AWSvsAzure

Platform58

Platform60

Score Comparison

Overall

Pricing

Usability

Performance

Support

Reliability

Onboarding

Security

Integrations

AWSAzure

Signals Comparison

Pricing

AWS

Unpredictable billing with surprise charges(9/10)
Free tier traps - Aurora, RDS, and Elastic IP charges(8/10)
Data egress fees add up quickly(8/10)
Cost optimization requires dedicated expertise(7/10)

Azure

Complex and confusing pricing structure(9/10)
Billing continues after service deletion(8/10)
Multiple separate bills don't align(7/10)

Usability

AWS

Overwhelming complexity with 260+ services(8/10)
IAM policies are complex and error-prone(8/10)
Console slow and difficult to navigate(6/10)

Azure

Portal interface confusing and hard to navigate(8/10)
Steep learning curve overwhelms newcomers(7/10)
Too many overlapping services cause confusion(6/10)

Reliability

AWS

Major October 2025 outage - 15 hours downtime(10/10)
US-East-1 single point of failure for many services(8/10)

Azure

October 2025 Front Door outage - global cascade(10/10)
Multiple major outages in 2025-2026(9/10)
Azure AI services slow and unreliable(7/10)
Authentication lockouts from portal(8/10)

Support

AWS

Enterprise Support required - $5,000+/month minimum(9/10)
Basic support is documentation-only(7/10)

Azure

Support is slow and closes cases without resolution(9/10)

Security

AWS

Unauthorized charges from compromised credentials(9/10)

Azure

No signals

Performance

AWS

No signals

Azure

Poor performance in Asia regions(7/10)

Pricing Comparison

AWS

Free Tier (12 months)

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: 5GB S3, 30GB EBS

Limits: 12-month limit, only specific instance types, basic support only (documentation)

Aurora NOT included, Elastic IPs charged when stopped, data egress fees, many services NOT free tier eligible

EC2 On-Demand (t3.micro)

Popular

$7.49/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: EBS separate

Limits: Shared tenancy, basic support unless upgraded

EBS storage extra, data egress $0.09/GB, EBS snapshots, CloudWatch logs, NAT Gateway if needed

EC2 On-Demand (t3.medium)

$30.37/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: EBS separate

Limits: Each service billed separately

All infrastructure costs extra: load balancers, databases, storage

Enterprise Support

$5000/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: N/A

Limits: Required for production SLAs, Developer/Business support discontinued Dec 2025

Minimum $5,000/mo or % of AWS spend, additional for premium services

Azure

Free Account ($200 credit)

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: As credits allow

Limits: 30-day credit expiration, free tier services have strict limits, not all services eligible

Credit expires in 30 days, some services continue billing after free tier, removal of payment method requires extensive process

Pay-As-You-Go (B1s VM)

Popular

$7.59/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Separate

Limits: Basic support only, burstable instance

Data egress fees, storage extra, support plans extra, Windows license included or BYOL

Pay-As-You-Go (B2s VM)

$30.37/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Separate

Limits: Burstable performance, shared infrastructure

All infrastructure billed separately, networking costs add up

Professional Direct Support

$1000/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: N/A

Limits: Standard Support ($100/mo) has slower response, Developer ($29/mo) limited

Minimum $1,000/mo, higher tiers for faster response, enterprise pricing varies

Feature Comparison

Feature	AWS	Azure
Infrastructure
Compute (EC2) Industry-leading
Virtual Machines
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Kubernetes (EKS)
33 Global Regions
60+ Global Regions Most of any provider
Azure Arc (Hybrid Cloud) Best hybrid solution
Storage
Object Storage (S3) 11 9s durability
Azure Blob Storage
Databases
Managed Databases (RDS) Multiple engines
Azure SQL Database
Compute
Serverless (Lambda)
Azure Functions
AI
Azure OpenAI Service Latency issues reported
AI/ML Services (Bedrock)
Security
90+ Compliance Certifications
Integrations
Microsoft 365 Integration Native integration
Support
Free Technical Support Requires paid plan
Pricing
Simple Pricing Notoriously complex
Usability
Intuitive Portal Considered confusing

