Going Serverless Part 2 – Building a REST API with No Servers

Note: This article was originally published on November 10, 2019. Some information may be outdated.

This post continues the exploration of serverless by showing how to create a REST API using serverless functions.

What Is Serverless?

Serverless doesn't mean there's no server. It means:

• You don't manage the server.
• You write functions that respond to HTTP events.
• They scale automatically and only run when called.

Example Project: Guestbook API

Create an API to:

• GET /entries - fetch all guestbook entries
• POST /entries - add a new entry

Option 1: Netlify Functions

1. Setup

npm install netlify-cli -g netlify init netlify functions:create 

Create a file at netlify/functions/entries.js:

exports.handler = async (event) => { if (event.httpMethod === "GET") { return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify([{ name: "Luiz", message: "Great blog!" }]), }; } if (event.httpMethod === "POST") { const data = JSON.parse(event.body); return { statusCode: 201, body: JSON.stringify({ saved: true, data }), }; } return { statusCode: 405 }; }; 

Run locally:

netlify dev 

Call from front-end with fetch:

fetch("/.netlify/functions/entries") .then(res => res.json()) .then(data => console.log(data)); 

Option 2: AWS Lambda + API Gateway

This requires more setup, but is useful for production:

• Use AWS SAM or Serverless Framework
• Define function handler and route via API Gateway
• Deploy with AWS CLI

Benefits

• No server provisioning or maintenance
• Scales automatically
• Pay per request
• Works well with static frontends (like JAMstack sites)

Serverless is more than just a trend. It’s a solid way to build real APIs without the weight of traditional backend stacks.