AWS closed App Runner to new customers and ended support for the Copilot CLI on June 12, 2026, pointing both at ECS Express Mode. What Express Mode builds, how to migrate with no downtime, and when you'd outgrow it.
Two of AWS's "just run my container" tools are winding down. App Runner is closed to new customers: existing customers can keep using it, including creating new services, and AWS says it continues to invest in security and availability but plans no new features. The AWS Copilot CLI reached end of support on June 12, 2026: it stays on GitHub as open source, but gets no new features or security updates from AWS. Apps already deployed with either keep running.
Both point to the same place: Amazon ECS Express Mode, launched in November 2025. For Copilot users AWS also suggests CDK's higher-level constructs, or taking over the CloudFormation templates Copilot generated.
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You give it a container image and two IAM roles. In one call — about three to five minutes — it creates an ECS service on Fargate, an Application Load Balancer with target groups and health checks, auto scaling, security groups and networking, and an HTTPS URL of the form servicename.ecs.region.on.aws. Up to 25 Express Mode services share one load balancer when that makes sense, which keeps the per-service cost down. Express Mode itself is free; you pay for what it creates.
The difference from App Runner is that everything lands in your account as ordinary ECS resources. Since July 2026 Express Mode also accepts custom task definitions — sidecars, FireLens log routing, custom health checks — so you aren't trapped in a simplified box when the service grows up.
Note the image, port, environment variables and custom domain of the App Runner service. If it deploys from source, add a Dockerfile and a CI step that pushes an image first — AWS publishes a GitHub Action for Express Mode deploys.
Create the Express Mode service from the same image and test it on its default URL.
Add your custom domain to the new load balancer: a host-header rule and your ACM certificate on the HTTPS listener.
Make the DNS record weighted and shift traffic gradually — 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% — checking errors at each step. Rolling back is changing the weights back.
Keep App Runner running for a day or two after the last shift, then delete it.
Copilot apps are already ECS services, so nothing has to move. The question is what manages them now. For a single web service, recreating it in Express Mode is the least work. For a multi-service app with workers, queues and pipelines, CDK is the better home — and the templates Copilot generated are a useful map of what you have. Either way, retire the copilot commands from CI before a future AWS API change breaks them on a release day.
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As of October 25, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.