Use case: AWS Step Functions vs SWF

You’re here to make a decision between AWS Step Functions and AWS Simple Workflow Service (SWF) for managing your workflows. Let’s get right to it.

Both Step Functions and SWF are designed to orchestrate your AWS services into serverless workflows. They efficiently manage distributed applications and microservices, offering built-in fault tolerance. They handle coordination and state management, allowing you to focus on the application logic.

However, they are not identical. Step Functions, introduced in 2016, emphasizes ease of use in building distributed applications using visual workflows. It offers seamless integration with services like AWS Lambda, Amazon SNS, and AWS Batch, and supports error handling, retry policies, and parallel executions. Furthermore, it provides eight pre-built AWS patterns covering most use cases.

On the other hand, SWF, which launched in 2012, offers more control but requires more effort. SWF involves you directly in task coordination, assignment, scheduling, and execution. It is best suited for complex workflows involving human tasks or needing custom coordination logic. You will need to manage the workers and deciders in SWF applications, adding a layer of complexity. Furthermore, SWF does not provide direct integrations with most AWS services, which may require additional coding.

So, which to use? Choose Step Functions for a straightforward, rapid development of serverless workflow, especially when you’re integrating directly with other AWS…