Posted by: Aaron Sadler
31 October 2025
If you’re comparing Azure managed service providers, pricing can feel like guesswork. It shouldn’t. This guide shows exactly what you should get for your money, how billing works, and the pricing model Growcreate uses so there are no surprises.
What “transparent” really means
With Growcreate you get:
- Itemised proposals – line by line, not bundles that hide work
- Clear monthly fee – fixed for the agreed scope, reviewed quarterly
- Pass‑through Azure charges – billed by Microsoft, never marked up
- Full cost visibility – you keep access to budgets, alerts and cost analysis in the Azure portal so you can see and forecast spend.
- Savings recommendations – we act on Azure Advisor and Cost Management insights as part of your plan. Azure Advisor is free.
How Azure billing actually works
- Microsoft bills your Azure usage monthly. You can set budgets, anomaly alerts and export detailed cost data for your finance team.
- Use the Azure pricing calculator to estimate scenarios, including your organisation’s negotiated rates when signed in.
- Classic Cloud Solution Provider offers have limitations in Cost Management until they transition to Microsoft Customer Agreement – we’ll confirm your billing model up front so you keep visibility.
- Savings plans can reduce eligible compute costs by up to 65%, and reserved instances can reduce VM costs by up to 72% compared to pay‑as‑you‑go. We’ll price these options into your estimate when they fit your usage.
Tip: we standardise reporting on the FOCUS cost data model where available so finance sees one consistent view of costs.
What’s in scope for managed services
- 24/7 monitoring and incident response
- Patching and security hardening
- Cost and performance tuning
- Backup, disaster recovery and test restores
- Compliance reporting and guardrails
- Environments management and release support
We specialise in Azure for content and commerce platforms, with proven results for high‑stakes sites and Umbraco workloads.
Our pricing model – simple and predictable
Your monthly invoice has two parts:
- Managed service fee – covers the people and processes listed above
- Azure usage – billed by Microsoft based on your actual consumption
We publish guide pricing below so you can budget with confidence. Final numbers depend on scope and workload risk. For context, our published website maintenance pricing shows typical UK ranges for 9‑5 and 24/7 support.
What drives the monthly fee
- Number of environments and regions
- Uptime and response SLAs
- Security and compliance scope
- Release cadence and DevOps requirements
We aim to reduce platform running costs over time through rightsizing, autoscale, savings plans and reservations, which have delivered up to 40% hosting savings for clients.
A clear, itemised estimate from day one
Every proposal includes:
- A line‑by‑line scope of services with quantities and rates
- An Azure usage estimate built in the official calculator and shared for review. You can sign in to see your rates.
- Savings options – reservations vs savings plans, with pros and cons for your workload.
Example estimate structure
- Managed service fee – Standard package: £1,200 per month
- Add‑ons – Additional staging environment: £350 per month
- Azure usage – App Service, SQL, Storage, Front Door, Backup and Monitor priced in the Azure calculator and attached to your proposal.
- Savings options – 1‑year savings plan on compute or VM reservations where appropriate.
How we keep costs predictable
- Budgets and alerts set on day one with owner access for finance and technology leaders.
- Monthly cost reviews with actions aligned to the Cost Optimisation maturity model so you progress from awareness to proactive efficiency.
- Advisor and Monitor tuned to catch waste – idle resources, oversized SKUs and noisy logging.
Buying checklist for UK teams
Use this to compare providers and cut through vague pricing.
- Ask for an itemised managed service fee and a separate Azure usage estimate built in the official calculator.
- Confirm you will keep portal access to Cost Management, budgets and exports, even if you buy Azure through a partner.
- Request savings plan and reservation options with clear eligibility and terms.
- Check if Azure Advisor recommendations are actively actioned in the service, not just reported. Advisor itself is free.
Why Growcreate
- Global engineering team with Azure‑native experience for Umbraco and enterprise web platforms
- Outcome‑based hosting and support with measurable cost and performance wins.
- Transparent pricing with no hidden fees and a quarterly optimisation plan
Ready for a precise, itemised quote
Tell us about your platform and we’ll send a clear, line‑by‑line estimate with options for savings plans or reservations. We can also model different scenarios in the Azure calculator so finance, technology and marketing have the same picture.