TLDR
A place where you can deploy and run your web app. Azure provides space to upload your web application files and a public URL to access your app. A free tier is available for experimentation without cost!
What’s so cool with it?
Here are some highlights:
- Deploy directly from Visual Studio or pipelines. Your app can be live in under a minute.
- Choose between Windows or Linux OS and shared ($) or isolated ($$$) hosting.
- Great value for money: Linux machine with 1 vCore, 1.75GB RAM, and 10GB storage for less than $15/month.
- Fully integrated with Application Insights for monitoring.
- Avoid cold starts with the Always On flag.
- Deploy containerized apps—a great alternative to Kubernetes for simpler use cases.
- Scalable to handle high traffic and scale back down when needed.
What’s the catch?
- For sporadic high traffic, Azure Functions might be a cheaper alternative.
- No support for KEDA for proactive scaling.
- The staging environment feature is only available in higher-tier plans (Standard, Premium, or Isolated).
Verdict
Azure App Service is my go-to for development purposes. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and free for basic needs. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. For stateful web apps, it’s a great choice, but for simple stateless APIs, I’d prefer Azure Functions.
Disclaimer 1: URLs last checked on 2022-10-27. Let me know if you find broken links.
Disclaimer 2: This post reflects my personal experiences and opinions, not official documentation or Stack Overflow content.