Azure Container Apps vs Azure Kubernetes Service: When to Use Each

The container hosting decision got more nuanced in 2025 as Azure Container Apps matured significantly. Here’s a detailed comparison to help you choose the right platform.

Quick Decision Framework

Choose Container Apps when:

• You want managed infrastructure
• Your team lacks Kubernetes expertise
• You have event-driven or HTTP workloads
• You need rapid time-to-production

Choose AKS when:

• You need full Kubernetes control
• You have complex networking requirements
• Your team has Kubernetes experience
• You need specific Kubernetes features

Feature Comparison

Capability	Container Apps	AKS
Management Overhead	Low	High
Scaling	Built-in KEDA	Manual KEDA setup
Networking	Simplified	Full control
Service Mesh	Built-in Dapr	Install Istio/Linkerd
Cost Model	Per-request/vCPU	Per-node
Custom Resources	No	Yes

Container Apps Example

# containerapp.yaml
name: api-service
properties:
  configuration:
    ingress:
      external: true
      targetPort: 8080
      traffic:
        - latestRevision: true
          weight: 100
    secrets:
      - name: db-connection
        value: ${DB_CONNECTION_STRING}
  template:
    containers:
      - name: api
        image: myregistry.azurecr.io/api:latest
        resources:
          cpu: 0.5
          memory: 1Gi
        env:
          - name: DATABASE_URL
            secretRef: db-connection
    scale:
      minReplicas: 1
      maxReplicas: 10
      rules:
        - name: http-scaling
          http:
            metadata:
              concurrentRequests: 100

# Deploy with Azure CLI
az containerapp create \
  --name api-service \
  --resource-group myRG \
  --environment myEnv \
  --yaml containerapp.yaml

AKS Example

# deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: api-service
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: api-service
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: api-service
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: api
        image: myregistry.azurecr.io/api:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: "512Mi"
            cpu: "250m"
          limits:
            memory: "1Gi"
            cpu: "500m"
        env:
        - name: DATABASE_URL
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: db-secrets
              key: connection-string
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: api-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: api-service
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
---
apiVersion: autoscaling/v2
kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
  name: api-service-hpa
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    name: api-service
  minReplicas: 3
  maxReplicas: 10
  metrics:
  - type: Resource
    resource:
      name: cpu
      target:
        type: Utilization
        averageUtilization: 70

Cost Analysis

For a typical web API handling 1M requests/month:

Platform	Estimated Monthly Cost
Container Apps	$50-100
AKS (3 nodes)	$200-400

Container Apps’ consumption pricing makes it 2-4x cheaper for variable workloads.

Migration Path

Start with Container Apps for new projects. Migrate to AKS only when you hit limitations. This approach minimizes operational overhead while preserving flexibility.