Discover Azure Functions

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Azure Functions is a serverless solution that allows you to write less code, maintain less infrastructure, and save on costs. Instead of worrying about deploying and maintaining servers, the cloud infrastructure provides all the up-to-date resources needed to keep your applications running.

We often build systems to react to a series of critical events. Whether you're building a web API, responding to database changes, processing IoT data streams, or even managing message queues - every application needs a way to run some code as these events occur.

Azure Functions supports triggers, which are ways to start execution of your code, and bindings, which are ways to simplify coding for input and output data. There are other integration and automation services in Azure and they all can solve integration problems and automate business processes. They can all define input, actions, conditions, and output.

Compare Azure Functions and Azure Logic Apps

Both Functions and Logic Apps are Azure Services that enable serverless workloads. Azure Functions is a serverless compute service, whereas Azure Logic Apps is a serverless workflow integration platform. Both can create complex orchestrations. An orchestration is a collection of functions or steps, called actions in Logic Apps, that are executed to accomplish a complex task.

For Azure Functions, you develop orchestrations by writing code and using the Durable Functions extension. For Logic Apps, you create orchestrations by using a GUI or editing configuration files.

The following table lists some of the key differences between Functions and Logic Apps:

Topic Azure Functions Logic Apps
Development Code-first (imperative) Designer-first (declarative)
Connectivity About a dozen built-in binding types, write code for custom bindings Large collection of connectors, Enterprise Integration Pack for B2B scenarios, build custom connectors
Actions Each activity is an Azure function; write code for activity functions Large collection of ready-made actions
Monitoring Azure Application Insights Azure portal, Azure Monitor logs
Management REST API, Visual Studio Azure portal, REST API, PowerShell, Visual Studio
Execution context Runs in Azure, or locally Runs in Azure, locally, or on premises

Compare Functions and WebJobs

Like Azure Functions, Azure App Service WebJobs with the WebJobs SDK is a code-first integration service that is designed for developers. Both are built on Azure App Service and support features such as source control integration, authentication, and monitoring with Application Insights integration.

Azure Functions is built on the WebJobs SDK, so it shares many of the same event triggers and connections to other Azure services. Here are some factors to consider when you're choosing between Azure Functions and WebJobs with the WebJobs SDK:

Factor Functions WebJobs with WebJobs SDK
Serverless app model with automatic scaling Yes No
Develop and test in browser Yes No
Pay-per-use pricing Yes No
Integration with Logic Apps Yes No
Trigger events Timer
Azure Storage queues and blobs
Azure Service Bus queues and topics
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Event Hubs
HTTP/WebHook (GitHub
Slack)
Azure Event Grid
Timer
Azure Storage queues and blobs
Azure Service Bus queues and topics
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Event Hubs
File system

Azure Functions offers more developer productivity than Azure App Service WebJobs does. It also offers more options for programming languages, development environments, Azure service integration, and pricing. For most scenarios, it's the best choice.