Softwr

Cloud · head to head

Lambda (AWS Serverless) vs Envoy

Lambda (AWS Serverless) logo

Lambda (AWS Serverless)

Cloud

Run code without thinking about servers

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit Lambda (AWS Serverless)Full review
Envoy logo

Envoy

Developer Tools

A high-performance L7 proxy written in C++ that is configured by an API rather than a config file, and is usually deployed under a control plane.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit EnvoyFull review

The short version

  • Both are free.
  • Only Lambda (AWS Serverless) lists event-driven execution; only Envoy lists xDS dynamic configuration.
  • Where Lambda (AWS Serverless) falls short: provisioned concurrency, used to avoid cold starts, is charged separately at $0.0000041667 per GB-second whether or not the function runs.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lambda (AWS Serverless) and Envoy actually diverge.

Attributes where Lambda (AWS Serverless) and Envoy differ
AttributeLambda (AWS Serverless)Envoy
Pricing modelUsage-basedOpen-source
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).

Not yet recorded: founded for Envoy.

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Lambda (AWS Serverless)

  • Function-as-a-Service
  • Event-driven execution
  • Auto-scaling
  • Pay-per-use
  • Multiple languages
  • Concurrency limits
  • Dead Letter Queues
  • Environment variables

Only in Envoy

  • xDS dynamic configuration
  • Protocol breadth
  • Filter chain architecture
  • Observability by default
  • Outlier detection
  • Traffic shaping
  • mTLS termination and origination
  • Hot restart

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Lambda (AWS Serverless)

  • Event-driven functions without managing serversnot Envoy
  • API backends behind API Gatewaynot Envoy
  • Processing S3, DynamoDB, SQS and Kinesis eventsnot Envoy
  • Scheduled jobs without a always-on instancenot Envoy
  • Edge compute through Lambda@Edgenot Envoy

Envoy

  • Acting as the data plane under a service mesh or Gateway API implementation, which is how the overwhelming majority of deployments use itnot Lambda (AWS Serverless)
  • An edge or API gateway that needs per-route retry budgets, circuit breaking and outlier detection rather than round-robin proxyingnot Lambda (AWS Serverless)
  • Migrating traffic between service versions or between a monolith and its replacement, using weighted splits and shadow trafficnot Lambda (AWS Serverless)
  • Standardising observability across a polyglot estate, so that latency, error rates and tracing look the same regardless of the language a service is written innot Lambda (AWS Serverless)

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Lambda (AWS Serverless)

  • Billed on two axes at once, $0.20 per million requests plus $0.0000166667 per GB-second of duration, so memory settings change the bill as much as traffic does
  • Provisioned concurrency, used to avoid cold starts, is charged separately at $0.0000041667 per GB-second whether or not the function runs
  • Ephemeral storage beyond the included 512 MB is metered
  • Lambda@Edge costs $0.60 per million requests, three times the standard request rate
  • VPC use and cross-region data transfer carry EC2 charges on top

Envoy

  • The configuration surface is very large and hand-written bootstrap YAML runs to hundreds of lines for routing that Nginx expresses in twenty, which is why nearly every production deployment sits under a control plane and inherits that control plane's constraints as well
  • xDS is the real API and it is not stable in the comfortable sense; the v2 API set was removed outright, resource types continue to be deprecated, and your control plane and Envoy binaries have to be upgraded roughly in step or the proxies stop accepting configuration
  • Extending it properly means writing a C++ filter and building and maintaining your own Envoy binary; the alternatives are Lua, which adds per-request overhead, and proxy-wasm, whose ABI has remained effectively experimental for years with a real performance cost
  • At sidecar density the per-proxy memory and CPU footprint is a measurable share of cluster capacity, since thousands of workloads each carry a full proxy, and this is precisely the cost that has pushed mesh projects towards node-level or ambient architectures
  • There is no single vendor selling support for Envoy itself; you get the community plus control-plane vendors such as Solo.io and Tetrate, so an Envoy-level production bug is your own engineers in a C++ codebase unless a support contract happens to cover it
  • Diagnosing why a request got a particular response involves reading config dumps, the stats endpoint and the RESPONSE_FLAGS codes in access logs rather than a readable error, which is a specific skill you must hire or spend months growing

