Outdated Azure App Service Plan

Prasanna Ravichandran

Service Category

Compute

Cloud Provider

Azure

Service Name

Azure App Service

Inefficiency Type

Outdated Resource

Explanation

Applications running on App Service V2 plans may incur higher operational costs and degraded performance compared to V3 plans. V2 uses older hardware generations that lack access to platform-level enhancements introduced in V3, including improved cold start times, faster scaling, and enhanced networking options.

This inefficiency often arises from legacy deployments or default provisioning choices that haven't been revisited. Without proactive review, teams may continue running production workloads on suboptimal infrastructure—paying more for less performance.

Relevant Billing Model

App Service plans are billed based on:
**Instance size and tier** (e.g., Premium v2 vs. Premium v3)
**Provisioned capacity** (number of instances)
V2 plans are often **less efficient per vCPU/memory unit** and may lack access to new platform features
V3 plans offer **better cost-performance**, especially for workloads sensitive to cold starts or scaling latency

Detection

Identify applications hosted on Premium V2 or Isolated V1 App Service plans
Check whether a review has been conducted to evaluate compatibility with V3 plans
Look for signs of degraded performance, such as slow cold starts or scaling lag
Determine if newer App Service features are required but unavailable on V2 plans

Remediation

Evaluate workload compatibility with V3-based plans (e.g., Premium v3 or Isolated v2)
Plan a phased migration of applications from V2 to V3 to improve performance and reduce cost per resource unit
Update infrastructure-as-code templates and provisioning defaults to prefer V3-based plans
Periodically review App Service plan usage to align with current Azure best practices

Relevant Documentation

Submit Feedback