Cloud

8 Best Free and Open Source Functions-as-a-Service

FaaS (Function-as-a-Service) is a category of cloud computing services. It’s a fairly new development that originated from PaaS. FaaS is a cloud computing model that abstracts server management and low-level infrastructure decisions away from developers, but takes it much further than PaaS. FaaS is a distinct technology. All allocation of resources is managed by the platform, allowing applications to be developed without any thought of implementation, load balancing, or scaling. It allows developers to execute small snippets of code in response to events without having to build complex infrastructure.

FaaS is often known as serverless. FaaS has been gaining popularity. The main advantage of this technology is the ability to create and run applications without the need for infrastructure management. In other words, when using a serverless architecture, developers no longer need to allocate resources, scale and maintain servers to run applications, or manage databases and storage systems.

With serverless you focus on your code and the platform takes care of the rest. This reduces the time “from idea to production” significantly. In addition, serverless systems should be easier to design and implement as complex issues like scaling, high availability, and security are pushed to the serverless platform. Large scale vendors take on the tougher issues and economies of scale results in a costs savings. This allows you to just focus on your code and what it needs to do. And the cost of serverless applications, over the long haul, should be cheaper as you pay for fewer resources, and not for idle time.

There’s a growing number of open source solutions. Our verdict is captured in the ratings chart below. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.

Ratings chart for the best free and open source Functions as a Service (FaaS)

Click the links in the table below to learn more about each application.

FaaS
ServerlessSimple way to build serverless applications
OpenFaaS Serverless Functions Made Simple
FissionFast and Simple Serverless Functions for Kubernetes
OpenWhiskServerless Functions Platform for Building Cloud Applications
KnativeKubernetes-based, scale-to-zero, request-driven compute
NuclioServerless for Real-Time Events and Data Processing
KubelessKubernetes Native Serverless Framework
FnEvent-driven Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS) compute platform

This article has been revamped in line with our recent announcement.

Best Free and Open Source SoftwareRead our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software.

The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk.

There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more.
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