software
AWS vs Azure 2026: Market Share & Enterprise Comparison
AWS leads in market share (32%) and service breadth with 200+ services, while Azure excels in enterprise integration with 98% of Fortune 500 companies using Microsoft products, giving it a native advantage for Windows-based workloads and Microsoft stack users.
AW
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Comprehensive cloud infrastructure platform with 200+ services for compute, storage, databases, and enterprise solutions.
Startups, AI/ML projects, companies seeking vendor independence, and teams needing maximum service breadth
Score63%
VS
Microsoft Azure
Enterprise cloud platform with 200+ services, advanced AI/ML, and global infrastructure for large organizations.
Enterprise organizations with Microsoft stack investments, hybrid cloud requirements, and those seeking integrated Windows/Active Directory solutions
Score71%
Quick Answer
AI SummaryAWS leads in market share (32%) and service breadth with 200+ services, while Azure excels in enterprise integration with 98% of Fortune 500 companies using Microsoft products, giving it a native advantage for Windows-based workloads and Microsoft stack users.
Our Verdict
AI-assistedChoose AWS if you need maximum service variety, prefer vendor independence, or are building greenfield cloud infrastructure with cost optimization as priority. Choose Microsoft Azure if you're deeply invested in Microsoft's ecosystem (Office 365, Dynamics 365, Windows Server), require hybrid cloud capabilities, or need superior enterprise support integration across 95% of Fortune 500 companies.
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A
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
7.6/10
Microsoft Azure
7.4/10
A
Choose Amazon Web Services (AWS) if
Best pickStartups, AI/ML projects, companies seeking vendor independence, and teams needing maximum service breadth
Choose Microsoft Azure if
Enterprise organizations with Microsoft stack investments, hybrid cloud requirements, and those seeking integrated Windows/Active Directory solutions
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Key Differences at a Glance
- Global Market Share:✓ Amazon Web Services (AWS) wins(32% vs 23%)
- Total Services Offered:200+ vs 200+
- Enterprise 500 Integration:✓ Microsoft Azure wins(~95% of Fortune 500 vs ~75% of Fortune 500)
Key Facts & Figures
106 numeric metrics compared
| Metric | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Microsoft Azure | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Storage Cost($/GB/month) | $0.023 | $0.018 | |
| Archival Storage Cost($/GB/month) | $0.004 | $0.002 | |
| Market Share 2026(%) | 32% | 23% | |
| Global Market Share (2026)(%) | 32% | 23% | |
| Total Available Services(services) | 200+ | 200+ | |
| Global Availability Zones(zones) | 33 | 60+ | |
| Pricing Model Complexity(simplicity score) | 5/10 | 6/10 | |
| ML/AI Service Innovation Rating(score) | 8/10 | 7/10 | |
| Windows/Active Directory Integration(native score) | 4/10 | 10/10 | |
| Supported Cloud Providers(count) | AWS only | — | — |
| Global Geographic Regions(regions) | 33 regions | — | — |
| Availability Zones (AWS regions)(zones) | 105+ zones | — | — |
| Available Services/Integrations(count) | 190+ native services | — | — |
| Time to Provision Standard EC2 Instance(seconds) | 30-45 (via Console/CLI) | — | — |
| Monthly Cost (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, Standard Instance)(USD) | $9.50 (t3.micro on-demand) | — | — |
| Outbound Data Transfer Cost per GB(USD) | $0.0116 | — | — |
| Global Data Center Regions(regions) | 33 regions | 60 regions | |
| Global Market Share(%) | 32% of global cloud infrastructure (2024) | 23% | |
| Service Count(services) | 200+ | — | — |
| Compute Cost (e2-medium equivalent)(USD/hour) | $0.0416 | — | — |
| Data Transfer Out Cost(USD/GB) | $0.02 | — | — |
| ML Training Setup Time(hours) | 8-12 hours (SageMaker) | — | — |
| BigQuery Query Latency(seconds) | 15-30 seconds (Athena, 1TB scan) | — | — |
| Enterprise Support Annual Cost(USD) | $15,000 | — | — |
| Kubernetes Integration Complexity(manual steps) | 18-25 steps (EKS setup) | — | — |
| Available Cloud Services/Products(count) | 200+ | — | — |
| Free Tier Duration(months) | 12 months + always-free services | — | — |
