Microsoft Azure Pricing
Nicolas Chabrier
Cloud Strategy B2B leader at Sunrise UPC
I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
It's not about licensing but subscription. For an SME, spending roughly 5,000 euros per month becomes interesting, indicating a significant infrastructure setup in the cloud.
For those just starting their cloud journey or using only Office 365 and similar services, it's much cheaper, about 1,000 to 2,000 euros per month.
Customers pay Microsoft to get the environment up and running, but they may also need to pay external providers or suppliers for managed services. This is where we see an opportunity to provide an integrated offer that includes both the Microsoft suite and management on top.
It's crucial, especially for companies that may not know how to fully leverage the product, to have this guidance and support.
This is where Microsoft partners come in, adding value on top of Microsoft's offerings.
For an SME, depending on their IT infrastructure, having managed services is important, as they may not have a large IT department. The cost of managing the environment might be similar to the expense for Microsoft services, potentially around 5,000 euros a month to manage the environment.
Arunprasad Kumar
Cloud Architect at EZ-Link Pte Ltd
It's a mixed bag. Some services are okay, while others are expensive. Different features within the same service, like Defender, have separate charges. This, combined with the skill shortage in FinOps strategy and management, makes it difficult to control costs.
Cloud-native development makes it hard to predict future load capacity, so some services need the flexibility to scale up later, while others require full configuration during initial deployment.
Overall, I would rate the pricing on a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive.
View full review »
Elena Tejadillos
IT Officer in Data Science at United Nations
Microsoft provides more affordable pricing than Amazon. We have a good discount for our entities. It is not an expensive product and is adaptable to various requirements. It offers a free tier for small-scale usage and the ability to scale up as needed when requirements grow.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
April 2024
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Manoj Kambli
Principal Consultant at Hexaware Technologies Limited
I rate the pricing an eight or nine out of ten. If a customer has Microsoft Stack, they choose Microsoft's products.
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KopanoRamaphoi
Consultant at Rpc Data
The solution offers a freemium model. There are some things that they can give for free, however, if you exceed certain levels in terms of what you were initially given, then they have to charge you for that. That's why, usually when you create the account, they want you to use your credit card so that when you exceed your limit, they will be able to charge you for that.
When you want to do the license, there is a certain amount that you need to pay. The pricing varies according to usage and differs in terms of the services and the models that you need. For those who need a platform as a service for developers, or infrastructure as a service, or software as a service, they provide for those scenarios. However, the pricing will depend on the service that you want.
Paul_Anderson
Group Data Architect at Arrow Global Ltd
I rate the pricing a five or six out of ten.
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AtulChaurasia
Operational Technical Security at Metro Bank
I pay for a yearly subscription. Compared to other service providers, the product’s pricing is normal.
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Mohit Vohra
CTO at Arevpay
Microsoft Azure's pricing is reasonable. We pay around 5000 dollars per annum.
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Prateek Agarwal
Manager at Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam
The pricing and licensing are quite good. We had no issues with them because they were clear about the pricing, subscription, the number of users, and how much the charges would be per month.
Pricing depends on the services you are using from Microsoft Azure. Also, some services are only deployed in the U.S. region, while others are available in the Asia-Pacific region.
VM
Vineeth Marar
Cloud solution architect at 0
Azure licensing costs. We always compare licensing to the ROI. Azure costing can be multi-layered. Increased capacity depends on your requirements and any contracts you have. On top of that, there's a separate cost for the licenses of the applications and operating systems you install in that capacity.
So, as long as you're using the existing capacity, you won't be charged extra for that. However, if you increase capacity, you'll only be charged for the services you use on that additional capacity, not for the capacity itself.
This depends on specific guarantees made in contracts that can last from two to eight years. These guarantees ensure investment has a return on investment. So, in that case, you wouldn't be charged for the additional capacity, just the services used on it.
Capacity increases based on customer requests are very rare, typically only for extremely high-volume scenarios. For example, millions of requests per second would require a service capacity increase beyond standard rates. Otherwise, we usually have enough capacity in different data centers across various regions.
Generally, most services and their licensing – it's that straightforward.
View full review »
Felicia Bently
Business Analyst at AA New Zealand
The setup procedure was simple and the cost is relatively friendly.
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Victor Akidiva
CEO at Semper Systemis Ltd
We have a licensing option from our partner in which the solution is bundled up with a whole host of other services. There are no additional costs associated with the product.
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Assistantmgr67
Assistance Manager, ICT Communication at ELNG
The solution's licensing costs are yearly.
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HarunRashid
Principle BI Architect at Allshore Staffing
Azure's pricing is generally considered reasonable and cost-effective compared to AWS, although AWS prices can be higher in some cases.
Anand-Shah
Software Architect at Iskraemeco
The product is expensive, particularly with services such as Microsoft SQL Server incurring significant costs. It could be more competitive in terms of pricing.
