AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker

By Nick | July 28, 2020 |

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Overview

Deciding on a container management solution for your worker system is an important decision for startups and enterprises. This article will compare two industry leading container management services, AWS Fargate and IronWorker, in terms of:

  • Features and Benefits
  • Pricing
  • User Reviews
  • And more…

Schedule a demo today to find out why Fargate users are moving to IronWorker.

Table of Contents

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Introduction

The serverless computing paradigm has taken the world of cloud computing by storm. Traditionally, cloud services require you to provision, manage, scale, and shut down servers yourself when running applications. Serverless computing handles this functionality for you, letting you focus on the task at hand rather than the technical details.

AWS Fargate is Amazon Web Services’ serverless offering, allowing users to run containers in the cloud without needing to manage them. In a previous article, we gave an overview of AWS Fargate that looked at some of the most popular AWS Fargate alternatives. This article will dive deeper into the comparison between Fargate and one of its top serverless competitors: IronWorker.

AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker: Features and Benefits

AWS Fargate and IronWorker are both robust, mature, feature-rich solutions for serverless container management. But how do their features stack up against each other?

Both Fargate and IronWorker are tremendously powerful and scalable container management tools. According to the AWS Fargate website, users can “launch tens or tens of thousands of containers in seconds.” IronWorker, too, allows users to spin up thousands of parallel workers at once.

When it comes to different deployment options, however, IronWorker is far ahead of Fargate:

  • AWS Fargate is only capable of running in the public cloud—more specifically, the AWS cloud. This has both advantages and disadvantages. Using Fargate allows you to take advantage of synergies with the rest of the AWS ecosystem, but also limits you in terms of the features and benefits that you can enjoy.
  • IronWorker is able to run not only in the public cloud, but also in a hybrid environment, on a dedicated server, or even on-premises. In a hybrid environment combining the cloud and on-premises, your containers can run on your own hardware, while IronWorker deals with concerns such as authentication and scheduling. Running containers on a dedicated server allows users to benefit from IronWorker’s built-in scaling functionality.

IronWorker’s high degree of flexibility, which makes it practically unique in the container management field, has important repercussions for the choice of AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker. Many businesses need to maintain legacy services on-premises, which makes using AWS Fargate an impossibility. In addition, relying too much on Fargate and the AWS ecosystem may result in vendor lock-in, making you unable to compete and innovate in a constantly evolving cloud landscape.

IronWorker also beats AWS Fargate when it comes to support. On the business software review website G2, IronWorker has an average “quality of support” rating of 9.2 out of 10, which is significantly higher than the industry average of 8.2. Fargate, meanwhile, has an average support rating of 8.2 out of 10, putting it right in the middle of the container management field.

Because IronWorker has a smaller clientele, the Iron.io team is able to offer “white-glove” service to customers who need extra assistance in getting their containers up and running. In addition, users can benefit from IronWorker’s extensive documentation, complete with training videos and example code repositories.

AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker: Pricing

When it comes to pricing for AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker, which one is more cost-effective for your business? The answer will depend on what you’re looking for, as both tools use different pricing models.

AWS Fargate pricing is based on the CPU and memory resources that you use while running containers, and you pay only for what you consume. Pricing will also depend on the AWS region that you use. For example, as of writing, the AWS Fargate prices for the US East (Northern Virginia) AWS region are as follows:

  • $0.04048 per vCPU per hour
  • $0.004445 per gigabyte of storage per hour

Spot pricing is an option to lower your AWS Fargate costs, if your applications can tolerate the possibility of occasional interruptions. As of writing, the AWS Fargate spot pricing rates are:

  • $0.01255795 per vCPU per hour
  • $0.00137895 per gigabyte of storage per hour

For more discussion about AWS Fargate pricing, keep reading for AWS Fargate user reviews.

IronWorker has three separate tiers for organizations of different sizes, as well as a custom enterprise tier, making it easy for every user to find a plan that works for them. The three IronWorker pricing tiers are:

  • Hobby ($259/year): 1 concurrency, 5 hours/month, 256 megabytes of RAM, 60 seconds of runtime.
  • Launch ($1,609/year): 5 concurrencies, 50 hours/month, 512 megabytes of RAM, 60 minutes of runtime.
  • Professional ($10,789/year): 30 concurrencies, 500 hours/month, 512 megabytes of RAM, 60 minutes of runtime, automatic scaling, and organizational support.

AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker: Reviews

Thus far, we’ve discussed how AWS Fargate and IronWorker compare in theory, in terms of their features, pros and cons, and technical differences. But how do these two container management tools compare in practice? Let’s look at some AWS Fargate and IronWorker reviews to find out.

