AWS Container Pricing: ECS or EKS

Most teams pick one container platform and build around it. ECS is AWS's own orchestrator: simpler to start with, and free to run on your own EC2 instances. EKS is AWS's managed Kubernetes: a larger ecosystem and a steeper learning curve, for a fee per cluster. Each has its own page with regional rates and a bill estimator. Fargate, AWS's serverless compute, runs under either.

Choose a platform

An either-or decision for each application. These are general tendencies, not rules.

Amazon ECS

AWS's own orchestrator

ECS is built and run by AWS, and it is the simpler of the two to start with. There is no cluster to operate and no separate API to learn, and it has no platform fee when you run it on your own EC2 instances.

Choose it when

  • You want containers running quickly with a small team
  • You are committed to AWS and do not need to move
  • You prefer one AWS-native tool over assembling a stack

Watch for

  • It only runs on AWS, so the skills and config do not carry elsewhere
  • A smaller ecosystem of third-party tools than Kubernetes
  • $0.00 platform fee on your own EC2
  • Managed Instances fee on top of EC2, per node
  • ECS Anywhere $0.01025/instance-hr
See ECS pricing & estimator →

Amazon EKS

AWS's managed Kubernetes

EKS runs the Kubernetes control plane for you, which makes it more stable than running Kubernetes yourself on EC2. Kubernetes is the more popular choice, with far more third-party tooling and industry support, and a steeper learning curve to match.

Choose it when

  • Your team already knows Kubernetes, or hiring for it matters
  • You want the Kubernetes ecosystem of tools, charts and operators
  • You need the same platform across clouds or on-premises

Watch for

  • More to learn, and more to operate, than ECS
  • A fee of $73 a month per cluster before any node runs
  • $0.10/hr per cluster ($73/mo)
  • Auto Mode fee on top of EC2, per node
  • Extended support +$0.50/hr per cluster
See EKS pricing & estimator →

Running a container on ECS

One container using 2 vCPU and 4 GB, always on, in us-east-1. ECS adds no platform fee of its own.
ECS pricing →
ECS optionCompute / monthExtra fee / monthTotal / monthWho runs the compute
On EC2 instances you run$62.05$0.00$62.05You run the instances
On Managed Instances$62.05$7.45
fee on top of EC2		$69.50AWS runs the instances
On Fargate, x86$72.08$0.00$72.08No instances to run
On Fargate, Graviton$57.67$0.00$57.67No instances; images must be arm64

Running a container on EKS

The same container, with the $73.00 monthly cluster fee shared across 10 containers of this size.
EKS pricing →
EKS optionCompute / monthExtra fees / monthTotal / monthWho runs the compute
On EC2 nodes you run$62.05$7.30
cluster fee share		$69.35You run the nodes
On Auto Mode$62.05$14.75
Auto Mode fee + cluster share		$76.80AWS runs the nodes
On Fargate, x86$72.08$7.30
cluster fee share		$79.38No nodes to run
On Fargate, Graviton$57.67$7.30
cluster fee share		$64.97No nodes; images must be arm64

Both tables price one container that fills a whole node, which is the best case for EC2 and the worst case for a per-cluster fee. Real clusters pack several containers on each node, and a bigger cluster spreads the EKS fee thinner. Idle or bursty workloads favor Fargate, which bills the task and not the node. Fargate prices use the 2 vCPU, 4 GB task with the 20 GB of storage AWS includes. These tables compare options within a platform, not the platforms against each other: the right choice between ECS and EKS usually turns on skills and ecosystem more than on price.

Fargate runs under either platform

A compute option, not a third platform
AWS FargateServerless compute for ECS tasks and EKS pods. You pay for the vCPU and memory each task asks for, and there are no instances or nodes to run. Rates are the same whichever platform schedules the task.
  • $0.04048/vCPU-hr · $0.004445/GB-hr (Linux x86)
  • Graviton about 20% cheaper per vCPU
  • Windows adds $0.0460/vCPU-hr licence
See Fargate rates & estimator →

No container to run at all? AWS Lambda bills per request and per GB-second of run time, and nothing while a function is idle.

What a container bill leaves out

Each is billed separately from the platform
The computeOn EC2, you pay for the instances under either platform. Price them by type and region.Load balancersEvery service behind an ALB or NLB pays an hourly base plus capacity units.NAT and data transferPrivate subnets pulling images and calling APIs pay per GB through a NAT Gateway.EBS volumesNode root volumes and persistent volumes bill as block storage.
Savings Plans Guide

Compute Savings Plans cover Fargate, not only EC2

A Compute plan discounts Fargate's vCPU and memory lines as well as EC2 usage. See how AWS ranks usage and spends your commitment, with its worked examples.

Read Guide →

About these prices

Every rate comes from AWS's published price list for each service, on-demand and by region. Those offers do not include Fargate Spot, Savings Plans or reserved rates, so none appear here. EC2 prices come from the same dataset as the instance explorer. Where a fee is stated as a percentage of EC2, that is a description; the price shown is always AWS's own fee for that instance type.