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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
85
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of AWS Fargate is 14.4%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Lambda is 21.3%, up from 21.4% 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

"All AWS services allow me to manage a wide range of applications and services."
"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."
"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 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."
"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."
"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 automatically scales to meet demand, making it ideal for applications with variable workloads."
"We appreciate the simple use of containers within this solution, it makes managing the containers quick and easy."
"The solution works for small applications. It is a serverless tool that is quick to spin up. We needn’t consider anything in the bag."
"It's also suitable for companies of any size. For example, we're a large enterprise, and we've used Lambda without any problems in the last 10 months."
"What I like best about AWS Lambda is that it's feature-rich, and I appreciate that. I also like that it's stable and supports many languages."
"Lambda makes the administration of all our services related to Amazon really easy."
"Provides a good, easy path from when you're using an AWS cluster."
"I have found all of the features valuable. It's an easy and cheap solution."
"The most valuable feature is that there is no need to implement it in a server because it is a service."
"Thanks to this solution, we do not need to worry about hardware or resource utilization. It saves us time."
 

Cons

"We faced challenges in vertically scaling our workload."
"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."
"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."
"AWS Fargate needs improvement in terms of setup complexity."
"AWS Fargate could improve the privileged mode containers. We had some problems and they were not able to run."
"I would like to see the older dashboard instead of the newer version. I don't like the new dashboard."
"There are features that could be added or enhanced."
"If it is a specific ETL process or a long-term one, then AWS Lambda is not a good option."
"We don't have the inbuilt modules in AWS Lambda. If more modules were built into or integrated with AWS Lambda, that would help developers to code."
"The runtime could be improved. There are certain use cases where I need a Lambda function to run longer."
"It would be ideal if we could use the solution across different platforms."
"What could be improved in AWS Lambda is a tricky question because I base the area for improvement on a specific matrix, for example, latency, so I'm still determining if I can be the judge on that. However, room for improvement could be when you're using AWS Lambda as a backend, it can be challenging to use it for monitoring. Monitoring is critical in development, and I don't have much expertise in the area, but you can use other services such as Xray. I found that monitoring on AWS Lambda is a challenge. The tool needs better monitoring. Another area for improvement in AWS Lambda is the cold start, where it takes some time to invoke a function the first time, but after that, invoking it becomes swift. Still, there's room for improvement in that AWS Lambda process. In the next release of AWS Lambda, I'd like AWS to improve monitoring so that I can monitor codes better."
"I would like to see the five zero four AWS Lambda invocation fixed. This is basically a time-out error."
"I want to see support for longer applications. I need the 15-minute time-out window to improve."
"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."
 

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."
"I would rate the tool’s pricing a nine out of ten. The solution’s pricing works on a pay-as-you-go basis."
"We don't need to pay for licensing to use Lambda."
"The pricing is on-demand and based on runs or times that are billed out monthly."
"AWS Lambda is not expensive for micro testing but is expensive if used for long deployment or long services."
"This is a product that is pay-per-use, as opposed to a licensing fee."
"AWS Lambda license is paid on a monthly basis."
"Lambda is an affordable solution. They offer free requests every month and charge per the compute time. If you are working in a big organization, usually AWS offer a savings plan where you get approximately 70% discount on pricing."
"AWS Lambda is cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
67%
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: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.