AWS Fargate vs Amazon EC2 comparison

Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate are both solutions in the Compute Service category. Amazon EC2 is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.8, while AWS Fargate is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. Amazon EC2 holds a 6.0% mindshare in CS, compared to AWS Fargate’s 15.0% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon EC2 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS Fargate users who would recommend it.

Amazon EC2

Read 65 Amazon EC2 reviews

1,301 Views
879 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

AWS Fargate

Read 16 AWS Fargate reviews

3,700 Views
2,137 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon EC2

AWS Fargate

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate compete in the cloud solutions category. AWS Fargate seems to have the upper hand due to its serverless architecture offering simplicity and ease of use, whereas Amazon EC2 is more complex but flexible.

Features: Amazon EC2 offers high performance, versatility, and flexibility, allowing for quick instance creation and efficient resource scaling. It supports diverse operating systems and is highly customizable, which is beneficial for larger deployments. AWS Fargate provides a serverless architecture, allowing for deployment without server management, automatic scaling, and seamless integration with other AWS services, making it ideal for applications with variable workloads.

Room for Improvement: Amazon EC2 faces areas of improvement in terms of complexity, cost management, and integration, as the service can become expensive and challenging to deploy effectively. AWS Fargate could simplify configuration and cost complexity, despite its ease of container management. Both services would benefit from enhanced documentation and support to assist users in overcoming common challenges.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon EC2 is widely deployed in public and hybrid clouds, offering flexibility but sometimes requiring technical support, which varies in responsiveness. AWS Fargate benefits from simple container deployment in public clouds but faces criticisms about technical support consistency. AWS provides comprehensive documentation, though assistance quality can vary depending on the solutions architect assigned.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon EC2 operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which can be cost-efficient if managed well but can lead to unexpected expenses due to its complexity. It is considered more expensive compared to on-prem solutions but can provide substantial ROI through reduced infrastructure and staffing costs. AWS Fargate is generally cost-effective for its serverless advantages but might be costlier for startups with limited budgets. Both solutions offer potential cost savings if used strategically, with EC2 providing significant flexibility and Fargate offering a more managed service approach.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2 Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

January 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EC2

Ranking in Compute Service

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

AWS Fargate

Ranking in Compute Service

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 is 6.0%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Fargate is 15.0%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Compute Service

Featured Reviews

KatlegoMabila

Senior AWS Account Manager at Silicon Overdrive

Offers customization and flexibility with great support

Scalability depends on whether the client wants to scale up or scale down. It decreases resources based on demand. The great aspect of scalability is the flexibility to allow business success to optimize resource solutions and cost efficiency. Another crucial aspect of scalability is auto-scaling. When you have the opportunity to auto-scale, it can't always be available for everything. If you have chosen to integrate with auto-scaling, it's marvellous and doesn't require additional effort. Auto-scaling gives you the edge by using the capacity you have efficiently, scaling up or down as needed. These flexibilities within the EC2 feature instances of AWS play a crucial role in helping me utilize AWS EC2 Intelligent efficiently.

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Subrata Mukherjee

Senior Technical Architect; Head of Platform at Blenheim Chalcot IT Services India

Boost demand response with cost-efficient serverless architecture

We are a venture builder company, and if we select AWS for our product. Our design is based on a serverless architecture model. ECS Fargate is the most convenient way in terms of scalability, integration, and cost control Thanks to the serverless model and easy integration features, a few…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The flexibility of the security features is what is interesting."

"EC2 provides a lot of flexibility. If you don't want to have a separate on-premise database, you can put it on the cloud with EC2. You can adjust the instance type according to your needs. You select a size and get a certain amount of specific memory, CPUs, etc. You set the redirect limit, and from there, you install the software, database servers, application servers, and whatever you want."

"Its ease of use is valuable."

"Configuration can be changed at any time and it's very scalable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to have standard operating systems along with the Windows, Linux operating systems, and their maintenance-free structure, which we prefer."

"My company uses the tool for cloud monitoring. We have a production, staging, deployment, and testing environment in AWS. However, we do not use the managed service of AWS yet. My team uses the required parameters for security like VPC, firewall, gates of security as well as the external layer of the app."

"The best features of Amazon EC2 are its high performance and security."

"I would recommend this solution to others who want to start using it."

More Amazon EC2 pros

"The most valuable feature of AWS Fargate is its ease of use."

"The most valuable feature of AWS Fargate is its ability to run on demand without the constant run time of basic resources."

"It allows for focusing on applications instead of managing infrastructure."

"AWS Fargate automatically scales to meet demand, making it ideal for applications with variable workloads."

"AWS Fargate is a fully managed service, and it's very easy to use compared to other services like Elastic Beanstalk Service (EBS)."

"I like their containerization service. You can use Docker or something similar and deploy quickly without the know-how related to, for example, Kubernetes. If you use AKS or Kubernetes, then you have to have the know-how. But for Fargate, you don't need to have the know-how there. You just deploy the container or the image, and then you have the container, and you can use it as AWS takes care of the rest. This makes it easier for those getting started or if you don't have a strong DevOps team inside your organization."

