What is the difference between Azure Web Site and Azure Cloud service

6
votes

We are looking to host a website (some css,js, one html file but not aspx, one generic handler).

We deployed in as:

1) Azure Web Site

2) Azure Cloud Service

Both solutions work. There is a question though: which way of hosting it is better and why? Second thing: as there might be a lot of traffic - which solution would be cheaper?

Thanks in advance, Krzysztofuncjusz

2
azureazure-web-app-service
Duplicate: stackoverflow.com/questions/10941488/… – levelnis
Can you explain what you mean by "one generic handler". Is this an HttpHandler? – Mike Goodwin

2 Answers

6
votes

You may want to review this article that explains the primary differences. Web Sites are best for running web applications that are relatively isolated (that do not require elevated security, remote desktop, network isolation...). Cloud services are more advanced because they give you more control over web sites while still remaining flexible. And VMs are for full control over applications that need to be installed and configured (like running SQL Server for example).

2
votes

I think that main difference in abilities to modify VM and possibility to configure scalability. Web sites is something like classic hosting, without ability to login by rdp. Cloud Services allows you to configure VM and if necessary setup scalability and availability.