| Premium Support Response Time(minutes) | 1 hour (Business Support) | 15 minutes | |
| Monthly Cost for 10TB Egress Data Transfer(USD) | $116 (after 1GB free) | — | — |
| Minimum Setup Time(minutes) | 120 minutes | — | — |
| Global Edge Locations(number of PoPs) | 280+ CloudFront locations | 60+ regions | |
| Average Cold Start Latency(milliseconds) | 125ms (Lambda standard) | — | — |
| Setup Time to First Deploy(minutes) | 45-60 (configure VPC, IAM, EC2, security groups) | — | — |
| Built-in Database Support(count) | 8+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Neptune, DocumentDB, Keyspaces, Timestream) | — | — |
| SLA Uptime Guarantee(%) | 99.99% (us-east-1 region) | — | — |
| Concurrent Connections per Instance(requests/second) | 50,000+ (t3.large EC2) | — | — |
| Estimated Learning Time for New Developer(hours) | 80-100 hours | — | — |
| Supported Programming Languages for IaC(languages) | 3 languages (YAML, JSON, TypeScript/Python/Java via CDK) | — | — |
| Available Services/Resources(services) | 200+ AWS-specific services (largest portfolio in cloud) | — | — |
| Free Tier Cost(USD/month) | Free (1 year, then pay-as-you-go infrastructure costs) | — | — |
| AWS Regions/Availability Zones(regions) | 33+ geographic regions with 105+ availability zones | — | — |
| Certified Professionals(people) | 1M+ AWS Certified professionals | — | — |
| Minimum Monthly Cost(USD) | $0 (free tier + pay-per-use) | — | — |
| Cost for Standard Production App (2 dynos + add-ons)(USD/month) | $100-150 (EC2 Reserved + RDS) | — | — |
| Time to First Deployment(minutes) | 60-480 | — | — |
| Number of Available Services/Products(count) | 200+ | — | — |
| Maximum RAM per Instance(GB) | 24,576 | — | — |
| Lambda/Serverless Cold Start Latency(milliseconds) | 100-3000 | — | — |
| Global Regions Available(count) | 31 | — | — |
| Global Data Centers(locations) | 108 availability zones in 33 regions | 60+ regions | |
| Available Services(services) | 200+ services | 200+ services | |
| Starting Monthly Cost(USD) | $0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go | — | — |
| Setup Time (Minutes)(minutes) | 120+ minutes (full configuration) | — | — |
| Dedicated Database Services(services) | 15+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.) | — | — |
| Typical Edge Response Time(milliseconds) | ~80ms (median global) | — | — |
| Maximum DDoS Mitigation Capacity(Tbps) | ~700 Gbps (AWS Shield Advanced) | — | — |
| Global Market Share (Cloud IaaS)(%) | 32% | 23% | |
| Total Cloud Services(count) | 200+ | 200+ | |
| Fortune 500 Adoption Rate(%) | ~75% | ~95% | |
| Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)(USD) | $0.0116/hour (t3.micro) | $0.0120/hour (B1s) | |
| Reserved Instance Discount (1-year)(%) | up to 72% | up to 72% | |
| Machine Learning Service Maturity(years) | SageMaker (launched 2017) | Azure ML (launched 2014) | |
| Data Warehouse Query Speed (Typical)(seconds) | 5-15 seconds (Synapse) | 5-15 seconds (Synapse) | |
| Spark Performance (Query Speed)(x faster relative to standard Spark) | 1-2x faster (HDInsight baseline) | 1-2x faster (HDInsight baseline) | |
| Total Service Offerings(services) | 200+ services across all categories | 200+ services across all categories | |
| Compute Instance Cost (Standard)(USD per hour) | $0.40-$2.00 (VM-dependent) | $0.40-$2.00 (VM-dependent) | |
| Typical Enterprise Migration Time(months) | 6-12 months (full cloud migration) | 6-12 months (full cloud migration) | |
| SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS 100TB)(seconds) | 420 seconds | 420 seconds | |
| Spark Job Acceleration(multiplier) | 1x baseline | 1x baseline | |
| ML Frameworks Supported(count) | 40+ frameworks | 40+ frameworks | |
| Global Region Availability(regions) | 60+ native | 60+ native | |
| Enterprise Service Count(services) | 500+ | 500+ | |
| Starting Monthly Cost (10TB workload)(USD) | $2,000-$4,000 | $2,000-$4,000 | |
| DDoS Protection Capacity(Tbps) | 10 Tbps standard protection | 10 Tbps standard protection | |
| Entry-Level VM Cost (Monthly)(USD) | $21.77/month (B1s instance) | $21.77/month (B1s instance) | |
| Average DNS Query Response Time(milliseconds) | ~50-100ms (varies by region) | ~50-100ms (varies by region) | |
