AWS Fargate vs Amazon EC2 comparison

Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate are both solutions in the Compute Service category. Amazon EC2 is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.8, while AWS Fargate is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. Amazon EC2 holds a 5.7% mindshare in CS, compared to AWS Fargate’s 14.7% 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

1,179 Views
773 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

AWS Fargate

Read 17 AWS Fargate reviews

3,381 Views
1,929 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon EC2

AWS Fargate

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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: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

March 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

6th

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 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

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

"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."

"The serverless architecture solutions are most valuable, and the ability to start with little cost, and then expand as needed."

"The most valuable features of Amazon EC2 are ease of use and the services offered."

"Amazon EC2 has plenty of scalability options to decrease or increase the number we need. Based on our bandwidth usage we may go for a higher or downgrade level. We can do it ourselves."

"The most valuable features of Amazon EC2 are content delivery and adaptability."

"The most valuable feature is EC2 is scalable, so when you want to move to market, you don't need to wait until your provision is fast, you can just go and provision it and then easily install your application."

"The product is easy and quick to set up."

"My favorite feature of this solution is the flexibility of instance types, which allows for the cost to be tailored to the usage amount and type."

More Amazon EC2 pros

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

"AWS Fargate is an easy-to-use tool to simplify setup. You only pay for the resources you use. If you need to quickly create, delete, or scale applications without managing resources like EC2 instances, Fargate is the best service to use."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"AWS Fargate has many valuable services. It does the job with minimal trouble. It's very observable. You can see what's going on and you have logs. You have everything. You can troubleshoot it. It's affordable and it's flexible."

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

More AWS Fargate pros

Cons

"am concerned about the tool's data security."

"The initial deployment was complex."

"It's not the best of the best because we still have issues with downtime. We still have issues with the cost of storage, with all these different instance styles, and how much it costs. They cost an arm and a leg the higher you go."

"In terms of improvement, they could build some client-side desktop tools that provide easier connectivity to Amazon."

"The availability and response time of the free technical support can be improved."

"Amazon EC2 could improve the console view. The ability to see the console view directly would be helpful, similar to what VMware has. Additionally, when the system is rebooting we are able to see a screenshot of the UI, but it would be a lot better if we could interact directly with the console level."

"The tool’s stability could be better."

"Technical itself could be a bit more helpful, especially when it comes to integration assistance. When we talk to the technical team, often it's some issue with integration and they'll tell us to talk to the other company. Often, the other company will look at everything and not see an issue from their end and then we are at an impasse."

More Amazon EC2 cons

"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."

"We would like to see some improvement in the process documents that are provided with this product, particularly for auto-scaling and other configuration tools that are a bit complicated."

"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."

"AWS Fargate could improve the privileged mode containers. We had some problems and they were not able to run."

"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."

"If there are any options to manage containers, that would be good. That relates more to the cost point. For example, over the next three months, I'll be making a comparison between solutions like CAST AI and other software-as-a-service platforms that offer Kubernetes management with an emphasis on cost reduction."

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

More AWS Fargate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Reducing the price of the solution could lead to an improvement."

"The price can be improved."

"We are paying about $1,500 a month for one of the services."

"EC2 pricing is somewhat transparent, in that AWS provides pricing for all instance types. However, the number of pricing options can be confusing."

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

"Amazon EC2 is a very expensive solution."

"It's competitive but can vary based on instance types and usage patterns."

"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."

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

14%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

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?

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EC2

March 2025

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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

March 2025

Free Report: AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

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