the streaming capability. It serves as a fundamental aspect that allows us to exert control over our operations."
"With Spark, we parallelize our operations, efficiently accessing both historical and real-time data."
"The fault tolerant feature is provided."
"It provides a scalable machine learning library."
"The data processing framework is good."
"The solution has been very stable."
"I have used AWS Lambda for simple messaging for SQS, creating a cron job, and delay messaging."
"The solution works for small applications. It is a serverless tool that is quick to spin up. We needn’t consider anything in the bag."
"AWS Lambda is itself serverless, and it is connected to the API gateway, and you can directly call the API through the API gateway and connect through AWS Lambda."
"We have no issues with the technical support."
"Lambda allows you to focus on the code itself."
"AWS Lambda is interlinked with CloudWatch. When we have any errors we can directly go there and check the CloudWatch logs. Additionally, we can run it very fast and we can increase the RAM size and other components."
"The basic feature that I like is that there is no server installation. It also has good support for various languages, such as Java, .NET, C#, and Python."
"The support from AWS Lambda is very good, they are responsive."
 

Cons

"There are some claims that NiFi is cloud-native but we have tested it, and it's not."
"More features must be added to the product."
"The use case templates could be more precise to typical business needs."
"I think the UI interface needs to be more user-friendly."
"There is room for improvement in integration with SSO. For example, NiFi does not have any integration with SSO. And if I want to give some kind of rollback access control across the organization. That is not possible."
"We run many jobs, and there are already large tables. When we do not control NiFi on time, all reports fail for the day. So it's pretty slow to control, and it has to be improved."
"There should be a better way to integrate a development environment with local tools."
"The quality of JSON data processing could be improved, as JSON workloads require manual conversions without a specific process."
"At the initial stage, the product provides no container logs to check the activity."
"When you are working with large, complex tasks, the garbage collection process is slow and affects performance."
"Apache Spark is very difficult to use. It would require a data engineer. It is not available for every engineer today because they need to understand the different concepts of Spark, which is very, very difficult and it is not easy to learn."
"In data analysis, you need to take real-time data from different data sources. You need to process this in a subsecond, do the transformation in a subsecond, and all that."
"When using Spark, users may need to write their own parallelization logic, which requires additional effort and expertise."
"The product could improve the user interface and make it easier for new users."
"The solution must improve its performance."
"The solution’s integration with other platforms should be improved."
"We need to invest time in learning the tool's language variant. We have encountered instances of downtime as well."
"I want to see support for longer applications. I need the 15-minute time-out window to improve."
"AWS Lambda's GUI could be improved with a twist or tweak in its look and feel to make it more impressive."
"Lambda can only be used in one account; there's no possibility to utilize it in another account."
"A very minor improvement would be to simplify the instructions on setting a trigger, as I had to read through them multiple times at the start."
"Lambda would benefit from a debugging feature as well."
"Regarding layers, you need to manually zip and install them. This step needs practice, and you might need to do it three to four times to get a hang of it."
"The price in general could always be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We use the free version of Apache NiFi."
"The solution is open-source."
"It's an open-source solution."
"I used the tool's free version."
"Apache Spark is an expensive solution."
"Considering the product version used in my company, I feel that the tool is not costly since the product is available for free."
"I did not pay anything when using the tool on cloud services, but I had to pay on the compute side. The tool is not expensive compared with the benefits it offers. I rate the price as an eight out of ten."
"Apache Spark is an open-source tool."
"It is an open-source solution, it is free of charge."
"The product is expensive, considering the setup."
"It is quite expensive. In fact, it accounts for almost 50% of the cost of our entire project."
"The tool is an open-source product. If you're using the open-source Apache Spark, no fees are involved at any time. Charges only come into play when using it with other services like Databricks."
"I think the price is okay. However, if they add more functionality, they can have better prices. In fact, they should have better and more flexible packages for clients who have greater consumption of Lambda."
"We only need to pay for the compute time our code consumes."
"AWS Lambda is cheap."
"The solution is free of cost for the first year, and after that, it becomes expensive."
"AWS Lambda cost is pretty decent."
"Price-wise, AWS Lambda is a five out of ten."
"AWS Lambda's cloud version isn't expensive, and I'd rate its pricing as five out of five."
"The solution is part of the AWS subscription model that is paid annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
62%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache NiFi?
Apache NiFi is open-source and free. Its integration with systems like Cloudera can be expensive, but Apache NiFi its...
What needs improvement with Apache NiFi?
The logging system of Apache NiFi needs improvement. It is difficult to debug compared to Airflow ( /products/apache-...
What do you like most about Apache Spark?
We use Spark to process data from different data sources.
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?
There is complexity when it comes to understanding the whole ecosystem, especially for beginners. I find it quite com...
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 n...
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 ins...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Macquarie Telecom Group, Dovestech, Slovak Telekom, Looker, Hastings Group
NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
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