How Much Does Azure Cost a Lone Developer?

Well, how long is a piece of string..?

It’s basically the same answer. It depends.

Not very helpful right? Well don’t worry I’m not going to be that pedantic! The aim of this post is to give you a quick insight into what I use, how much it costs me, some pitfalls I’ve fallen into, and a simple strategy to manage your Azure resources.

So what are we waiting for!

To subscribe or not subscribe that is the question…

I used to be one of those people, (well to be honest I still kind off am), that liked to “own” my own stuff: CD’s, (remember them?), DVD’s, books, software etc. The thought of renting or subscribing to something just went against the grain of my own personality….

Not too sure why that is, I’m probably a closed hoarder.

hoarder

But over the years I realised that I’d actually subscribed to a load of services: Netflix, Spotify, Mentimeter, Adobe Cloud, and that I inadvertently “rent” things like the Kindle books I’ve bought on Amazon, (yeah that’s right you don’t own those, or the music from iTunes for that matter…).

So the thought of taking the plunge and using Azure as part of my development workflow didn’t seem like such a big deal after all. Or did it?

Unbridled Cost?

The subscription services I mentioned above, (Netflix, Spotify etc.), are all fixed-cost services, meaning that my charges don’t increase the more I watch or listen, (e.g. binge-watching Queer Eye on a wet Sunday afternoon), Azure on the other hand is different… You essentially pay for what you consume – so how much?

Again, depends….

Azure is a vastly complex beast with bewildering array of services that can be run on an even more bewildering array of plans and consumption models, that are, on first glance confusing and quite scary!

Simply put, due to the complexity, it’s not abundantly clear how much you’ll end up on the hole for, thankfully you have some options here:

1. The Azure Pricing Calculator
2. Azure Cost Management / Budgets
3. Advice from your Uncle Les (that’s me by the way)

The Azure Pricing Calculator

The Azure Pricing Calculator should be your first port of call if you’re thinking about dipping your toe in those beautiful azure waters, (see what I did there?)..

The pricing calculator will provide you with an estimate, (be very clear on the difference between an estimate and a quote), for any Azure services you may want to select. The tool it’s self is pretty easy to use, but again the complexity of the pricing models can still be quite intimidating.

Arghh!! What the fuck is a DTU pricing model?

None the less, it does give you a pretty good idea of what you may be in for, assuming you know what you’re doing…

Cost Management & Budgeting

As I had passed exam 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, (which btw was “retired” a few weeks after I passed it – thanks Microsoft), I thought I was “cock-of-the-walk” and knew my shit. How wrong I was…

I had been using an “API App” service for one of the videos / articles I have been writing and inadvertently had not changed the default pricing plan that it comes with it, a “Standard Plan”… Then one fine day when checking my subscription overview I was shocked to see that I had run up a bill over of $20 for the month!!!

Twenty Australian Dollars!!!!

Yes I get that $20 is not that much but considering:

1. The App had literally zero traffic going to it.
2. I had only ever been charged cents the prior months

It came as a massive shock.

The first thing I realised was that I had not changed to the “free plan” , (I have now and it is indeed “free”), and the second thing I realised was that I needed some way to be alerted to any escalating costs -thankfully Azure has you covered.

Select your subscription in the Azure Portal, and under “Cost Management” you’ll see an option for “Budgets”:

My massive monthly budget

Not surprisingly you can:

• Set Up a monthly budget
• Set notification thresholds on that budget (i.e. if you hit 80% spent, you’ll get an email)

This tool has given me a peace of mind that I shouldn’t inadvertently get a credit card bill for $1000’s of dollars.

I say shouldn’t as just because you set a budget, (and even a budget notification threshold), that is all they are. If you reach and “breach” your budget, costs can still climb, Microsoft does not as far as I’m aware shutdown all your services and stop charging you. (Upon further reading you can use the Azure Cost Management APIs to essentially “script” the shutdown of services, but you have to put this in place).

So your budget is just that, a relatively arbitrary number that can of course get busted to smithereens, (unless you take steps similar to those listed above).

boom – you owe us $100000, yours sincerely, Microsoft.

What does it really cost?

Again depends.

So as a real, practical example as a lone developer self-funding my own efforts I think you can run on Azure for a month probably for the same price as a few cups of coffee, (here in Melbourne typical cup of coffee goes form between $3.50 – $4:50).

So as an example I currently run the following services:

My Azure Services

And my estimated cost spend for this month is $5:48, less than the price of 2 cups of coffee:

Actual and projected charges for the month

Indeed the only 1 of those services costing me anything is the SQL Server DB. To make matters even better the “estimated spend” provided by the Azure Pricing Calculator was pretty much bang on, (note as I’m still in my 1st 12 months of my subscription I get additional services fro free):

My estimate NOT a quote!!!

Conclusion & Disclaimer!

So yes while it is indeed impossible to say exactly how much it would cost you to run resources on Azure, (it depends on multiple factors), as an individual developer with relatively simple needs, I think it’s absolutely possible to use Azure as part of your workflow.

What’s also worth mentioning is that you can of course stop using & delete any of those resources at any time – there is no lock in. So once you’ve proved something out, or in my case once I’ve written my article or made my video, I can stop using everything.

Coupled with the Azure Pricing Calculator and Cost Management features there really is no reason why you should not give Azure a go.

Of course you must always proceed with caution and keep an eye on your spend…