Azure Queue Storage vs Zeplo
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Azure Queue Storage and Zeplo built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose 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.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose 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.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- 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.
5 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Azure Queue Storage 0
Zeplo 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Azure Queue Storage | Zeplo |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| 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. |
| Queues | ||
| 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Azure Retail Prices API — Queues v2, eastus ↗
“"LRS Class 1 Operations", "10K", 0.004 [...] "ZRS Class 2 Operations", "10K", 0.004 [...] "GRS Class 1 Operations", "10K", 0.008”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Zeplo ↗
“Jobs Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Included team members 1 3 Custom Addition team members $15 $15 $15 Log retention 30 days 30 days 30 days”
Read 2026-09-06 · official 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Azure Retail Prices API — Queues v2, eastus ↗
“"productName": "Queues v2", "meterName": "LRS Class 1 Operations", "unitOfMeasure": "10K", "retailPrice": 0.004”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Zeplo ↗
“Free 500 requests included $20 / 100k requests [...] $39 /month 1M requests included $10 / million requests”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Introduction to Azure Queue Storage — Microsoft Learn ↗
“A queue message can be up to 64 KB in size. A queue may contain millions of messages, up to the total capacity limit of a storage account.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
- Limits - Zeplo docs ↗
“Maximum request body size 256KB inline, unlimited via S3 offload [...] Max payload 64KB 1MB”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
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.
- Zeplo
- 30 days of log retention on every plan — free, Company and Enterprise alike. The longest window in this category by a wide margin.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Azure Retail Prices API — Queues v2, eastus ↗
“"meterName": "LRS Data Stored", "unitOfMeasure": "1 GB/Month", "retailPrice": 0.045”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Zeplo ↗
“Log retention 30 days 30 days 30 days”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Introduction to Azure Queue Storage — Microsoft Learn ↗
“For version 2017-07-29 or later, the maximum time-to-live can be any positive number, or -1 indicating that the message doesn't expire. If this parameter is omitted, the default time-to-live is seven days.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
- Limits - Zeplo docs ↗
“Maximum delay_seconds 2,592,000 (30 days)”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
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.