Do you know what is AWS Elastic Beanstalk? If you don’t then fret not and read this article to know all about this service offered to you by Amazon Web Services.
The job of a website developer is one of the most underrated professions in the world. After all, they are the professionals who have the power to create something from scratch that millions to billions of people use daily.
Plus, until now, this job used to be arduous to an uncomfortable level, however, thanks to AWS Beanstalk, we can successfully claim that the help needed has arrived.
In this AWS Elastic Beanstalk tutorial, we are going to talk about the below things.
History of Web Development Before AWS Beanstalk
Less than five years ago, when application/website developers used to earn their education and pass out to work in the real world, they were taught the code they would be required to perform their job.
However, it didn’t take them long to realize that the code was part of a job, not the complete job.
Instead, the actual job always has more to do with the administrative work of creating, maintaining, scaling, and ensuring your website is workable. Code was always the aftermath thought for every developer.
Introduction to AWS Elastic Beanstalk
However, with the resurgence of AWS Beanstalk, we are confident of claiming that all website developers can take a sigh of relief as now they can focus on code again.
For those who are uninitiated, we will explain AWS Beanstalk in detail.
what is AWS Elastic Beanstalk?
AWS Beanstalk is one of the 175+ services offered to you by Amazon web services. It is a service that makes the life of every website and application developer convenient by doing challenging and time-consuming tasks for them.
This service allows developers to concentrate on their code and let administrative work be handled automatically by AWS Beanstalk.
Core Function of AWS Beanstalk
The core function AWS Beanstalk can perform for you is the performance of every administrative task that you no longer have to worry about.
This service maintains, scales, detects a problem with your website, and resolves it so it can be successfully deployed without any worry for you.
All a developer needs to worry about when they choose the elastic beanstalk service from Amazon is that their code is flawless because every other inconvenience is already taken care of by this service.
How Elastic Beanstalk Helps You Save Time & Resources
A website/application developer is a highly qualified and paid resource who is hired to make the best website for you.
However, the nature of website development is such that at each step of the process, the developer has to solve complex problems which prevent them from focusing on their core job.
So when they do this, they are wasting their precious task that AWS Beanstalk can cheaply and adequately handle.
This results in you not having the best code and an exhausted developer, which results in you losing time and resources.
Still, all of this can be avoided if you choose the service of elastic Beanstalk for your brand.
Why You Should Consider AWS Beanstalk For Your Business
We believe you should consider the services of AWS Beanstalk for your business because it is the smart thing to do.
It is a service designed to help you deploy your application faster, safer, and much more competently than you usually can.
It is light on your pocket and will make the life of your development team a lot more convenient.
This will result in them focusing on the bigger priority task of coding so they can create the best website possible for you.
Plus, when your web team focuses on their job rather than thinking about petty administrative and maintenance tasks, your business’s productivity increases exponentially.
Pros of Using AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Now that you know what AWS Beanstalk is, the next topic we want to focus on is the benefits of employing this service. We have highlighted their most core pros out of many and here are the following:
1. Rapid & Straightforward to Implement
- The first and foremost pro to using AWS Beanstalk service is that they are effortless to use.
- All you need to do to implement this service in your business is to create an AWS account and start using this service with a few additional clicks.
- AWS Beanstalk provides you with a truly unrivaled service as it is straightforward to use; even beginners feel comfortable using it.
- Plus, its performance and implementation are rapid. Its algorithm sufficiently deploys the application, and when it is faced with any problem, it detects and solves it.
- This service also performs brilliant maintenance tasks on your behalf thus, making it a worthwhile investment.
2. Developer Friendly
- The second pro of using AWS Elastic Beanstalk is that it’s exceptionally developer-friendly.
- It manages your website in stacks, due to which it already has automated responses stored in them regarding what to do when a crisis arises.
- Plus, it has the ability to customize anything and everything related to the service to suit the needs of your business, which according to us, is also a significant pro that this service provides you.
3. Will Never Become Irrelevant
- AWS Beanstalk has unrivaled scalability capacity; hence, deploying, maintaining, and fixing your website can handle a workload that no other service can.
- It can process the request and implement action to a limitless capacity, ensuring your website’s performance never suffers.
- Therefore, this service will never become irrelevant, and regardless of how big your website grows, it will always be able to deal with the workload and manage it like a breeze.
4. Provides You Complete Control Over Service Features
- One of our favorite pros of AWS Beanstalk is that it provides complete control over the features of the services.
- Usually, many services claim to have all the answers for developers, but in reality, the ability to adjust and customize is never there.
- They are rigidly programmed; this isn’t the case with elastic Beanstalk, as it can be as flexible as you need to ensure a smooth workflow for you.
5. Budget-Friendly Compared To Competition
The most obvious and straightforward pro-AWS Beanstalk serves you is that it is budget-friendly compared to its competitors.
Hence, this service ensures you don’t only get the best service, but you get it on a deal that makes it too good to ignore.
6. Unrivaled Website Maintenance & Scaling Automation
Usually, website deploying and maintenance services are limited to their operation.
However, this is not what happens at AWS Elastic Beanstalk; hence, one of its most excellent pros is that it can scale your website to lengths no other service can.
Its automation commands are unrivaled; thus, it ensures your application always performs to the best of its ability.