Signals Comparison

Pricing

AWS

Unpredictable billing with surprise charges(9/10)
Free tier traps - Aurora, RDS, and Elastic IP charges(8/10)
Data egress fees add up quickly(8/10)
Cost optimization requires dedicated expertise(7/10)

Azure

Complex and confusing pricing structure(9/10)
Billing continues after service deletion(8/10)
Multiple separate bills don't align(7/10)

Usability

AWS

Overwhelming complexity with 260+ services(8/10)
IAM policies are complex and error-prone(8/10)
Console slow and difficult to navigate(6/10)

Azure

Portal interface confusing and hard to navigate(8/10)
Steep learning curve overwhelms newcomers(7/10)
Too many overlapping services cause confusion(6/10)

Reliability

AWS

Major October 2025 outage - 15 hours downtime(10/10)
US-East-1 single point of failure for many services(8/10)

Azure

October 2025 Front Door outage - global cascade(10/10)
Multiple major outages in 2025-2026(9/10)
Azure AI services slow and unreliable(7/10)
Authentication lockouts from portal(8/10)

Support

AWS

Enterprise Support required - $5,000+/month minimum(9/10)
Basic support is documentation-only(7/10)

Azure

Support is slow and closes cases without resolution(9/10)

Security

AWS

Unauthorized charges from compromised credentials(9/10)

Azure

No signals

Performance

AWS

No signals

Azure

Poor performance in Asia regions(7/10)

Pricing Comparison

AWS

Free Tier (12 months)

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: 5GB S3, 30GB EBS

Limits: 12-month limit, only specific instance types, basic support only (documentation)

Aurora NOT included, Elastic IPs charged when stopped, data egress fees, many services NOT free tier eligible

EC2 On-Demand (t3.micro)

Popular

$7.49/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: EBS separate

Limits: Shared tenancy, basic support unless upgraded

EBS storage extra, data egress $0.09/GB, EBS snapshots, CloudWatch logs, NAT Gateway if needed

EC2 On-Demand (t3.medium)

$30.37/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: EBS separate

Limits: Each service billed separately

All infrastructure costs extra: load balancers, databases, storage

Enterprise Support

$5000/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: N/A

Limits: Required for production SLAs, Developer/Business support discontinued Dec 2025

Minimum $5,000/mo or % of AWS spend, additional for premium services

Azure

Free Account ($200 credit)

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: As credits allow

Limits: 30-day credit expiration, free tier services have strict limits, not all services eligible

Credit expires in 30 days, some services continue billing after free tier, removal of payment method requires extensive process

Pay-As-You-Go (B1s VM)

Popular

$7.59/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Separate

Limits: Basic support only, burstable instance

Data egress fees, storage extra, support plans extra, Windows license included or BYOL

Pay-As-You-Go (B2s VM)

$30.37/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Separate

Limits: Burstable performance, shared infrastructure

All infrastructure billed separately, networking costs add up

Professional Direct Support

$1000/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: N/A

Limits: Standard Support ($100/mo) has slower response, Developer ($29/mo) limited

Minimum $1,000/mo, higher tiers for faster response, enterprise pricing varies

Feature Comparison

Feature	AWS	Azure
Infrastructure
Compute (EC2) Industry-leading
Virtual Machines
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Kubernetes (EKS)
33 Global Regions
60+ Global Regions Most of any provider
Azure Arc (Hybrid Cloud) Best hybrid solution
Storage
Object Storage (S3) 11 9s durability
Azure Blob Storage
Databases
Managed Databases (RDS) Multiple engines
Azure SQL Database
Compute
Serverless (Lambda)
Azure Functions
AI
Azure OpenAI Service Latency issues reported
AI/ML Services (Bedrock)
Security
90+ Compliance Certifications
Integrations
Microsoft 365 Integration Native integration
Support
Free Technical Support Requires paid plan
Pricing
Simple Pricing Notoriously complex
Usability
Intuitive Portal Considered confusing