View full review »VM
Vivek Mehta
Senior Manager Presales at NEC
I rate the product price a seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price.
The pricing of the licenses attached to the solution depends on the requirements of the users.
DM
Dawn McClure
IT Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Licensing costs for Enterprise are on an annual basis. In addition, we pay to have Gartner help us negotiate.
View full review »JN
Jenny Ng
Client Relationship Manager at Infomag
I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap.
Amey Darekar
Personal Banker at HDFC Bank
Microsoft Azure is a cost-effective solution where you use it as per your requirement and pay for it.
View full review »GV
Gery Vasquez
New Digital Applications Specialist at Alpina Sa
I'm currently comparing it with AWS, and we don't have full knowledge of all the features and their inclusion in the price. AWS seems to have a slight advantage in terms of price. So, Microsoft Azure is slightly expensive.
View full review »MP
Marcelo Pissinati
IT Cybersecurity and Compliance Coordinator at Plaenge
The pricing is reasonable.
View full review »SS
Sachin Sonawane
Techno Functional Project Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Azure is more expensive than other solutions, such as GCP. We have found that GCP offers more utilities at a very reasonable price. I think the reason we are having a discount is because of the bank contract we have.
View full review »BT
reviewer1549332
Head of Department at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is flexible. Our company engaged in negotiations to get a better price, which resulted in a two-year contract.
It seems that the cost of using the service in the short term is definitely good. However, in the long-term it is different. The long-term cost is higher than if you set up the servers on-premises, which is something that could be improved through more competitive pricing.
RS
RakshathShetty
Team Lead, Enterprise Computing Platforms at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The cost could definitely be lower.
View full review »
Peter Ojo
IT infrastructure engineer at LBAN
The pricing is relatively high.
Deborah Gamelin
Vice President at Asset Track for Cloud, LLC
The price of this solution is one of the things that attracted us to it.
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Shylaraj AK
Senior Architect at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
The pricing model can be improved because we find that Azure pricing is a bit high.
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Praveen Kumar Deverakonda
Senior Administrator at Wipro Limited
The pricing is cheap.
View full review »SG
Sergio Garcia
Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The price of Azure is competitive with other cloud providers.
View full review »VC
reviewer1666392
Senior Vice President Information Technology at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The pricing of Microsoft Azure is not very flexible.
View full review »IP
Igor Pigariev
Cyber Security Consultant at Ukroboronprom
We're on a three-year standard license. We do have to pay for licensing.
View full review »AK
AmitKumar11
Sr.Consultant at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
It is operational expenditure (OPEX). There is no cost upfront. When you start using it, you have to pay the charges. Initially, the cost is less, but after you start using it more and more, the cost will go higher. It is a little bit costly, but that is okay because you get better resources. You also get better support in terms of how you create the resources. Documentation is available, and the SLAs are met.
View full review »
Wade Timmings
Commercial Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price, and ten is low price.
EL
reviewer2348199
IT Administrator at a security firm with 51-200 employees
The tool is cheap.
View full review »
Marco Cenzato
Product Architect at Wolters Kluwer
The cost of Microsoft Azure depends on the services that are used and there can be a discount at a corporate level from Microsoft.
View full review »OJ
OmarJimenez
Future Datacenter Consultant: Microsoft Azure Cloud. at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
You do need to pay for technical support and there are different tiers of support you can get. The higher the tier, it seems, the better the service you can expect.
View full review »MT
reviewer1242897
Principal Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The pricing of Azure depends on the build of what you prepare. You can optimize everything, and with Azure, you can optimize your utility and costs. For example, say you create a subscription and you want to do more backups and you want a private cloud for that. This will affect your cost differently than if you do not add the backups with Azure or if you add the services with a public or hybrid cloud.
We have very good, large contracts with big organizations. We do very high-level analytics and modeling to predict outcomes. For example, we may show that a certain solution that we implement with Azure will be likely to reduce a company's cost from the current level to 50% over the next five years. That, to me, is important when considering the cost of a subscription. It is not just the cost perspective that is important, but the ROI as well.
View full review »
Vishal Khare
IT manager at Electrolux Home Products
Azure could be cheaper. Of course, if you ask anyone, they'll always say it could be cheaper. We are paying monthly.
View full review »AG
reviewer1521363
Digital Strategy Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
I believe that we have a three-year license, and I'm happy with the pricing.
View full review »
it_user105252
CTO at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
Our monthly dev costs for infrastucture are running $300-$500 for the initial work and we expect to have full OpEx costs of $1,000-$3,000/mo once we are launched.
View full review »
TR
Thillai Raja
Managing director at antarymain solutions
I pay a yearly subscription fee for the solution. The pricing is normal compared to other service providers. I can increase or decrease my subscription based on my organization's needs.
