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Cloud · head to head

Lambda (AWS Serverless) vs Hookdeck

Lambda (AWS Serverless) logo

Lambda (AWS Serverless)

Cloud

Run code without thinking about servers

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Hookdeck logo

Hookdeck

Developer Tools

Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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; Hookdeck pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • They diverge on capability: Lambda (AWS Serverless) covers Function-as-a-Service, Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Lambda (AWS Serverless) and Hookdeck differ
AttributeLambda (AWS Serverless)Hookdeck
Pricing modelusage-basedPer month by delivered event count
PlatformsWeb, ApiWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools
Founded2014Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Hookdeck

  • Ingest and persist
  • Automatic retries
  • Filters and fan-out
  • Transformations
  • Local development CLI
  • Rate limiting

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 Hookdeck
  • API backends behind API Gatewaynot Hookdeck
  • Processing S3, DynamoDB, SQS and Kinesis eventsnot Hookdeck
  • Scheduled jobs without a always-on instancenot Hookdeck
  • Edge compute through Lambda@Edgenot Hookdeck

Hookdeck

  • A payments integration where losing a Stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfillednot Lambda (AWS Serverless)
  • Fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separatelynot Lambda (AWS Serverless)
  • Debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fixnot Lambda (AWS Serverless)
  • Receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnelnot 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

Hookdeck

  • Pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • Free-tier retention is three days, which is shorter than the time it typically takes to notice a failing integration, so the payloads needed for a replay are often already gone.
  • It becomes a single point of failure in front of every third-party integration, and an outage there means every provider webhook queues or fails at once.
  • The transformation layer runs JavaScript in a constrained environment, so anything that needs a database lookup or an external call has to happen downstream instead.
  • For a team already running Kafka or SQS the value is mostly the console and the replay UI, which is a hard cost to justify against infrastructure they already operate.

Pricing, plan by plan

Lambda (AWS Serverless)

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

Hookdeck

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to ten thousand events per month
    • Three-day retention
    • One user
  • Team$39/month
    • Ten thousand events included
    • Unlimited users
    • Pay as you go metering above the included events
  • Growth$499/month
    • Ten thousand events included plus metered usage
    • Thirty-day retention
    • Uptime and latency SLAs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated event volume
    • Custom retention
    • Dedicated support

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 Hookdeck if

  • You need ingest and persist.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want automatic retries.
Hookdeck review

Questions people ask

Is Lambda (AWS Serverless) or Hookdeck better?
Neither clearly leads. Lambda (AWS Serverless) starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lambda (AWS Serverless) or Hookdeck?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free.
Does Lambda (AWS Serverless) or Hookdeck run on more platforms?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) runs on Web, Api. Hookdeck runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
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 Hookdeck is typically brought in for.
What can Lambda (AWS Serverless) do that Hookdeck cannot?
Lambda (AWS Serverless) covers Function-as-a-Service, Event-driven execution, Auto-scaling, Pay-per-use. Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, Automatic retries, Filters and fan-out, Transformations.

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
Hookdeck: Is there a free plan?

Yes, ten thousand events a month with three-day retention and one user.

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
Hookdeck: How is usage counted?

By delivered events, so a single inbound webhook fanned out to three destinations counts as three.

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
Hookdeck: Can I replay a failed webhook?

Yes, individually or in bulk from the console, with the original payload.

Hookdeck: Does it work for outbound webhooks too?

Yes, the same queueing, retry and observability applies to webhooks you send.

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