Fargate vs EC2 Launch Type
Serverless containers versus self-managed EC2 nodes for ECS and EKS workloads.
Overview
What is being compared
Fargate runs containers without you managing the EC2 instances underneath. The EC2 launch type gives you the instances directly: their configuration, GPU support, custom AMIs, and Savings Plans or Reserved Instances for cost. Fargate trades cost efficiency at scale for operational simplicity.
- Who manages instances — AWS — You
- Instance configuration — Not exposed — Direct access
- GPU — Not available — Supported
- Custom AMIs — Not available — Supported
- Cost levers — Pay for what tasks use — Savings Plans and Reserved Instances
- Trade-off — Simplicity over cost at scale — Cost efficiency over simplicity
- Fits — Zero node management, variable load, dev and staging, strong task isolation — GPU, cost at scale, custom AMIs, DaemonSet-style sidecars
What each one can do
Most of the choice is a short list of capabilities only one side has. Green means supported or done for you, red means not available, yellow means available with work on your side.
> [!TIP] Where tasks run on each, a scale-out under rising traffic, and the choice between them play step by step in Visual Explanation below.
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