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AWS Lambda vs Google Cloud Dataflow 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Lambda
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Compute Service (1st)
Google Cloud Dataflow
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Dataflow aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. AWS Lambda is designed for Compute Service and holds a mindshare of 21.2%, up 20.5% compared to last year.
Google Cloud Dataflow, on the other hand, focuses on Streaming Analytics, holds 6.8% mindshare, down 7.4% since last year.
Compute Service
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Jana Polianskaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Build Scalable Data Pipelines with Apache Beam and Google Cloud Dataflow
As a data engineer, I find several features of Google Cloud Dataflow particularly valuable. The ability to test solutions locally using Direct Runner is crucial for development, allowing me to validate pipelines without incurring the costs of full Dataflow jobs. The unified programming model for both batch and streaming processing is exceptional - requiring only minor code adjustments to optimize for either mode. This flexibility extends to language support, with robust implementations in both Java and Python, allowing teams to leverage their existing expertise. The platform's comprehensive monitoring capabilities are another standout feature. The intuitive interface, Grafana integration, and extensive service connectivity make troubleshooting and performance tracking highly efficient. Furthermore, seamless integration with Google Cloud Composer (managed Airflow) enables sophisticated orchestration of data pipelines.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the API Gateway."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Lambda, from a conceptual point, is its functions. For example, it's mathematical templates into which you can write, and create your solution. You write small pieces of a solution under given parameters."
"What I like most about AWS Lambda is that it's very easy to deploy."
"They have the built-in IDE, so everything happens without integration issues."
"It is my preferred product, as it provides me with source code within the solution."
"The solution offers good performance."
"The solution runs on the latest cloud technology so it is easy to deploy cloud-native projects."
"Because AWS Lambda is serverless, server configuration is not required, and we can run it directly anywhere."
"Google Cloud Dataflow is useful for streaming and data pipelines."
"Google's support team is good at resolving issues, especially with large data."
"The integration within Google Cloud Platform is very good."
"It allows me to test solutions locally using runners like Direct Runner without having to start a Dataflow job, which can be costly."
"The best feature of Google Cloud Dataflow is its practical connectedness."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud Dataflow are the integration, it's very simple if you have the complete stack, which we are using. It is overall very easy to use, user-friendly friendly, and cost-effective if you know how to use it. The solution is very flexible for programmers, if you know how to do scripts or program in Python or any other language, it's extremely easy to use."
"The support team is good and it's easy to use."
"The most valuable features of Google Cloud Dataflow are scalability and connectivity."
 

Cons

"They should work on the solution's stability and pricing."
"The first time Lambda is started up, it takes some time to spin up an instance for serving the consumer requests. AWS has been trying to solve this in a variety of ways but have not yet managed to do so."
"The security needs to be improved."
"AWS Lambda could be improved with better stability."
"One area of improvement is to include support for more programming languages. AWS Lambda does not support a lot of programming languages. You have to write the Lambda functions in a certain programming language. We are using C++. My developer knows a couple of other languages. Python is his favorite language, but Python is not supported in AWS Lambda."
"AWS Lambda needs to improve its stability."
"Another challenge I've noticed is that there is a limit to the environment variables such as the 4 KB limit. Although, the advice is to use parameters or other things to store the details when the limit has exceeded the data, this adds additional intensity to the application. If the size limits for environment variables can be revealed, it would be helpful. Even if we have to pay for it, at least we would know that we are not dealing with latency. So, I would like to see the size of the environment variables increased."
"Lambda could be improved in the sense that some of the things done with Lambda function take some time. So the performance could be better and faster."
"There are certain challenges regarding the Google Cloud Composer which can be improved."
"Google Cloud Dataflow should include a little cost optimization."
"The authentication part of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"They should do a market survey and then make improvements."
"Promoting the technology more broadly would help increase its adoption."
"Google Cloud Data Flow can improve by having full simple integration with Kafka topics. It's not that complicated, but it could improve a bit. The UI is easy to use but the experience could be better. There are other tools available that do a better job."
"The deployment time could also be reduced."
"When I deploy the product in local errors, a lot of errors pop up which are not always caught. The solution's error logging is bad. It can take a lot of time to debug the errors. It needs to have better logs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free of cost for the first year, and after that, it becomes expensive."
"AWS Lambda license is paid on a monthly basis."
"For licensing, we pay a yearly subscription."
"I would rate the tool’s pricing a nine out of ten. The solution’s pricing works on a pay-as-you-go basis."
"The price of AWS Lambda is priced very low."
"Lambda is a good and cheap solution and I would recommend it to those without a huge payload."
"AWS Lambda is cheap."
"This is a product that is pay-per-use, as opposed to a licensing fee."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"The price of the solution depends on many factors, such as how they pay for tools in the company and its size."
"Google Cloud is slightly cheaper than AWS."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Google Cloud Dataflow's pricing a four out of ten."
"Google Cloud Dataflow is a cheap solution."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"The tool is cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
57%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Retailer
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What do you like most about Google Cloud Dataflow?
The product's installation process is easy...The tool's maintenance part is somewhat easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Dataflow?
Pricing is normal. It is part of a package received from Google, and they are not charging us too high.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Dataflow?
I am not sure, as we built only one job, and it is running on a daily basis. Everything else is managed using BigQuery schedulers and Talend. However, occasionally, dealing with a huge volume of da...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Google Dataflow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix
Absolutdata, Backflip Studios, Bluecore, Claritics, Crystalloids, Energyworx, GenieConnect, Leanplum, Nomanini, Redbus, Streak, TabTale
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apache, Zadara and others in Compute Service. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.