| Supported Programming Languages (Workers/Serverless)(languages) | Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, C# (Functions) | Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, C# (Functions) | |
| Enterprise Support Response SLA(minutes) | 60 minutes (Premium Support) | 60 minutes (Premium Support) | |
| Entry-Level VM/Droplet Cost(USD/month) | $15-20 | $15-20 | |
| Standard 2GB RAM VM Cost(USD/month) | $30-50 | $30-50 | |
| Available Services/Products(count) | 200+ | 200+ | |
| Uptime SLA(percent) | 99.95% | 99.95% | |
| Time to Deploy First VM(minutes) | 30-60 | 30-60 | |
| AI/ML Services(count) | 25+ | 25+ | |
| Free Tier Credit(USD) | $200 (30 days) | $200 (30 days) | |
| Compute Instance Cost (Monthly)(USD) | $290 | $290 | |
| AI/ML Service Portfolio(services) | 70+ services | 70+ services | |
| Global Regions(regions) | 60 regions | 60 regions | |
| Compliance Certifications(certifications) | 90+ | 90+ | |
| Global Market Share 2026(%) | 23% | 23% | |
| Available Regions(regions) | 60 regions | 60 regions | |
| AI/ML Services Available(services) | 45+ services | 45+ services | |
| Entry-Level VM Monthly Cost(USD) | $15-30 | $15-30 | |
| Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent) | 99.99% | 99.99% | |
| Database Services Offered(services) | 12+ databases | 12+ databases | |
| Basic Compute Instance Hourly Cost(USD/hour) | $0.0106/hour | $0.0106/hour | |
| Monthly Compute Instance Cost(USD/month) | $7.60/month | $7.60/month | |
| Free Trial Credit(USD) | $200 (30 days) | $200 (30 days) | |
| Available Cloud Regions(regions) | 60 regions | 60 regions | |
| Platform Services Offered(services) | 200+ services | 200+ services | |
| Maximum Virtual Machine RAM(GB) | 11,904 GB | 11,904 GB | |
| Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score) | 8/10 (steep) | 8/10 (steep) | |
| Entry-Level Pricing(USD/month) | $15/month (1-core VM) | $15/month (1-core VM) | |
| Free Trial Duration(days) | 30 days ($200 credit) | 30 days ($200 credit) | |
| Setup Time to First Deployment(minutes) | 15-20 minutes (average) | 15-20 minutes (average) | |
| AI/ML Service Coverage(percentage) | 50+ pre-built AI models, full ML platform | 50+ pre-built AI models, full ML platform |
Sourced from publicly available data ·
Key Differences
7 attributes compared head-to-head
AW
2Amazon Web Services (AWS)Microsoft Azure leads1 tie
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Attribute
Microsoft Azure
- 32%(winner)Global Market Share23%
- 200+Total Services Offered200+
- ~75% of Fortune 500Enterprise 500 Integration~95% of Fortune 500(winner)
- $0.0116/hour(winner)Starting EC2/VM Pricing (t3.micro/B1s)$0.0120/hour
- 33 regionsGlobal Data Center Regions60+ regions(winner)
- Limited (RDS for SQL Server)SQL Server Native SupportNative (Azure SQL Database)(winner)
- AWS Outposts (newer)Hybrid Cloud IntegrationAzure Stack (mature)(winner)
- Global Market Share
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
32%(winner)
Microsoft Azure
23%
- Total Services Offered
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
200+
Microsoft Azure
200+
- Enterprise 500 Integration
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
~75% of Fortune 500
Microsoft Azure
~95% of Fortune 500(winner)
- Starting EC2/VM Pricing (t3.micro/B1s)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
$0.0116/hour(winner)
Microsoft Azure
$0.0120/hour
- Global Data Center Regions
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
33 regions
Microsoft Azure
60+ regions(winner)
- SQL Server Native Support
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Limited (RDS for SQL Server)
Microsoft Azure
Native (Azure SQL Database)(winner)
- Hybrid Cloud Integration
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS Outposts (newer)
Microsoft Azure
Azure Stack (mature)(winner)
Full Comparison
| Attribute | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Microsoft Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Storage Cost($/GB/month) | $0.023 | $0.018(winner) |
| Archival Storage Cost($/GB/month) | $0.004 | $0.002(winner) |
| Pricing Model Complexity(simplicity score) | 5/10 | 6/10(winner) |
| Base Software Cost(USD) | Pay-per-use only | — |
| Terraform Cloud Team Plan Cost(USD/month per user) | N/A | — |
