Fargate vs EC2 for EKS
Quick Comparison
| Aspect | Fargate | EC2 (MNG) |
|---|---|---|
| Management | Fully managed | Partially managed |
| Pricing | Per-pod vCPU/memory | EC2 instance hours |
| Scaling | Automatic per pod | Node group scaling |
| GPU support | No | Yes |
| EBS support | No | Yes |
| SSH access | No | Yes |
| Spot instances | No | Yes |
When to Use Fargate
- Stateless workloads
- Sporadic or unpredictable traffic
- Short-running jobs
- Microservices with low compute needs
- When you want zero node management
When to Use EC2
- Statefull workloads requiring EBS
- GPU workloads
- Cost-sensitive large-scale workloads
- Need for Spot instances
- Applications requiring SSH/debug access
- Windows containers
Cost Comparison
Fargate pricing is typically higher per vCPU-hour but eliminates idle capacity costs.
For bursty workloads: Fargate often cheaper. For steady-state workloads: EC2 Spot often cheaper.