In the next year, Microsoft will retire its Web and Business tiers for Azure SQL DB. Microsoft has now introduced a new pricing model that provides increased storage and dedicated performance commitments for Azure SQL. In addition, the size of databases running on Azure SQL has been increased to up to 500 GB.
To compare, let’s assume you have a 50 GB SQL Database that you want to host on Azure. Under the old model, you are charged exclusively on the size of the database – in this case, the price is $125.88 per month. There is no performance commitment attached to this database – your SQL database runs in essentially a shared cluster with all the other databases being hosted.
In the new model, you pay per database instead of per storage size. The Standard pricing allows you to have a database of up to 250 GB. The cost is either $20.15 per month for S1 or $100.13 per month for S2. The difference in the two models is how much performance you are allocated – S1 is assigned “20 DTUs” and S2 is assigned “50 DTUs” (presumably 150% faster).
Pricing will also shift starting in November 1, 2014 – the price for S1 will increase while the price for S2 will decrease.
