Serverless Functions vs Traditional Servers
Understand the real differences between serverless and traditional hosting so you can pick the right approach for each part of your application.
"Serverless" is one of the most misleading terms in tech. There are absolutely servers involved. You just don't manage them. Someone else worries about the hardware, the operating system, the scaling, the security patches, and the 3 AM alerts. You write a function, upload it, and it runs when someone calls it.
That's the pitch, anyway. The reality is more nuanced. Serverless is fantastic for some workloads and terrible for others. Traditional servers — a process that runs continuously, waiting for requests — still make sense in plenty of situations. Understanding when to use each is one of the most practical infrastructure decisions you'll make.
How Traditional Servers Work
A traditional server is a process that starts, keeps running, and handles requests as they come in. Think of a
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