7. Multiple Coding Languages Support
Website deploying services are mainly manufactured to work in either one or two coding languages.
Still, AWS Beanstalk provides you a service of supporting multiple languages covering all the frequently used languages in 2022 so whatever you are working on is compatible with it.
Cons of AWS Beanstalk
We believe AWS Beanstalk is a revolutionary service; however, to be fair to you, we would like to highlight that this service also has its fair share of challenges and limitations:
1. Lack of Failure Notification
When deploying your application, multiple users have complained that this service does not send failure notifications when there’s a fault in the deployment.
This means you have to go out of your way to figure out if the deployment was a success or not.
2. Deletes Previous Update Data Immediately
Sometimes developers need services’ previous update data to figure out a query they have. However, they can’t do that with AWS Beanstalk because the data is wiped completely with every update.
3. Upgrades With Little To No Information
Upgrades in AWS Beanstalk are quite frequent.
The more frustrating thing about them is that they provide very little to no information through blogs, mail, or notification of what is updated, so the developer is left confused regarding what has changed and what hasn’t.
Companies That Use AWS Beanstalk For Their Brand
The following companies are currently using the AWS Beanstalk service to benefit their business.
| Samsung |
| Zillow |
| Ebury |
| Jelly Button Games |
| League of Women Voters |
AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs eC2
| Beanstalk | EC2 |
| First of Beanstalk provides you with a bundle of services like EC2, Database, and other AWS Services as per your preference | EC2 on the other hand represents a standard and standalone machine or instance that can be put to multiple usage. |
| With respect to your website creation doing it here is pretty easy as Beanstalk will take care of everything automatically once you upload your code. | While in this case, you have to take care of everything manually on your own which might be a little problematic but it can be done. |
AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs cloudformation
There are totally different subjects to be compared. Let us see how they are totally different.
Beanstalk: Service to deploy a web application with ease without much of hassle as this service takes care of the heavy lifting part from the user.
Cloudformation: This is an IaS tool that lets you define your infrastructure in the form of a code in yaml or json.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk pricing?
It is free, you heard it right, Beanstalk service is absolutely free but you would be charged for the underlying resources that you create.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs lambda
| Beanstalk | Lambda |
| It’s a Platform as a Service offering from AWS to deploy your web applications with ease. | This a computing service that is serverless. |
| It handles the part of creating EC2, Databases, and S3 buckets automatically as per the application spec. | Users upload their code and run it directly, aws takes care of the computing environment as per the user specification. |
AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Azure App Service
Both solve the same purpose with no difference at all. It is just the user’s preference that matters.
Both services help users quickly deploy their web applications and run them in the most efficient and economical way.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs ECS
| Beanstalk | ECS |
| PaaS service from AWS where users can simply upload their code and AWS will spin up the backend and run the application with just a few button clicks. | ECS is the service from AWS where users can deploy and run their containers where they have the application deployed. User has to take care of the other services on their own. |
What Is AWS Elastic Beanstalk FAQs
Lastly, we would like to answer some of the FAQs of AWS Beanstalk
Q: What Is AWS Beanstalk Used For?
AWS Beanstalk is used for deployment, maintenance, and problem-solving for your website/application development.
Using this service, your developer can focus on writing the best code for your website, while this service automatically takes up miscellaneous administrative tasks.
Q: How Can AWS Beanstalk Help Me With My Business Website?
AWS Beanstalk can help you with your business as it can perform every administrative task so that you no longer have to worry about it.
This service maintains, scales, detects a problem with your website, and resolves it to be successfully deployed without any worry.
Q: Is AWS Beanstalk Beginner Friendly?
One of AWS Beanstalk’s most significant benefits is that it is extremely easy, simple, and convenient.
All you have to do is make an AWS account, go to the service, and with a few additional clicks, all arduous tasks will be handled for you.
Q: How Many Languages Of Coding Does AWS Beanstalk Support?
AWS Beanstalk supports all of the major coding languages. For the complete list, visit the following link-https://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/faqs/#Support
Q: Is My Data Protected On AWS Beanstalk?
Yes, as AWS Beanstalk comes under the umbrella of Amazon web services, all of your data is protected to the best abilities possible.
Q: is AWS Elastic Beanstalk paas or iaas?
It is a Platform as a Service.
Q: AWS Elastic Beanstalk is an example of?
It is an example of PaaS, just upload your code and let AWS do the work for you.
Q: AWS Elastic Beanstalk free tier?
Yes, we have a free trial tier for AWS Beanstalk which the user can use to try out the Beanstalk service.
Final Thoughts
Website development, deployment, and maintenance were once considered one of the most challenging jobs worldwide.
However, with the emergence of services like AWS Beanstalk, developing websites has become a breeze. This is precisely what we have explained in this article.
What Is AWS Elastic Beanstalk, why you should use it, its pros & cons, and much more?
Go through it and let us know in the comments section if this service is the one for you, or do you think a better competitor exists?
Keep Clouding!!
I am an Amazon Web Services Professional, having more than 11 years of experience in AWS and other technologies. Extensively working in various AWS tools like S3, Lambda, API, Kinesis, Load Balancers, EKS, ECS, and many more. Working as a Solution Architect and Technology Lead for Architecting and implementing the same for different clients. He provides expert solutions around the world and especially in countries like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Check out the complete profile on About us.
