AWS Amplify

AWS Amplify is a Backend as a Service (BaaS) Development Platform for building full-stack(FE+BE) web and mobile apps.

Here “Backend as a Service” refers to a platform that automates and manages the backend infrastructure, so developers don’t have to build and maintain it manually.

Amplify is Not Ideal for Migrating Monolith app and breaking it into smaller services. It is a great frontend hosting and BaaS platform.

1. What AWS Amplify does:

  1. Frontend Hosting & CI/CD: Host React, Angular, Vue, or any static SPA frontend with automatic build and deployment pipelines.
  2. Backend as a Service (BaaS) via Serverless: Create and manage backend services using:
    • AWS Lambda functions (serverless code)
    • API Gateway (to expose REST APIs)
    • AWS AppSync (GraphQL APIs)
    • Amazon Cognito (user authentication)
    • Databases like DynamoDB
    • Amazon S3 for file storage
  3. Amplify CLI and libraries help you build, test, and deploy full-stack apps integrating frontend + serverless backend + auth + storage seamlessly.

2. What Amplify does NOT do:

  1. It does NOT directly host traditional backend servers (like Express.js running as a Node.js server continuously).
  2. If you want a traditional backend server, you need to host that somewhere else — like:
    • Amazon ECS (containers)
    • AWS Elastic Beanstalk (managed server environment)
    • Amazon EC2 (virtual machines)