Serverless computing has become an extremely popular programming paradigm, with data-processing vendors like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure leading the way in terms of capabilities and popularity. But what about all the other serverless frameworks out there?
Let’s Look At The Top 10 Serverless Frameworks to Consider In 2023.
Understanding Serverless Framework
Serverless is a framework that deploys applications and workloads, with the server and cloud provider dynamically scaling the required resources.
Serverless means developers do not need to worry about allocating server capacity, provisioning capacity upfront, or paying for idle servers. All you need to do is declare your functions and write your code.
With its low operational cost, high scalability capabilities, faster deployment times, and ease of development, it’s clear why more enterprises are interested in exploring this exciting new trend.
1. AWS Chalice
Chalice offers a Python-based toolchain for building serverless applications on AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway. It offers flexibility regarding data access, scaling, and persistence that exceeds what is available with AWS Lambda alone.
For example, with Chalice, you can create an entire database without ever having to write a line of SQL or provision any servers.
Furthermore, the framework will automatically scale your service as needed.
2. Zappa
Serverless frameworks like Zappa can make it easy for you to get started with a serverless application. It offers scalable, on-demand computing with a free tier and is compatible with Python. It can be helpful if you are more experienced in Python than other languages like Java or Node.
The easiest way to use this framework is by installing it through Pip and following Zappa’s installation instructions.
It also comes with a dashboard where you can monitor your application’s activity and debug it if necessary.
The framework is based on AWS Lambda, so deploying an application is as easy as specifying a few things, such as your runtime, dependencies, and more.
3. Claudia.js
A new framework for serverless computing called Claudia.js, which claims the ability to run any JavaScript application inside a browser or on edge (with Docker, NPM, and Node.js), is being presented as a viable alternative to Apache Spark and other machine learning libraries.
Its developers have touted it as an alternative to Apache Spark and other machine learning libraries that enable running applications on-premises with no servers.
Claudia can be used in IoT devices such as security cameras or smart speakers that require only a small amount of computing power at intermittent times without significant upfront investment from the organization deploying them.
4. AWS Serverless Application Model
AWS SAM is a serverless framework for building applications and managing associated AWS resources like API Gateway, Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, etc.
It is similar to Heroku in that it provides an easy way to run your code on the cloud but with AWS as the underlying computing engine.
The advantage of AWS SAM over Heroku is that because it runs entirely on AWS, it becomes easier and cheaper to scale up or down as your needs change.
5. Deep Framework
With serverless frameworks becoming more popular, developers can now leverage them as a lower-cost, fast-deployment, and scalable way of building and deploying applications.
A deep Framework is a good option because it has many integrations with other services, such as AWS Lambda or Amazon API Gateway.
Developers will also appreciate how Deep offers automatic management of backend functions like security, data modeling, scalability, and many others. All this support comes with a 100% open-source framework meaning no vendor lock-in or licensing issues, giving users the peace of mind that they are free to use any vendor they want or even maintain their code base if they want.
There is full server management as well, so there is no need for servers unless your team wants/needs them.
6. Google Cloud Functions
GCF enables developers to build event-driven functions triggered by events such as newly created objects or changes in your app data via a powerful API from Google that automates the scaling of those functions.
Although Cloud Functions may be a newcomer, Google’s approach is one of the most complete and powerful serverless frameworks available.
With automatic cloud resource scaling, trigger-based execution, rich and robust SDKs for virtually any service or framework you can think of (Kubernetes, GitHub, and more), strong authentication features, and high uptime availability, it is tough to beat.
If you want fully managed functions that can respond quickly to an event in near real-time with scalability as your primary concern, you cannot go wrong with Cloud Functions.
7. Terraform
Terraform’s popularity indicates that businesses are looking for a flexible and powerful way to build cloud-native infrastructure.
Terraform enables organizations of any size to apply infrastructure as code principles anywhere. It builds and configures AWS resources and supports multiple providers, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), OpenStack, Digital Ocean, Libvirt, and more.
One advantage of the Open Source Terraform is its flexibility, which includes modules from the open-source community. Modules can be selected based on what you need so that you do not have to write them from scratch if your organization does not already use them.
8. OpenWhisk
For such a new technology, the serverless space is quickly maturing. OpenWhisk has been a pioneering leader of this movement with its cloud-native and microservices architecture.
Running solely on memory and leveraging low-latency communications, developers can deploy scalable event-processing applications that function as APIs with overheads of milliseconds.
The ability to perform stateful stream processing on information streams such as stock updates, tweets, sensor readings, or voice conversations also distinguishes it from competitors like AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Functions which can only perform stateless batch processing.
9. Fission
Fission is an open-source framework for building serverless functions. It allows developers and operators to package code as a function that runs entirely on the server.
Fission allows you to deploy functions using multiple back-ends, like AWS Lambda or OpenWhisk, and uses open standards such as Open Service Broker API, Open Configuration API, and Open Data API.
Moreover, it offers out-of-the-box support for creating plugins that let developers get up and running faster by eliminating boilerplate code.
10. IronFunctions
IronFunctions is an open-source, bare metal cloud orchestration system that delivers operational simplicity and a single programming model for creating functions as well as easily deploying them anywhere, any time.
IronFunctions supports multiple languages and frameworks and integrates with external storage systems, which gives it immense elasticity and versatility, making it a great solution for small teams who want to focus on their code, not architecture.
Conclusion
Companies like AWS and Google Cloud Platform have dominated the serverless framework market for a few years. But with other providers entering the space, there are more options than ever. There are even some open-source alternatives that could save you money on licensing fees.
Serverless architecture can be overwhelming, but through a careful assessment of your needs and research on what frameworks are best for those needs, you should be able to find one that will work for you!