Show 27 more attributesMonthly Cost (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, Standard Instance)(USD) $9.50 (t3.micro on-demand) — Outbound Data Transfer Cost per GB(USD) $0.0116 — Compute Cost (e2-medium equivalent)(USD/hour) $0.0416 — Data Transfer Out Cost(USD/GB) $0.02 — Free Tier Duration(months) 12 months + always-free services — Monthly Cost for 10TB Egress Data Transfer(USD) $116 (after 1GB free) — Free Tier Cost(USD/month) Free (1 year, then pay-as-you-go infrastructure costs) — Minimum Monthly Cost(USD) $0 (free tier + pay-per-use) — Cost for Standard Production App (2 dynos + add-ons)(USD/month) $100-150 (EC2 Reserved + RDS) — Starting Monthly Cost(USD) $0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go — Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)(USD) $0.0116/hour (t3.micro) $0.0120/hour (B1s) Reserved Instance Discount (1-year)(%) up to 72% up to 72% Compute Instance Cost (Standard)(USD per hour) $0.40-$2.00 (VM-dependent) — Starting Monthly Cost (10TB workload)(USD) $2,000-$4,000 — Free Tier Monthly Requests(requests) Limited free tier; specific allocations by service — Entry-Level VM Cost (Monthly)(USD) $21.77/month (B1s instance) — Pro Plan Monthly Price(USD) Varies ($25-500+ for multi-service bundle) — Entry-Level VM/Droplet Cost(USD/month) $15-20 — Standard 2GB RAM VM Cost(USD/month) $30-50 — Compute Instance Cost (Monthly)(USD) $290 — License Mobility Cost Advantage(%) Not applicable — Entry-Level VM Monthly Cost(USD) $15-30 — Basic Compute Instance Hourly Cost(USD/hour) $0.0106/hour — Monthly Compute Instance Cost(USD/month) $7.60/month — Free Trial Credit(USD) $200 (30 days) — Entry-Level Pricing(USD/month) $15/month (1-core VM) — Free Trial Duration(days) 30 days ($200 credit) — | ||
| AI/ML Model Flexibility | Multiple models via Bedrock | Exclusive OpenAI partnership |
| Hybrid Cloud Support Maturity | AWS Outposts (limited) | Azure Stack Hub (enterprise-grade) |
| Global Availability Zones(zones) | 33 | 60+(winner) |
| Global Geographic Regions(regions) | 33 regions | — |
| Availability Zones (AWS regions)(zones) | 105+ zones | — |
| Global Edge Locations(number of PoPs) | 280+ CloudFront locations(winner) | 60+ regions |
Show 6 more attributesGlobal Regions Available(count) 31 — Global Data Centers(locations) 108 availability zones in 33 regions 60+ regions Global Region Availability(regions) 60+ native — Global Regions(regions) 60 regions — Available Regions(regions) 60 regions — Available Cloud Regions(regions) 60 regions — | ||
| Container Serverless Performance | Fargate (feature-rich) | Container Instances (mature) |
| Market Share 2026(%) | 32%(winner) | 23% |
| Global Market Share (2026)(%) | 32%(winner) | 23% |
| Global Market Share (Cloud IaaS)(%) | 32%(winner) | 23% |
| Global Market Share 2026(%) | 23% | — |
| Total Available Services(services) | 200+ | 200+ |
| ML/AI Service Innovation Rating(score) | 8/10(winner) | 7/10 |
| AI/ML Services Available(services) | 45+ services | — |
| Hybrid Cloud Support Level(capability) | Moderate (Outposts) | Excellent (Stack/Arc) |
| SQL Server Database Support(text) | RDS for SQL Server (third-party) | Azure SQL Database (native) |
| Windows/Active Directory Integration(native score) | 4/10 | 10/10(winner) |
| Microsoft Ecosystem Integration(native integrations) | Deep (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, Power BI native) | — |
| Windows Server Optimization | Native, optimized licensing | — |
| Developer Community Size(developers) | Largest | Large |
| Premium Support Response Time(minutes) | 1 hour (Business Support)(winner) | 15 minutes |
| Enterprise Support Response SLA(minutes) | 60 minutes (Premium Support) | — |
| Container/Kubernetes Strength(native integration) | Strong (ECS/EKS) | Strong (AKS) |
| BigQuery-Grade Analytics(capability) | Via Athena/Redshift | Via Synapse |
| Supported Cloud Providers(count) | AWS only | — |
| Available Services/Integrations(count) | 190+ native services | — |
| Total Cloud Services(count) | 200+ | 200+ |
| Time to Provision Standard EC2 Instance(seconds) | 30-45 (via Console/CLI) | — |
| Average Cold Start Latency(milliseconds) | 125ms (Lambda standard) | — |
| Lambda/Serverless Cold Start Latency(milliseconds) | 100-3000 | — |