View full review »GS
reviewer1078404
Strategic Sourcing Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Currently, we do not have anything reserved. There are no reservations that we have built into the Azure environment, so all of our licensing is on a consumption basis. As things spin up, those licenses spin up.
In terms of the additional costs incurred beyond the standard licensing fee, such as for operations, it's kind of tough for me to judge because I already had a fully-staffed operations team in a fully on-premise platform environment. So, we didn't spin up anybody extra for that. It just changed what they were doing.
View full review »AB
AdrianBuenaventura
IT Technical Manager
We have difficulty in getting the costing approved. We pay for a virtual machine and the resources currently implemented there, then we need a license from Microsoft Windows OS and the database itself. In our latest license purchase, the manager approved a monthly fee of around $2,000 for the resources we use. If you're going to the cloud, that's currently included in the cost and will be less if you have the software assurance from Microsoft; on-prem is more expensive.
View full review »PM
reviewer1430709
Works at a real estate/law firm with 10,001+ employees
The solution has the potential to be expensive if you as a company are not careful as to how you use it.
View full review »SK
Senthil Kumaran
IT Engineer at United Nations
The solution does not offer very many free services which can become expensive. We are on an annual license.
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Darren Brodrick
Managing Owner at Transform8tion Limited
I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All cloud services are expensive.
View full review »MD
reviewer1013517
Technical manager at a non-profit with 201-500 employees
We spend around $10,000 per month on licensing and that's just for Azure. In addition, there is a per user charge for using Office 365.
JL
Jose Antonio Lopez Mesa
Senior data Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Azure's pricing could be more competitive. Some clients mentioned that they are considering switching to AWS because of the price. And AWS can provide you with the instant capacity called SpotLink.
LF
Laurent Fichet
CTO at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Customers pay for our software and use our solution as a service through monthly payments. They don't pay the licensing fee directly to Microsoft.
We provide a solution as a service to our customers. They pay us for our services, which are based on Microsoft.
View full review »Amey Darekar
Personal Banker at HDFC Bank
As of now, there are no monthly or yearly subscription fees.
View full review »FA
reviewer1417791
Senior Regional IT Infrastructure Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft always provides the entry-level solution with a cheap license. Once you start to like the product, then you have to pay for the full package, which is more expensive than the entry-level solution. Every feature comes with a license and a cost. Some licenses have multiple features, and some features require a specific license.
View full review »RV
Rasa VilkaitienÄ—
Quality Assurance Engineer at OAD
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.
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Fed Yunis Zapata
IT Solutions Architect at Canvia
All services in the cloud are easy to set up, the services are ready to use from the outset. For example, it would take me 5 minutes to deploy one virtual machine in Azure, or a Sharepoint cluster may take me 4 hours. The cloud deployments are normally automatic once you start.
Regarding licensing, always look to optimize costs with the use of Azure Advisor.
View full review »SP
reviewer1027320
Market Tech Partner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The licensing is pay per usage, so it can be both monthly and yearly. It supports all.
There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees. There are various licensing programs, so the customer may choose the one which aligns with his needs.
SK
SunilKumar12
Sr Engineer IT at Hical Technologies Pvt Ltd
We'd prefer lower pricing. Microsoft can be costly. Due to COVID, many small companies can't handle the costs that Microsoft is charging. They need to be more flexible. If customers were going through cloud solutions, they should get more of a discount.
View full review »JD
reviewer1605231
Team Manager - Public Cloud & Operations at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Licensing is on a monthly basis. It is paid on a per-use basis.
I am quite happy with the pricing. You pay for what you get.
View full review »NK
Nouman Khan
Senior Solutions Specialist (Network & Security) at Ooredoo Qatar
We have a subscription and the price is reasonable.
View full review »OD
Oluseye Doherty
Head Of Information Technology at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
We're paying in dollars, and it's very expensive for us because of the exchange rates. We have all kinds of agreements with the partner, and we'll be paying quarterly. But it depends on how you want to pay. It depends on the option that's flexible for you.
View full review »NB
Nelson Boavida
IT Unit Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It is competitive with other public cloud providers, and its price is very close to different cloud providers. There is not a noticeable difference between different cloud providers. Otherwise, it would be a risk for them to have services that were much more expensive than their competition. They're pretty much neck to neck on pricing.
View full review »it_user265281
Network Manager / Senior Network Engineer at Warnock, Tanner & Associates
We are MS partners. Depending on your partnership you may or may not get Visual Studio Enterprises licenses. Each license allows you to get a $150 Azure credit per month.
This has been great for our developers and I to put in to practice some Azure solutions.
There are many other free credits available as well. Do some searching.
If you need to purchase Azure they do have a pricing calculator that may help you determine costs. https://azure.microsoft.com/en...
Joao Alves
Risk Manager at Novo Banco
The license is on a monthly basis.
