Apple iCloud vs. Microsoft Azure

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apple iCloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Apple iCloud is a document management software offering from Apple. It includes features such as access to music, photos, calendars, contacts, and documents, and it is built into every new iOS device.
$0.99
per month
Microsoft Azure
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.
$29
per month
Pricing
Apple iCloudMicrosoft Azure
Editions & Modules
50GB
$0.99
per month
200GB
$2.99
per month
2TB
$9.99
per month
Developer
$29
per month
Standard
$100
per month
Professional Direct
$1000
per month
Basic
Free
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apple iCloudMicrosoft Azure
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe free tier lets users have access to a variety of services free for 12 months with limited usage after making an Azure account.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apple iCloudMicrosoft Azure
Features
Apple iCloudMicrosoft Azure
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Apple iCloud
8.4
Ratings
0% below category average
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
Versioning8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
File search8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
Apple iCloud
7.5
Ratings
15% below category average
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
User and role management6.90 Ratings00 Ratings
File organization8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Device management7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
Apple iCloud
7.1
Ratings
18% below category average
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
Performance7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Reliability8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Storage Reports6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Apple iCloud
-
Ratings
Microsoft Azure
8.5
Ratings
6% above category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Operating system support00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Automation00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
User Ratings
Apple iCloudMicrosoft Azure
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
6.8
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apple iCloudMicrosoft Azure
Likelihood to Recommend
iCloud is also great to keep access to photos synced across devices. Ex: I can snap a photo at a job site and have access to that photo on my desktop when I return to my office. I can then drop the photo into a document that is stored in iCloud and have instant access to that document on my iPad at a client's office later in the day. Seamless transitions make life much easier.
Read full review
Actually, migrating to Microsoft Azure is a good solution for almost any situation, especially when all components of your network are ready to become cloud-based. The only drawback I personally encounter frequently is that older software packages cannot always be easily picked up and moved to Microsoft Azure in an optimal manner.
Read full review
Pros
  • Syncing files, appointments, Notes and contacts. If I'm away from home, and set an appointment using my phone, that appointment automatically updates real time to my home laptop and vice-versa.
  • It stores files (e.g photos) nicely
  • Once it's set up, it's fairly easy to use.
Read full review
  • Azure simply provides end to end life cycle. Starting from the development to automated deployment, you will find [a] bunch of options. Custom hook-points allow [integration] on-premise resources as well.
  • Excellent documentation around all the services make it really easy for any novice. Overall support by [the] community and Azure Technical team is exceptional.
  • BOT Services, Computer Vision services, ML frameworks provide excellent results as compare to similar services provided by other giants in the same space.
  • Azure data services provide excellent support to ingest data from different sources, ETL, and consumption of data for BI purpose.
Read full review
Cons
  • Customization - iCloud is great at the stuff it does well. But it lacks features that some competitors (in Google Drive or Dropbox) do really well. API support for third-party apps is really great for some other people.
  • Remote use - Managing or accessing information from iCloud while not on one of your logged-in apple devices can sometimes be an issue. From a work computer for example. It doable, but the experience is much less user-friendly.
  • Ability to edit documents on the cloud similar to google docs or some other competitors
Read full review
  • In our experience, Azure Kubernetes Survice was difficult to set up, which is why we used Kubernetes on top of VMs.
  • Azure REST API is a bit difficult to use, which made it difficult for us to automate our interactions with Azure.
  • Azure's Web UI does a good job of showing metrics on individual VMs, but it would be great if there was a way to show certain metrics from multiple VMs on one dashboard. For example, hard drive usage on our database VMs.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
It's so seamless that I can't imagine another product doing a better job synchronizing all of my devices. I simply do not think about it at all. Everything happens behind the scenes and I'm confident that Apple keeps my data safe and secure. I'm a happy customer as far as this is concerned. I have not had a bad experience with this service.
Read full review
We have been very satisfied with Windows Azure and now a lot of our business depends on it as more teams are now deploying their applications into Azure. Our next step is to have our Infrastructure team move their resources to Azure. It will take awhile for that to happen but we are positive that it will.
Read full review
Usability
While it may be great to use with other Apple products, I find it's an absolutist-style workflow to be debilitating and to lead to many problems. When you sign into the cloud, it completely takes over your device in many ways that you don't notice at first until there is a problem.
Read full review
Microsoft Azure's overall usability has been better than expected. Often times vendors promise the world, only to leave you with a run-down town. Not the case with our experience. From an implementation perspective, all went perfect, and from the user-facing experience we have had no technical issues, just some learning curve issues that are more about "why" than "how"
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
Read full review
Performance
Occasionally, large files that haven't yet been synced require a few minutes to pull down but I've rarely noticed delays. It does a good job of keeping data cached on my local machines while updating them with changes from other machines transparently.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I never used Apple iCloud support, but have never needed to do so. It has become more of a personal issue with computers in my organization, where the business solution has been with Dropbox. I do have to admit when my Mac went down, having things on Apple iCloud did help to get things restored. However, since I had more than one photo file for my Business and Personal data, I was not able to recover my Business Photos. Apple iCloud should have been able to do this.
Read full review
Support is easy with all the knowledge base articles available for free on the web. Plus, if you have a preferred status you can leverage their concierge support to get rapid response. Sometimes they’ll bounce you around a lot to get you to the right person, but they are quite responsive (especially when you are paying for the service). Many of the older Microsoft skills are also transferable from old-school on-prem to Azure-based virtual interfaces.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
As I have mentioned before the issue with my Oracle Mismatch Version issues that have put a delay on moving one of my platforms will justify my 7 rating.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
As I have mentioned, the seamless integration across Apple's ecosystem is what keeps us using this product. However, the robust value of the Microsoft 365 Business Premium suite and functionality of their AI companion - Copilot - makes it superior at an organization level. The same could be said for Google AI (Gemini) as well as their cloud services like Drive.
Read full review
I feel that Microsoft Azure typically outperforms Google Cloud Platform in hybrid cloud capabilities, integration aspects, and, primarily, security compliance features. Azure offered superior integration with Microsoft's enterprise software ecosystem, and it's second to none in my opinion. This made it the natural choice for most, especially if heavily invested in Windows, Office 365, or Active Directory deployments. We chose Azure over GCP because we simply needed Windows workload support as a strong driver, more access to global regions, and let's not forget that most tech teams in an organization are Microsoft Certified, which makes skillset transfer from on-prem to cloud a minimal learning curve over shifting to a different provider.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • The ability to access saved content across devices no matter where I am located reduces missed opportunities to share and collaborate.
  • The version history has allowed my team to re-visit previous renditions when errors occur - saving valuable time determining the root cause.
  • The cloud reduces the number of physical documents one must remember when traveling for work.
Read full review
  • Times and growth went into it. By balancing on-premises maintenance with continuous cloud improvements, we’ve budgeted and planned endlessly increased capacity.
  • In today’s world of cyber-crime, clients can put even more faith in what they’ve heard. We built an innovative single-sign-on hub for all users. Also, other business platforms use Azure application gateways, reducing worker switching time and increasing productivity.
  • Its step can automate to improve the investment. In addition, we can integrate our organization’s credentials into an authorization for other systems.
Read full review
ScreenShots