Both platforms run your code without managing servers. The architecture is different: Cloudflare Workers execute at the network edge (300+ locations worldwide), while AWS Lambda runs in specific AWS regions. This affects latency, pricing, and what you can build.
Architecture
Cloudflare Workers
- V8 isolates (same engine as Chrome)
- Deployed to 300+ edge locations globally
- Cold start: < 5ms (isolates, not containers)
- Max execution time: 30 seconds (paid), 10ms (free)
- No container overhead
AWS Lambda
- Container-based execution
- Deployed to specific AWS regions
- Cold start: 100ms-5s (depends on runtime and size)
- Max execution time: 15 minutes
- Full AWS service integration
Performance Comparison
| Metric | Cloudflare Workers | AWS Lambda |
|---|---|---|
| Cold start | < 5ms | 100ms-5s |
| Warm latency | 1-10ms | 5-50ms |
| Global latency (from user) | 10-50ms (nearest edge) | 50-200ms (nearest region) |
| Max execution | 30s (paid) | 15 minutes |
| Memory | 128 MB | 128 MB-10 GB |
| CPU time | 30s | 15 minutes |
For latency-sensitive workloads, Cloudflare Workers serve requests faster because code runs closer to the user.
Pricing Comparison
Cloudflare Workers
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Requests | CPU Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100K/day | 10ms/request |
| Paid | $5/month | 10M included | 30s/request |
| Additional | - | $0.30/million | $0.02/million ms |
AWS Lambda
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Requests | $0.20/million |
| Duration | $0.0000166667/GB-second |
| Free tier | 1M requests + 400,000 GB-seconds/month |
Cost at Scale
For 50 million requests/month, 50ms average execution, 128MB memory:
| Provider | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | $17 |
| AWS Lambda | $10 + data transfer |
For 500 million requests/month:
| Provider | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | $152 |
| AWS Lambda | $100 + data transfer + API Gateway ($1,750) |
Cloudflare Workers include the HTTP endpoint. AWS Lambda requires API Gateway ($3.50/million requests), which significantly increases the total cost.
Capabilities
| Feature | Cloudflare Workers | AWS Lambda |
|---|---|---|
| Runtime | JavaScript/TypeScript, WASM | Node.js, Python, Go, Java, .NET, Ruby, custom |
| File system | No | /tmp (512MB-10GB) |
| Long-running tasks | No (30s max) | Yes (15 min) |
| WebSockets | Durable Objects | API Gateway WebSocket |
| Key-value storage | Workers KV | DynamoDB |
| Object storage | R2 | S3 |
| SQL database | D1 (SQLite at edge) | RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB |
| Queues | Queues | SQS |
| Cron jobs | Cron Triggers | EventBridge |
| AI/ML inference | Workers AI | SageMaker, Bedrock |
| VPC access | No | Yes |
| Container images | No | Yes |
AWS Lambda has broader capabilities. Cloudflare Workers have a more constrained but optimized model.
Best Use Cases
Cloudflare Workers
- API proxies and middleware (auth, rate limiting, routing)
- Edge-side rendering (HTML transformation, personalization)
- A/B testing and feature flags
- URL redirects and rewrites
- Image/content transformation
- Geolocation-based logic
- Light API endpoints (short execution)
- Caching logic (cache control, invalidation)
AWS Lambda
- Data processing (ETL, file processing)
- Backend APIs with complex business logic
- Integration with AWS services (S3, DynamoDB, SQS)
- Long-running tasks (PDF generation, video processing)
- Machine learning inference
- Scheduled jobs (reports, cleanup)
- Event-driven architectures (S3 triggers, SQS consumers)
Developer Experience
Cloudflare Workers
wranglerCLI for development and deployment- Local development with Miniflare
- Deploy in seconds
- Simple configuration (wrangler.toml)
- Dashboard for monitoring
AWS Lambda
- AWS CLI, SAM, Serverless Framework, CDK
- Local development with SAM Local or LocalStack
- Deploy in minutes (CloudFormation)
- Complex configuration (IAM roles, API Gateway, etc.)
- CloudWatch for monitoring
Cloudflare Workers are simpler to set up and deploy. AWS Lambda has more configuration but integrates with the full AWS ecosystem.
Our Recommendation
| Use Case | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Global low-latency API | Cloudflare Workers |
| Simple webhooks/endpoints | Cloudflare Workers |
| Complex backend processing | AWS Lambda |
| AWS-integrated workloads | AWS Lambda |
| Edge personalization | Cloudflare Workers |
| Data pipelines | AWS Lambda |
| Full-stack web app API | Either (depends on complexity) |
For most web applications we build, Next.js deployed on Vercel handles the serverless needs. When clients need standalone serverless functions, we recommend Cloudflare Workers for edge workloads and AWS Lambda for heavy processing.
Contact us to discuss serverless architecture for your project.