Azure Mobile Apps
Application development platforms
Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (mBaaS) software
Application development software
Mobile development software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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What is Azure Mobile Apps
Azure Mobile Apps is a Microsoft Azure service for building and operating mobile backends, providing server-side APIs and integrations commonly needed by mobile applications. It targets developers who want to connect iOS, Android, and cross-platform apps to cloud-hosted data, authentication, and push notifications. The service is commonly used with Azure App Service and related Azure components to implement offline sync, identity integration, and scalable hosting within the Azure ecosystem.
Tight Azure ecosystem integration
Azure Mobile Apps integrates with Azure App Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure Storage, and Azure Active Directory for hosting, data, and identity. This reduces the need to assemble separate services for common backend functions. It also aligns with Azure governance, monitoring, and resource management patterns used by IT teams.
Offline sync and data access
The service supports offline data synchronization patterns for mobile scenarios where connectivity is intermittent. Developers can use server-side tables and client SDK patterns to sync changes between device and backend. This is useful for field service, inspections, and other occasionally connected workflows.
Built-in auth and push options
Azure Mobile Apps supports authentication flows via Azure identity options and can integrate with push notification services through Azure tooling. This helps standardize sign-in and notification delivery across multiple mobile apps. It can reduce custom implementation effort compared with building these capabilities from scratch.
Service lifecycle and roadmap risk
Azure Mobile Apps has had shifting positioning over time as Azure introduced newer approaches for mobile and API backends. Organizations may need to validate current support status, recommended architectures, and long-term roadmap before committing. This can increase planning effort for new projects and modernization programs.
Azure-centric architecture dependency
The product fits best when the rest of the stack runs on Azure services and identity. Teams using multi-cloud or non-Azure-native tooling may face additional integration and operational overhead. Vendor-specific patterns can also increase switching costs if requirements change.
Developer-centric, not low-code
Azure Mobile Apps primarily targets software developers and requires backend/API design, configuration, and ongoing operations. It does not provide the same level of visual app-building and workflow composition found in some application development platforms. Non-technical teams typically need engineering support to deliver and maintain solutions.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| F1 (Free) | Free | Free tier for trials/learning: shared compute (60 CPU minutes/day), 1 GB RAM, 1 GB storage. No SLA; not supported for production. (Azure App Service - Free plan). |
| D1 (Shared) | Price varies by region / displayed per-region on official page | Shared compute (240 CPU minutes/day), 1 GB RAM, 1 GB storage; metered per app/site. (Azure App Service - Shared plan). |
| B1 / B2 / B3 (Basic) | Price varies by region / displayed per-region on official page | Dedicated instances for low-traffic workloads; pricing based on instance size and count (cores, RAM, storage). No savings plan/reservations for Basic. |
| S (Standard) / P (Premium v3) tiers (e.g., P0v3, P1v3, P2v3, P3v3, Pmv3 sizes) | Price varies by region / displayed per-region on official page | Dedicated, autoscale-capable tiers for production workloads; higher performance and features (auto-scale, backups, larger storage). Pricing depends on selected vCPU/RAM instance size and region. |
| Isolated / App Service Environment (I1v2, I2v2, etc.) | Price varies by region / displayed per-region on official page | Fully isolated environment for high scale and network isolation; charged per isolated worker plus stamp fee for the environment. |
Notes: Azure Mobile Apps is provided as part of Azure App Service and is billed through App Service Plans (pay-for-compute model). Specific numeric prices are shown on the official App Service pricing page per region/currency (the public pricing page displays prices per-region and per-instance size). For free accounts, Azure offers an Azure Free Account ($200 credit for 30 days) and a set of free/always-free services which can be used to try App Service. (All information sourced from Microsoft Azure official pricing and free-account pages.)
Seller details
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington, United States
1975
Public
https://www.microsoft.com/
https://x.com/Microsoft
https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/
