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AWS Serverless Architecture for SaaS

We design serverless SaaS architectures on AWS that start at pennies per month, scale automatically with your customer base, and eliminate the infrastructure overhead that slows down product development.

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Summary

Build scalable SaaS applications with AWS serverless. Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and Cognito for multi-tenant platforms that scale to zero and grow without limits.

Key Facts

  • • Build scalable SaaS applications with AWS serverless
  • • Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and Cognito for multi-tenant platforms that scale to zero and grow without limits
  • • Multi-Tenant Isolation: Ensuring data and compute isolation between tenants using DynamoDB partition keys, Lambda execution contexts, and IAM policies
  • • Authentication & Authorization: Multi-tenant authentication with Cognito, per-tenant authorization, and enterprise SSO federation for B2B SaaS
  • • Usage-Based Billing: Tracking per-tenant resource consumption for metered billing models using DynamoDB Streams and EventBridge

Entity Definitions

Lambda
Lambda is an AWS service relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
DynamoDB
DynamoDB is an AWS service relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
IAM
IAM is an AWS service relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
API Gateway
API Gateway is an AWS service relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
Step Functions
Step Functions is an AWS service relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
EventBridge
EventBridge is an AWS service relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
multi-tenant
multi-tenant is a cloud computing concept relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.
serverless
serverless is a cloud computing concept relevant to aws serverless architecture for saas.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a serverless SaaS platform cost on AWS?

A serverless SaaS platform with low traffic costs under $50/month. Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and Cognito all have generous free tiers. Costs scale linearly with usage — typically $0.01-$0.10 per active user per month at scale.

Can serverless handle enterprise SaaS workloads?

Yes. Lambda supports up to 10,000 concurrent executions (soft limit, increasable), DynamoDB handles millions of requests per second, and API Gateway supports thousands of requests per second. Many enterprise SaaS platforms run entirely on serverless.

How do you handle cold starts in a SaaS application?

For latency-sensitive APIs, use Provisioned Concurrency on critical Lambda functions. For most SaaS workloads, cold starts (100-500ms for Node.js/Python) are acceptable. Use Lambda SnapStart for Java workloads to reduce cold starts to under 200ms.

Related Content

Key Challenges We Solve

Multi-Tenant Isolation

Ensuring data and compute isolation between tenants using DynamoDB partition keys, Lambda execution contexts, and IAM policies.

Tenant-Aware Scaling

Scaling independently per tenant to prevent noisy-neighbor problems while maintaining cost efficiency for low-usage tenants.

Authentication & Authorization

Multi-tenant authentication with Cognito, per-tenant authorization, and enterprise SSO federation for B2B SaaS.

Usage-Based Billing

Tracking per-tenant resource consumption for metered billing models using DynamoDB Streams and EventBridge.

Our Approach

Serverless SaaS Reference Architecture

API Gateway + Lambda + DynamoDB with single-table design, tenant isolation at every layer, and Cognito for multi-tenant auth.

Event-Driven Tenant Operations

EventBridge and Step Functions for tenant onboarding, subscription management, and cross-service workflows.

Zero-to-Scale Cost Model

Pay-per-request pricing that starts at near-zero for early-stage SaaS and scales linearly with paying customers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a serverless SaaS platform cost on AWS?
A serverless SaaS platform with low traffic costs under $50/month. Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and Cognito all have generous free tiers. Costs scale linearly with usage — typically $0.01-$0.10 per active user per month at scale.
Can serverless handle enterprise SaaS workloads?
Yes. Lambda supports up to 10,000 concurrent executions (soft limit, increasable), DynamoDB handles millions of requests per second, and API Gateway supports thousands of requests per second. Many enterprise SaaS platforms run entirely on serverless.
How do you handle cold starts in a SaaS application?
For latency-sensitive APIs, use Provisioned Concurrency on critical Lambda functions. For most SaaS workloads, cold starts (100-500ms for Node.js/Python) are acceptable. Use Lambda SnapStart for Java workloads to reduce cold starts to under 200ms.

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