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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Amazon Web Services

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing services. With over 165 services offered, AWS services can provide users with a comprehensive suite of infrastructure and computing building blocks and tools.

    $100

    per month

    Azure Virtual Machines

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/AVirtual Machines (VMs) are available on Microsoft Azure, providing what is built as a low-cost, per-second compute service, available via Windows or Linux.

    $0

    Per Hour

    Pricing
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Editions & Modules
    Free Tier
    $0
    per month
    Basic Environment
    $100 - $200
    per month
    Intermediate Environment
    $250 - $600
    per month
    Advanced Environment
    $600-$2500
    per month
    3 Year Reserved - Burstable VMs - B1S
    $0.0038
    Per Hour
    Spot - General Purpose - Av2
    $0.005
    Per Hour
    1 Year Reserved - Burstable VMs - B1S
    $0.0059
    Per Hour
    Pay as You Go - Burstable VMs - B1S
    $0.0075
    Per Hour
    Spot - Compute Optimized - Fsv2
    $0.0104
    Per Hour
    Spot - General Purpose - Dv3
    $0.0125
    Per Hour
    Spot - Memory Optimized - Ev3
    $0.016
    Per Hour
    3 Year Reserved - Compute Optimized - Fsv2
    $0.0307
    Per Hour
    3 Year Reserved - General Purpose - Dv3
    $0.0369
    Per Hour
    3 Year Reserved - Memory Optimized - Ev3
    $0.0481
    Per Hour
    1 Year Reserved - Compute Optimized - Fsv2
    $0.05
    Per Hour
    1 Year Reserved - General Purpose - Dv3
    $0.0548
    Per Hour
    1 Year Reserved - Memory Optimized - Ev3
    $0.0753
    Per Hour
    Pay as You Go - Compute Optimized - Fsv2
    $0.0846
    Per Hour
    Pay as You Go - General Purpose - Dv3
    $0.096
    Per Hour
    Pay as You Go - Memory Optimized - Ev3
    $0.126
    Per Hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsAWS allows a “save when you commit” option that offers lower prices when you sign up for a 1- or 3- year term that includes an AWS service or category of services.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Considered Both Products
    Amazon AWS
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    Chose Azure Virtual Machines
    Amazon EC2 provides a cost-friendly server hosting platform but the underlying infrastructure of Azure Virtual Machines is way more speedy and responsive than AWS. We have a 40:60 ratio of our servers deployed on Azure and Amazon and I can tell you how responsive and …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    48 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    25 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    50 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    25 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    38 Answers
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    40 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    25 Answers
    Features
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Amazon Web Services and Azure Virtual Machines
    Feature
    Amazon Web Services
    8.6
    79 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Azure Virtual Machines
    -
    Ratings
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime9.273 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling8.974 Ratings00 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing9.470 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates7.567 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring tools8.774 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images8.367 Ratings00 Ratings
    Operating system support8.273 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security controls8.875 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automation8.126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Amazon Web Services and Azure Virtual Machines
    Feature
    Amazon Web Services
    -
    Ratings
    Azure Virtual Machines
    7.6
    25 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings9.025 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings4.523 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings6.521 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Small Businesses
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (91 ratings)
    9.4
    (25 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (10 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.8
    (22 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.2
    (24 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Amazon Web ServicesAzure Virtual Machines
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Amazon AWS
    This is something that is actually common across most cloud providers. A comprehensive understanding of one's use cases, constraints and future directions is key to determining if you even need a cloud solution. If you are a 2-person startup developing something with a best-scenario audience of 1k DAU in a year, you would very likely best served by a dirt-cheap dedicated Linux server somewhere (and your options to graduate to a cloud solution will still be open). If, however, you are a bigger fish, and/or you are actively considering build-vs-buy decisions for complicated, highly-loaded, six-figure requests per minute systems, global loadbalancing, extreme growth projections - then MAYBE you solve all or part of it with a cloud provider. And depending on your taste for risk, reliability, flexibility, track record - it might be AWS.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    If you want to host a dedicated Windows server on the cloud, and especially if you want to integrate it with your on premises Active Directory, Azure Virtual Machines should be your first choice. Obviously running Linux on Azure works very well too, but given Azure's pricing is not the cheapest, there are other providers out there that have a better cost-benefit ratio for Linux. That said, hosting Windows on Azure can be affordable (especially when compared to other providers) if you plan your licensing, topology, and application architecture correctly.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Amazon AWS
    • During the month-end, we experience high resource utilization; however, with AWS's scalability, we can effectively tackle the peak load.
    • With AWS IAM, we don't need to set up complete infrastructure for identity and access management, as AWS provides end-to-end IAM services.
    • With AWS, development has become very easy as it's very quick to spin up and destroy the environment, which saves costs.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • When demand is high, we scale the service out, eg During a Football Match.
