Smart Ways to Reduce Azure App Service Costs

Running your web apps in the cloud with Azure App Service is fast, scalable, and flexible. But if you’re not paying close attention, costs can rise quietly in the background. Whether you’re running a personal blog, a business app, or client projects, it’s important to make the most of what you’re paying for.

In this Blog, I’ll walk you through Cost optimization strategies for Azure App Service, Let’s get into it.

1️⃣ Choose the Right App Service Plan – Don’t Overpay for Power You Don’t Use

Azure App Service comes in several tiers: Free, Shared, Basic, Standard, Premium, and Isolated. Each step up gives you more features—but also increases the cost.

🔍 Why it matters:

Many developers jump to the Standard or Premium plans for convenience, even when they only need basic hosting features.

✅ What to do:

• Use Free or Shared plans for early testing, small apps, or proof-of-concept projects.

• Use Basic if you need custom domains or SSL.

• Only go with Standard or Premium if you need auto-scaling, staging slots, or advanced performance.

• Review the features and match the tier to your actual requirements—not what you “might need someday.” why because Azure App Service you can scale up or down any time you want.

💡 Example:

If your app gets 500 daily users and doesn’t have complex backend processes, a Basic Plan is likely more than enough.

2️⃣ Use Auto-Scaling Instead of Running at Full Capacity 24/7

You might think it’s safer to keep your App Service plan scaled up “just in case” traffic increases—but this leads to wasted money during quiet hours.

🔍 Why it matters:

App Service lets you scale up (more resources) and scale out (more instances). But keeping too many instances running all the time is expensive.

✅ What to do:

• Enable Auto-Scaling based on metrics like CPU usage, memory, or HTTP queue length.

• You can also scale by schedule—for example, scale up during business hours and scale down at night or weekends.

💡 Example:

A company running a B2B dashboard only during working hours can reduce costs 50–70% by auto-scaling down after hours.

3️⃣ Disable “Always On” Unless Your App Truly Needs It

The “Always On” feature keeps your app continuously running, preventing cold starts—but it also consumes resources.

🔍 Why it matters:

If your app isn’t being accessed frequently, or doesn’t need to run background jobs, keeping it always running is unnecessary.

✅ What to do:

• Turn off “Always On” for all development, test, and low-traffic apps.

• Keep it on only for apps that need to wake up quickly or perform background processing.

💡 Example:

An internal admin portal that’s accessed only once or twice a day doesn’t need to be “always on.”

4️⃣ Consolidate Multiple Apps Into a Single App Service Plan

If you have multiple apps in the same region, you can host them under the same App Service Plan. This means they share the same allocated resources (CPU, RAM), which saves money.

🔍 Why it matters:

Running each app on its own plan leads to under-utilization. One plan with more usage is often cheaper than three lightly-used plans.

✅ What to do:

• Group apps with similar usage patterns on one App Service Plan.

• Make sure the combined resource usage stays within limits to avoid performance issues.

💡 Example:

Hosting your company’s blog, documentation site, and internal tools under one plan instead of three separate ones can save hundreds of dollars per month.

5️⃣ Clean Up Unused or Forgotten Resources

It’s easy to spin up extra environments—test, staging, experimental branches—and then forget about them. But they still cost money if you don’t clean them up.

🔍 Why it matters:

Even idle apps, empty deployment slots, or stopped App Service Plans can generate costs for storage or allocated resources.

✅ What to do:

• Regularly audit your Azure portal for old apps, plans, and slots.

• Set up alerts or reminders to review test environments monthly.

• Tag resources by environment (e.g., dev/test/prod) to filter easily during cleanups.

💡 Example:

Deleting 3 unused staging slots and a forgotten dev plan can save over $100/month.

6️⃣ Use Dev/Test Pricing for Non-Production Environments

Azure offers special Dev/Test pricing for development and testing environments—but many teams overlook it.

🔍 Why it matters:

Dev/Test pricing is significantly cheaper and gives you access to almost all the same features.

✅ What to do:

• Move your dev/test apps to a Dev/Test subscription (available via MSDN or Enterprise Agreement).

• Set up automated deployment pipelines to separate environments.

💡 Example:

A small dev team using Premium plans for staging can switch to Basic Dev/Test and cut their Azure bill in half.

7️⃣ Monitor Resource Usage with Azure Insights

Guessing resource needs leads to over-provisioning. Azure gives you powerful tools like Application Insights and Azure Monitor to understand how your app performs.

🔍 Why it matters:

You might think your app needs a Premium plan, but monitoring could reveal it’s using only 10% CPU and 30% RAM.

✅ What to do:

• Enable Application Insights to track request load, response times, and resource usage.

• Use Azure Monitor dashboards to detect trends and under-utilized resources.

💡 Example:

A developer noticed 90% of their app’s traffic was in one region and adjusted the scale-in settings accordingly—reducing monthly costs by 40%.

8️⃣ Use Reserved Instances or Azure Savings Plans for Long-Term Workloads

If you’re running an app continuously for months or years, it makes sense to commit and save.

🔍 Why it matters:

Azure offers 1-year and 3-year Reserved Instances (RIs) or Savings Plans that can cut costs up to 55%.

✅ What to do:

• Analyze which apps run consistently and will continue long-term.

• Purchase reserved compute for these workloads and lock in lower pricing.

💡 Example:

A business with a long-running SaaS app saved over $2,000/year by switching to a 3-year reserved plan.

9️⃣ Use Azure Static Web Apps for Static Sites

Not every website needs dynamic hosting. For simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript websites, Azure Static Web Apps or a CDN is a smarter option.

🔍 Why it matters:

Static hosting is much cheaper and faster. You also don’t pay for idle compute.

✅ What to do:

• Move blogs, portfolios, documentation, and simple frontends to Static Web Apps.

• Combine with GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps for automated deployments.

💡 Example:

A personal website that cost $15/month on App Service now costs $0 on the Azure Static Web App free tier.

🔟 Use Simpler Networking Options When Possible

Advanced networking options like VNET integration, private endpoints, and hybrid connections offer more security—but they come at a cost.

🔍 Why it matters:

Some teams enable these features “just in case” when they’re not needed, increasing both complexity and spend.

✅ What to do:

• Only use advanced networking if your app requires it (e.g., private databases or compliance rules).

• Use Azure Front Door, CDN, or Application Gateway to handle global delivery instead of spinning up more App Services in each region.

💡 Example:

Switching from multi-region App Services to one global App Service behind Azure Front Door helped a team cut costs by 60% while improving latency.

✅ Final Thoughts: Be Cloud-Smart, Not Cloud-Overkill

Azure gives you powerful tools but with great power comes great potential for overpaying. These optimization strategies aren’t about cutting corners they’re about cutting waste.

Keep an eye on your usage, scale smart, clean up what you don’t need, and you’ll be surprised how much money you can save often with just a few hours of work.

 Anuradha Samaranayake