RL
reviewer1540920
Enterprise Architect at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's a metered environment, and it's pay-as-you-go. That's the big challenge with a metered environment. The challenge is optimizing how you use that to reduce your meter costs. It's like your children have to be good at not leaving the lights on in their bedroom to save on the power bill. That's a cultural change.
You have to change your consumption patterns, and that's hard to do. You can get a very big bill because your consumption patterns aren't very good. We're no different than any other organization that's gone to a public cloud. You get these surprise bills, and then you've got to figure out how to manage them down appropriately.
For us, the additional cost is connectivity to the Azure data center. They said that we had to set up an Equinix data center to get from our location here in Regina, Saskatchewan, to Toronto down East. Those are some big new communication charges that we didn't have before.
That adds a significant cost to that. Private internet connectivity to a cloud is a big expense. That can be a very big cost, especially for remote businesses that are co-located to cloud data centers.
View full review »MS
Michelle Sollicito
Software Architect at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Pricing is the worst aspect of both AWS and Azure. It is very difficult to predict costs in my experience. There is often a base price (for running a VM for example), but then you have to pay for data storage costs plus data transmission costs, etc. I would prefer to have a predictable monthly cost for unlimited storage within a bandwidth for example, but there isn't an easy way to predict costs.
View full review »DD
reviewer2349756
Senior DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Microsoft Azure is expensive.
View full review »EV
Erik Våge
It at Forvent
I rate the tool's pricing a six out of ten.
View full review »RR
reviewer1786524
Owner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Microsoft Azure is not expensive. You pay for what you use. If you are using it everything could be expensive.
View full review »
Sundaresan Subramanyan
Founder and Managing Director at Analytic Brains Technologies Private Limited
Azure uses enterprise licenses, and I believe they are on a yearly basis. One piece of feedback from other users I have heard from is that Azure is somewhat expensive, so I would advise anyone thinking about this solution to be aware of the cost. You need to take into account the configuration you are going with or it could turn out to be a more expensive solution than you anticipated. Sometimes, I feel that it may not be very straightforward for a consumer to estimate the cost. It's important to be clear in terms of your budget and what you're actually purchasing.
KC
Karthikeyan Chinnadurai
Solutions Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Reducing the price would be of benefit to our customers.
View full review »JO
John ONeill
Principle consultant at Active Data Consulting Services Pty Ltd
Understand and use the pricing calculator!
Learn PowerShell, a quick tip is that you can shut down and de-allocate your VM's when you are not using them, this way the VM's are not incurring charges. We absolutely love this feature, as it means that when the environment is not in use, it isn't costing much (if anything), so it lends itself to making the I.T environment more efficient.
View full review »it_user394479
Chief Executive Officer at HubStor
Be careful with Azure Cool storage accounts; if you are dealing with high object counts, then it can be more economical to use Hot storage because of the high storage access costs associated with Cool.
View full review »CL
reviewer1729404
Owner at a media company with 1-10 employees
With every cloud solution, you have to know what you need and the cost can be fine. The price can be a little bit high depending on how you manage your costs, but overall it's still a bit cheaper than an on-premise solution but with the advantage of flexibility. You're always up to date with the software, you only need to use it. You no longer have to be concerned with the on-premise physical security. We do not need to create a data center, it's more convenient for us.
View full review »
Amarjit Rathee
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
The licensing is always confusing with Microsoft. It's very hard to understand.
View full review »MM
reviewer1672716
Chef manager at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We are on a monthly subscription for Microsoft Azure and the cost is more expensive than some of the competitors, such as Amazon AWS. They should be more competitive with other solutions.
View full review »AP
Ashen Perera
Sr. Systems Engineer / Tech Logic Consultant. at a non-tech company with self employed
It's a pay-as-you-go subscription.
View full review »GR
reviewer1573923
Senior Engineer- Hardware at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Pay as you go pricing always helps, but you need to be very careful while considering the services. You would need to consider how it all works and how you will be charged. With adequate knowledge, I think you can come up with a good model where the pricing won't be a constraint.
View full review »KG
reviewer1488372
Associate Manager at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
The solution does require a license.
View full review »SA
Sarwar Alam
Executive Officer at UK export finance
It is not cheap. Its price could be a little bit less.
View full review »EP
Edgar Parra
Senior Technical Consultant at The Instillery
Use Azure price calculator before embarking on an Azure deployment. This will help you understand straight away what your cost expectations are on a regular basis. You can always run Azure on a 30 day trial, see how you feel about it, then make the decision to switch to the full Azure usage.
Minos Pitsillides
IT Director at IT-Flow ltd
Microsoft Azure overall is an expensive solution.
In general, if you compare Amazon AWS with the price of Microsoft Azure host cloud service, Microsoft Azure is more expensive than Amazon AWS. I didn't see any hidden costs.
