| AWS | Microsoft Azure | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintainer | Amazon Web Services | Microsoft |
| First release | 2006 | 2010 |
| License | proprietary | proprietary |
| Learning curve | Steep. More than 200 services and the IAM permission model take real time to learn; certifications exist for a reason. | Moderate for Microsoft-centric teams, familiar identity concepts (Entra ID) help, though the portal and ARM/Bicep still take time. |
| Performance | The largest global footprint of regions and availability zones, with the most mature managed services and SLAs in the industry. | Second-largest global cloud with a strong region footprint and the industry's best hybrid story (Azure Arc, on-premises integration). |
AWS offers the broadest catalog, the most mature services and the largest talent pool; Azure wins wherever Microsoft already runs the company, entra ID identity, Microsoft 365, .NET workloads and enterprise agreements. Startups and product companies usually default to AWS; Microsoft-centric enterprises usually save money and friction on Azure.