Simple Notification Service vs Simple Queue Service
The choice between SQS and SNS depends on your specific needs. Decide based on the nature of the message delivery, guarantee of delivery.
Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Unlike SQS, SNS shines in broadcasting messages. Imagine a town crier: SNS publishes messages to "topics" (town squares), and any subscribed "subscribers" (residents) receive copies (hear the message). Perfect for mass notifications like emails, SMS, or app pushes. While delivery isn't 100% guaranteed (unlike SQS), it's ideal for event-driven messaging, spreading the news when something happens.
Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Cloud services offer a vast menu of tools, like messaging platforms. These platforms enable apps to chat asynchronously, ensuring messages get delivered even if the recipient is offline. This frees developers to focus on core logic, leaving the communication infrastructure to the service. Popular examples include SQS and SNS by AWS, and Service Bus by Azure. SQS, a messaging queue, buffers messages and delivers them in the order they were sent, prioritizing reliability with features like retries and dedicated queues for undeliverable messages. If you need ordered or guaranteed delivery, SQS is a strong choice.