You want serverless containers without managing a cluster, with scaling to zero. Which service fits?
Why A is the answer
Azure Container Apps
Container Apps is a serverless platform for containers, so you do not manage the infrastructure.
In detail
- Container Apps runs containers without a cluster to manage, and it scales to zero.
- Choose AKS only when you need Kubernetes control.
Use case
An illustrative scenario, not a real incident.
A small team wants containers with no cluster to look after. Container Apps runs them and scales to zero overnight.
See it in different ways
flowchart TD
A{"What do you need?"} -->|"A simple web app in a container"| B["App Service"]
A -->|"Serverless containers, scale to zero"| C["Container Apps"]
A -->|"Full Kubernetes control"| D["AKS"]mindmap
root((Container hosting))
Container Apps
Serverless
Scale to zero
Revisions
AKS
Full Kubernetes
Node pools
App Service
Simple web API
Deployment slots
Container Registry
Stores images
Build tasksflowchart TD
Q{"What do you need?"}
Q -->|"No cluster to manage"| A0["Container Apps"]
Q -->|"Full Kubernetes control"| A1["AKS"]Key point: Container Apps gives serverless containers.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. A self-managed Kubernetes cluster on virtual machines
- A self-managed cluster means more to run.
- C. Azure Kubernetes Service, with the node pools sized by your team
- AKS still has nodes for you to manage.
- D. Azure Virtual Machines, with a container runtime installed by hand
- Virtual machines are the opposite of serverless.