Difference between Azure Virtual Machines and Azure App Services

Azure Virtual Machines are essentially infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings that allow you to create and manage virtual machines in the cloud. This gives you full control over the operating system, applications, and configurations of the virtual machine.

Azure App Services, on the other hand, are platform as a service (PaaS) offerings that provide a fully managed platform for hosting web applications, mobile backends, and RESTful APIs. With Azure App Services, you can focus on developing your applications without worrying about managing the underlying infrastructure.

When to choose Azure Virtual Machines:

• When you need full control over the operating system and applications.
• When you have existing applications that require specific configurations not supported by Azure App Services.
• When you need to run legacy applications or software that cannot run on a PaaS environment.

When to choose Azure App Services:

• When you want to focus on developing your applications without managing the underlying infrastructure.
• When you need scalability and easy deployment options for your web applications or APIs.
• When you do not want to deal with tasks like patching, monitoring, and scaling of the infrastructure.

Ultimately, the choice between Azure Virtual Machines and Azure App Services depends on your specific requirements and the level of control you need over your cloud hosting environment.