Earlier this year, Microsoft confirmed a 5% price increase for Azure, rolling out significant markups on computing, networking, and storage services under the New Commerce Experience (NCE). What will Microsoft Azure price Increase be in 2026?
This follows a trend of rising public cloud price increases catching businesses around the globe unprepared. The sudden Microsoft Azure price increase has hit many UK businesses, especially SMEs and growth-focused tech firms with tight budgets, who are now looking for cost-effective alternatives.
Every increase in cloud subscription cost means adding to your operating costs and the need to rework your budgets. This also means IT heads and CFOs need to rethink their public cloud choices while keeping costs under control.
But before scanning your Azure bills, why not consider migrating to a better, more economical service?
At BlackBox Hosting, we offer a high-performance, fixed-cost alternative, giving you full control over cloud spend without sacrificing speed, security, or service.
In this blog, learn what’s triggering the Microsoft Azure price increase and why your switch to our cloud hosting services could be a game-changing move for your business.
What the Microsoft Azure Price Increase in 2025 Means for Your Business
Microsoft has introduced substantial changes in their price structure on compute, networking, and storage services. But what does this mean for businesses?
- Base rates have increased by 12-18% across most services
- Memory allocation is now billed separately from compute resources
- Compute costs on Virtual Machines (VMs) have increased up to 15% across key instance types.
- Outbound data transfer fees have risen approximately 10–12%.
- Premium storage costs (managed discs, backup, snapshots) are now on average 8–10% more expensive.
For small teams and growing SaaS businesses, these seemingly small Microsoft Azure price increases add up, driving exponentially higher cloud bills, impacting operating costs and expected profit margins.
The Growing Cost Pressure on Business Budgets
Over time and scale, these small percentage increases add up to significant costs, especially if you are a business with multiple VM deployments, high-computing requirements, data-heavy workloads, or network-dependent usage.
These unpredictable cloud price increases make it difficult for businesses to forecast expenses and keep them in line with profitability. Moreover, small and upcoming organisations often lack the negotiating power with large public cloud providers like Microsoft.
Could it be more cost-effective and sustainable to make the switch to another cloud provider? Speak to us to find out.
When Should You Change Cloud Providers?
Consider these scenarios before changing your cloud provider:
- Your Azure bill has likely increased by over 10% since January 2025
- You need predictable, manageable costs to run your business sustainably
- Your business needs to follow UK data sovereignty rules and be GDPR compliant
- You want trusting and reliable, UK-based technical support and not bots or secluded global call-centres.
If you meet one or more of the above criteria, then it’s high time to migrate to BlackBox Hosting’s services.
Why is BlackBox Hosting the Better Alternative?
BlackBox Hosting offers complete enterprise-grade IT infrastructure and support in addition to hosting. For years, our customers have trusted us for stable, secure, and reliable computing services for their business growth.
Here’s why our customers love us and stay with us:
Transparent, Competitive Pricing
Make the most of our fixed-cost private and managed cloud services. We don’t punish you for scale, nor do we add any surprise surcharges. With BlackBox, you get significantly lower compute and storage fees, often 20–40% less than Azure’s new pricing.
Cost Predictability
We don’t engage in surprise price hikes. You can expect your billing to be stable and easy to forecast. You’re in the driver’s seat of when and why you scale resources.
UK-Based and Compliant
We own and operate our infrastructure in the UK, from the servers to the team. Our services support data sovereignty, data jurisdiction according to local and national regulations, and GDPR compliance. All these factors make us the preferred choice for businesses in the financial services, legal, and healthcare sectors.
24/7, Personalised Support
Get troubleshooting or query handling from our dedicated UK-based technical teams around the clock, with resolution within the hour. We also support you with managed services and proactive maintenance.
Our customer-centric approach and professional services have helped us maintain a 100% client retention rate for the longest time.
Avoid Future Cloud Price Increases by Switching to BlackBox Hosting
By partnering with BlackBox Hosting, you don’t need to worry about rising cloud subscription costs.
While Azure bills continue to grow, our customers benefit from:
- Predictable monthly pricing with no hidden usage fees
- Around 76% faster performance than most public clouds
- Up to 50% cheaper than popular public clouds
- 99.999% uptime; never had an outage in the last 10 years
- UK-based infrastructure with ISO 27001, 22301, and 14068 certifications
- Fully managed platform with proactive expert support and service reviews
- Complete migration assistance
Whether you’re running SQL databases, Remote Desktop, or containerised workloads, we provide a seamless, secure, and cost-stable alternative to Azure.Avoid the next price rise. Switch to BlackBox today. Call us on +44 (0)2037 407 840 for a demo VM or cost comparison.
