When comparing AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs ZEIT Now, the Slant community recommends AWS Elastic Beanstalk for most people. In the question“What are the best Platform as a Service providers that have a free plan?” AWS Elastic Beanstalk is ranked 3rd while ZEIT Now is ranked 7th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Manages application versions
Pro Highly customizable environment
Pro Multi environment support
They support environments and promoting releases from one environment to the other (e.g. qa -> production).
Pro Very cheap
Depending on your load, AWS Elastic Beanstalk is most likely the cheapest option for Node hosting. This is due to you only paying for the underlying AWS services.
Pro Deployments via a simple command line command
Installing their CLI and calling "now" inside your project's root will automatically build your project, whether it may be a Node.js or a Docker app , or maybe a static website, it works on the platform.
Pro Custom domain support
ZEIT Now supports custom domains, if that doesn't ring your bell, they also allow you to buy a domain directly from ZEIT, and even from the CLI.
Pro From the developers of Hyper Terminal and Next.js
The renowned developers of the Hyper Terminal and Framework for React applications develops and maintains this platform.
Pro Good support
You can talk to the staff anytime via their slack real-time, or mail them. They provide good assistance and will help you on any questions or issues on the platform.
Pro In-depth documentation
The documentation is very in-depth and can help you understand on how to make your application work on the platform.
Cons
Con Customization is not as straightforward as it could be
Con Deploying could be simplified
Con Docker builds can only execute at the CMD Layer
ZEIT Now executes everything using docker run, so whatever was defined in the CMD Layer, is what will ZEIT will only execute.
Con Node.js apps has no access to the instance's filesystem
Once the Node.js build has completed, the only accessible directory is /tmp, which makes any file operation impossible outside the /tmp directory.
Con Free plan makes your code public
Unless you upgrade to a paid plan, the source code can be easily viewed by others.