MapleDeploy vs Azure
App Service runs your app. MapleDeploy gives you one managed server for your whole stack.
Microsoft Azure has two Canadian regions: Canada Central in Toronto and Canada East in Quebec. For web apps, the usual choice is Azure App Service, a managed platform where Azure looks after the operating system and you deploy your code to a plan. MapleDeploy takes a different shape. You get a dedicated Toronto VM running Coolify, with your apps, workers and databases on one server, and we look after that server. This page covers how the two differ, what each costs, and how the jurisdiction compares.
Side by side
What you get
- Azure
- A managed app platform, billed per App Service plan
- MapleDeploy
- Dedicated VM with your own Coolify instance
OS patching
- Azure
- Handled by Azure for built-in stacks; a custom container's contents are yours
- MapleDeploy
- Handled for you
Databases
- Azure
- Separate Azure database services, billed on their own
- MapleDeploy
- One-click, included
Backups
- Azure
- App files hourly on Basic and up; managed databases back up on their own service
- MapleDeploy
- Weekly full-server snapshots, databases included
Canadian locations
- Azure
- Toronto (Canada Central), Quebec (Canada East)
- MapleDeploy
- Toronto
Headquarters
- Azure
- United States
- MapleDeploy
- Canada
Pricing
- Azure
- Per plan, plus each database; Linux Basic B2 about $26 USD/mo
- MapleDeploy
- From $45 CAD/mo, databases included
When Azure is the right choice
Azure fits well when your organization already runs on Microsoft. Entra ID sign-in, .NET apps, SQL Server and an existing Azure agreement all make App Service the natural home for a new web app.
It also scales in ways a single server doesn't. Standard and Premium tiers add deployment slots and autoscale, and Canada Central and Canada East are paired, so you can plan for disaster recovery without leaving the country.
What App Service leaves to you
App Service is a real platform as a service. Microsoft's documentation says Azure manages OS patching for the servers and the VMs that run your app, monthly, in line with Patch Tuesday. Patch updates to the .NET, PHP and Java runtimes are applied for you. New major and minor runtime versions are installed side by side, and moving your app to one is your job.
What sits outside App Service is yours to assemble. A database is a separate Azure service, such as Azure Database for PostgreSQL, sized and billed on its own, and it backs itself up automatically with point-in-time restore. App Service's own automatic backups cover your app's files and some of its configuration, and Microsoft's documentation says linked databases are not included. Several apps, and background work run as WebJobs, can share one plan's instances. Caches and queues are separate Azure services.
That's a good trade for a web app. As a project grows to an app, a database and a cache, each service is its own line on the bill. We walk through the flat-server alternative in self-hosting Coolify vs managed Coolify.
What MapleDeploy handles
MapleDeploy runs the server and Coolify together. You get a dedicated VM in Toronto, ready in minutes, and you deploy through the Coolify dashboard.
- Security hardening. SSH key authentication, fail2ban, outbound SMTP blocking, and automatic security patches, applied before you first log in.
- OS patches. Operating system updates and kernel patches are applied for you. When a kernel update needs a reboot, it happens in a fixed 07:50 UTC window.
- Coolify itself. We run a public fork of Coolify that we rebase regularly against upstream. Changes are limited to Canadian branding and MapleDeploy integrations.
- Snapshots. Weekly full-server snapshots covering the OS, Coolify, containers, volumes and databases.
Snapshots are disaster recovery, not granular restores. For production databases, you should still set up Coolify's S3 database backups on a daily schedule.
Comparing the cost
App Service bills per plan. A Linux Basic B2 plan, with 2 cores and 3.5 GB of memory, is listed at $0.035 USD an hour in Canada Central. That is about $26 USD a month for the app. A managed database and data transfer are billed on top, each at its own rate. Microsoft describes the Basic tier as meant for low-traffic workloads, without advanced autoscale.
MapleDeploy starts at $45 CAD/month for a dedicated VM with 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs and 35 GB of storage. Databases, Coolify, patches and snapshots are in that price, with no per-project or usage fees. Starter and Pro include a 30-day free trial.
For one small web app with no database, App Service Basic can cost less. Once you add a database and a cache, one flat price is simpler to plan around.
Jurisdiction
Both options can host your data in Canada. Microsoft runs Canada Central in Toronto and Canada East in Quebec, and Microsoft is a US company.
That distinction matters to some teams and not to others. Jurisdiction follows the company, not the data centre, which is why US providers with Canadian regions remain subject to the CLOUD Act. We look at what the hyperscalers' Canadian regions do and don't guarantee in is AWS ca-central-1 actually Canadian data residency?, which covers Azure too.
MapleDeploy runs on Canadian infrastructure in Toronto, with a privately owned Canadian provider that has no US parent company. Your code and your data are hosted under Canadian jurisdiction, on infrastructure built for PIPEDA compliance, on every plan.
Try it free for 30 days
Start with $0 due today. Your first charge comes after the trial. One flat price, with the server's upkeep included.
One server for the whole stack
Coolify on a dedicated Toronto VM for your apps and databases, with the server patched and backed up for you.