- Technologies
- Aws
- Amazon Sns Sqs
Amazon SNS/SQS
Reliable messaging and decoupled communication for modern, event-driven architectures
Get in touchAmazon SNS/SQS
Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) and Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) are managed messaging services that enable secure, reliable communication between distributed systems.
Amazon SNS is a pub/sub messaging service that sends notifications from a single source to multiple destinations. It is commonly used to broadcast events to systems such as Lambda, HTTP endpoints, or other AWS services.
Amazon SQS is a message queuing service that allows components to communicate asynchronously. It stores messages until they are retrieved and processed, helping to absorb traffic spikes, introduce fault tolerance and improve system decoupling.
Used together, Amazon SNS and SQS support event-driven design by separating message producers from consumers, making applications more scalable, maintainable and responsive to change.
Our Clients
Businesses that have trusted us to implement AWS solutions successfully
Key features of Amazon SNS & SQS
Fully managed messaging services
Both SNS and SQS are fully managed by AWS, removing the need to provision or maintain messaging infrastructure.
Message durability
SQS stores messages redundantly across multiple availability zones for reliable delivery, even during failures.
Decoupled communication
Enables loose coupling between components, reducing dependencies and allowing services to operate and scale independently.
Flexible delivery patterns
SNS supports publish-subscribe (fan-out) messaging to multiple endpoints, while SQS supports point-to-point queues for one-to-one communication.
Message filtering (SNS)
SNS allows subscribers to receive only the messages relevant to them using attribute-based filtering.
Visibility timeout and dead letter queues (SQS)
Helps control message processing and error handling, ensuring failed messages can be examined and retried.
High throughput and scalability
Both services can handle high volumes of messages, supporting applications with fluctuating or unpredictable demand.
Secure and controlled access
Supports fine-grained access policies through AWS IAM, encryption at rest and in transit and integration with VPC endpoints.
Benefits of Amazon SNS & SQS
Improved system reliability
Messages are durably stored and redundantly replicated across multiple availability zones, reducing the risk of data loss and helping maintain service continuity.
Greater flexibility across services
By decoupling components, changes can be made to one part of the system without requiring direct modifications elsewhere, supporting modular design and independent scaling.
Efficient handling of variable workloads
SQS queues can absorb traffic spikes and smooth message processing over time, helping systems operate reliably during high-demand periods.
Simplified event distribution
SNS allows a single message to reach multiple subscribers instantly, supporting use cases such as alerts, notifications and multi-service coordination.
Better error management
Features like dead letter queues (SQS) and message filtering (SNS) provide greater control over how messages are processed and recovered, helping avoid silent failures.
Scalable communication patterns
Both services support high message throughput, making them suitable for applications that require rapid or large-scale communication between services.
Secure and controlled access
Supports encryption, identity-based permissions and VPC integration, helping ensure that messages are sent and received securely.
See Amazon SNS & SQS in practice with a free demo
Explore how message queues and notifications can simplify communication between your systems. Request a tailored demo to understand how Amazon SNS and SQS fit into your use case.
Request a demo
How we help with Amazon SNS & SQS
At Claria, we support organisations in designing and implementing effective messaging architectures using Amazon SNS and SQS. Our work goes beyond setup, we focus on ensuring that messaging fits your systems, your teams and your operational needs.
Get in touchOur Amazon SNS & SQS Services
Architecture and design
We help you define messaging patterns that support scalability, decoupling and reliability. Whether you need fan-out notifications or point-to-point queues, we design a structure aligned with your application flow.
Implementation and integration
We deploy SNS and SQS as part of your broader AWS architecture, connecting them to services such as Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, or on-premises systems.
Migration of legacy messaging systems
We support the transition from traditional message brokers or custom-built integrations to manage AWS messaging services, minimising disruption and aligning with your future cloud strategy.
Monitoring and operational readiness
We configure logging, metrics and error handling, including dead letter queues and alerting, to ensure your messaging system is observable and dependable.
Cost and performance review
We evaluate message throughput, queue usage and delivery configurations to help control costs and maintain performance across all traffic levels.
Amazon SNS & SQS training
We provide tailored sessions to upskill your teams in designing, deploying and maintaining reliable event-driven applications using SNS and SQS.
Team augmentation
Our AWS-certified engineers are available to work alongside your teams during key phases, providing messaging expertise where it’s most needed.
Amazon SNS & SQS Pricing and Cost
Amazon SNS and SQS use a usage-based pricing model, meaning you only pay for what you use. These services are designed to support scalable communication without requiring upfront investment in infrastructure.
Amazon SQS pricing
Amazon SQS charges based on the number of requests and the type of queue:
Standard queues
First 1 million requests per month are free. Beyond that, Amazon SQS pricing is per million requests.
FIFO queues
Include ordering guarantees and exactly-once delivery and are priced slightly higher due to added functionality.
Additional charges may apply for data transfer or if encryption (SSE) is enabled.