    • When a football match is over and the throughput of data from OPTA drops we save by the service scaling back in.
    • Our App Service Plans along with the Clean C# code are lightening fast giving a good customer experience.
    • When producing the TV Guide information and a program overruns its scheduled time, a client can instantly be updated to the new programming schedule as our change is instant and its in the right place for all the clients to download and adjust their television guides appropriately to send out to the public giving a 24x7 uptime service that is precise and accurate and resilient to outages due to failover zones around the world.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Amazon AWS
    • When there is any misconfiguration of EC2 related to SSM Connect. It doesn't clearly states that what particular configuration is missing.
    • Debugging networking related issues could be improved.
    • From the security group page, it's difficult to determine which resource a security group is associated with.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Pricing can be a concern if you are truly agnostic to which cloud you are building your particular solution in.
    • The UI, as is the case with any cloud provider, is crowded.
    • As with any cloud provider, it can be difficult to tune in exactly the right amount of servers for your needs...you might find yourself under/overprovisioning.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Amazon AWS
    We are almost entirely satisfied with the service. In order to move off it, we'd have to build for ourselves many of the services that AWS provides and the cost would be prohibitive. Although there are cost savings and security benefits to returning to the colo facility, we could never afford to do it, and we'd hate to give up the innovation and constant cycle of new features that AWS gives us.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    definitely it will be renewed. considering the ROI and uptime.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Amazon AWS
    AWS offers a wide range of powerful services that cater to various business needs which is significant strength. The ability to scale resources on-demand is a major advantage making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. The sheer volume of options and configurations can be overwhelming for new users leading to a steep learning curve. While functional the AWS management console can feel cluttered and less intuitive compared to some competitors which can hinder navigation. Although some documentation lacks clarity and practical examples which can frustrate users trying to implement specific solutions.
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    Microsoft
    No VM console, weak management interface, changing CPU/memory is not straightforward. On the positive side, basic RDP functionality is good to have. As long as things are working, the ability to host Windows VMs is appreciated.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Amazon AWS
    Availability is very good, with the exception of occasional spectacular outages.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Amazon AWS
    AWS does not provide the raw performance that you can get by building your own custom infrastructure. However, it is often the case that the benefits of specialized, high-performance hardware do not necessarily outweigh the significant extra cost and risk. Performance as perceived by the user is very different from raw throughput.
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Amazon AWS
    The customer support of Amazon Web Services are quick in their responses. I appreciate its entire team, which works amazingly, and provides professional support. AWS is a great tool, indeed, to provide customers a suitable way to
    immediately search for their compatible software's and also to guide them in a
    good direction. Moreover, this product is a good suggestion for every type of
    company because of its affordability and ease of use.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    I give the overall support for Azure Virtual Machines a 7 because I think while the overall support do a great job there are still areas that it could improve on such as efficiency and speed. So while I only give it a 7 and it has some issues it is still better than the overall support at Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Amazon AWS
    The API's were very well documented and was Janova's main point of entry into the services.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Amazon AWS
    Amazon Web Services fits best for all levels of organisations like startup, mid level or enterprise. The services are easy to use and doesn't require a high level of understanding as you can learn via blogs or youtube videos. AWS is Reasonable in cost as the plan is pay as you use.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Azure Virtual Machines offer unparalleled flexibility in provisioning, managing and upgrading the VM instances, both manually and programmatically. AVM offer very granular billing options and enables high costs optimisations (while still being costly). The other competitors I mentioned are very good at offering dead-cheap VMs. But if you need anything beyond that, especially for big computing, you need Azure Virtual Machines.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Amazon AWS
    • Using Amazon Web Services has allowed us to develop and deploy new SAAS solutions quicker than we did when we used traditional web hosting. This has allowed us to grow our service offerings to clients and also add more value to our existing services.
    • Having AWS deployed has also allowed our development team to focus on delivering high-quality software without worrying about whether our servers will be able to handle the demand. Since AWS allows you to adjust your server needs based on demand, we can easily assign a faster server instance to ease and improve service without the client even knowing what we did.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • It's so easy to spin up new instances, that it becomes also to easy to have to many of them to manage. Many teams end up with a couple of hundreds of VMs after a short while, making the whole thing very hard to maneuver
    • Azure VMs are the next step for us to rely on Onprem servers, and leaving the management of the infrastructure to the professionals
    • The ease of use, is also important when our main focus is to deliver new applications and integrations fast, and not having to worry about infrastructure. We sell bottles, not CPUs
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots