# Azure Queue Storage vs Zeplo

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/azure-queue-storage-vs-zeplo/

Every value below is read from Azure Queue Storage's and Zeplo's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Azure Queue Storage | Zeplo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance. | Per HTTP request rather than per message or per execution, with unlimited jobs on every tier and team size as a separate axis — three members included on Company, $15 for each beyond. |
| Included per month | None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly. | 500 requests free, then $20 per 100,000. The Company plan includes 1,000,000 requests and charges $10 per million beyond — five times cheaper per request than the free plan's overage rate. |
| Maximum message size | 64 KB per message. A queue may hold millions of messages, bounded only by the storage account's capacity rather than a queue-level ceiling. | 256 KB inline request body (unlimited via S3 offload); plan payload caps are 64 KB on Developer and 1 MB on Company. |
| Message retention | Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time. | 30 days of log retention on every plan — free, Company and Enterprise alike. The longest window in this category by a wide margin. |
| Maximum delay | Time-to-live defaults to seven days and can be set to any positive number, or to -1 for a message that never expires — the only queue here with an unbounded option. | 30 days (2,592,000 seconds) maximum delay_seconds per request. |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- Azure Queue Storage: Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Zeplo: Per HTTP request rather than per message or per execution, with unlimited jobs on every tier and team size as a separate axis — three members included on Company, $15 for each beyond. ([source](https://www.zeplo.io/pricing))

### Included per month

- Azure Queue Storage: None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Zeplo: 500 requests free, then $20 per 100,000. The Company plan includes 1,000,000 requests and charges $10 per million beyond — five times cheaper per request than the free plan's overage rate. ([source](https://www.zeplo.io/pricing))

### Maximum message size

- Azure Queue Storage: 64 KB per message. A queue may hold millions of messages, bounded only by the storage account's capacity rather than a queue-level ceiling. ([source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/queues/storage-queues-introduction))
- Zeplo: 256 KB inline request body (unlimited via S3 offload); plan payload caps are 64 KB on Developer and 1 MB on Company. ([source](https://zeplo.io/docs/limits/))

### Message retention

- Azure Queue Storage: Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Zeplo: 30 days of log retention on every plan — free, Company and Enterprise alike. The longest window in this category by a wide margin. ([source](https://www.zeplo.io/pricing))

### Maximum delay

- Azure Queue Storage: Time-to-live defaults to seven days and can be set to any positive number, or to -1 for a message that never expires — the only queue here with an unbounded option. ([source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/queues/storage-queues-introduction))
- Zeplo: 30 days (2,592,000 seconds) maximum delay_seconds per request. ([source](https://zeplo.io/docs/limits/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Azure Queue Storage if Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.

Pick Zeplo if Turning an HTTP endpoint into a queued, retried job without running a consumer — and keeping a month of logs while doing it, which nothing else here offers on a free plan.

Consider something else: Azure Queue Storage — Queued messages are billed as stored data, so a backlog costs money by the gigabyte-month, and there is no free allowance at all where SQS gives a million requests a month.

Consider something else: Zeplo — The free tier's overage is $20 per 100,000 requests, twenty times the Company plan's rate, so staying free past 500 requests is the most expensive way to use it.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Zeplo: Yes
- Entry paid plan: Zeplo: $39/month for Company, including 1,000,000 requests and three team members. Additional members are $15 each.
- Regions: Zeplo: Hosted on Google Cloud Platform; no selectable region is offered and data may be transferred between countries.
- Concurrency: Zeplo: API rate limit rather than a concurrency figure: 100 requests/min on Developer (Free) and 2,000 requests/min on Company ($39/mo).
- SOC 2: Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
- ISO 27001: Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (ISO 27001) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
- HIPAA: Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (HIPAA) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
- PCI DSS: Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (PCI DSS) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose Azure Queue Storage or Zeplo?**

Pick Azure Queue Storage if Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.
Pick Zeplo if Turning an HTTP endpoint into a queued, retried job without running a consumer — and keeping a month of logs while doing it, which nothing else here offers on a free plan.