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AWS App Runner vs Docker comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

AWS App Runner
Ranking in Development Platforms
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Docker
Ranking in Development Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Container Management (5th), Software Supply Chain Security (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Development Platforms category, the mindshare of AWS App Runner is 0.5%. The mindshare of Docker is 43.9%, up from 37.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2677686 - PeerSpot reviewer
Automated processes have led to significant cost savings and efficiency improvements
There are too many technical details for a single developer to know, making it overwhelming. It would benefit from a roadmap wizard or templates to guide developers. AWS App Runner should have a wizard and templates to simplify creating a REST service. Developers need clearer guidance to avoid spending excessive time understanding the system.
Rikin Parekh - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful to create sandbox environments to run applications and makes it easy to test them
Overall, setting up the Docker environment is quite easy. Many methods exist, such as using Docker Compose and Docker networks to communicate between containers. The main challenge lies in designing the architecture and integrating different frameworks and microservices. I would rate the ease of setting up the tool at around nine out of ten. The time it takes to deploy depends on the scale of the system. For the early-stage startup I'm currently working with, it doesn't take much time. It's just me handling the deployment. In our early-stage startup, we have a couple of teams with around four to five backend APIs and two front-end services. Deploying these doesn't take much time. My focus is more on minimizing costs due to our lean startup structure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like that the solution is easy to start with."
"Our company realized tremendous cost savings by eliminating the need for a separate DevOps team."
"The most valuable feature of Docker is that it revolutionized virtualization by providing a new approach with containers that completely nullified the time it used to take to deploy applications on virtual servers, resulting in deployment times that can be as quick as milliseconds, unless it is a heavy application, such as Java. Additionally, resource utilization has greatly improved with Docker, allowing for more resources to be allocated to other tasks. These are a few key features that make Docker a preferred choice."
"The most valuable feature of Docker is the dedicated QA environment for connecting the team members. Additionally, there are many core features available and it is highly secure when we are imaging a client's server."
"The most valuable feature of Docker is its portability, ease of security management, and low resource usage."
"Docker is convenient and easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the simple containerization."
"The solution's customer service is good."
"The solution helps save costs."
"The solution's most valuable feature is having containers independent of the operating system or environment."
 

Cons

"There are too many technical details for a single developer to know, making it overwhelming."
"When you try to deploy some code that you've written and tested on other platforms, you should also tell the system what your configuration would be."
"Sometimes, we have sync-up issues where the build doesn't get processed due to these sync issues, causing the build to fail. That's one of the drawbacks I see. When we did a huge sync-up, we faced a couple of issues. It takes some time for us to complete the sync-up. For frequent, smaller updates, we haven't had any issues. However, challenges can arise for those who prefer doing everything in one go. This might not necessarily be due to the tool itself but because of the approach of doing everything in a single batch."
"The backup compatibility for legacy window stations is an area of concern where improvement is required, especially since my company has certain legacy tools that we are struggling to move."
"Docker could improve by having security vulnerability reports."
"It could be easier to create images and save them on reports. Just improved development workflow, just quicker, like some better user experience creating the images for the Docker containers."
"Stability is an area with a shortcoming."
"Docker needs to improve its pricing."
"Unfortunately, base images are not currently available."
"The documentation could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You pay as much as your infrastructure and provision are running."
"I would rate the pricing of Docker as ten out of ten"
"Docker is a free open-source solution."
"Docker is a free tool."
"Docker is a free open-source solution."
"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."
"Regarding pricing, we primarily use AWS for our deployments since we have funding for it. We don't spend much on Docker-specific services, just the containerization product. Docker Hub isn't particularly expensive either, so overall, the pricing is pretty reasonable."
"Docker is a free-to-use solution. However, Docker Enterprise is not free."
"The current cost for us is nothing as an open source."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
17%
Insurance Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS App Runner?
You pay as much as your infrastructure and provision are running. If it's scaled down to zero, the infrastructure is not running, and you don't pay. This is a great feature. As long as some of your...
What needs improvement with AWS App Runner?
While fighting some of the issues I was facing, I also found that others were complaining about the things I've been noticing. I'm sure addressing those things takes some time because AWS App Runne...
What is your primary use case for AWS App Runner?
I think the solution is growing in size. It's like a multi-tier website that wants to provide some microblogging data being collected personally, but it does so in different tiers. The first one is...
What do you like most about Docker?
We are using Docker to host applications.
What needs improvement with Docker?
In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Docker, Oracle, VMware and others in Development Platforms. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.