AppFog vs Azure Websites: What are the differences?

AppFog: Simple PaaS for Java, Python, Node, .Net, Ruby, PHP, MySQL, Mongo, and PostgreSQL. AppFog provides the infrastructure web developers need to build apps without worrying about IT tasks or having to wait days to get servers ready for writing code. AppFog’s web application technologies include PHP, NodeJS, Ruby, Python, Java, .NET, MySQL, and PostgreSQL; Azure Websites: Deploy and scale modern websites and web apps in seconds. Azure Websites is a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that enables you to build, deploy and scale enterprise-grade web Apps in seconds. Focus on your application code, and let Azure take care of the infrastructure to scale and securely run it for you.

AppFog and Azure Websites belong to "Platform as a Service" category of the tech stack.

Some of the features offered by AppFog are:

• Launches fast, runs fast- Varnish Cache and op-code caching run applications with less server load and accelerated performance.
• Reduces ops work- No more configuring servers, firewalls, Apache, security, or installing frameworks.
• Plays well with any SCM- Versioning is critical. AppFog is compatible with code management systems like git, svn, and mercurial.

On the other hand, Azure Websites provides the following key features:

• .NET, Java, PHP, Node.js, Python
• Built-in AutoScale and Load Balancing
• High Availability with Auto-Patching

"The basic plan is free" is the primary reason why developers consider AppFog over the competitors, whereas "Ease of deployment" was stated as the key factor in picking Azure Websites.