DotDeployer vs Azure App Service for .NET
Both run ASP.NET Core well. The difference is what you're paying for: Azure App Service is a managed sandbox with no shell access, billed by the hour; DotDeployer deploys to a plain Ubuntu server you own and can SSH into, for a flat monthly fee plus whatever the server costs.
| DotDeployer | Azure App Service | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $12/mo (Starter) + your own server, from about $5/mo | $12.41/mo (B1 Basic, 1 vCPU / 1.75 GB) — no staging slots, no autoscale |
| Price with staging slots + autoscale | Included at every tier (rollback and health checks are not a paid add-on) | $69.35/mo (S1 Standard, 1 vCPU / 1.75 GB) |
| Where compute is billed | Your own cloud account (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or four others) — you keep it if you cancel | Your Azure subscription |
| Database | PostgreSQL or SQL Server on the same server, no extra service to pay for | Azure Database for PostgreSQL/SQL, billed separately from the App Service plan |
| Root / OS access | Yes — it is a plain Ubuntu server you can SSH into | No — App Service is a managed sandbox, no shell access to the host |
| .NET support | .NET 8 and 9: ASP.NET Core, Blazor WebAssembly and Blazor Server | .NET 8 and 9 supported natively |
| Deploys | Push-to-deploy from GitHub, release folders, one-click rollback | GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, ZIP deploy, deployment slots for swap-based rollback |
Azure prices looked up September 12, 2026 from Azure's own published Retail Prices API (App Service, Linux, US East, Consumption pricing), converted at 730 hours/month. See Azure's App Service pricing page for the current rate in your region.
Who should still pick Azure App Service
If your company already runs on Azure and needs its compliance certifications, Entra ID integration, or VNet peering into other Azure resources, App Service's tighter integration with the rest of Azure is worth more than owning the server. DotDeployer is built for developers who want a server that is theirs first, and don't need those integrations.