Comparing hosts / providers for serverless cloud functions (FaaS) for Python

No Python support: Netlify Edge Functions, StackPath EdgeEngine. IBM Cloud Functions are deprecated.

This document provides a comparison between hosted, serverless (no cost or management to spin down to zero) providers of cloud function hosts with Python runtimes. Note the distinction between edge providers (execution at PoP) and non-edge (typically predetermined DS region).

Please join our discussions or fix/update information by editing this doc!

See also the Serverless SQL DB Comparison

• DevEx
• Pricing
• Runtime Limits
• Other Platform Products
• Discussions, Community, and Support

DevEx

	Python Version	Status	API Framework	Requirements	Local Testing	Docs	Hello World
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute	3.10	GA	Plain object	Vend in zip	❔	🎉	Link
AWS Lambda & Lambda@Edge	3.12	GA	Plain object	Vend in zip	✅	👍	Link
Azure Functions	3.11	GA	azure functions	✅	✅	🎉	Link
Cloudflare Workers (WASM)	3.12	Beta	fastapi and others	🚫	🚫	🎉	Link
Fermyon (WASM)	3.11+	No-native	Spin	✅	❔	🎉	Link
Fly.io (microVM)	Any	GA	Any	✅	❔	👍	Link
Google / Firebase Cloud Functions	3.12	GA	Flask	✅	✅	🎉
IBM Code Engine	3.11	GA	Plain object	✅	✅	👍	Link
Oracle (OCI) Functions	3.11	GA	FDK	✅	❔	Min.	Link
Tencent Cloud Functions	3.6	GA	SCF	Vend in zip	❔	Min.	Link
Vercel Functions	3.12	Beta	HTTP handler or WSGI / ASGI	✅	❔	👍	Link

Pricing

Note that the "Free Plan" is intended to represent ongoing free resources i.e. not trials or sign-up credits.

	Free Plan	Bill Limits	First Paid Tier
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute	3 month trial with resource limits	?	Based on requests and resources
AWS Lambda	1m reqs / mo + 400,000 GB-s / mo (based on memory configuration) + data egress (~$0.09 per GB)	🚫	$0.20 per 1m reqs + $0.00001667 per GB-s (over free tier) + data egress (~$0.09 per GB)
AWS Lambda@Edge	None	🚫	$0.60 per 1m reqs + $0.00000625125 per GB-s + egress (~$0.09 per GB)
Azure Functions	1m reqs / mo + 400,000 GB-s / mo + first 100 GB / mo egress	Yes	$0.20 per 1m reqs + $0.000016 per GB-s (over free) + $0.08 per GB egress (over 100 GB)
Cloudflare Workers	100k reqs / day, 10ms CPU / req	?	$20 / mo for 10m reqs / mo, 30ms CPU / req + $0.02 per million CPU ms
Fermyon	100k reqs + 5GB egress	NA	1m reqs + 50GB egress at $20 / mo
Fly.io	3 shared-cpu-1x 256mb VMs + 100GB egress	NA	Depends on VM + $0.02 per GB egress (over free, min $5 / mo) + $0.15 per GB / mo stopped VMs
Google / Firebase Cloud Functions	2m / mo reqs + 400k / mo GB-s + 200k / mo CPU-s + 5 GB / mo egress	Yes	$0.40 per 1m reqs + $0.0000025 per GB-s + $0.0000100 per CPU-s + $0.12 per GB egress
IBM Code Engine	100k vCPU-s + 200k GB-s + 100k reqs per mo	?	$0.00003431 / vCPU-s + $0.00000356 / GB-s + $0.538 / 1m reqs
Oracle (OCI) Functions	2m / mo reqs + 400k / mo GB-s	Yes	$0.0000002 per req + $0.00001417 per GB-s
Tencent Cloud Functions	3 month trial with resource limits	?	$0.0000167 per GB-s + $0.002 per 10k reqs + $0.00000847 per idle GB-s + $0.06 per day + $0.0752 per GB egress
Vercel Functions	100 GB-hrs + 100 GB data transfer	Yes	1,000 GB-hrs + 1TB data transfer

reqs = requests, m = million, mo = month, s = seconds, mem = memory, k = thousand, ms = milliseconds

Runtime Limits

	Memory		Execution Time (s)		Payloads (MB)		Code Size (MB)	Scale Limits
	Default	Max	Default	Max	Request	Response
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute	32 GB	32 GB	86k	86k	32	?	500	300
AWS Lambda	128 MB	10 GB	3s	15min	6	6	50 (zip)	10k per reg. per sec.
AWS Lambda@Edge	128 MB	3 GB	3s	30s	?	1	50 (zip)	10k per reg. per sec.
Azure Functions	1.5 GB	14 GB	5min	10min	100	?	?	100 inst.
Cloudflare Workers	128 MB	128 MB	10ms	30ms	?	?	1 / 10	100 / 500
Fermyon	?	?	30s	30s	?	?	100	1k RPS
Fly.io	256 MB	128 GB	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Google / Firebase Cloud Functions	-	32GB	-	60min	32	32	None	1k RPS / inst.
IBM Code Engine	2 GB	4 GB	120s	-	?	?	100 KB	?
Oracle (OCI) Functions	128 MB	2 GB	30s	300s	?	?	?	40 GB total mem
Tencent Cloud Functions	64 MB	3 GB	1s	900s	6	6	500 (unzip)	64 GB total mem
Vercel Functions	1 GB	3 GB	10s	300s	?	?	250 (zip)	1k RPS per 10 sec per reg

AWS allocates 1 vCPU per 1,769 MB of memory configured.

Other Platform Products

	SQL DB	No SQL DB	Blob Store	File Hosting	GPU
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
AWS Lambda and Lambda@Edge	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Azure Functions	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cloudflare Workers	SQLite	✅	✅	✅	✅
Fermyon	SQLite	🚫	🚫	🚫	✅
Fly.io	✅	✅	🚫	🚫	✅
Google / Firebase Cloud Functions	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
IBM Code Engine	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Oracle (OCI) Functions	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Tencent Cloud Functions	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Vercel Functions	✅	✅	✅	✅	🚫

Performance (median times)

TODO: Need a benchmark suite for Python, see this JS suite

	PoPs (if edge) or regions	Uptime	Cold Response (ms)	Warm Response (ms)	Overhead (ms)
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda@Edge
Azure Functions
Fermyon
Fly.io
Google / Firebase Cloud Functions
IBM Code Engine
Oracle (OCI) Functions
Tencent Cloud Functions
Vercel Functions

Security Considerations

TODO: e.g. compliance certifications, data encryption, and network security options

See also awesome serverless security

Discussions, Community, and Support

	Ours	Forum	GitHub	SO	Reddit
Alibaba Cloud Function Compute	Link	Forum		SO	r/AlibabCloud
AWS Lambda and Lambda@Edge	Link	re:Post	GitHub	SO	r/aws
Azure Functions	Link	Forum	GitHub	SO	r/AZURE
Cloudflare Workers	Link	Forum		SO	r/CloudFlare
Fermyon	Link	Discord	Feedback	SO
Fly.io	Link	Forum		SO
Google / Firebase Cloud Functions	Link	Group	GitHub	SO	r/Firebase and r/googlecloud
IBM Code Engine	Link	Slack	GitHub	SO
Oracle (OCI) Functions	Link	Forum	GitHub	SO	r/oraclecloud
Vercel Functions	Link	Help	GitHub	SO	r/Vercel

References and Useful Links

• Comparison by Brecht De Rooms from Feb 6th, 2020