143. Is App Runner better than Fargate?

AWS Bites

Picture this. You’ve got a web app built with Rust and Solid.js. It started life running on a dusty on-prem server, but now it's time to move it to the cloud. The clock is ticking. You could take the well-worn AWS path: set up a VPC, configure subnets, attach an ALB, define IAM roles, and deploy with Fargate. Or you could try something different. In this episode of AWS Bites, we share the real story of migrating a monolithic containerized app to AWS App Runner. It promises to take your code, build it, deploy it, and scale it with minimal effort. But does it really deliver? We compare App Runner with Fargate based on hands-on experience. You’ll learn where App Runner shines, where it gets in the way, and how we handled everything from custom domains to background job processing. You’ll also hear when we would still choose Fargate, and why. If you've ever hoped for a Heroku-like experience on AWS, or you want to simplify your container deployments without giving up too much control, this episode is for you.

AWS Bites is brought to you in association with fourTheorem. At fourTheorem, we believe serverless should be simple, scalable, and cost-effective — and we help teams do just that. Whether you’re diving into containers, stepping into event-driven architecture, or scaling a global SaaS platform on AWS, our team has your back. Visit https://fourTheorem.com to see how we can help you build faster, better, and with more confidence using AWS cloud!

🔖 Chapters:00:00 Introduction02:03 What is AWS App Runner?04:06 Our use case: migrating a Rust + Solid.js app06:10 App Runner vs Fargate: key differences08:51 Breaking down the App Runner pricing model13:47 Connecting App Runner to private VPC resources17:00 Understanding App Runner’s autoscaling options20:00 Security and secrets management in App Runner22:23 Handling background jobs in an always-on world25:31 Running database migrations with App Runner27:40 What we liked about App Runner31:43 What frustrated us about App Runner38:10 When to choose App Runner over Fargate40:56 Wrap-up and sponsor shout-out

In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

• Last Week in AWS: The 17 Ways to Run Containers on AWS: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/the-17-ways-to-run-containers-on-aws/
• GitHub Issue - App Runner scale to zero discussion: https://github.com/aws/apprunner-roadmap/issues/9
• Custom Domain with CloudFormation (Mark van Holsteijn, Xebia): https://xebia.com/blog/configure-custom-domain-for-aws-apprunner-service-using-cloudformation/
• AWS Docs - App Runner hosted zone IDs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/apprunner.html

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

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