SST v3 Has Free Serverless Infrastructure — Here's Why It's Replacing Serverless Framework

Serverless Framework lost its way. SST v3 is what it should have become — full-stack serverless with live Lambda debugging.

What is SST v3?

SST (Serverless Stack) is an open-source framework for building full-stack apps on AWS. v3 was rewritten from scratch using Pulumi and Terraform under the hood.

Quick Start

npx sst@latest init
bun install
npx sst dev

Define Infrastructure in TypeScript

// sst.config.ts
export default $config({
  app(input) {
    return {
      name: "my-app",
      removal: input.stage === "production" ? "retain" : "remove",
    };
  },
  async run() {
    // Create an API
    const api = new sst.aws.ApiGatewayV2("MyApi");
    api.route("GET /", "packages/functions/src/hello.handler");
    api.route("GET /users", "packages/functions/src/users.list");
    api.route("POST /users", "packages/functions/src/users.create");

    // Create a database
    const db = new sst.aws.Dynamo("MyTable", {
      fields: { pk: "string", sk: "string" },
      primaryIndex: { hashKey: "pk", rangeKey: "sk" },
    });

    // Create a bucket
    const bucket = new sst.aws.Bucket("MyBucket");

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

    // Deploy a Next.js frontend
    new sst.aws.Nextjs("MyWeb", {
      link: [api],
    });
  },
});

Live Lambda Development

The killer feature — sst dev connects your local code to AWS Lambda in real-time:

npx sst dev

Your Lambda functions run locally but are triggered by real AWS events. Change code, save, see results instantly. No deploy cycle.

Using Linked Resources

// packages/functions/src/upload.ts
import { Resource } from "sst";
import { S3Client, PutObjectCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";

const s3 = new S3Client({});

export async function handler(event: APIGatewayProxyEventV2) {
  await s3.send(new PutObjectCommand({
    Bucket: Resource.MyBucket.name, // Type-safe resource access
    Key: "uploads/file.txt",
    Body: event.body,
  }));

  return { statusCode: 200, body: "Uploaded" };
}

Full-Stack Frameworks Support

// Next.js
new sst.aws.Nextjs("Web");

// Remix
new sst.aws.Remix("Web");

// Astro
new sst.aws.Astro("Web");

// SvelteKit
new sst.aws.SvelteKit("Web");

Cron Jobs

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

SST v3 vs Alternatives

Feature	SST v3	Serverless Framework	CDK	SAM
Language	TypeScript	YAML	TypeScript	YAML
Live Debug	Yes	No	No	Local only
Full-Stack	Yes	Functions only	Yes	Functions only
Next.js Deploy	Built-in	No	Manual	No
Type Safety	Full	No	Full	No
Speed	Fast	Slow	Medium	Medium

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