Programming on a normal IIS web host + SQL vs. AZURE + AZURE SQL (just a hobby) . Similiar costs?

I am using a normal IIS web host to host my website and web services.. It is just a hobby and I get very little traffic. I would let to be using Azure instead since I would like an excuse to learn azure.

Is anyone out there using Azure in开发者_如何学Python this way and can tell me about what is thier monthly cost? I long ago subscribed to azure and forgot about it and a month later had a $90 bill so that really scares me.

Right now my web host + sql is about $25 a month.

Is there a way to have azure shut the service off if it gets over a certain monthly cost?

---

Well, even a very small instance costs $0.05/hour, and the SLA is only guaranteed if you run two or more instances. That in itself adds up to approximately $75/month.

SQL Azure is at least $9.99/month. Add to this charges for traffic, etc.

There are reasons why the SQL Azure pricing model is like this. You do get your very own virtual machine instances with dedicated RAM, which you typically don't get in a web hotel, so taking that into account, the Azure price may be reasonable, but isn't very competitive for very small hobby sites.

The official price list is here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/

---

Unfortunately, Azure is not designed to host hobbyist sites. You won't be able to beat $25 a month, but then you don't need things like SLA's and HA databass. But, as I commented earlier, it is nice to be able to work with it to train up on the platform.

There are ways of getting onto Azure cheaply.

Firstly There is the free introductory offer. Very much a "toe in the water" just to play/learn the platform. There aren't enough compute hours to host a site.

Secondly, if you're prepared to put in a little effort you can join either the partner or Bizspark programs which will give you access to enough resources to host a site for free, but there is an expectation that you're trying to build "something".

Oh, and for a hobbyist site you don't need the SLA so a single instance is fine.