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 9.1, while AWS Fargate is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. Amazon EC2 holds a 5.1% mindshare in CS, compared to AWS Fargate’s 13.4% 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 67 Amazon EC2 reviews

984 Views
895 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

AWS Fargate

Read 18 AWS Fargate reviews

2,369 Views
2,203 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon EC2

AWS Fargate

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate are cloud computing services offered by Amazon Web Services, each catering to distinct use cases. AWS Fargate appears to have the upper hand for its serverless operation and ease of management, while EC2 stands out with its pricing models and control.

Features: Amazon EC2 allows extensive customization with scalable instance options and strong security, suitable for users requiring precise control. It supports multiple operating systems and provides elastic scalability. On the other hand, AWS Fargate emphasizes its serverless nature and cost-efficient operations, which are ideal for dynamic workloads and reduce operational overhead by automatically managing compute resources.

Room for Improvement: Amazon EC2 could benefit from enhanced cost management strategies and simpler migration procedures. Users highlight the need for better integration and dashboard interface improvements. AWS Fargate could improve its monitoring capabilities and simplify its initial setup, with users expressing the need for smoother infrastructure integration and clearer cost predictability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate support public cloud deployment, with EC2 also offering private options. Users generally find EC2's documentation adequate but note certain support challenges. Fargate is noted for its consistent customer service, though technical assistance receives mixed reviews. Both services significantly rely on AWS documentation to address issues, with some users seeing room for improvement in integration support.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon EC2 offers varied pricing models like on-demand, reserved, and spot instances, providing good ROI by reducing infrastructure costs versus on-prem solutions. Its pricing complexity, however, can be a drawback. AWS Fargate’s serverless capabilities and pay-as-you-go model provide flexibility, though it may be more costly for smaller operations. Both services offer significant value; EC2 through detailed infrastructure control, and Fargate through simplified server management, aligning with different business needs.

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

July 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

7.1

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

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon EC2 is 5.1%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Fargate is 13.4%, down from 19.1% 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 most valuable features of Amazon EC2 are ease of use and the services offered."

"EC2 has helped us to deploy various Microsoft applications efficiently. It has also facilitated our workstation operations."

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

"Stable, scalable, and simple to implement."

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

"We find it easy to scale."

"The most important aspects are that the solution is scalable and easy to manage."

"Amazon EC2 is really reliable and provides great flexibility."

More Amazon EC2 pros

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

"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."

"AWS Fargate has definitely impacted our organization positively because before that, we couldn't accommodate the workload requirements as flexibly as we can with Fargate."

"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."

"All AWS services allow me to manage a wide range of applications and services."

"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."

"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."

More AWS Fargate pros

Cons

"Current inability to change the resource service levels."

"The tool’s stability could be better."

"Accessibility must be improved."

"The price could be better, and it could be more affordable. Because I run my own servers, the prices are quite high."

"The support could be more responsive."

"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."

"Regional acceleration could improve. If I am hosting a website and I want the experience to be faster they should have this feature to allow for increased speeds."

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

More Amazon EC2 cons

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

"AWS Fargate's security features weren't the most important criteria or value we got from AWS Fargate."

"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."

"The main area for improvement is the cost, which could be lowered to be more competitive with other major cloud providers."

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

"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."

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

"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."

More AWS Fargate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It has helped to reduce costs with infrastructure."

"For our usage, the cost is approximately $20,000 to $23,000 per month."

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

"Pricing appears to be cheap, however, it is extremely difficult in calculating what something will cost."

"The price is reasonable, but there is definitely an opportunity to lower it in instances which are of a higher configuration, because they have been typically used for the long term."

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

"The tool's pricing is not cheap."

More Amazon EC2 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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

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?

Amazon EC2 is a bit expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon EC2?

The main thing that needs improvement is the cost. Other than that, there is nothing that needs improvement.

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?

Currently, I think that the program is great the way it is, and maybe we use less than 50% of the current features of the platform. For example, we have been evaluating Dask with Python to work wit...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering AWS Fargate?

My team hasn't used AWS Fargate's capability for automatic scaling in our applications, even when they knew about it; they were very new to using these features. AWS Fargate's security features wer...

See all answers

Comparisons

AWS Batch vs Amazon EC2

Compared 23% of the time

AWS Lambda vs Amazon EC2

Compared 18% of the time

Apache Spark vs Amazon EC2

Compared 11% of the time

Google Compute Engine vs Amazon EC2

Compared 9% of the time

Google App Engine vs Amazon EC2

Compared 8% of the time

More Amazon EC2 Competitors

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling vs AWS Fargate

Compared 38% of the time

Heroku vs AWS Fargate

Compared 19% of the time

AWS Batch vs AWS Fargate

Compared 9% of the time

Apache NiFi vs AWS Fargate

Compared 8% of the time

Apache Spark vs AWS Fargate

Compared 5% of the time

More AWS Fargate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EC2

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

AWS Fargate

July 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

July 2025

Free Report: AWS Fargate vs. Amazon EC2

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