AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Amplify: Which Is Better for Developers

Application deployment on the cloud has evolved rapidly. Developers now expect seamless tooling, automation, and minimal infrastructure management so they can focus on code. Amazon Web Services addresses this through multiple platforms tailored for different developer needs. Two popular choices are AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Amplify.

While both simplify application deployment, they serve distinct audiences, workloads, and architectural styles. Choosing between them correctly depends on your stack, team expertise, deployment scale, frontend/backend mix, and ongoing operations. This article explores both services in depth and guides you to pick the right platform.

What is AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution that handles deployment, capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring. It supports multiple languages and environments such as Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and Docker.

Developers upload their application archive, and Beanstalk handles the provisioning of underlying AWS resources like EC2, S3, RDS, CloudWatch, and ELB.

Key features:

• Choice of environment types: single-instance or load-balanced

• Automatic scaling and rolling deployments

• Monitoring health and logs via AWS console

• Ability to access underlying infrastructure when needed

• Suitable for web applications, APIs, enterprise backends, containerized workloads

What is AWS Amplify?

AWS Amplify is a development and deployment platform designed for modern web and mobile applications. It integrates frontend frameworks (React, Vue, Angular, Next.js) and mobile SDKs (iOS, Android, React Native) with backend services such as GraphQL APIs, authentication (Cognito), storage (S3), functions (Lambda), and hosting.

Amplify Hosting provides continuous deployment directly from Git repositories (GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab), a global CDN, simple custom domain mappings, and backend resource provisioning.

Key features:

• Git-based CI/CD with frontend frameworks

• Pre-built backend service integrations

• Instant previews and branch deployments

• Fast hosting with global CDN, SSL auto-provision

• Great for single-page applications (SPA) and mobile apps

Elastic Beanstalk vs Amplify: Key Differences

When Use Elastic Beanstalk

Elastic Beanstalk is the right choice when:

• You have a server-side application (Java, .NET, PHP, Node) needing dedicated compute

• You need full control over infrastructure (EC2, Networking, RDS)

• You are migrating a legacy monolith or custom backend

• You require multi-tier architecture with caching, databases, key-value stores

• Your team has DevOps expertise and wants infrastructure flexibility

Examples:

• Company API service using Java/Spring in Docker containers

• Enterprise backend with needing .NET and Windows servers

• Applications with complex deployment pipelines and infrastructure dependencies

When Use AWS Amplify

Amplify is the right choice when:

• You’re building a modern single-page application (React, Vue, Angular) or mobile app

• You want rapid development with minimal infrastructure setup

• You need built-in backend services like GraphQL API, Auth, Storage

• You want Git-based CI/CD and branch-based preview environments

• You prefer global deployment via CDN with auto SSL

Examples:

• Web app built with React and connecting to GraphQL API and Cognito

• Mobile application backend for React Native or Flutter

• Startup launching fast MVP with minimal DevOps

Cost, Operations, and Team Impact

From cost and operational perspective:

• Elastic Beanstalk gives more control but requires more resources and operations effort. You manage OS patches, capacity, logs, and scaling.

• Amplify abstracts infrastructure, reducing operational load. You pay for hosting, build minutes, and backend service usage. Choose this when developer productivity matters more than infrastructure control.

Team skill sets:

• Elastic Beanstalk suits teams with infrastructure / DevOps knowledge.

• Amplify enables frontend-focused teams to deploy and operate full applications without heavy infrastructure management.

Decision Framework for 2025 Developers

Here’s a simple decision checklist:

• Do you need backend server environments (JAVA/.NET) or container orchestration? → Choose Elastic Beanstalk

• Are you building a front-end or mobile app with modern frameworks and want fast deployment? → Choose Amplify

• Do you need full control over infrastructure and network configuration? → Beanstalk

• Do you want minimal setup and serverless deployment? → Amplify

• Does your team consist of frontend developers and you need rapid CI/CD from Git to deploy? → Amplify

• Is your application legacy or enterprise-scale with heavy infrastructure needs? → Beanstalk

For many developers, spending the majority of efforts on business logic and user experience rather than infrastructure makes AWS Amplify an appealing choice in 2025.

Final Thoughts

AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS Amplify are both powerful tools. The right choice comes down to your workload, team expertise, deployment complexity, and business priorities. If you need full control and run traditional server-side architectures, Elastic Beanstalk is a well-established, flexible choice. If you want developer velocity, serverless design, and modern web or mobile apps, AWS Amplify is likely the better fit.

By carefully assessing your requirements and team capabilities, you can pick the service that maximizes productivity today while enabling future growth. In many cases, adopting Amplify for frontend apps and Beanstalk for backend APIs may provide the best of both worlds.