Pricing, plan by plan

Lambda (AWS Serverless)

Free
  • Free TierFree
    • 1M free requests/month
    • 400,000 GB-seconds/month
    • Always free

Envoy

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Envoy review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Lambda (AWS Serverless) if

  • You need function-as-a-service.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want event-driven execution.
Lambda (AWS Serverless) review

Choose Envoy if

  • You need xds dynamic configuration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want protocol breadth.
Envoy review

Questions people ask

Is Lambda (AWS Serverless) or Envoy better?
Neither clearly leads. Lambda (AWS Serverless) starts at Free and Envoy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lambda (AWS Serverless) or Envoy?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) starts at Free and Envoy at Free.
Does Lambda (AWS Serverless) or Envoy run on more platforms?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) runs on Web, API. Envoy runs on Web.
Can I use Lambda (AWS Serverless) for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Lambda (AWS Serverless) best used for?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) is most often used for event-driven functions without managing servers, api backends behind api gateway, processing s3, dynamodb, sqs and kinesis events, scheduled jobs without a always-on instance. Of those, event-driven functions without managing servers and api backends behind api gateway are not what Envoy is typically brought in for.
What can Lambda (AWS Serverless) do that Envoy cannot?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) covers Function-as-a-Service, Event-driven execution, Auto-scaling, Pay-per-use. Envoy covers xDS dynamic configuration, Protocol breadth, Filter chain architecture, Observability by default.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Lambda (AWS Serverless): Is there a free tier for AWS Lambda?

Yes. AWS Lambda offers a free tier including 1 million requests per month, 400,000 GB-seconds per month, and 100 GB monthly response streaming.

Source
Envoy: Should I run Envoy on its own, or under a control plane?

Almost always under one. Directly authoring xDS or static bootstrap configuration is viable for a handful of routes and becomes unmanageable beyond that. Envoy Gateway, Istio, Contour, Gloo and Consul all exist to generate that configuration for you.

Lambda (AWS Serverless): How is AWS Lambda charged?

Lambda charges $0.20 per million requests. Duration charges are $0.0000166667 per GB-second for x86 (up to 6 billion GB-seconds/month in US East Ohio with tiered pricing). Ephemeral storage over the included 512 MB costs $0.0000000309 per GB-second. Provisioned Concurrency costs $0.0000041667 per GB-second with a 5-minute minimum.

Source
Envoy: How does it compare with Nginx or HAProxy?

Envoy is dynamically configured over an API and instrumented far more heavily; Nginx and HAProxy are faster to configure and lighter for straightforward reverse proxying. If you never need to change routing without a reload, Envoy is more machinery than the problem requires.

Lambda (AWS Serverless): What are Lambda Durable Functions pricing?

Lambda Durable Functions include operations at $8.00 per million (start execution, steps, waits). Data written costs $0.25 per GB. Data retention is $0.15 per GB-month with configurable 1-90 day retention (default 14 days).

Source
Envoy: What does it cost?

Nothing to licence; it is Apache 2.0 and there is no paid edition. The cost is engineering time and, for most organisations, a commercial control plane or cloud service that packages it.

Envoy: Can I write extensions without C++?

You can write Lua filters or proxy-wasm modules in Rust, Go, C++ or AssemblyScript. Both carry per-request overhead compared with a native filter, and the Wasm path has been slower to stabilise than the project originally projected.

Envoy: Is it a CNCF project?

Yes, it is a graduated CNCF project licensed under Apache 2.0, which means the trademark and governance sit with the foundation rather than with Lyft or any vendor.

Share

Related pages

More on Lambda (AWS Serverless)

More on Envoy

Keep looking

Other head to heads