Deploy Your First Web App with AWS App Runner: Fully Managed & Container-Ready

July 30, 2025

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Parimal

What is AWS App Runner?

AWS App Runner is a fully managed service that makes it easy to deploy containerized applications from your source code or container image. You don’t need to manage servers, orchestration, or scaling logic—App Runner handles it all.

Whether your app lives in a GitHub repo or a container registry (like Amazon ECR), App Runner can automatically build and deploy it, scaling up and down as needed.

Why Use App Runner?

Compared to traditional services like EC2, ECS, or even Lambda, App Runner offers:

Zero infrastructure management – No need to manage VPCs, load balancers, or clusters
Quick deployments – Deploy from GitHub or ECR in a few steps
Auto-scaling – Automatically handles traffic spikes
CI/CD support – Automatic redeploys on every code change (when using GitHub)

It’s especially useful when you need to move fast with a minimal setup.

When to Use App Runner

Perfect for:

You want to deploy containerized apps but don’t want to manage ECS or Kubernetes
You need rapid prototyping or dev environments
You’re building web APIs or frontend services
You prefer GitHub-to-production workflows with minimal infrastructure fuss

Pre-requisites

Before we begin, make sure you have:

[ ] An AWS account
[ ] A public GitHub repository with a working web app and Dockerfile OR A container image in Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry)
[ ] Basic knowledge of Docker and containers

Deployment Guide

Deploying a Sample App with App Runner (Using GitHub)

Let’s deploy a simple Node.js or Python Flask app (you can use any stack really) via GitHub:

Sample Application: GitHub Repository

Step 1: Open AWS App Runner Console

Go to the App Runner console

Step 2: Create Service

Click “Create service”
Choose “Source code repository”
Select GitHub and connect your account
Pick your repository and branch

Step 3: Configure Build & Deploy

Select “Runtime” based on your application
Select Build command and Start command based on your application
Set port (e.g., 5000 for Flask, 3000 for Node.js)
(Optional) Add environment variables if needed

Step 4: Service Settings

Set service name
Choose CPU and memory settings
Auto scaling
Observability

Step 5: Deploy!

Review and click “Create & deploy”
Wait for App Runner to build and deploy your app
Once deployed, you’ll get a public HTTPS URL

Observability & Scaling

App Runner provides:

Integrated CloudWatch Logs
Health checks
Auto-scaling based on requests per second
Metrics like CPU, memory usage, and request counts

You can monitor your app without additional tooling.

Pricing Overview

App Runner charges based on:

Compute time (vCPU + memory usage)
Requests served

Example: A small app with light traffic will cost only a few dollars a month. There’s even a free tier!

For details: App Runner pricing

Pros & Limitations

Pros

No infrastructure setup
Auto SSL and HTTPS
Integrated CI/CD
Fast and developer-friendly

Limitations

Limited to HTTP apps (not suitable for background jobs)
No fine-grained networking control (compared to ECS/VPC)
Limited AWS region support

Final Thoughts

AWS App Runner is a great fit for teams that want to focus on writing code, not managing infrastructure. Whether you’re spinning up a side project, internal tool, or even small production service, it gets you from GitHub to live URL in minutes.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution (you’ll want ECS or Kubernetes for complex workflows), but for many use cases, it’s just right.