| Typical Edge Response Time(milliseconds) | ~80ms (median global) | — |
| Data Warehouse Query Speed (Typical)(seconds) | 5-15 seconds (Synapse) | — |
Show 4 more attributesSpark Performance (Query Speed)(x faster relative to standard Spark) 1-2x faster (HDInsight baseline) — SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS 100TB)(seconds) 420 seconds — Spark Job Acceleration(multiplier) 1x baseline — Average DNS Query Response Time(milliseconds) ~50-100ms (varies by region) — | ||
| GitHub Integration for IaC(native support) | AWS CloudFormation requires manual GitHub setup | — |
| Built-in CI/CD Pipeline(included) | No, requires CodePipeline ($0.02/active pipeline) | — |
| Global Data Center Regions(regions) | 33 regions | 60 regions(winner) |
| Global Market Share(%) | 32% of global cloud infrastructure (2024)(winner) | 23% |
| Service Count(services) | 200+ | — |
| Number of Available Services/Products(count) | 200+ | — |
| ML Training Setup Time(hours) | 8-12 hours (SageMaker) | — |
| Kubernetes Integration Complexity(manual steps) | 18-25 steps (EKS setup) | — |
| Supported Programming Languages for IaC(languages) | 3 languages (YAML, JSON, TypeScript/Python/Java via CDK) | — |
| BigQuery Query Latency(seconds) | 15-30 seconds (Athena, 1TB scan) | — |
| Enterprise Support Annual Cost(USD) | $15,000 | — |
| Available Cloud Services/Products(count) | 200+ | — |
| AI/ML Service Availability(availability) | SageMaker, Bedrock, Forecast, Lookout, Kendra | — |
| Built-in Database Support(count) | 8+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Neptune, DocumentDB, Keyspaces, Timestream) | — |
| Available Services/Products(count) | 200+ | — |
| AI/ML Services(count) | 25+ | — |
Show 1 more attributePlatform Services Offered(services) 200+ services — | ||
| Minimum Setup Time(minutes) | 120 minutes | — |
| Setup Time to First Deploy(minutes) | 45-60 (configure VPC, IAM, EC2, security groups) | — |
| Estimated Learning Time for New Developer(hours) | 80-100 hours | — |
| Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score) | 8/10 (steep) | — |
| SLA Uptime Guarantee(%) | 99.99% (us-east-1 region) | — |
| Uptime SLA(percent) | 99.95% | — |
| Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent) | 99.99% | — |
| Concurrent Connections per Instance(requests/second) | 50,000+ (t3.large EC2) | — |
| Maximum RAM per Instance(GB) | 24,576 | — |
| GitHub Stars | N/A (not a single GitHub repo) | — |
| Multi-Cloud Support(cloud providers) | AWS only | Azure only (with hybrid via Stack) |
| Available Services/Resources(services) | 200+ AWS-specific services (largest portfolio in cloud) | — |
| AWS Regions/Availability Zones(regions) | 33+ geographic regions with 105+ availability zones | — |
| Certified Professionals(people) | 1M+ AWS Certified professionals | — |
| Time to First Deployment(minutes) | 60-480 | — |
| Supported Programming Languages (Workers/Serverless)(languages) | Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, C# (Functions) | — |
| Available Services(services) | 200+ services | 200+ services |
| AI/ML Service Portfolio(services) | 70+ services | — |
| DDoS Protection Included | No (Shield Advanced: $3,000/month) | — |
| Maximum DDoS Mitigation Capacity(Tbps) | ~700 Gbps (AWS Shield Advanced) | — |
| DDoS Protection Capacity(Tbps) | 10 Tbps standard protection | — |
| Enterprise Compliance Certifications(count) | HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC2, ISO 27001 | — |
| Setup Time (Minutes)(minutes) | 120+ minutes (full configuration) | — |
| Time to Deploy First VM(minutes) | 30-60 | — |
| Dedicated Database Services(services) | 15+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.) | — |
| Fortune 500 Adoption Rate(%) | ~75% | ~95%(winner) |
| Machine Learning Service Maturity(years) | SageMaker (launched 2017) | Azure ML (launched 2014)(winner) |
| ML Frameworks Supported(count) | 40+ frameworks | — |
| Total Service Offerings(services) | 200+ services across all categories | — |
| Enterprise Service Count(services) | 500+ | — |
| Native ML Ops Tools(tools included) | Azure ML, AutoML (separate setup) | — |
| Data Governance Features(key capabilities) | Azure Purview, Synapse governance, encryption | — |
| Typical Enterprise Migration Time(months) | 6-12 months (full cloud migration) | — |
