Azure
vs
Render
What's good about each
- Integrates with Entra ID, Microsoft 365, GitHub and Visual Studio
- Azure Arc and Azure Stack for hybrid and multicloud
- OpenAI models served through Azure AI Foundry
- 100+ compliance offerings, regional and industry-specific
- 60+ regions worldwide
- Postgres with point-in-time recovery, read replicas and high availability
- Unlimited seats on paid plans, no per-seat billing
- Free plans for web services, Postgres and Key Value
- Full-stack preview environments for each pull request
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and HIPAA-compliant workspaces
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Azure | Render | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.77 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (B2ats v2) | $25.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM (1c-2g) | 73% cheaper on Azure |
| Medium VM | $95.76 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (B4als v2) | $175.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (4c-8g) | 45% cheaper on Azure |
| Large VM | $231.84 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (D8als v6) | $300.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (8c-16g) | 23% cheaper on Azure |
| Block storage | $7.92 /mo 100 GB (Premium SSD v2) | $25.00 /mo 100 GB | 68% cheaper on Azure |
| Object storage | $35.25 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | $54.71 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (Flexible Server B2s) | $90.00 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB storage (2c-4g) | 39% cheaper on Azure |
| Redis | $23.04 /mo 1 GB RAM (Managed Redis Balanced B1) | $32.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (1g) | 28% cheaper on Azure |
| Load balancer | $23.00 /mo Standard | Included in plan | |
| Serverless | $35.00 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 100 GB / mo | 5 GB (Hobby), 25 GB (Pro), 1 TB (Scale) | |
| Egress | $87.00 /TB $0.087 / GB (Premium network North America) | $150.00 /TB $0.15 / GB | 42% cheaper on Azure |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Azure offers 10 GPU models. We track no GPU listings from Render. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Azure | Render | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
20 configs
|
$1.29 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
40 configs
|
$1.02 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
H200
4 configs
|
$6.86 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | -- | Azure only |
|
A100
20 configs
|
$0.68 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
GB200
4 configs
|
$11.90 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | -- | Azure only |
MI300X
4 configs
|
$1.60 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
V100
6 configs
|
$0.28 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
T4
16 configs
|
$0.15 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
A10
12 configs
|
$0.59 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Azure only |
|
MI455X
1 config
|
-- On request | -- | Azure only |
Azure bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 or 36 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Azure | Render |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | -- |
| FedRAMP | High | -- |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Azure | Render |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2008 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 66 | 5 |
| Example customers | General Motors, NHS, Fujitsu, NBA | OpenAI, ReadMe, Plane, Hodinkee, Every |
| Website | azure.microsoft.com | render.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Azure and Render against other cloud providers.
Our data for Azure was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Render on Sept. 18, 2026.