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AWS Fargate vs AWS Lambda 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 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
AWS Lambda
Ranking in Compute Service
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of AWS Fargate is 14.7%, down from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 21.0%, down from 23.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Wai L Lin O - PeerSpot reviewer
A serverless solution with easy integration features
We use AWS Lambda because it provides a solution for our needs without requiring us to manage our infrastructure. With the tool, we only pay for the resources we use. Additionally, it is straightforward to implement and integrates with other services like API Gateway. The tool's serverless nature has had the most significant impact on our workflow. I find it particularly attractive because it eliminates the need for managing servers. In my previous experience, managing upgrades and updates was quite challenging. The solution's integration process with other AWS services was relatively easy. We primarily use AWS services such as EventBridge for scheduling processes and log management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fargate's integration with other AWS services is really good."
"All AWS services allow me to manage a wide range of applications and services."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Fargate is its ability to run on demand without the constant run time of basic resources."
"If you create your deployment with a good set of rules for how to scale in, you can just set it and forget it."
"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 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."
"Fargate is beneficial for hosting our solutions and providing workflow management, creating legal documents, and delivering business intelligence."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Fargate is its ease of use."
"Lambda is the preferred compute option because of on-demand cost. We don't have to provision any hardware beforehand. We don't have to provision the capacity required for the services because it is serverless."
"It makes configurations more convenient as changes can be made through the environmental variables without altering the main code."
"It is serverless and scalable. It can scale infinitely. You don't have to worry about the size of the servers that you're pre-allocating. You don't have to build server scale-out models. Auto scale and other similar features are just inherent in Lambda. So, for atomic and fairly non-persistent transactional units of work, Lambda works very well."
"The solution integrates well with API gateways and S3 events via its AWS ecosystem."
"The most valuable feature is that it scans the cloud system and if they are any security anomalies it triggers an email."
"The tool scales automatically based on the number of incoming requests."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"The feature I found most valuable about Lambda is the fact that it's serverless."
 

Cons

"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."
"Service computing is not as straightforward compared to other computing services. It requires more effort to use effectively."
"Sometimes, Fargate can be really hard to configure."
"AWS Fargate needs improvement in terms of setup complexity."
"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."
"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."
"As I have not worked with Fargate extensively, I do not have any specific improvements."
"We can write anything as code, but the solution will not give proper error information."
"The setup was pretty complex because there were many steps. For me, it was complex because I was somewhat new at it. It could be easier for someone who has done it a bunch of times. I just found that it was a very dense user experience. There's a lot going on during setup."
"The runtime could be improved. There are certain use cases where I need a Lambda function to run longer."
"The 60 seconds limitation with the consumption of the service is really restrictive for a service and the solution can be improved by eliminating that."
"We face some problems with the event-driven execution model."
"AWS Lambda could improve by having no-code or low-code options because currently, you need to be able to write code well to use it."
"The feature to attach external storage, such as an S3 or elastic storage, must be added to AWS Lambda. This is its area for improvement."
"AWS Lambda is a bit difficult to set up if someone doesn't know how to code."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"AWS Lambda's cloud version isn't expensive, and I'd rate its pricing as five out of five."
"It computes by the cycle, and it's very cheap."
"The solution follows a pay-as-you-go licensing model, which results in cost savings."
"AWS Lambda license is paid on a monthly basis."
"You're not paying for a server if you're not using it, which is another reason I like it. So, you're not paying if you're not using it. It scales, and you're charged based on usage. It all depends on the use case. Some can be extremely inexpensive if you have very low volume transaction rates. That way, you don't have to fire up and absorb the cost of the servers just sitting there waiting for a transaction to come through. You're only paying when you use it. So, depending upon the use model, Lambda could be highly efficient relative to an EC2 solution. You don't have to have things reallocated."
"AWS Lambda is cost-effective, with a minimal maintenance cost."
"Lambda is a good and cheap solution and I would recommend it to those without a huge payload."
"We don't need to pay for licensing to use Lambda."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
68%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
Which is better, AWS Lambda or Batch?
AWS Lambda is a serverless solution. It doesn’t require any infrastructure, which allows for cost savings. There is no setup process to deal with, as the entire solution is in the cloud. If you use...
What do you like most about AWS Lambda?
The tool scales automatically based on the number of incoming requests.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Lambda?
AWS Lambda is cheaper compared to running an instance continuously. You only pay for what you use, making it cost-effective.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Fargate vs. AWS Lambda and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
847,772 professionals have used our research since 2012.