| Data Governance Granularity(access level) | Database and table-level basic | — |
| ACID Transaction Support(boolean) | Limited (requires workarounds) | — |
| Free Tier Credit(USD) | $200 (30 days) | — |
| Compliance Certifications(certifications) | 90+ | — |
| Oracle Database Performance Optimization(%) | Third-party optimization | — |
| Microsoft Enterprise Integration | Native (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, AD) | — |
| Red Hat OpenShift Integration | Available (separate purchase) | — |
| Database Services Offered(services) | 12+ databases | — |
| Maximum Virtual Machine RAM(GB) | 11,904 GB | — |
| Setup Time to First Deployment(minutes) | 15-20 minutes (average) | — |
| AI/ML Service Coverage(percentage) | 50+ pre-built AI models, full ML platform | — |
| Monthly Billing Transparency(score) | Complex: 100+ pricing tiers, reserved instances, spot pricing | — |
AAmazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft AzureStandard Storage Cost($/GB/month)
$0.023
$0.018
Archival Storage Cost($/GB/month)
$0.004
$0.002
Pricing Model Complexity(simplicity score)
5/10
6/10
Base Software Cost(USD)
Pay-per-use only
—
Terraform Cloud Team Plan Cost(USD/month per user)
N/A
—
Show 27 more attributes
Monthly Cost (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, Standard Instance)(USD)
$9.50 (t3.micro on-demand)
—
Outbound Data Transfer Cost per GB(USD)
$0.0116
—
Compute Cost (e2-medium equivalent)(USD/hour)
$0.0416
—
Data Transfer Out Cost(USD/GB)
$0.02
—
Free Tier Duration(months)
12 months + always-free services
—
Monthly Cost for 10TB Egress Data Transfer(USD)
$116 (after 1GB free)
—
Free Tier Cost(USD/month)
Free (1 year, then pay-as-you-go infrastructure costs)
—
Minimum Monthly Cost(USD)
$0 (free tier + pay-per-use)
—
Cost for Standard Production App (2 dynos + add-ons)(USD/month)
$100-150 (EC2 Reserved + RDS)
—
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)
$0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go
—
Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)(USD)
$0.0116/hour (t3.micro)
$0.0120/hour (B1s)
Reserved Instance Discount (1-year)(%)
up to 72%
up to 72%
Compute Instance Cost (Standard)(USD per hour)
$0.40-$2.00 (VM-dependent)
—
Starting Monthly Cost (10TB workload)(USD)
$2,000-$4,000
—
Free Tier Monthly Requests(requests)
Limited free tier; specific allocations by service
—
Entry-Level VM Cost (Monthly)(USD)
$21.77/month (B1s instance)
—
Pro Plan Monthly Price(USD)
Varies ($25-500+ for multi-service bundle)
—
Entry-Level VM/Droplet Cost(USD/month)
$15-20
—
Standard 2GB RAM VM Cost(USD/month)
$30-50
—
Compute Instance Cost (Monthly)(USD)
$290
—
License Mobility Cost Advantage(%)
Not applicable
—
Entry-Level VM Monthly Cost(USD)
$15-30
—
Basic Compute Instance Hourly Cost(USD/hour)
$0.0106/hour
—
Monthly Compute Instance Cost(USD/month)
$7.60/month
—
Free Trial Credit(USD)
$200 (30 days)
—
Entry-Level Pricing(USD/month)
$15/month (1-core VM)
—
Free Trial Duration(days)
30 days ($200 credit)
—
AI/ML Model Flexibility
Multiple models via Bedrock
Exclusive OpenAI partnership
Hybrid Cloud Support Maturity
AWS Outposts (limited)
Azure Stack Hub (enterprise-grade)
Global Availability Zones(zones)
33
60+
Global Geographic Regions(regions)
33 regions
—
Availability Zones (AWS regions)(zones)
105+ zones
—
Global Edge Locations(number of PoPs)
280+ CloudFront locations
60+ regions
Show 6 more attributes
Global Regions Available(count)
31
—
Global Data Centers(locations)
108 availability zones in 33 regions
60+ regions
Global Region Availability(regions)
60+ native
—
Global Regions(regions)
60 regions
—
Available Regions(regions)
60 regions
—
Available Cloud Regions(regions)
60 regions
—
Container Serverless Performance
Fargate (feature-rich)
Container Instances (mature)
Market Share 2026(%)
32%
23%
Global Market Share (2026)(%)
32%
23%
Global Market Share (Cloud IaaS)(%)
32%
23%
Global Market Share 2026(%)
23%
—
Total Available Services(services)
200+
200+
ML/AI Service Innovation Rating(score)
8/10
7/10
AI/ML Services Available(services)
45+ services
—
Hybrid Cloud Support Level(capability)
Moderate (Outposts)
Excellent (Stack/Arc)
SQL Server Database Support(text)
RDS for SQL Server (third-party)
Azure SQL Database (native)
