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CDN, global load balancer and WAF · by Microsoft Azure

Azure Front Door

Microsoft's CDN and global HTTP load balancer, $35/mo base on Standard or $330/mo on Premium with WAF, bot protection and Private Link included.

Visit azure.microsoft.com ↗ Alternatives Paid EU region
Azure Front Door homepage
§1

Overview

Azure Front Door is Microsoft's modern CDN. It caches static content, accelerates dynamic traffic over Microsoft's private global network, and acts as a global HTTP load balancer that can fail over between origins in different regions or clouds. A rules engine customises routing, and everything is deployable through Azure's APIs and DevOps tooling.

There are two tiers. Standard ($35 a month base fee) covers content delivery, load balancing, SSL offload, certificate management and traffic analytics. Premium ($330 a month base fee) adds the managed WAF, bot protection, Private Link to origins and security analytics, with WAF and Private Link pricing included.

On top of the base fee you pay for data transferred to clients ($0.083/GB in North America and Europe for the first 10 TB), data sent to origins and incoming requests. Transfer from Azure data centres to the edge is free. The classic Front Door tier is priced separately.

§2

Pricing and plans

Plan Price What you get
Standard $35/mo base Static and dynamic acceleration, global load balancing, SSL offload, analytics
Premium $330/mo base Adds WAF, bot protection, Private Link, Microsoft Threat Intelligence, security analytics
Edge-to-client transfer $0.083/GB North America and Europe, first 10 TB; $0.066 next 40 TB; other zones $0.104-$0.14

Base fees are billed hourly. Data transfer from edge to client, from edge to origin, and incoming requests are billed on top; request prices were not captured from the page. Data transfer from Azure data centres to Front Door is free. Volumes above 150 TB a month are by quote. Prices are estimates; actual prices depend on your Microsoft agreement.

Source: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/frontdoor/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Global load balancing
HTTP load balancing with health-based failover across regions and origins.
Static and dynamic acceleration
Caching plus acceleration of dynamic content over Microsoft's private network.
Web Application Firewall
Managed WAF, bot protection and DDoS protection; WAF pricing included in Premium.
Private Link origins
Premium can reach origins privately through Azure Private Link.
Rules engine
Customisable routing and header rules at the edge.
Free origin transfer
No charge for data from Azure data centres to Front Door edges.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Combines CDN, global load balancing and WAF in one service.
  • Premium includes WAF and Private Link rather than billing them separately.
  • Free transfer from Azure origins to the edge.
  • Fits Azure's IAM, deployment and billing.

Limitations

  • Fixed base fee of $35 or $330 a month before any traffic.
  • No free tier.
  • Bandwidth in Korea costs $0.14/GB in the first tier.
  • Pricing above 150 TB a month requires contacting Microsoft.
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Applications hosted on Azure
  • Multi-region apps needing global failover
  • Enterprises wanting WAF and Private Link on one bill

Look elsewhere if

  • Hobby or low-traffic sites where a $35 base fee dominates
  • Teams outside the Azure ecosystem
§6

Alternatives to Azure Front Door

Tool From Free option Stages
DigiCert DNS (DNS Made Easy) Managed DNS with SLA
$300/yr Paid
Cloudflare CDN, DNS, WAF and DDoS protection
$20/mo Free tier
Amazon CloudFront CDN with bundled WAF and DNS plans
$15/mo Free tier
IBM NS1 Connect Managed DNS with traffic steering
$99/mo Trial
CacheFly Throughput-focused CDN
$300/mo Free tier
INWX Domain registrar
$15.72/yr Paid

All CDN, DNS and edge security →

§7

Questions

How much does Azure Front Door cost?

A base fee of $35/mo (Standard) or $330/mo (Premium), plus data transfer from $0.083/GB in North America and Europe and request charges.

Is the WAF included in Azure Front Door?

WAF pricing is included in the Premium tier.

What is the difference between Front Door Standard and Premium?

Premium adds WAF, bot protection, Private Link, Microsoft Threat Intelligence integration and security analytics.

Does Azure Front Door have a free tier?

No. Both tiers have a monthly base fee.

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