Introduction
Serverless computing has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its scalability and cost-effectiveness. Two popular serverless platforms are Webtask and OpenFaaS. In this blog post, we will compare these two platforms in terms of functionality, pricing, and ease of use to help you decide which one will better suit your needs.
Functionality
Webtask is a serverless computing platform that provides a simple API to run code in response to events, such as HTTP requests or scheduled tasks. It supports Node.js, Python, Ruby, and other popular programming languages. Webtask also integrates with several third-party services, such as Slack, SendGrid, and Twilio.
On the other hand, OpenFaaS is a framework for building serverless functions with Docker and Kubernetes. It allows developers to package their code and dependencies as a container and deploy it on a Kubernetes cluster. OpenFaaS supports multiple programming languages, including Python, Node.js, and Java.
While both Webtask and OpenFaaS provide similar functionality, Webtask is more lightweight and requires less setup compared to OpenFaaS. However, OpenFaaS provides more flexibility when it comes to customization and deployment options.
Pricing
Webtask offers a free plan with 1GB of storage, 10,000 invocations per month, and a 500ms execution time limit. Additional usage is priced at $0.000025 per invocation and $0.00000015 per megabyte-second of execution time.
OpenFaaS is an open-source project and can be deployed on any Kubernetes cluster for free. However, if you don't have a Kubernetes cluster, you can use OpenFaaS Cloud, which offers a free plan with 2GB of storage, 20,000 invocations per month, and a 5-minute execution time limit. Additional usage is priced at $0.0004 per invocation and $0.0001 per megabyte-second of execution time.
Ease of use
Webtask is incredibly easy to set up and use. You can write your function code in the browser-based editor, which comes with syntax highlighting and debugging features. Deploying your function is as simple as clicking a button, and Webtask takes care of the rest.
OpenFaaS, on the other hand, requires a Kubernetes cluster to run. While setting up a Kubernetes cluster can be challenging, OpenFaaS provides a CLI tool that simplifies the process. Once you have a cluster set up, deploying your function is similar to deploying any other Kubernetes application.
Conclusion
Both Webtask and OpenFaaS are excellent serverless computing platforms, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Webtask is simpler and easier to use but lacks the customization options that OpenFaaS offers. On the other hand, OpenFaaS provides more flexibility but requires a Kubernetes cluster to run. Ultimately, the choice between these two platforms depends on your specific needs and expertise.