Windows/Active Directory Integration(native score)
4/10
10/10
Microsoft Ecosystem Integration(native integrations)
Deep (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, Power BI native)
—
Windows Server Optimization
Native, optimized licensing
—
Developer Community Size(developers)
Largest
Large
Premium Support Response Time(minutes)
1 hour (Business Support)
15 minutes
Enterprise Support Response SLA(minutes)
60 minutes (Premium Support)
—
Container/Kubernetes Strength(native integration)
Strong (ECS/EKS)
Strong (AKS)
BigQuery-Grade Analytics(capability)
Via Athena/Redshift
Via Synapse
Supported Cloud Providers(count)
AWS only
—
Available Services/Integrations(count)
190+ native services
—
Total Cloud Services(count)
200+
200+
Time to Provision Standard EC2 Instance(seconds)
30-45 (via Console/CLI)
—
Average Cold Start Latency(milliseconds)
125ms (Lambda standard)
—
Lambda/Serverless Cold Start Latency(milliseconds)
100-3000
—
Typical Edge Response Time(milliseconds)
~80ms (median global)
—
Data Warehouse Query Speed (Typical)(seconds)
5-15 seconds (Synapse)
—
Show 4 more attributes
Spark Performance (Query Speed)(x faster relative to standard Spark)
1-2x faster (HDInsight baseline)
—
SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS 100TB)(seconds)
420 seconds
—
Spark Job Acceleration(multiplier)
1x baseline
—
Average DNS Query Response Time(milliseconds)
~50-100ms (varies by region)
—
GitHub Integration for IaC(native support)
AWS CloudFormation requires manual GitHub setup
—
Built-in CI/CD Pipeline(included)
No, requires CodePipeline ($0.02/active pipeline)
—
Global Data Center Regions(regions)
33 regions
60 regions
Global Market Share(%)
32% of global cloud infrastructure (2024)
23%
Service Count(services)
200+
—
Number of Available Services/Products(count)
200+
—
ML Training Setup Time(hours)
8-12 hours (SageMaker)
—
Kubernetes Integration Complexity(manual steps)
18-25 steps (EKS setup)
—
Supported Programming Languages for IaC(languages)
3 languages (YAML, JSON, TypeScript/Python/Java via CDK)
—
BigQuery Query Latency(seconds)
15-30 seconds (Athena, 1TB scan)
—
Enterprise Support Annual Cost(USD)
$15,000
—
Available Cloud Services/Products(count)
200+
—
AI/ML Service Availability(availability)
SageMaker, Bedrock, Forecast, Lookout, Kendra
—
Built-in Database Support(count)
8+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Neptune, DocumentDB, Keyspaces, Timestream)
—
Available Services/Products(count)
200+
—
AI/ML Services(count)
25+
—
Show 1 more attribute
Platform Services Offered(services)
200+ services
—
Minimum Setup Time(minutes)
120 minutes
—
Setup Time to First Deploy(minutes)
45-60 (configure VPC, IAM, EC2, security groups)
—
Estimated Learning Time for New Developer(hours)
80-100 hours
—
Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score)
8/10 (steep)
—
SLA Uptime Guarantee(%)
99.99% (us-east-1 region)
—
Uptime SLA(percent)
99.95%
—
Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent)
99.99%
—
Concurrent Connections per Instance(requests/second)
50,000+ (t3.large EC2)
—
Maximum RAM per Instance(GB)
24,576
—
GitHub Stars
N/A (not a single GitHub repo)
—
Multi-Cloud Support(cloud providers)
AWS only
Azure only (with hybrid via Stack)
Available Services/Resources(services)
200+ AWS-specific services (largest portfolio in cloud)
—
AWS Regions/Availability Zones(regions)
33+ geographic regions with 105+ availability zones
—
Certified Professionals(people)
1M+ AWS Certified professionals
—
Time to First Deployment(minutes)
60-480
—
Supported Programming Languages (Workers/Serverless)(languages)
Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, C# (Functions)
—
Available Services(services)
200+ services
200+ services
AI/ML Service Portfolio(services)
70+ services
—
DDoS Protection Included
No (Shield Advanced: $3,000/month)
—
Maximum DDoS Mitigation Capacity(Tbps)
~700 Gbps (AWS Shield Advanced)
—
DDoS Protection Capacity(Tbps)
10 Tbps standard protection
—
Enterprise Compliance Certifications(count)
HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC2, ISO 27001
—
Setup Time (Minutes)(minutes)
120+ minutes (full configuration)
—
Time to Deploy First VM(minutes)
30-60
—
Dedicated Database Services(services)
15+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.)
