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Amazon Web Services vs Microsoft Azure

Two hyperscaler cloud options for hosting. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

Amazon Web ServicesHyperscaler cloud
Microsoft AzureHyperscaler cloudMCP
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose Amazon Web Services if
  • The widest catalog of building blocks — Lambda, containers, managed databases, queues — to assemble your own infrastructure.

Use it whenYou need a specific AWS service, enterprise customers ask for it, or you have credits to spend.

Trade-offYou wire up networking, permissions and deploys yourself; billing is per service and hard to predict.

Choose Microsoft Azure if
  • App Service, Functions and Container Apps alongside Azure OpenAI and Microsoft's identity and enterprise tooling.

Use it whenYou sell to Microsoft-centric companies, need Azure OpenAI, or have Azure credits.

Trade-offA large, enterprise-shaped console with more configuration than a PaaS.

At a glance

Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft Azure
Used by386 makers' products · 17 open-source projects70 makers' products
Cost at default usagerequests 5 million requests, data transfer out 100 GB, serverless function compute 100 GB-hours$17/mo Pay as you go (Lambda + EC2 t4g.small)—
Downloads4.2M/wk−39% vs npm
PricingPay-as-you-go per service; new accounts get up to $200 in Free Tier credits over 6 months. · paid from Pay as you goPay-as-you-go per service; new customers get a $200 credit for 30 days and 12 months of free amounts on 20+ services, plus 65+ always-free services. · paid from Pay as you go
Free tierYesYes
Open sourceNoNo

What makers say

Makers on using it for hosting, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Amazon Web Services
We are so excited to integrate with AWS Lambda. Look for our upcoming co-authored blog about how Fleak and AWS Lambda bring goodness to data teams and help them win their time back!
Fleak, the makerSep 2026 ↗
AWS provides the global infrastructure we need to deliver low-latency voice translation to users worldwide. Their reliable services ensure our calls connect seamlessly across regions.
The Banana App, the makerSep 2026 ↗
AWS Lambda's scalability is definitely a game-changer, especially for handling the traffic spikes from a Product Hunt launch. Shoutout to AWS Lambda for making it possible! 🚀
Gan.AI, the makerSep 2026 ↗
152 more on the Amazon Web Services page →
On Microsoft Azure
Too many horror stories of AWS bills spiking overnight when social apps take off. Azure gave me much tighter cost control during traffic surges and that was a big reason I chose it.
Rosper, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Azure as a secondary cloud provider for redundancy and fallback. Azure helps us optimize costs, ensure high availability, and maintain resilience across critical workloads.
NINA, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Powered our AI platform at QWiser with reliable and scalable cloud infrastructure, making sure everything runs smoothly for learners everywhere.
QWiser, the makerSep 2026 ↗
34 more on the Microsoft Azure page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Amazon Web Services
Most loved
  • It offers a huge catalog of services in one place, from databases to queues to AI. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • It scales up and down with bursty traffic without re-architecting. PHPH 2PH 3
  • Its reliability record is something teams are willing to bet a product on. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
Watch-outs
  • Major outages, from long us-east incidents to struck data centers, have taken customer services down. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
  • Its services can be tricky to configure. PH
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 282 reviews · mentioned most: reliable cloud services, scalable infrastructure, extensive service offerings
Microsoft AzureOn Product Hunt: 5.0★, 44 reviews · mentioned most: reliable cloud infrastructure, advanced speech technology, OpenAI integration

Who uses each

Amazon Web Services386 makers' products
Ada.imAgentMailAgentplace.ioAgentRAI Context FlowAlchemyzeAmplooAntiquotedAnythingAstridAstrioBeatoven.ai+374 more
Microsoft Azure70 makers' products
Agentplace.ioAgnost AIAnamapCoThou Autonomous SuperagentCynative Security Research AgentDatazipEspaIntelliNINANormainOmnifactOogwai Beacon+58 more
Used by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product
Agentplace.ioCynative Security Research AgentDatazipEspaNINARemySwytchcodeWepostBetterPicCekuraTestMu AITraycer AI

What makers pair each with

With Amazon Web Services
Transactional Email
LLM API
Frontend Framework
Payments
With Microsoft Azure
LLM API
Transactional Email
Payments
Frontend Framework

Neither quite right?

See the whole hosting decision →
VercelFrontend cloudNext.js apps — zero-config deploys and preview URLs.vs Amazon Web Services →
NetlifyFrontend cloudStatic sites and JAMstack apps on any framework.
CloudflareEdge platformCheap global hosting with Workers, plus database (D1) and storage (R2) on the same platform.vs Amazon Web Services →
RailwayPaaSServers, workers and databases deployed together, with almost no configuration.vs Amazon Web Services →
RenderPaaSA Heroku-style platform for web services, cron jobs and Postgres.vs Amazon Web Services →
Fly.ioContainer platformDocker apps that should run close to users in many regions.vs Amazon Web Services →
Hetzner CloudYour own serverA lot of CPU and RAM per euro, in European, US and Singapore regions.vs Amazon Web Services →
CoolifyYour own serverA Heroku- or Vercel-style dashboard on your own server, with many one-click services.