View full review »JE
reviewer1214379
Director at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
The pricing is great, as we only pay for what we use.
That said, the prices are about to increase in the next month.
We do have some clients in South Africa and some clients in Germany, however, we've noticed that the pricing for Germany is less expensive than South Africa. South Africa has a new data center, which is likely why the price is a bit high.
NB
NikolayBachvarov
Software Architect at AIOPS group
Their licensing costs might be a little bit lower, compared to AWS, but I'm not sure. I think we get licenses, especially on long-term projects, on a yearly basis. It could be cheaper.
View full review »JV
Jose Vazquez
Director
The price of the solution could be reduced. There should be a loyalty cost reduction model. If customers have been using the service year after year they should receive a discount.
View full review »JL
reviewer1628190
IT Projects Manager at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
We're happy with the licensing pricing in general. It's not overly expensive.
View full review »AS
Anoop Anoop SLK
Enterprise architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft Azure comes with a long-term license and trial licenses as well.
View full review »SS
Sarith Sasidharan
System Administrator at a government with 201-500 employees
The pricing is decent. We don't find that they are charging too much. It's pretty fair.
View full review »KM
Karthik Madhava
Founder & Chief Technology Officer at Lavelle Networks
Pricing is comparable but from a cost perspective, this solution is the cheapest.
it_user657774
Server and StorageIO Group (Storage IO): Independent IT Advisor, Author, Blogger and Consultant with 1-10 employees
Do your homework, understand the type and sizes of resources, see if there are any extra fees, and find out what tools are needed.
Check what level of performance, availability, capacity and economic (PACE) budget, as well as the services that are needed.
Watch your costs and look for value versus the lowest cost.
View full review »it_user281949
Software Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Our setup costs are the costs of development time to integrate our system with Azure. Because the project is ongoing, this is difficult to determine. The cost for subscriptions in development is about $150 a month. Our MSDN subscription includes a credit which takes care of this cost. In production we forward the costs of events to the customer who is hosting the event. I don’t get the exact details on the day to day operation costs for internal subscriptions.
View full review »KR
reviewer1712571
Implementation Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Pricing is determined by how much you can use and how much you want to use it.
It's not on a per-user basis; it's on a per subscription basis. It is dependent on how much you use. It has a metering system. If you use a service, you will have to pay for it. You do not have to pay if you do not use any of the services. That's how it works.
The licensing fees could be cheaper.
View full review »AS
Amgad Soliman
Senior System & Security Administrator at a legal firm with 51-200 employees
The price of the Azure license could be cheaper.
View full review »MC
reviewer1686495
Managed IT Services Provider at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Everything involves an annual commitment with a monthly charge.
View full review »AM
reviewer1392516
Manager, Enterprise Infrastructure at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing is more or less the same as AWS. They are very competitive with each other. There isn't too much of a difference, price-wise.
In our case, the solution doesn't have a license. It's subscription-only. However, you can buy your own license separately and install it on whatever system application you're using on Azure. This is the same in the case of AWS.
View full review »LM
Lindsay Mieth
CISO at a religious institution with 501-1,000 employees
The pricing for the end-user packages is a bit high. It is full of very interesting services, but I would still like it to be less expensive.
View full review »JG
reviewer1260291
IT Infrastructure Architect at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
It's an OPEX model, you pay as you go, or you can reserve funds.
Pricing can always be better.
View full review »it_user685371
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In regards to the pricing and licensing, you need to be aware of what to do. If it fits in your current licensing contract, add it to that contract. If not, then depending on the company's size, ask the reseller with whom you are doing business (or ask me) for advice on this issue.
View full review »BB
SrEngineer672
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
- Setup cost with Azure is minimal for what they are supplying. Everything takes less than 10 minutes to deploy.
- Day to Day costs is what you use, we can now review those costs and look at the new features (Automation) to make those costs even more efficient.
SS
reviewer1164615
Director Technology at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Azure is expensive, but that depends upon who you ask. It probably wouldn't be considered a significant expense for a large corporation, but it's costly for smaller enterprises or startups.
Pricing is one area where Azure has room for improvement. There should be some due consideration. Azure has solved some issues with pricing from the development team's standpoint, but it is still quite costly. They should also offer a trial period for the individual platform solutions. I think that would be pretty handy for the developers.
View full review »AP
reviewer1123320
Software Professional at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
There are no licensing fees.
View full review »JH
JorgeHerran
Senior Devops at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The price of the solution is unclear. it's hard to find the costs.
View full review »JS
Jan Stander
Owner at Latreia Technologies
I am currently on a pay-as-you-go subscription and my customers are going to be on a three-year contract. For what is offered in the three-year package it is quite reasonably priced. However, if I was to run it in my office from my own service it would be cheaper but the risk is too high. Here in South Africa, we have something called load shedding where the electricity is turned off for periods of time to regulate to load of the electricity being used. It can go off for five to six hours causing the batteries in the cell towers and fiber exchanges to start dropping and then the customers are offline.
