Azure Mobile Services

vs
AWS Mobile Services
Microsoft Azure

Azure Mobile Services vs AWS Mobile

Services
Azure Mobile Services provides an integrated experience for mobile developers that
combines data storage, business logic, authentication, and push notifications. AWS
provides a set of disparate capabilities are marketed together, but in reality the developer
has to do non-trivial work to glue them together.
Azure Mobile Services provides a strong and differentiated set of enterprise features:
corporate identity with Active Directory login, superior offline/sync capability, integration
with SharePoint Online and Office 365, Visual Studio integration and first-class .NET
Framework support for extending your service, and lightweight on-premises connectivity.
Azure push notification support is functionally richer: supports cross-platform broadcast,
notifying millions of via single API call, millions of subscribed devices to a tag/topic,
dynamic segmentation, client-side localization and personalization, and rich
telemetry/analytics.
Azure offline data sync is richer and more flexible as it allows the storage of typed objects
(including projected objects over existing server data), not just key/values.

MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL

Azure Mobile Services vs AWS Mobile

Services

Developer tooling
Developer portal
Cross-platform command-line
tooling
Visual Studio integration
No-code app development
Client platform support
iOS
Android
Windows
Xamarin
PhoneGap/HTML
Fire OS
Open-source SDK on GitHub
Authentication/identity
Anonymous login
Facebook login
Google login
Twitter login
Amazon login
Corporate identity
Role-based identity

Azure Mobile Services

AWS Mobile Services

X
X

X
X

X
X (quickstarts, Siena,
AppStudio)

X
X
X
X
X

X
X

X
X

X
X
X

X (AAD)

X
X
X

MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL

Azure Mobile Services vs AWS Mobile

Services

Azure Mobile Services

AWS Mobile Services

X
X
X
X (objects)

X (Cognito)
X** (DynamoDB)

X (key-values)

X (preview)

X*

X
X

Structured data storage

Key/value store
NoSQL data store
Relational data store
Project existing relational data
Offline data sync
File storage
Static file upload
Code hosting
Managed scheduled jobs
First-class server programming model
using .NET or Node.js
Standalone web services
Push notifications
Support for iOS devices
Support for Android devices
Support for Windows devices
Support for Fire OS devices
Cross-platform broadcast
Notify users via single API call
Subscribed devices to a tag/topic
Dynamic segmentation
Customizable client-side templates
(localization, personalization)
Rich telemetry/analytics

X
X
X
X
X
Millions
Millions
X
X

X
X

10K
10K

MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL

* Amazon has a rich SDK for

connecting to S3. From their
docs: Backup and share your
mobile application files
online with Amazon Simple
Storage Service (S3). The
Amazon S3 Transfer Manager
in the AWS Mobile SDK
simplifies uploading and
downloading files from
devices over mobile
connections to make
accessing files stored in the
cloud fast and easy. The
Amazon S3 Transfer Manager
provides multi-part
uploads/downloads, pause,
resume and cancel.
** DynamoDB has an object
mapper, whereas Azure
Mobile Services only offers
an object mapper for SQL.

Azure Mobile Services vs AWS Mobile

Services

Analytics
Support for iOS devices
Support for Android devices
Support for Windows devices
MAU, DAU, New users, Sessions
User Path (Screen flow)
Screen visits and duration
User Experience (Job timing)
Basic Retention
Retention Matrix (cohort
evolution)
Crashes & Errors
Install Tracking integration w 3rd
party
Complete Device technical
Realtime
Stream processing
App messaging

Azure Mobile Services

AWS Mobile Services

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X

X
X

X (preview)

X (Kinesis)

MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL

Azure Mobile Services vs AWS Mobile

Services

Azure Mobile Services

AWS Mobile Services

X (relay)

X (virtual network)

SharePoint Online and Office 365

integration
Datacenter support

US

Brazil

Europe

Japan

Singapore

China

Australia

Automatic scaling

Monitoring and alerting

Coming CY14

Enterprise features

On-premises connectivity

Management capabilities

Load balancing

MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL