SST Has a Free API — Deploy Full-Stack Apps to AWS Without the Pain

#sst #aws #serverless #typescript

TL;DR

SST (Serverless Stack) makes it easy to build full-stack apps on AWS. It provides high-level constructs for Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, and more — with live Lambda debugging and type-safe infrastructure.

What Is SST?

SST simplifies AWS development:

Full-stack framework — frontend + backend + infrastructure
Live Lambda — debug Lambda functions locally in real-time
Type-safe infra — TypeScript infrastructure as code
Auto-scaling — scales to zero, scales to millions
Next.js/Remix/Astro — deploy any frontend framework
Free — MIT license, you only pay for AWS resources

Quick Start

# Create a new SST project
npx create-sst@latest my-app
cd my-app

# Start development (live Lambda debugging)
npx sst dev

# Deploy to production
npx sst deploy --stage production

Define Infrastructure (TypeScript)

// sst.config.ts
export default $config({
  app(input) {
    return {
      name: "my-app",
      removal: input.stage === "production" ? "retain" : "remove",
    };
  },
  async run() {
    // Create a database
    const table = new sst.aws.Dynamo("Users", {
      fields: { userId: "string", email: "string" },
      primaryIndex: { hashKey: "userId" },
      globalIndexes: { emailIndex: { hashKey: "email" } },
    });

    // Create an S3 bucket
    const bucket = new sst.aws.Bucket("Uploads");

    // Create an API
    const api = new sst.aws.ApiGatewayV2("Api");

    api.route("GET /users", {
      handler: "packages/functions/src/users/list.handler",
      link: [table],
    });

    api.route("POST /users", {
      handler: "packages/functions/src/users/create.handler",
      link: [table],
    });

    api.route("POST /upload", {
      handler: "packages/functions/src/upload.handler",
      link: [bucket],
    });

    // Deploy Next.js frontend
    const site = new sst.aws.Nextjs("Web", {
      link: [api],
    });

    return { api: api.url, site: site.url };
  },
});

Lambda Functions

// packages/functions/src/users/list.ts
import { Resource } from "sst";
import { DynamoDBClient } from "@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb";
import { ScanCommand } from "@aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb";

const client = new DynamoDBClient({});

export async function handler() {
  const result = await client.send(
    new ScanCommand({ TableName: Resource.Users.name })
  );

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify(result.Items),
  };
}

// packages/functions/src/users/create.ts
import { Resource } from "sst";
import { PutCommand } from "@aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb";
import { randomUUID } from "crypto";

export async function handler(event: any) {
  const body = JSON.parse(event.body);

  await client.send(
    new PutCommand({
      TableName: Resource.Users.name,
      Item: {
        userId: randomUUID(),
        email: body.email,
        name: body.name,
        createdAt: new Date().toISOString(),
      },
    })
  );

  return { statusCode: 201, body: "Created" };
}

Cron Jobs

new sst.aws.Cron("DailyCleanup", {
  schedule: "rate(1 day)",
  job: {
    handler: "packages/functions/src/cleanup.handler",
    link: [table],
  },
});

SST vs Alternatives

Feature	SST	Serverless Framework	CDK	Vercel
Live debugging	Yes	Offline plugin	No	No
Type-safe infra	TypeScript	YAML	TypeScript	N/A
Frontend deploy	Next.js/Remix/Astro	Manual	Manual	Excellent
Learning curve	Low	Medium	High	Low
Cost	AWS only	AWS only	AWS only	Platform
Local dev	Excellent	Plugin	CDK Watch	Excellent

Resources

Building serverless data pipelines on AWS? My Apify tools extract web data — process it with SST Lambda functions for scalable, cost-effective pipelines. Questions? Email spinov001@gmail.com