AWS Fargate reviews are largely positive, with a current average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on the business software review website G2:

  • According to front-end developer Sima I., AWS Fargate is “the best way to run containers in AWS without hours of setup.” However, she also mentions that the cost of AWS Fargate may be prohibitive for smaller businesses: “The pricing isn’t great and didn’t fit our startup’s needs.”
  • Small business founder and CEO Ralph K. writes: “The best thing about Fargate is that you can just start out of the gate without setting up servers… it’s all managed in a black box for you by AWS.” As with the previous review, the main negative was pricing: “Fargate is a good bit pricier than running your own servers.”
  • Other reviews mention problems with Fargate’s learning curve and support, although this may be less of an issue if you’re already used to the AWS ecosystem.

IronWorker reviews on G2 are slightly higher than AWS Fargate, with an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Many users praise IronWorker’s ease of setup and use:

  • CTO Daniel M. writes: “IronWorker runs my PHP code straight out of the box. Scheduling jobs is simple. It just works. Love it.”
  • Software engineer Erik J. agrees, writing: “The dashboard makes keeping track of various tasks and workers easy. There’s very little maintenance required once set up.”
  • Reviewer James C. says that IronWorker “helped us harness the efficiency of the cloud,” adding: “We used Iron.io as a one-stop shop to help us get onto the cloud and tune our services to get cloud efficiencies… The result has been a drastic reduction in the AWS spend we have been getting, as we are finally optimized to take advantage of the elasticity that cloud computing offers.”

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Why select IronWorker over AWS Fargate?

IronWorker has been helping customers grow their business since 2015. Even with IronWorker’s AWS Fargate’s similarities, IronWorker has the advantage in:

  • Support
  • Simplicity
  • Deployment Options

Support

We understand every application and project is different. Luckily, Iron.io offers a “white glove” approach by developing custom configurations to get your tasks up and running. No project is too big, so please contact our development team to get your project started.  We also understand that documentation is critical to any developer and have made a Dev Center to help answer your questions.

Simplicity

When you start your free 14 day trial, you will get to interact with the simple and easy to use Iron.io dashboard.  Once you have your project running, you will receive detailed analytics providing both a high level synopsis and granular metrics.

Deployment Options

As of June 2020, Fargate’s container scaling technology is not available for on-premises deployments. On the other hand, one of the main goals of Iron.io is for the platform to run anywhere. Iron.io offers a variety of deployment options to fit every company’s needs:

  • Shared
    • Users can run containers on Iron.io’s shared cloud infrastructure.
  • Hybrid
    • Users benefit from a hybrid cloud and on-premises solution. Containers run on in-house hardware, while Iron.io handles concerns such as scheduling and authentication. This is a smart choice for organizations who already have their own server infrastructure, or who have concerns about data security in the cloud.
  • Dedicated
    • Users can run containers on Iron.io’s dedicated server hardware, making their applications more consistent and reliable. With Iron.io’s automatic scaling technology, users don’t have to worry about manually increasing or decreasing their usage.
  • On-premises
    • Finally, users can run IronWorker on their own in-house IT infrastructure. This is the best choice for customers who have strict regulations for compliance and security. Users in finance, healthcare, and government may all need to run containers on-premises.

Conclusion

Both AWS Fargate and IronWorker are strong alternatives for serverless container management software—but which one is ultimately the right choice for you? When it comes to the question of AWS Fargate vs. IronWorker, the right choice will depend on your unique needs and objectives.

Although Fargate is a leader in the field of serverless computing, it also comes with downsides such as the lack of control and potentially higher costs. Here’s how the decision breaks down:

  • Features: Both AWS Fargate and IronWorker have excellent performance and scalability, with thousands of containers running simultaneously. Unlike Fargate, however, IronWorker offers far more flexibility in terms of deployment options: public cloud, hybrid, dedicated servers, and on-premises. IronWorker also has the advantage when it comes to customer support.
  • Pricing: AWS Fargate uses an à la carte pricing model in which you pay only for what you use. IronWorker uses a subscription-based annual pricing model with usage caps for different tiers.
  • Reviews: Both AWS Fargate and IronWorker have strong user reviews, although IronWorker’s reviews are slightly more positive.

While there’s no solution that’s right for every organization, IronWorker is a highly competitive alternative to AWS Fargate that powers some of the world’s largest brands, including Hotel Tonight, Bleacher Report, and Untappd.

Interested in giving IronWorker a try? Get in touch with our team today for a chat about your business needs and objectives, and a free 14-day trial of the IronWorker platform.

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