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AWS Fargate vs Amazon EC2 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
65
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
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 is 5.7%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Fargate is 14.7%, down from 17.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

KatlegoMabila - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Subrata Mukherjee - PeerSpot reviewer
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The amount of bandwidth has been most valuable."
"The scalability of the solution is fantastic. It's one of our favorite features."
"All of my lower maintenance overheads are taken care of. I don't have to worry about it."
"Its ease of use is valuable."
"The ability to bring up servers and then do the computation and deposit means we don't have to maintain a data center. Everything is virtual and the security is also taken care of. It helps us to achieve compliance. Being a small startup with the security features that AWS provides helps us with compliance."
"The scalability and elasticity are helpful."
"I would recommend this solution to others who want to start using it."
"Amazon EC2 is really reliable and provides great flexibility."
"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 process."
"We appreciate the simple use of containers within this solution, it makes managing the containers quick and easy."
"AWS Fargate is a fully managed service, and it's very easy to use compared to other services like Elastic Beanstalk Service (EBS)."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Fargate is its ease of use."
"It allows for focusing on applications instead of managing infrastructure."
"By using a server's compute resources, one can observe the resource metrics. With AWS, one can determine when servers will be used based on CloudWatch results. For example, CloudWatch informs the application and service platform when the hit ratio has reached the threshold value."
"Fargate's integration with other AWS services is really good."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Fargate is its ability to run on demand without the constant run time of basic resources."
 

Cons

"In terms of improvement, they could build some client-side desktop tools that provide easier connectivity to Amazon."
"This solution could be improved with better pricing. If you continue using this solution over a long period of time, your costs may accumulate."
"The initial setup could be easier because many keys are required for access."
"The support could be more responsive."
"Pricing-wise, it is a bit high."
"The tool’s stability could be better."
"Current inability to change the resource service levels."
"It is a little too expensive."
"Challenges include higher costs for smaller clients, limited control over underlying infrastructure customization, and potential latencies during task startup."
"I heard from my team that it's not easy to predict the cost. That is the only issue we have with AWS Fargate, but I think that's acceptable. AWS Fargate isn't user-friendly. Anything related to Software as a Service or microservice architecture is not easy to implement. You're required to have DevOps from your side to implement the solution. AWS Fargate is just a temporary solution for us. When we grow to a certain level, we may use AKS for better control."
"There are features that could be added or enhanced."
"We faced challenges in vertically scaling our workload."
"I would like to see the older dashboard instead of the newer version. I don't like the new dashboard."
"Service computing is not as straightforward compared to other computing services. It requires more effort to use effectively."
"AWS Fargate could improve the privileged mode containers. We had some problems and they were not able to run."
"Sometimes, Fargate can be really hard to configure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You pay as you use it."
"Amazon EC2 has a pay-as-you-use cost model."
"It has helped to reduce costs with infrastructure."
"Amazon EC2 is a very expensive solution."
"Pricing appears to be cheap, however, it is extremely difficult in calculating what something will cost."
"For our usage, the cost is approximately $20,000 to $23,000 per month."
"The price can be improved."
"It is not an expensive solution."
"I rate the price of AWS Fargate a four out of five."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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.
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...
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...
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...
What needs improvement with AWS Fargate?
The monitoring capabilities of AWS Fargate could be improved and made more robust. The error handling aspect sometimes causes issues and can get stuck during deployment, making the process not very...
What advice do you have for others considering AWS Fargate?
I would recommend AWS Fargate as an alternative to AWS Lambda for running loads or hosting a service. It is a good service for keeping instances running, which minimizes initial latency. Overall, I...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, EC2
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Expedia, TimeInc., Novaris, airbnb, Lamborghini
Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2 and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.