Hello! 👋

Are you a frontend engineer diving into backend? Do you have just that one bit of code that can't run in the browser? Something that deals with secrets and APIs?

That's what cloud functions are for my friend. You take a JavaScript function, run it on serverless, get a URL, and voila.

But that's easy mode. Any tutorial can teach you that.

What happens when you wanna build a real backend? When you want to understand what's going on? Have opinions on REST vs GraphQL, NoSQL vs. SQL, databases, queues, talk about performance, cost, data processing, deployment strategies, developer experience?

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Get your free chapter!

Access to this chapter immediately, extra free chapter and Serverless crash course in your email ✌️

Dive into modern backend. Understand any backend

Serverless Handbook shows you how with 360 pages for people like you getting into backend programming.

With digital + paperback content Serverless Handbook has been more than 1 year in development. Lessons learned from 14 years of building production grade websites and webapps.

With Serverless Handbook, Swiz teaches the truths of distributed systems – things will fail – but he also gives you insight on how to architect projects using reliability and resilience perspectives so you can monitor and recover.

~ Thai Wood, author of Resilience Roundup

If you want to understand backends, grok serverless, or just get a feel for modern backend development, this is the book for you.

Serverless Handbook full of color illustrations, code you can try, and insights you can learn. But it's not a cookbook and it's not a tutorial.

Yes, there's a couple tutorials to get you started, to show you how it fits together, but the focus is on high-level concepts.

Ideas, tactics, and mindsets that you need. Because every project is different.

The Serverless Handbook takes you from your very first cloud function to modern backend mastery. In the words of an early reader:

Serverless Handbook taught me high-leveled topics. I don't like recipe courses and these chapters helped me to feel like I'm not a total noob anymore.

The hand-drawn diagrams and high-leveled descriptions gave me the feeling that I don't have any critical "knowledge gaps" anymore.

~ Marek C, engineer

If you can JavaScript, you can backend.

Plus it looks great on your bookshelf 😉

Cheers,
~Swizec

This handbook is a fantastic overview of what it means to embrace serverless technology. After explaining what the heck "serverless" really means, the book digs deep into the core elements of serverless in an easy-to-follow illustrative manner with ready deployable code!

After learning about all the primitives (functions/queues/s3/etc.) you'd need as a serverless dev, the book also covers other critical operational aspects like observability, multi-staged deployments & handling secrets.

It's a great book on using infrastructure-as-code tools like the serverless framework to achieve more with less.

I'm highly impressed by Swizecs's approach to teaching devs how to adopt new serverless technology.

~ David Wells, Serverless Framework core contributor

What's in Serverless Handbook?

360 pages, 19 chapters, 6 full projects, hand-drawn diagrams, beautiful chapter art, best-looking cover in tech. ✌️

Watch the walkthrough or keep reading.

Getting Started walks you through the history of servers and why serverless exists.

Serverless Pros & Cons helps you make informed decisions. Does serverless fit your project?

AWS, Azure, Vercel, Netlify, or Firebase?‌ talks about choosing a provider and their tradeoffs.

Good serverless DX is about developer experience and how serverless helps you improve yours.

Architecture principles talks about distributed architectures and what you'll want to think about.

Lambdas, queues, etc explains the core building blocks of serverless backends and how you can use them.

Robust backend design continues with ideas on resilience and reliability.

Where to store data is all about different databases, their tradeoffs, and how they work. A core aspect of backend.

Creating a REST API explains what is REST and what it isn't, how to design a good API, and walks you through a tutorial with working code.

Using GraphQL shows you the benefits of GraphQL, when you should use it, and shares a tutorial where you deploy a serverless GraphQL API.

Lambda pipelines talks about distributed data processing at scale and how you might use serverless for the task. Great dive into robust architecture design.

Monitoring serverless apps gives you ideas on observability and how to ensure you'll know something's funky before users start yelling.

Dev, QA, and prod shares common strategies for scaling as a team, avoiding mishaps, and when you should use which.

Serverless performance touches cost optimization and focuses on how to keep your system fast and performant.

Serverless Chrome puppeteer was hard to fit in the book, but it's such a darling I couldn't let go. Shows you how to run Serverless Chrome for browser automation.

Handling secrets is an important topic on how to make sure your system doesn't get hacked. Leaking API keys is a common oopsie.

Dealing with authentication talks about authentication, why it's hard, and shows you how to roll your own or use a 3rd party provider.

Glossary defines commonly used words so you can look them up as you work.

Appendix: More databases is everything you ever wanted to know about different databases and how to use them.

Plus, Serverless Handbook really looks great on your desk 😊

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Amazon?

She's a good book Friend and she deserves to hit the bestseller list.

oh hey look who's a #1 bestseller on Amazonhttps://t.co/YCPn2xZGzt pic.twitter.com/jl5a1lMAgU

— Swizec Teller published ServerlessHandbook.dev (@Swizec) March 31, 2021

Oh damn, #6 in the general Computer Programming category 🚀https://t.co/YCPn2xI5HV

Paperback is #22 🤘 pic.twitter.com/FsYbt2pbw6

— Swizec Teller published ServerlessHandbook.dev (@Swizec) April 1, 2021

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$9.99 for Kindle are you sure? Your book is worth more.

Not a fake question, I promise.

Amazon decided that kindle books should be $9.99. You get a 70% margin. Choose higher and your margin falls to 30%.

That means a $22 and a $9.99 book make the same revenue for the author. In that case making Serverless Handbook more accessible is the better choice 😊

$49 for the paperback does it read itself??

Also not a fake question 😂

The physical version is 50USD! Does it read itself ?

— diego (@dxvgx) March 31, 2021

You know how most books you buy aren't color and look like they were printed on toilet paper? This week I learned why.

That's right, it costs $26 to print each copy of Serverless Handbook. Add distribution costs and Amazon overhead ...

I didn't want you to read toilet paper.

Amazon doesn't show your book in my country

Sorry that's out of my hands 😔 I clicked all the buttons and flipped all the checkboxes and said "Widest distribution possible please!"

You can try buying from Amazon's US store directly

I don't like Amazon, don't have Kindle, and killing trees is bad. How can I read Serverless Handbook?

You can buy the live digital version on Gumroad. Otherwise included with kindle/paperback purchase :)