This is why I have to move to a cloud platform that has generators, redundancy on fiber connections, and other mechanisms in place. It creates a lot of challenges for us.
Microsoft has two data centers in South Africa, one in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town. We will most likely be balancing between South Africa, Europe, and maybe even have a service in Australia.
View full review »AS
DigAd3059
Digital Ad-Operations at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is very competitive.
View full review »it_user120534
CTO at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
If you have the existing on-premise licenses, make sure to ask for their special licensing promotions so as to allow consolidation of licenses and subscriptions, in order to maximize the current investment and control TCO.
View full review »TC
reviewer1157862
Associate Director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Azure is cheaper than solutions from other cloud vendors like AWS or Google.
View full review »
Mitul Rajput
GM COE at Anuntatech Management Services Ltd
The licensing is based on usage. Typically, it's a monthly fee that is paid to Microsoft.
View full review »VG
reviewer1724199
Systems Architect at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Licensing is available for Azure. We mainly use Azure in a research context and to showcase what's possible, not from a scalability context, so our usage is limited from that standpoint.
View full review »TU
TonderayiUsada
Managing Director at D3
The price of the solution could be less expensive and the pricing model could be less confusing.
View full review »TP
reviewer1680546
IT Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 201-500 employees
We pay yearly for the license.
View full review »MT
reviewer979968
Senior Manager Global Database Services at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The licensing costs are quite reasonable.
View full review »RV
RommelViloria
Director of Technology at WinSoft IT, C.A.
We have approached our clients about using Kubernetes or Docker because it's cheaper when inflation is considered.
View full review »FV
FERNANDO VASQUEZ
CEO at CLIFURVA
We would like to see Microsoft lower its prices a bit for their customers. It's a costly solution.
View full review »MM
reviewer1548732
Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Our customers don't have to pay any licensing fees in order to use Azure.
View full review »VT
reviewer1381527
Data Science Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I don't handle the licensing or payments aspect of the solution. I can't speak to the costs involved or what the license looks like.
In AWS, our monthly cost was something around $10,000 or something close to that. We had to pay around $120,000 a year. It's most likely something close to that.
View full review »MB
Marc-Bernier
Works at CGI
Licensing is on an annual basis.
AB
reviewer1465602
Network and systems administrator at a recruiting/HR firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The licensing fees depend on the number of users that we have.
Santiago Ochoa
Consultant at Open Source & Cloud Advisory Services Architect IBM
The pricing is quite good, and it is designed as pay-per-use.
View full review »SP
reviewer1644435
IT Systems Administrator at a transportation company with 51-200 employees
Licensing fees are paid monthly.
View full review »WS
Win Sein
IT Consultant at Hostlink IT Solutions
The pricing of the solution could be reduced. We are not able to create a free account in my country.
View full review »HT
HimanshuTejwani
System Administrator and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
It is expensive, but it is less expensive than AWS.
Even with it being cheaper than AWS, the price could be cheaper.
It is similar to AWS, where it is on-demand and is billed monthly.
View full review »RR
Roberto Rubio
Country Manager at Orion Consultores C.A
It's a very expensive machine and I would like for them to improve the price. There are smaller sized competitors who offer cheaper prices.
View full review »ET
reviewer1752084
Customer Success Manager - Architect: Cloud and Data Platform at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
We pay a monthly licensing cost.
View full review »HB
reviewer1465254
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I think licensing is pay as you go because you have a monthly budget assigned to your account and depending on which services are running, it's consumed from that budget.
View full review »
Enrico Boseli
CTO at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Its pricing model can be improved. It is variable, and if you do a simulation now, within a few months, the price can change, and your simulation would no longer be valid.
View full review »JK
reviewer1386936
DevOps Lead at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing is likely reasonable. If you compare it to other cloud providers, there isn't too much of a difference. It likely is competitive in the market.
View full review »RR
Rodrigo Ramele
Mobile Lead Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The cost-benefit equation for Azure is very good, particularly for small applications. However, Microsoft should do much, much more to improve how costs are communicated and how to forecast them. The Azure Pricing Calculator is not useful.
View full review »it_user711615
Head of Software Architecture at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Before using any of Azure's services, investigate their prices, and in some cases, use the free plans that are available.
View full review »it_user229761
Senior Consultant | Architect at DHL
Related to pricing and licensing, you have to be careful how you operate with the concept. You would like to set some automation rules for automated shutdown and start up your virtual machines so that they are not consumed costs, etc. So it is about the logic of using this solution.
View full review »it_user88620
IT & PMO Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Azure’s price is very competitive with traditional hosting (in-house or outsourced). Windows and database licenses are included in the solution price or you can bring your own license (BYOL). There are also several free or open source solutions in Azure.
