AWS App Runner
Run web apps from code/containers
A service that runs web apps and APIs from source code or a container image: it builds, deploys, provisions HTTPS, load balances and auto scales for you, so you don't have to worry about clusters or infrastructure.
- Cost$$ Medium
- Difficulty●●●●●
- Costs money when idle?A little
- Serverless
- In examsSAA · DVA
Think of it asLike a valet parking service: hand over your keys and you're done; they find a spot and bring the car out when you need it.
When to use it
✓ Use it when
You want the fastest way to get a containerized web app/API running and don't want to learn ECS/EKS.
✗ Avoid it when
You need deep control over networking, sidecars, background jobs or non-HTTP workloads → ECS / Fargate / EKS.
Common uses
- Backend API for a startup
- Internal website deployed from GitHub
- Simple HTTP microservice
What does it cost?
- Pricing model: Charged per vCPU and GB of memory per second while processing requests, plus memory charges for instances kept on standby; extra fees for automatic builds and deployments.
⚠️ Cost traps
Setting a high minimum instance count makes standby charges run continuously.
Related services
SAA-C03 study guide
App Runner is covered in these study modules: