Serverless Service Comparison

What kind of server is serverless?

"No server management required" service

Serverless services are server services that can be used without the need for server administration and maintenance. By eliminating the need for server management, these servers have become popular for seamlessly building web applications.

Serverless services can be divided into several types

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service: Infrastructure management platform)

1. PaaS (Platform as a Service: Platform for running applications)
2. SaaS (Software as a Service: Software platform)
3. FaaS (Function as a Service: Execution environment platform)

There are several types of products such as the following.

IaaS is the service that is closest to a physical server, and the further you move from there toward FaaS, the less visible the server becomes.

Is there no server in serverless?

The name "Server (Server) + Less (Less)" makes it seem that serverless services do not have physical servers, but this does not mean that there are no physical servers at all, since the other side of serverless services are naturally run on servers.

It is "serverless" in the sense that "users do not feel the presence of a server.

How to choose a serverless service

Understand the billing structure.

Serverless services do not have as complex a fee structure as cloud servers, but their billing structure is somewhat more complicated than that of VPS or shared rental servers.

Most serverless services are not pay-as-you-go, but rather a monthly subscription type, so the format is "there is a limit to the number of times and capacity you can use that plan," and

1. execution time
2. amount of data transferred

The limit is added by two points (depending on the service).

It is surprisingly difficult to determine whether these limits are appropriate for your use, but you can get a rough estimate by actually running a few days on a serverless with a free plan.

If you want to start for free, start with a service that does not require credit card registration.

Serverless services may have pay-as-you-go courses similar to those in the cloud, so if you want to start for free, choose a service that does not require credit card registration.

A surprisingly large number of free serverless services are available, including Vercel (FaaS), Netlify (FaaS), and Cloudflare (CDN, FaaS), which offer serverless services with no credit card registration fee.

Serverless services for beginners

"HEROKU" is all-in-one and easy to use

HEROKU is a pioneer of serverless, providing not only an execution environment for Ruby, PHP, Node.js, etc., but also database services and extensions with plug-ins, making it more than just serverless, but multifunctional.

You can start with the free plan and upgrade to the $25/month production plan for full-scale operations.

The advantage is that there is a wealth of documentation in Japanese, and there is also a lot of information available on the Internet, so there is little chance of getting stuck.

Versatile Digital Ocean for both VPS and cloud storage

Digital Ocean, a well-known VPS service, has a serverless service called Apps, which is less cost-effective than VPS, but it is an all-in-one server with APIs and databases running on a VPS, cloud storage, and more. The greatest advantage is the ability to manage the system.

Overall, the service is very cost-effective, so Digital Ocean is a good choice if you are developing a website or web application of a certain scale.