View full review »
Hema Patil
Software Affiliate at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price of Microsoft Azure is reasonable.
View full review »JP
reviewer1620747
IT Architect at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
There are added costs to the company or for scaling for most premium products.
PP
reviewer1598412
Management Executive at a security firm with 11-50 employees
We pay for the license on a monthly basis.
View full review »EB
reviewer1598556
Information Technology Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The solution is too expensive. They need to work on the pricing.
I can't speak to the exact cost our company pays in order to use Azure.
View full review »AK
Anu Kaple
Technical Lead at FD
There is a license for the solution.
View full review »MM
reviewer1553589
Junior Mobile Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
The pricing is better than AWS.
View full review »SS
reviewer1547352
Information Technology Consultant at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I've found the cost to be a bit high. You also get dinged for extra things along the way.
The charges are also unpredictable. Even if you think something is a relatively static item, they'll charge you for it and it will change your expectation of the cost.
View full review »MM
MEGHNAD MAHATA
AVP (Enterprise Architecture) at National Stock Exchange of India Limited
So far we are satisfied with the pricing of Microsoft Azure.
View full review »FO
Francis Olowu
Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Make use of Azure pricing calculator and you will find out that Azure Is still more reasonable that the competition and do your research, when unclear speak with your MS support.
View full review »JC
reviewer1772160
Manufacture at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
We pay a licensing fee on a yearly basis. I don't have details in terms of the exact costs. Sometimes there are extra costs here and there.
View full review »AM
reviewer1578912
RPA Developer
It is affordable compared to other vendors
View full review »PV
reviewer1544235
Senior System Administrator at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
This is an expensive product.
View full review »JG
reviewer1499406
General Manager at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Its price can be cheaper. Price is always an issue. We pay around $10,000 per month for all resources.
View full review »SW
reviewer1493898
Senior System Engineer at a engineering company with 11-50 employees
The licensing is based on usage. I'm not sure of the exact costs involved as it's not an aspect of the solution that is my responsibility.
That said, it is my understanding that it is a bit expensive.
View full review »FA
reviewer1096965
Systems Administrator Team Leader at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.
View full review »MU
reviewer1461696
IT Senior Consultant and trainer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
It's hard to gauge what the pricing will be, so It's hard to plan with the solution. The licensing needs to be more transparent and obvious.
View full review »it_user719895
Diretor de Sistemas de Informação at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Setup cost is low and Microsoft may help your project financially with services from a partner.
Be sure to know your licensing or ask for advice. It's worth it. You may be led into something you don't need, if following Microsoft or a vendor.
View full review »it_user698160
Cloud/System Administrator at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
If your company is big enough and oriented to the cloud, then go for the Enterprise Agreement. If you want just to try it first, then use the trial version.
View full review »
Veerender Kumar
Product Owner at Software Technology
The subscription models can be confusing and it would be beneficial for them to simplify them. We are on an annual subscription.
View full review »SG
reviewer937401
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operations Officer at a energy/utilities company with 1-10 employees
Price could always be cheaper. Its licensing and usage aren't always cheap.
We pay monthly.
View full review »OO
reviewer1632060
Information System Auditor (IT Audit) at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have an annual license subscription to use the solution.
View full review »SB
reviewer1406421
Senior Architect, Technology Transformation Group at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The pricing could be a bit lower. It would make their customers happy if they decided to charge less.
We pay a yearly licensing fee.
View full review »SH
Shankar HN
IT strategist at Convergent Wireless Communications
The price is good, but it can always be cheaper.
View full review »RR
reviewer1542381
Chief Technology Officer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Price-wise, it is comparable to other solutions for the features that we are using.
View full review »CA
reviewer1537263
IT Manager at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its price should be optimized so that we can use more features.
View full review »AC
AndyChan3
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The price of Microsoft Azure is pretty good. Among the top market players, it’s usually the cheapest or the one after. Our usage is more than $1,000,000 USD annually.
View full review »it_user493200
Pre-Sales/System Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The whole pricing list is published, so it is clear. When you choose the configuration, you can see the price.
View full review »it_user159600
Director of Operations at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Keep to PaaS to gain the optimal benefits from an OPEX finance and resource perspective.
View full review »it_user698010
Lead Engineer Solutions at a media company with 51-200 employees
As a consultant, I leave this area to my sales colleagues. When in doubt, contact Microsoft. They will be able to clarify your questions.
View full review »it_user76884
Owner with 51-200 employees
When starting out I became member of the BizSpark program so the initial cost was 0 (FREE!), on customer’s projects the cost can go from $50 to $200 per month which is really cost effective for them.
View full review »
RR
reviewer1257582
Director Software Engineering at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is fair and it was actually just reduced. My organization is paying approximately $100,000 annually with close to one thousand users. There are no additional fees.
