Head-to-head, indicative as of Oct 2026. Prices change — always confirm on the vendor page.
Quick read: pick AWS App Runner if your workload is containers on aws without touching ecs/eks and its pricing model fits your traffic shape; pick Appwrite if you need open-source firebase alternative you can own. For anything latency-sensitive at the edge, cold start row is the tiebreaker.
| AWS App Runner | Appwrite | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Container PaaS | Backend platform (OSS) |
| Free tier | None | Self-host free; cloud free tier |
| Paid pricing (indicative) | vCPU + memory per second, scale to zero | Cloud Pro from ~$15/mo |
| Egress | Metered | n/a |
| Cold start | Seconds from zero | n/a |
| Regions | AWS regions | Self-host or cloud |
| Best for | Containers on AWS without touching ECS/EKS | Open-source Firebase alternative you can own |
Try AWS App Runner Try Appwrite
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