Azure Policy
Cloud compliance software
IT risk management software
Cloud security software
Risk assessment software
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$6 per server per month
Free TrialFree version
Small
Medium
Large
- Public sector and nonprofit organizations
- Manufacturing
- Energy and utilities
What is Azure Policy
Azure Policy is a policy management and compliance service for Microsoft Azure that helps organizations define, assign, and enforce rules over Azure resources. It is used by cloud platform teams, security teams, and governance/risk/compliance stakeholders to standardize configurations, prevent non-compliant deployments, and audit compliance posture at scale. The service evaluates resources against policy definitions and initiatives, supports remediation tasks for certain scenarios, and integrates with Azure RBAC and Azure resource hierarchy (management groups, subscriptions, resource groups).
Native Azure governance integration
Azure Policy is built into the Azure control plane and works directly with Azure Resource Manager, management groups, and subscriptions. This enables centralized policy assignment and inheritance across large Azure estates without deploying separate agents. It also aligns with Azure RBAC and common Azure governance patterns, which reduces integration work for Azure-centric organizations.
Preventive and detective controls
The service supports both deny/modify-style enforcement at deployment time and continuous evaluation for existing resources. This combination helps teams stop certain non-compliant configurations from being created while still identifying drift over time. Remediation tasks can automate fixes for some policy effects, improving operational follow-through compared with audit-only approaches.
Policy-as-code and automation support
Policy definitions and initiatives can be managed as JSON and deployed through infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD workflows. This supports version control, peer review, and repeatable rollout across environments. Built-in policy definitions and initiatives provide a starting point for common governance and compliance requirements, which can be extended with custom policies.
Azure-first scope and coverage
Azure Policy primarily governs Azure resources and Azure Resource Manager–managed configurations. Organizations with significant multi-cloud or non-Azure infrastructure typically need additional tooling or separate governance processes to achieve consistent controls across environments. Even within Azure, some services and configuration nuances may require custom policy work or complementary security services.
Policy authoring complexity
Creating and maintaining custom policies can be complex, particularly for advanced conditions, aliases, and effects. Teams often need specialized Azure governance expertise to avoid overly permissive or overly restrictive rules. Troubleshooting evaluation results and remediation behavior can also require familiarity with Azure resource providers and deployment patterns.
Not a full GRC platform
Azure Policy focuses on technical configuration compliance and enforcement rather than end-to-end risk management workflows. It does not replace capabilities such as evidence collection across business systems, control mapping across multiple frameworks, auditor collaboration, or broader vendor risk management. Many organizations pair it with separate compliance management processes or platforms for those needs.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Policy (Azure resources - baseline) | Free (no additional charge) | Azure Policy is offered at no additional cost to Azure subscribers; real-time policy enforcement, automated remediation, and centralized compliance views. |
| Azure Automanage machine configuration (Azure resources) | Free | Automanage machine configuration for Azure VMs is free when used on Azure resources; includes configuration and change tracking features. |
| Azure Automanage / Azure Policy Guest Configuration (Arc-enabled / Arc resources) | $6/server/month (also shown as $0.009/server/hour) | Guest configuration and change tracking for Arc-enabled servers are billed per server (pro-rated hourly). Any number of guest configuration policies may be used per server; certain scenarios (e.g., already managed by Azure Automation or included in Defender for Cloud Plan 2) are excluded from billing. |
Seller details
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington, United States
1975
Public
https://www.microsoft.com/
https://x.com/Microsoft
https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/
