The Best AWS Elastic Beanstalk Alternatives for 2022

Amazon AWS Elastic Beanstalk - A Quick Review

The main advantages of using Amazon AWS Elastic Beanstalk are:

• Makes app deployment hassle-free and fast
• Works well with Java, PHP, .NET, Python, Go, Ruby, Node.js, and Docker
• Can be used with Nginx, Apache, IIS, and Passenger like servers
• Simplifies automated app health monitoring and app scaling
• Load-balancing capabilities

Looks Lucrative? Don’t be so happy this early. There might be more drawbacks than positives to your requirement.

To begin with, Elastic Beanstalk has confusing documentation that may not be able to help you in deployments. As you will be doing a lot of deployments, which are neither transparent nor reliable, it might eat up a lot of your time. Other disadvantages of using AWS Elastic Beanstalk are:

• EC2 metrics disappearing on updates
• Super-slow deployments for even 1-2 frontends
• Tough-to-analyze log
• Rigid configurations
• Deployment/upgrade failures without any information
• Super-tough troubleshooting
• Complex user interface
• Less flexibility for subnets
• Not so user-friendly CLI

Thinking about what's the way out? 

Well, you can resolve a few of the above-listed problems by using ECS or other AWS alternatives, but the best is to look for more reliable AWS Elastic Beanstalk Alternatives for 2022 and settle for one.

Quick Preface: How Did We Select the Best Elastic Beanstalk Alternatives for you?

We analyzed multiple AWS EB alternatives and compared them on various fronts using the cutting-edge tools for this purpose. Our selection criteria include:

• Ease-of-use.
• Application speed.
• Pricing plan(s).
• Customization flexibility.
• Control over the application.
• The quality of documentation. 
  

Top 4 AWS Elastic Beanstalk Alternatives

Google App Engine

Google App Engine is another way of building super-scalable applications but is more efficient than AWS Elastic Beanstalk. This fully-managed serverless platform ends the need for manual infrastructure management. It has a good range of developer tools for your use.

Just like AWS EB, it also goes well with Node.Js, Java, Go, C#, PHP, Ruby, Python, and other language runtimes. However, Google App Engine lets developers add any framework or library through a Docker Container. So, it is more flexible and customizable.

At present, Google gives you $300 credits for no cost when you start using Google Cloud. Also, you will get 28 instance hours for free every day. Such offers make it pocket-friendly. However, developers find it very expensive when they surpass the free tier. So, if your preference is high productivity, then only paying for this service is worthwhile.

Pros

• Does not require paying for server space;
• Lets you avail high scaling and flexibility;
• Frees you from administrative and maintenance tasks;
• High level of compatibility with various languages, OSs, and configurations.

Cons

• Unsuitable for resource-intensive applications needing high CPU usage;
• Developed keeping Android in mind, so even small iPhone tasks are tough with it;
• Though language support is broad, mixed codes do not perform well.

Ideal for

• Applications requiring storage and retrieval operations mostly;
• Startups and small businesses with low resource requirements.

Microsoft Azure App Service

Utilizing the Kubernetes infrastructure as its core, Microsoft Azure App Service is a useful solution for app development and deployment. Azure’s IDE integration feature allows developers to work seamlessly on their applications. Also, App Service has flexible pricing plans following the “pay as you go” model. So, it won’t cost too high for you.

With auto-scaling and manual scaling options, you can enjoy higher scaling and high availability capabilities for your application. Utilizing Kubernetes’ multiple environment creation efficiencies, Azure offers a feature called 'Deployment Slots'. With it, you can have multiple replicas of your app for various purposes.

Pros

• It adheres to ISO and PCI compliances, ensuring high security
• Its services in-built load-balancers for better performance
• Overall cost-effective
• Logs help in troubleshooting
• Automated app health monitoring and scaling

Cons

• No remote access;
• Many restrictions on using third-party with your apps
• Performance metrics like garbage collection cannot be monitored directly
• Troubleshooting is sometimes tricky due to no performance trackers

Ideal for

• Small and mid-sized businesses
• Applications receiving high traffic

Cloud Foundry

Developed in 2009 by VMware, Cloud Foundry is now owned by Cloud Foundry Foundation and is open-source. This PaaS solution is a good pick for cloud-native application development, especially when you need to follow a modern app delivery model and work on a big project.

Cloud Foundry has seven distributions designed to adhere to IBM, SUSE, Swisscom, SAP, US government, and Atos compliances. Each varies slightly in terms of its scope. The solution also has four cutting-edge technologies, including KubeCF, Eirini, Quarks, and BOSH. Their goal is to simplify infrastructure management, enable scheduling, standardize the development process, and monitor/deploy distributed solutions on Cloud Foundry.

Pros

• Free and open-source
• Perfect to use with Kubernetes and Istio
• Easy app deployment using the cf push command
• Reliable and mature solution with well-supported distributed and languages
• Horizontally-scaling your application on Cloud-foundry is easy

Cons

• It is complex and requires developers to follow a steep learning curve
• When you need to deploy multiple apps, it might not be very suitable

Ideal for

• Cloud-native solutions
• Enterprise applications

Qovery

Qovery is a revolutionary way to deploy your app that makes it easier than ever for developers to interact with the AWS suite. Essentially, it acts as a middle layer between your repository and your AWS infrastructure. All you have to do is connect Qovery to your AWS account and link it to your repository. Push your code, and Qovery will do the rest.

The beauty of Qovery is in its simplicity. A full deployment suite may require months of work from DevOps engineers to be built on top of AWS, but with Qovery, all of this is handled in just fifteen minutes.

Apart from AWS, Qovery works with DigitalOcean and Scaleway, and support is coming together for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

Pricing starts with a free plan to deploy your app, $49 for the Professional program with unlimited applications, and $599 for a complete business plan with all the features you need for your large project.

Qovery is a complete solution, able to adapt to teams of all sizes. You can design your own infrastructure for every branch, and every action you can perform inside the platform is supported by very detailed documentation suitable for developers of any experience.

Conclusion

Whether AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure, all the most popular cloud service providers have created a PaaS offering to their existing services (IaaS). It helps its customers utilize the convenience of PaaS, alongside its significant benefits, such as lower cost, speedy deployment, and better scalability.

While AWS Beanstalk simplifies the deployment process, scaling, and automated app health monitoring for you, still, it does not pace up the deployment speed, notify you on deployments failure, or provide clarity on the EC2 metrics. 

To achieve more, you need to use the solutions with these issues addressed. That’s why we suggested the top 4 Alternatives of AWS EB in this article. If Elastic Beanstalk is causing you troubles, do not hesitate to give Google App Engine, Cloud Foundry, MS Azure App Service, or Qovery a try.

To look for AWS Beanstalk alternatives within AWS services, read this comprehensive article by our experts about the best AWS deployments.

Instead of spending months setting up your deployment infrastructure or dealing with complicated tools like AWS directly, consider Qovery. With about fifteen minutes of configuration, you can connect the tool to your favorite Git repository and get started deploying your apps.