Event-Driven Architecture on AWS: SQS vs SNS vs EventBridge vs Kinesis — Patterns, Anti-Patterns, and When to Use What

Event-driven architecture (EDA) is how modern distributed systems communicate at scale. Instead of services calling each other directly (tight coupling), services emit events ("this happened") and interested consumers react independently.

On AWS, four messaging services form the EDA backbone — but they solve different problems. Choosing wrong means either over-engineering a simple notification into a Kinesis stream, or under-engineering a high-throughput data pipeline onto SQS.

This guide maps each service to its sweet spot, covers the integration patterns that work in production, and highlights the anti-patterns that waste money and create operational pain.

The Four Messaging Services

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