Amazon SNS pricing
Amazon SNS is priced based on:
Number of published messages
Delivery method (e.g. HTTP/S, Lambda, SMS, email)
Message filtering or message fan-out (if using multiple endpoints)
There’s also a free tier that includes 1 million published messages and 100,000 HTTP deliveries per month.
Managing costs with Claria
At Claria, we help organisations model usage patterns and design message flows that avoid unnecessary requests and delivery duplication. We also advise on:
Choosing between FIFO and standard queues
Reducing fan-out redundancy
Monitoring consumption trends and thresholds
Configuring dead letter queues effectively
When to use Amazon SNS & SQS
Amazon SNS and SQS are well suited for distributed systems that require reliable, scalable and loosely coupled communication. They support both real-time notifications and asynchronous message processing.
You should consider Amazon SNS and SQS when:
You need to decouple components or microservices
By introducing queues or topics, producers and consumers can operate independently, improving system flexibility and easing maintenance.
You want to buffer and manage traffic spikes
Amazon SQS helps absorb bursts of traffic and smooth out processing over time, preventing systems from being overwhelmed during peak usage.
You require multiple subscribers for a single message
Amazon SNS is ideal for broadcasting events, such as application updates or monitoring alerts, to multiple systems, users or services at once.
You need to improve reliability and fault tolerance
SQS stores messages across multiple availability zones and supports retries and dead letter queues, helping prevent data loss during failures.
You want to implement event-driven architecture
Amazon SNS and SQS support event-based communication, enabling scalable and responsive systems without direct service-to-service dependencies.
You need fine-grained message control
Features like message filtering in Amazon SNS and visibility timeouts in Amazon SQS allow precise control over how messages are processed and routed.
Why choose Claria?
Your trusted partner for AWS messaging architecture
At Claria, we work with organisations that need more than just service configuration, they need messaging patterns that are reliable, cost-aware and aligned with real business processes.
What sets us apart:
We design messaging systems that reflect how your teams actually work
Not just theoretical use cases. This includes real-world considerations like retries, dead-letter handling and unpredictable traffic patterns.
We’re an AWS Partner
Experienced in delivering serverless and event-driven solutions across public and private sectors.
Our support is hands-on and delivery-focused
From architecture to optimisation, we work alongside your team to make sure every message gets where it needs to go, in the right way.
We understand regulated environments
Our engineers support projects requiring data sensitivity, auditability and controlled access, especially where messaging connects to critical systems.
You stay in control
We design systems your teams can manage and evolve over time, without needing to rely on external consultants for every adjustment.
Talk to our Amazon / AWS experts
Send us a message and we’ll get right back to you.
Call us on
Email us on
Amazon SNS/ SQS FAQs
Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) is a publish/subscribe messaging service, while Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) is a message queuing service.
SNS is ideal for broadcasting messages to multiple subscribers (e.g. Lambda, HTTP endpoints, email, or SMS).
SQS is used for decoupling and queuing messages between components in a distributed system, ensuring reliable delivery and processing.
Use SNS when you need to notify multiple systems or users simultaneously in real time.
Use SQS when you need to buffer or queue messages to be processed reliably and asynchronously by a single consumer or group of consumers.
They are often used together in fan-out patterns, SNS can publish a message to multiple SQS queues for scalable, parallel processing.
Yes. Amazon SQS offers two queue types:
Standard queues: provide high throughput and at-least-once delivery, but message order is not guaranteed.
FIFO queues: ensure messages are processed in the exact order sent and exactly-once delivery (ideal for financial or transactional systems).
Amazon SNS delivers messages best-effort to its subscribers. For guaranteed message durability and retry handling, it is recommended to use SNS with SQS or Lambda, which provide retry logic and dead-letter queue options for failed deliveries.
Yes. Both Amazon SNS and SQS support cross-account and cross-region configurations, enabling flexible messaging architectures across organisational or geographical boundaries.
SQS allows you to configure a dead-letter queue (DLQ). Messages that can’t be processed successfully after a set number of retries are moved to the DLQ for inspection, troubleshooting, or reprocessing, helping improve system reliability.
Yes. SNS can trigger Lambda functions directly, enabling event-driven architectures where messages published to a topic can invoke backend logic immediately.
Yes. Amazon SQS is considered serverless in that it does not require infrastructure management. AWS handles scaling, availability and reliability, allowing you to focus solely on message processing logic.
SNS charges per published request and the type of endpoint used (e.g., email, SMS, HTTP, Lambda).
SQS charges based on the number of requests (send, receive, delete) and FIFO queues may have slightly higher costs due to ordering guarantees.
Both services follow a pay-as-you-go model, with free tiers available for many workloads.
Yes. Both services support server-side encryption (SSE) using AWS Key Management Service (KMS). You can control who can access and decrypt messages, helping meet compliance and security requirements.
Talk to our experts
Contact our team and discover cutting edge technologies that will empower your business
Call us on
Email us on