Amazon API Gateway vs AWS AppSync
Discover how Amazon API Gateway compares to AWS AppSync, and understand which is right for your use case, based on dimensions such as core features, pricing, reliability, and scalability.
What is Amazon API Gateway?
Amazon API Gateway is a pay-as-you-go service for building, deploying, and managing RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs. It handles traffic management, CORS support, access and authentication, version management, and more.
Suitable for:
- Realtime chat applications
- Online collaborative apps
- Multiplayer gaming
- Realtime analytics
- Monitoring services
Not suitable for:
- Heavy data transfers
Pros:
- Pre-built adapters
- Fine-grained security features
- Scalable
- Multiple SDKs
Cons:
- Complex setup
- Learning curve
- Enterprise-focused
What is AWS AppSync?
AWS AppSync is a fully managed service designed to streamline the process of building and deploying serverless GraphQL and pub/sub over WebSocket APIs. It enables developers to seamlessly handle and synchronize mobile app data in realtime across devices and users. Even when a mobile device is offline, AppSync permits data access and modification.
Suitable for:
- Chat rooms
- Collaborative apps
- Data broadcasting
- IoT apps
- Apps requiring low latency
Not suitable for:
- Where you need to use custom directives
- Service quotas
- Large-scale/complex projects
Pros:
- Managed GraphQL service & pub/sub over WebSocket APIs
- Backend management
- Connection recovery
- AWS service integration
Cons:
- Complex, especially the templating engine (VTL)
- High cost - may be more expensive than alternatives
- Limited plug-ins
- Single region solution
Compare Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync
Let’s compare Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync, looking at key dimensions such as their core features, pricing, integrations, QoS, performance, and security and compliance.
Disclaimer:This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync. The content was last updated on 17 Jul 2024 for Amazon API Gateway and on 10 Jun 2024 for AWS AppSync. Be sure to double-check everything before you make any decisions. If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please contact us.
| Core features | |||
Pub/Sub messaging | Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync Yes Read more |
Chat capabilities | Accelerates the time to implement rich chat experiences with features such as read receipts, typing indicators, and more. | Amazon API Gateway Partial API Gateway does not natively support chat capabilities. However, this can be achieved using different AWS services like Lambda and DynamoDB. | AWS AppSync |
Collaboration capabilities | Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking. | Amazon API Gateway Yes | AWS AppSync |
State sync capabilities | Enables realtime data synchronization across devices and users, ensuring a cohesive and up-to-date user experience. | Amazon API Gateway Partial API Gateway does not natively support state synchronization, but it can be achieved through integration with services like Amazon DynamoDB, AWS AppSync, AWS Lambda, and Amazon S3. | AWS AppSync Partial Can be built on top of AppSync, but not available out of the box. |
Presence | Maintaining a view of which users are connected, and their associated metadata, enables their online status to be updated in realtime. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync Partial "AWS AppSync does not provide events related to client connections or disconnections" (see source) - but it can be built on top of it by composing multiple AWS products. |
Occupancy | High-level metrics about the clients currently connected to a channel make it simple to show things such as connected user count, or display which channels are the most popular. | Amazon API Gateway Partial API Gateway does not have built-in support for occupancy tracking. Occupancy tracking functionality requires integration with AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, or ElastiCache. | AWS AppSync No |
Message interactions | Enables interaction with previously-sent messages, facilitating the implementation of features like message reactions and threads. | Amazon API Gateway Partial Message interactions are not natively supported in API Gateway. However, you can programmatically build interactions on the application layer with AWS Lambda. | AWS AppSync No |
Message history | Enables clients to catch up on missed messages when inactive, ensuring a user doesn’t miss any important messages. | Amazon API Gateway Partial You can custom build message history functionality on Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon S3, but it's not supported natively in API Gateway. | AWS AppSync Partial Looks like you can get message history, but only in combination with other AWS services see source |
Push notifications | Cross-platform push notifications make it possible to deliver important and timely messages to users even when they’re inactive. | Amazon API Gateway Partial API Gateway doesn't natively support push notifications, but you can build them be integrating with Amazon SNS or AWS Amplify. | AWS AppSync Yes Find out how |
Message delta compression | Minimizes bandwidth and can reduce latency, particularly in scenarios where continuous updates are sent. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync Yes See tutorial |
Programmatic management | Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI. | Amazon API Gateway Yes Fully supported through AWS SDKs, the CLI, and CloudFormation. | AWS AppSync Yes You can perform programmatic management using the AWS SDKs (Software Development Kits), AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or infrastructure-as-code tools like AWS CloudFormation or AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit). |
| Pricing | |||
Free plan | With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan. | Amazon API Gateway Yes The Amazon API Gateway free tier includes one million API calls received for REST APIs, one million API calls received for HTTP APIs, and one million messages and 750,000 connection minutes for WebSocket APIs per month for up to 12 months. Read more | AWS AppSync Yes 250,000 API requests free per month for 12 months with the AWS Free Tier. |
Pricing model | The pricing model should align with your project's expected load, usage patterns, and budget in order to be cost-effective and efficient. | Amazon API Gateway API Gateway has a free plan and a pay-as-you-go plan:
| AWS AppSync You pay only for what you use with no minimum fees or mandatory service usage. You are billed separately for query and data modification operations, and for performing realtime updates on your data. Read more |
| Integrations & interoperability | |||
SDKs | Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps. | Amazon API Gateway
| AWS AppSync
|