View full review »VG
reviewer1645737
Senior Director at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
The pricing is fair. It's not overly expensive.
View full review »AM
reviewer606297
CEO at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Most of the pricing from Microsoft is reasonable.
The prices are very good for the services.
View full review »KS
Karthikeyan Sivasamy
Architect at a tech company with 201-500 employees
There are monthly and yearly payment plans. We save more in the long run with the yearly option.
View full review »JV
reviewer1501542
Architect/ Project Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price of the solution is okay although it depends on the region of the deployment.
it_user713808
Azure Portfolio & Innovation Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It’s a good idea to use BYOL if you have an EA. It’s a really noticeable cost reduction.
It’s also interesting to analyze carefully all invoicing costs and workload usages -- to better fit costing scenarios.
View full review »AK
Abdul Khaliq
Information Technology Solutions Architect at Injazat
The price of the solution is reasonable.
View full review »JC
reviewer1333911
cloud solution architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Customers need to purchase additional services because of the complexity of it.
MV
reviewer1063173
Managing Director at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The price needs to be lower because they're competing with AWS. AWS, price-wise, is sexier. In this case, Azure needs to do better in terms of pricing.
We are on a subscription; we pay on a monthly basis. It's consumption-based, so the price varies depending on usage.
View full review »it_user312267
Head of Infrastructure at Whistl
These elements are brilliant. It is a no brainer.
View full review »TA
reviewer1663731
Process Manager at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees
The license cost could be reduced.
View full review »LS
Lucas Sain
Chief Technology Officer at SYSDE
The price of the solution can be expensive.
View full review »WL
reviewer861231
Senior Solutions Specialist at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The licensing price is fine. We pay it on a monthly basis.
View full review »AT
reviewer1578471
Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price of the solution is reasonable.
View full review »MN
M A Nakib
Asst. Manager, Cloud Solutions at Corporate Projukti Limited
For our region, Bangladesh, the pricing of the product is too much.
View full review »GH
reviewer931998
Assistant Professor at a university with 51-200 employees
The cost of the solution could be reduced. However, I am using the free version.
View full review »SN
reviewer1450398
Product Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The current pricing is on a pay-as-you-go subscription.
View full review »KB
reviewer1581915
CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The price of the solution could be cheaper.
View full review »IC
reviewer1646865
ICT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We are on an annual subscription. However, there are other options available.
View full review »LS
reviewer1548741
Enterprise Technology Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Software licensing models can be expensive depending on what you need compared to open source solutions, for example. However, if you don't have the technical skills, you may be better off paying for a license and support instead of trying to use open source solutions.
View full review »it_user269952
President and Founder with 51-200 employees
Push MSFT to change the outgoing data policy.
View full review »CQ
reviewer1374594
Cloud Arquitect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We usually use the subscription model Azure has. However, that doesn't include monitoring. We're looking at a new budget for that. It would be apart from the main Azure consumption.
However, I don't know the exact pricing. It's not part of the work I do.
View full review »JA
John Arnold
sales at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The pricing model is subscription-based and it's not an expensive solution.
View full review »SH
STAR HOU
Technical Manager at Systex Software & Service
The pricing for us is higher because we are using IaaS.
View full review »MS
reviewer991623
Senior Microsoft Solution Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its costing can be improved. Its licensing is monthly. In addition to the standard license fee, there is a transactional cost.
View full review »SI
Md. Islam
Systems Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Initially, it was difficult to setup. The complexity comes in when there are more items to configure. We pay our bill in a monthly or 6 monthly billing cycle. The cost depends on how much you use during the period.
View full review »AM
reviewer1433010
Cloud Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The cost structure is like most cloud-based services. The solution could be cheaper, it is always better to be cheaper.
View full review »HD
reviewer919047
Business Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing depends on the solutions I want to use, but I think the price is good because there are many free features in the solution. If you need something more advanced, like Azure AD Premium, you have other features available like risk management.
AK
reviewer1394046
Cloud Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The cost is a little high and can be more competitive.
View full review »it_user388488
IT Analyst at a government with 501-1,000 employees
Using a free account leads to offline projects. For online projects those issues must be evaluated according to client side company's environment.
View full review »ST
reviewer1721916
Head of PMO and Service Delivery Management at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The price of the solution could be cheaper in general. We are on a monthly subscription to the solution.
View full review »RS
reviewer1719114
CEO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
There is a monthly fee you need to pay for the use of Microsoft Azure.
View full review »EW
reviewer1443363
Technical Pre-Sales at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It has the pay-as-you-go model. Its pricing should be better.
View full review »DN
reviewer1537635
Co-Founder and CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It is affordable, but its subscription price could be cheaper.
View full review »it_user654165
Director General with 11-50 employees
Try to go for an Enterprise agreement if you have a contract with Microsoft. If you are running virtual machines, go for the CPP Microsoft Compute Pre-Purchase Plan.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
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