Choosing Azure Function vs Azure App Services ?

Question

I have a python script that hits a Public API and writes the results in a CSV file. The script runs for closely 5-6 hours. And I wanted to run this script in automated fashion two times every month. I am a bit confused in finalizing whether to go with Azure Function App or App Services for this said scenario? What is the recommendation for this use and which is cost efficient?

Answer 1

Hi @David Maryo

Thank you for asking this question on the **Microsoft Q&A Platform. **

My recommendation is that you should go with the Azure Functions, the Azure Function is a lot cheaper than the Azure App Services.

You will need a Logic App for your scheduler and a Storage Account to store the CSV file.

Even with these other resources, the Azure function is cheaper.

You can calculate the prices of these solutions with the price calculator https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/

Hope this helps,
Carlos Solís Salazar

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Answer 2

Hi David, 5, to 6 hours is quite a long time. Both Azure functions and Azure App Services have some limits depending of the plan and function type. An Azure function using and http trigger (works like a rest api) will timeout in 230 s regardless the plan if your code is idle. You may need to do something like a azure function time trigger to invoke the public api and append data to the csv. Any trigger that is not the http trigger on a premium plan should do it. How are you planning to process that? Do you pass individual requests to this API and append to the CSV?
Also bare in mind one of the reasons Azure Function is cheap is because you don't pay when you don't run it. Maybe a long running data job is worthy checking Azure Data Factory :https://www.sqlshack.com/integrating-apis-into-data-pipelines-with-azure-data-factory/ and consider cost vs reliability

Answer 3

Hi @David Maryo , this also addressed elaborately in below thread :

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67546988/azure-app-service-plan-function-vs-app-service thanks