Azure App Service vs Azure Virtual Machines: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Azure App Service and Azure Virtual Machines. Azure App Service and Azure Virtual Machines are both services offered by Microsoft Azure for hosting applications, but they differ in several aspects.

1. Managed vs. Unmanaged Infrastructure: Azure App Service is a managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering, which means that Microsoft takes care of managing the underlying infrastructure automatically. On the other hand, Azure Virtual Machines provide an unmanaged infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering, where users have complete control over the virtual machines and the underlying infrastructure.

2. Deployment and Scalability: Azure App Service allows for easy deployment and scaling of applications. It provides an integrated development and deployment environment, allowing developers to easily publish their applications. It also supports automatic scaling based on customizable rules. In contrast, Azure Virtual Machines require manual management of deployments and scaling. Users need to manually provision and configure the virtual machines and handle scaling tasks themselves.

3. Configuration and Management: Azure App Service provides a simplified configuration and management experience. Users can easily configure and manage the application settings, security, and monitoring through a web-based portal. It also supports streamlined deployment and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows. Azure Virtual Machines, on the other hand, require more manual configuration and management. Users need to configure the virtual machines, networks, and storage individually.

4. Cost: Azure App Service is typically more cost-effective for hosting web applications, especially for small to medium-scale workloads. It offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on the number of instances and their respective sizes. Azure Virtual Machines, on the other hand, can be more expensive, especially for larger-scale workloads, as users are billed for the compute resources (virtual machines) on an hourly basis.

5. Scalability Model: Azure App Service provides a scale-out model, where multiple instances of the application can be automatically created and load-balanced to handle increased traffic. This allows for seamless scaling without disrupting the application. Azure Virtual Machines, on the other hand, provide a scale-up model, where users can manually increase the capacity of the virtual machine by adding more resources, such as CPU, memory, or storage. This requires some downtime during the scaling process.

6. Deployment Options: Azure App Service supports multiple deployment options, including continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows, Git integration, and deployment from various supported development tools. It also supports containerization through Azure Container Instances and Azure Kubernetes Service. Azure Virtual Machines, on the other hand, provide more flexibility in terms of deployment options. Users can deploy custom virtual machine images, import virtual machines from on-premises, or choose from a wide range of pre-configured virtual machine images available in the Azure Marketplace.

In summary, Azure App Service is a managed PaaS offering that provides a simplified deployment and management experience, automatic scaling, and cost-effectiveness for hosting web applications. Azure Virtual Machines, on the other hand, provide more control and flexibility over the infrastructure and deployment options, but require more manual configuration and management, and can be more expensive for larger-scale workloads.