What is the difference between "Azure Web app" and "Azure App Service"?

7
votes

I'm quite new to Azure, trying to learn how to explore what are the possibilities of publishing a website on azure, to be a bit more at ease to do the the AZ-204.

On the azure dashboard, I can create "Azure web apps", "Azure app service"(not mentionning CI/CD and serverless). enter image description here

What are the difference between the two? I initially taught the azure web app was code driven(connected to git) and "App Service" one was docker-based.

But for both option, when you move to next step, you can choose if you publish the code or the docker container:

enter image description here

Can some body explain what is the difference between the two? And/or the most important advantage of one over the other?

I've searched for a while, but it's not the same product name everytime and I'm really sure it's still the same product.

2
azureazure-web-app-serviceazure-webapps
Technically, Web App Service is a part of App Service. (Just look at the URLs / navigation path.) Moreover, when you create a web app it will basically create an "app service plan". – brc-dd
@brc-dd Okay thanks, but why does it asks me to create one or the other? I guess there should be some usecases where one is doing more than the other? – J4N
Where are you getting an option to create an "app service"? There is no such thing on the marketplace. When you search app service on the portal it will lead you to already created app services, which are the ones created when you create a Web App or Static Web App and their variations (like Bot, with Database - SQL/PostgreSQL, and for containers). Please comment the create link of App Service if you are seeing it. Create link is like this: https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.WebSite. – brc-dd
I saw your comment on an answer, the preference is yours whether you want to create a container or directly deploy using code. There are certain benefits of using container which you can easily find on the internet. Moreover, with regard to my previous comment, when you try deploying an ASP.NET application from VS itself, it will show you an option to create an App Service, but what it is creating is basically a Web App only. Although I can't find one in the portal itself. – brc-dd
TL;DR - Use Web App (Microsoft.WebSite) if you have created an ASP.NET Core Web Application. Use API App (Microsoft.ApiApp) if you have created an ASP.NET Core Web API. Both will create an App Service Plan for you. Deploy using code if you have nothing environment specific in your code and don't want to write Docker configs, else deploy using container if you are comfortable in doing the latter. – brc-dd

2 Answers

3
votes

There is no difference. To quote the documentation:

The only difference between the three app types (API, web, mobile) is the name and icon used for them in the Azure portal.

Behind the scene it is already using app service all the time. If you consider WebApp and WebApp for containers is a part of Appservice, you don't actually pay for webApps, but you pay for the Appservice plan!

0
votes

Azure runs App Services on a fully managed set of virtual machines in either a dedicated or shared mode, based on your App Service Plan. ... Web App – used for hosting websites and web applications (previously Azure Websites) API App – used for hosting the RESTful APIs.