"We appreciate the simple use of containers within this solution, it makes managing the containers quick and easy."

"Fargate is beneficial for hosting our solutions and providing workflow management, creating legal documents, and delivering business intelligence."

More AWS Fargate pros

Cons

"The solution is pretty expensive."

"An area needing improvement is the time limitations when accessing EC2 instances."

"One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense."

"I think the pricing needs to be adjusted and better security."

"Amazon EC2 could improve by having integration with other cloud systems, such as Azure, and Google Cloud which would be good. Additionally, having integration with on-premise systems would be appreciated."

"If the solution was cheaper, if the price was less, it would be better."

"They can build automatic features for ENSS or network drive. They have the Control-M feature. Similarly, they should have a feature for the network drive that can be mapped. I have not seen such a feature. They have a lot of products but those are quite costly. There is no cheaper option available for the EC2 instance for syncing two drives. If these features are available, it would be good."

"Its price can be reduced."

More Amazon EC2 cons

"There is a tool named Compose that helps in converting the Docker Compose file into a Kubernetes file. For ECS and Fargate, AWS reads a Dockerfile and helps with conversion. However, I am uncertain if it's ready for deployment after conversion."

"There are features that could be added or enhanced."

"Challenges include higher costs for smaller clients, limited control over underlying infrastructure customization, and potential latencies during task startup."

"I would like to see the older dashboard instead of the newer version. I don't like the new dashboard."

"Sometimes, Fargate can be really hard to configure."

"Service computing is not as straightforward compared to other computing services. It requires more effort to use effectively."

"AWS Fargate needs improvement in terms of setup complexity."

"I would like to see enhanced faster application scaling and better integration with the elastic file system to unify storage volumes and improve the launch time of instances."

More AWS Fargate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The use of Amazon EC2 does not incur any licensing fees."

"We are using a pay-as-you-go model."

"I am using the tier three Amazon service. I am not going to use another solution other than Amazon EC2 because here in Pakistan there are some payment issues for solutions abroad."

"The tool's pricing is not cheap."

"When we did the deployment of Amazon EC2 we found it to be less expensive than other solutions."

"The clients have found the billing of Amazon EC2 good, but the price could be less high. There is a monthly subscription to use the solution."

"The price of Amazon EC2 could improve. The Google Cloud Platform is more cost-effective."

"The pricing of this solution is variable. There is an open-source variant that is accessible via the public cloud, and then tiers that range in price depending on the level and amount of usage that is required."

More Amazon EC2 pricing and cost advice

"We would advise that this solution has a slightly-higher price point than others on the market. There is a free plan available for start-ups, but the free and lower range licensing models do not provide the full functionality."

"I rate the price of AWS Fargate a four out of five."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Retailer

University

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EC2?

The scalability and elasticity are helpful.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EC2?

I'm going to mention again that there is quite a bit of complexity within the pricing of EC2 instances. I'm just going to give it six out of ten since there are various standards, upfront and commi...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon EC2?

There is not much to be improved or enhanced. One of the things that need to be looked into is the complex pricing, which is rather intense. Sometimes, clients don't understand the structures. Thes...

See all answers

What do you like most about AWS Fargate?

The most valuable feature of Fargate is that it's self-managed. You don't have to configure your own clusters or deploy any Kubernetes clusters. This simplifies the initial deployment and scaling p...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Fargate?

As I have not worked with Fargate extensively, I do not have any specific improvements.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering AWS Fargate?

AWS Fargate is easily manageable. We just need to create a cluster and focus on our infrastructure. Customers do not need to take downtime since everything is managed by AWS with no downtime. Overa...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 25% of the time

AWS Lambda vs Amazon EC2

Compared 17% of the time

Apache Spark vs Amazon EC2

Compared 14% of the time

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Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling vs AWS Fargate

Compared 40% of the time

Heroku vs AWS Fargate

Compared 15% of the time

Oracle Compute Cloud Service vs AWS Fargate

Compared 8% of the time

Apache NiFi vs AWS Fargate

Compared 7% of the time

Apache Spark vs AWS Fargate

Compared 7% of the time

More AWS Fargate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EC2

March 2025

Download Amazon EC2 product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS Fargate

March 2025

Download AWS Fargate product report

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, EC2

No data available

Overview

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers.

Amazon EC2’s simple web service interface allows you to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your computing resources and lets you run on Amazon’s proven computing environment. Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change. Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use. Amazon EC2 provides developers the tools to build failure resilient applications and isolate them from common failure scenarios.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

A new compute engine that enables you to use containers as a fundamental compute primitive without having to manage the underlying instances. With Fargate, you don’t need to provision, configure, or scale virtual machines in your clusters to run containers. Fargate can be used with Amazon ECS today, with plans to support Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (Amazon EKS) in the future.

Fargate has flexible configuration options so you can closely match your application needs and granular, per-second billing.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Netflix, Expedia, TimeInc., Novaris, airbnb, Lamborghini

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Buyer's Guide

AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

January 2025

Free Report: AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

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