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Infographic: Architecting Web Apps on Azure

Choosing Your Cloud

A visual guide to architecting and deploying web applications on Microsoft Azure, simplifying the choice between control, convenience, and cost.

The Spectrum of Control

Your first decision is a trade-off. More control means more responsibility. More management by Azure means more focus on your code.

IaaS

(Infrastructure-as-a-Service)

You manage the OS, middleware, and runtime. Highest control, highest responsibility.

→

PaaS

(Platform-as-a-Service)

Azure manages the OS and runtime. You deploy and manage your application code.

→

Serverless

(Function-as-a-Service)

Azure manages everything. You provide code that runs on demand. Highest abstraction.

Meet the Services

⚙️

App Service

The premier PaaS solution for most web apps and APIs.

Supported Languages

⚡

Static Web Apps

Purpose-built for modern JAMstack and single-page apps.

100%

Automated CI/CD

🖥️

Virtual Machines

Ultimate IaaS control for legacy apps or custom stacks.

Full

OS-Level Control

📦

Container Apps

Serverless platform for microservices and containers.

Scale-to-Zero Capable

Services Head-to-Head

Each service excels in different areas. This comparison highlights their strengths across key decision criteria, from the level of management required to their scalability model.

A higher score indicates a greater degree of the given attribute (e.g., higher "Control" means more user management).

Scenario-Based Recommendations

Corporate Website or Blog?

Choose Static Web Apps. Get superior performance, a simple Git-based workflow, and a highly cost-effective (often free) model with automated security.

Enterprise LOB App?

Choose App Service. It's a trusted, robust platform with deep VNet integration, enterprise language support, and advanced security features.

Migrating a Legacy App?

Choose Virtual Machines. When you need to replicate an exact on-premises environment with full OS control, VMs provide the necessary "lift-and-shift" capability.

Microservices or E-commerce?

Choose Container Apps. It's purpose-built for modern, decoupled architectures, offering event-driven scaling and simplified microservice patterns that optimize cost and performance.

Cost at a Glance

Your billing model is key to cost optimization. Provisioned capacity is best for predictable traffic, while consumption models excel with bursty workloads by scaling to zero.

CI/CD Experience

⚡

By-Default (Static Web Apps)

Fully automated, Git-native workflow. Zero configuration required.
⚙️

Assisted (App Service)

A wizard generates a customizable starter workflow for you.
📦

Configurable (Container Apps)

You configure a pipeline to build and push a container image.
🖥️

Manual (Virtual Machines)

Requires full manual setup of build/release pipelines and agents.