—
Fortune 500 Adoption Rate(%)
~75%
~95%
Machine Learning Service Maturity(years)
SageMaker (launched 2017)
Azure ML (launched 2014)
ML Frameworks Supported(count)
40+ frameworks
—
Total Service Offerings(services)
200+ services across all categories
—
Enterprise Service Count(services)
500+
—
Native ML Ops Tools(tools included)
Azure ML, AutoML (separate setup)
—
Data Governance Features(key capabilities)
Azure Purview, Synapse governance, encryption
—
Typical Enterprise Migration Time(months)
6-12 months (full cloud migration)
—
Data Governance Granularity(access level)
Database and table-level basic
—
ACID Transaction Support(boolean)
Limited (requires workarounds)
—
Free Tier Credit(USD)
$200 (30 days)
—
Compliance Certifications(certifications)
90+
—
Oracle Database Performance Optimization(%)
Third-party optimization
—
Microsoft Enterprise Integration
Native (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, AD)
—
Red Hat OpenShift Integration
Available (separate purchase)
—
Database Services Offered(services)
12+ databases
—
Maximum Virtual Machine RAM(GB)
11,904 GB
—
Setup Time to First Deployment(minutes)
15-20 minutes (average)
—
AI/ML Service Coverage(percentage)
50+ pre-built AI models, full ML platform
—
Monthly Billing Transparency(score)
Complex: 100+ pricing tiers, reserved instances, spot pricing
—
Pros & Cons
10 pros·5 cons across both
AW
AW
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
+5-3
Pros
- Largest ecosystem with 200+ services and most third-party integrations
- Industry-leading AI/ML capabilities with SageMaker, recognized by 78% of ML practitioners
- Most competitive pricing with Reserved Instances (up to 72% savings) and free tier
- Strongest documentation and largest community with 4M+ active users
- Superior elasticity and auto-scaling for unpredictable workloads
Cons
- Steep learning curve with complex pricing across multiple tiers and regions
- Weaker native integration with Microsoft products (Office, Active Directory, SQL Server)
- Less mature hybrid cloud solution (AWS Outposts launched 2019 vs Azure Stack 2015)
Microsoft Azure
+5-2
Pros
- Native integration with Microsoft 365 and Active Directory eliminating licensing complexity
- 60+ global regions (vs AWS's 33) providing lowest latency for more geographies
- Mature hybrid cloud with Azure Stack, allowing true on-premises/cloud continuity
- Superior Windows Server and SQL Server support with license mobility
- Strong enterprise support with Azure Advisor for optimization recommendations
Cons
- Higher baseline costs for non-Microsoft workloads (Linux VMs cost ~3% more than AWS equivalents)
- Smaller AI/ML community and fewer specialized data science tools vs AWS SageMaker
Frequently Asked Questions
5 questions
AWS generally offers 3-5% lower baseline compute costs through aggressive pricing and Reserved Instances up to 72% off. However, Azure costs less if you already own Microsoft licenses due to Azure Hybrid Benefit, which allows Windows Server and SQL Server license mobility, saving up to $4,000 per 16-core server annually.
Resources & Learn More
Curated sources to dive deeper
Where to Buy
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Wikipedia
- W
Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Wikipedia (opens in new tab)
Comprehensive cloud infrastructure platform with 200+ services for compute, storage, databases, and enterprise solutions.
- W
Microsoft Azure on Wikipedia (opens in new tab)
Enterprise cloud platform with 200+ services, advanced AI/ML, and global infrastructure for large organizations.
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