AWS EC2 vs Napkin
A detailed comparison to help you choose between AWS EC2 and Napkin.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
AWS EC2
0 reviews
3.5/5
Napkin
0 reviews
AWS EC2 is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.5). 124 Availability Zones in 39 geographic regions Napkin lets you write and run Node.js and Python serverless functions directly in the browser with zero setup, deploying them as authenticated HTTP endpoints.
 AWS EC2 The original cloud — 750+ instance types | Napkin Write and deploy Node.js and Python functions as HTTP endpoints from a browser editor | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.5 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | usage-based (per-second On-Demand, Spot, Savings Plans; free tier credits for new accounts) | freemium |
| Starting price | From $0.0042/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Teams with AWS expertise needing the broadest instance selection, global regions, GPU/bare metal options, and commitment-based discounts for steady production workloads | Developers who need an HTTP endpoint today — webhooks, bots, scheduled automations, and prototypes — without opening a cloud console or running infrastructure. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | — |
| RAM | 0.5 GB | — |
| Storage | — | — |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | — |
| Data-center count | — | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €0.01 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | 39 AWS regions / 124 AZs plus Local Zones and Wavelength | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierhourly billingipv6ddos protectionbackups includedmanaged optionbare metalgpu availables3 compatibleeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi accessterraform providerkubernetes support | free tier |
| Visit AWS EC2 → | Visit Napkin → | |
AWS EC2
Pros
- + Widest hardware catalog in the market — 1,000+ instance types including Arm, bare metal and GPU families
- + Per-second billing with real cost levers: Spot up to 90% off, Savings Plans up to 72% off
- + 99.99% region-level SLA across 124 AZs in 39 regions with explicit service credits
- + Mature ecosystem: AMIs, Marketplace, Terraform, Systems Manager, and deep service integration
Cons
- - Total cost is a system of meters — EBS, snapshots, elastic IPv4, data transfer and add-ons dwarf the instance price
- - Requires real AWS expertise: VPC design, security groups, IAM and patching are all self-managed
- - Single-instance SLA is only 99.5%; the 99.99% commitment requires multi-AZ architecture
- - Data transfer out is expensive enough to shape architecture decisions
Napkin
Pros
- + Genuinely free plan: $0/month with 25,000 API calls, unlimited functions, custom domains, and team invites
- + One-click deploy from a browser editor — Node.js and Python, no cloud console or CLI required
- + Clear published limits: 500 MB/0.5 vCPU free (2 GB/2 vCPU Pro), 15s/30s timeouts, explicit rate caps
- + Endpoint SSL, auth, production logs, and scheduled triggers included on both tiers
- + Pro tier is capacity-only at $10 per user per month — no feature gating, no sales call
Cons
- - No published SLA, regions, or data residency; small-vendor reliability story
- - Free tier caps at 5 requests/second and a 15-second timeout — real design constraints
- - Browser-only workflow with no local development story and no obvious export path
- - Node.js and Python only — no Go, Rust, PHP, or Ruby runtimes
- - Stale limit figures circulate on marketing and third-party pages, so verify before budgeting
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