Supported realtime protocols | Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements. | Amazon API Gateway
| AWS AppSync
|
Serverless functions | Enables integration with third-party cloud providers by facilitating the execution of custom code against messages to perform business logic like on-the-fly translation. | Amazon API Gateway
| AWS AppSync
|
Streaming & queueing | Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing. | Amazon API Gateway | AWS AppSync AWS AppSync doesn't directly integrate with streaming and queuing services for data ingress and egress, but you can use the following AWS services alongside AppSync to build scalable and event-driven architectures for your applications: Ingress:
Egress:
|
Observability services | Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice. | Amazon API Gateway Yes Amazon API Gateway logs API calls, latency, and error rates to Amazon CloudWatch in your AWS account. | AWS AppSync |
CI/CD tools | Makes it possible to provision and configure service infrastructure as part of a CI or CD pipeline, enabling repeatable and reliable deployments. | Amazon API Gateway Yes Supports:
| AWS AppSync No |
| Quality of Service | |||
Scalability | Scalability is vital as it ensures the service can handle increased data load or users without compromising performance. | Amazon API Gateway AWS API Gateway is scalable, supporting high connection rates, numerous routes and integrations, and long-lived connections without explicit concurrent connection limits. You can find more info on limits here. | AWS AppSync No published metrics are available. However, this works on top of serverless technology which means theoretically it should scale to millions of concurrent connection with little to no tuning from the customer. |
Guaranteed message delivery | Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync No |
Guaranteed message ordering | Maintains the sequence of messages as they were sent. This is particularly important in apps where the chronological order of messages is essential for meaningful communication. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync No |
Exactly-once message delivery | Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync No |
| Performance & availability | |||
Uptime Guarantee | An uptime guarantee instills confidence in the reliability of the service and protects your business from the negative impacts of downtime. | Amazon API Gateway 99.95%. Read more | AWS AppSync 99.95 uptime SLA |
Global edge network | By bringing servers (Points of Presence, or PoP) geographically closer to the devices of end users, and routing requests to the nearest PoP, global latency is reduced to a minimum. | Amazon API Gateway Yes API Gateway API endpoints can be configured to be closer to where the majority of your traffic is originating from. Read more | AWS AppSync No |
Multi-region data replication (message durability) | By replicating data across multiple regions, the risk of data loss or downtime is greatly mitigated since if data is lost or a server fails in one region, the information can be retrieved from another. | Amazon API Gateway Partial API Gateway supports multi-region data replication only when integrated with Amazon CloudFront. Read more | AWS AppSync Partial Single region by default - multi region deployment of AWS AppSync would require integration of Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables. |
No single point of failure or congestion | Having no single point of failure means a system is resilient and can continue to operate even if one part fails. Avoiding a single point of congestion ensures messages flow efficiently across the system and avoids bottlenecks that could lead to performance issues under load. | Amazon API Gateway No | AWS AppSync Partial Not available by default - but could be built with the integration of Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables. |
Latency | Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience. | Amazon API Gateway Unknown. | AWS AppSync Unknown, although reports in forums suggest it is 200-500 ms. |
| Security & compliance | |||
API key authentication | Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens. | Amazon API Gateway Yes | AWS AppSync Yes Learn more |
Token-based authentication | Provides a means to securely authenticate user devices against your user management system. | Amazon API Gateway Yes | AWS AppSync |
Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication | SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management. | Amazon API Gateway Yes AWS API Gateway supports SSO by integrating with identity providers such as OpenID Connect (OIDC) and SAML. Read more | AWS AppSync Yes Can set up auth with AWS IAM, and AWS IAM can be configured with any identity source (e.g. Okta). Learn more |
Rules for permissions and operations | Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels. | Amazon API Gateway Yes Rules for permissions and operations can be configured using AWS Identity and Access Management. Read more | AWS AppSync Yes Learn more |
End-to-end encryption | Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit. | Amazon API Gateway | AWS AppSync |
Encryption at rest | Ensures data stored by the service is secure and compliant, while also mitigating the risks of a data breach. | Amazon API Gateway Partial It is possible to encrypt data at rest using AWS SDKs or AWS CLI when creating a file system. This is not done automatically. Read more | AWS AppSync Yes Done using AWS Key Management Service keys. This ensures that data in services like AppSync is securely encrypted. Read more |
Compliance | Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry. | Amazon API Gateway
| AWS AppSync
|
Alternatives to Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync
Whilst both Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync are worth considering as options for realtime experiences, they aren’t without their limitations. We suggest evaluating them against the following alternatives to make sure you find the right solution for your needs.
Alternatives to Amazon API Gateway
AWS AppSync enables developers to seamlessly handle and synchronize mobile app data in real-time across multiple devices and users.
PubNub is a developer API platform that powers the realtime infrastructure in apps to build engaging Virtual Spaces where online communities can connect.
Microsoft Azure Web PubSub is a fully managed PubSub offering. It is available as part of Microsoft's Azure Cloud Computing platform.
Discover how Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync stack up against Ably
Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. See how we compare to Amazon API Gateway and AWS AppSync on key dimensions such as core features, pricing, integrations, QoS, performance, and security and compliance.
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