Thinking of using Azure to host a simple static site? You’re in the right place.

In this short post, I’ll walk you through how I used Azure Blob Storage to host a static website in minutes — without overcomplicating it. No VMs, no servers, no chaos. Just clean cloud goodness.

☁️ First, Why Azure?

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform — same league as AWS and Google Cloud. What makes Azure nice?

  • Integrated with everything Microsoft
  • Great UI for beginners
  • You get $200 free with a trial account (aka: zero dollars to deploy your site)
  • And with Azure Blob Storage, you can turn a simple storage bucket into a static website with public access — perfect for portfolios, documentation, or proof-of-concept apps.

🛠️ Step-by-Step: Host a Static Website on Azure Blob Storage

Let’s get into it. No fluff — just what I did.

1. Create a Storage Account

  1. Head to Azure Portal at portal.azure.com and sign in or up.
  2. Create a new Storage Account.
  3. Choose a region, name it something unique like 'myawesomestorage123'.

2. Create a Blob Container

  1. Inside your new Storage Account, go to Containers.
  2. Create a new container, name it web or website or something simple.
  3. Set Public access level to Container (anonymous read access).

3. Upload Your Site

  1. Upload your index.html file to the container.
  2. If you’re fancy, add a error.html too.

4. Enable Static Website Hosting

  1. Still in your storage account, find Static website under settings.
  2. Turn it on, set index.html as the default.
  3. Azure will give you a public endpoint like: 'https://.z13.web.core.windows.net'

5. Test It

  1. Open that URL in incognito mode.
  2. Boom. Site live. Cloud flex unlocked. 💪

⚠️ Common Issues & Fixes

❌ Blob Container Access Level is Greyed Out
When you try to set your Blob container to Container (anonymous read access) and it’s greyed out, don’t panic.

✅ Fix It:

  1. Go to your Storage Account settings.
  2. Find Configuration.
  3. Flip the switch for Allow blob anonymous access to Enabled.
  4. Save it.
  5. Now go back and set the public access level — good to go.

❌ CDN Not Registered
I tried to add Azure Front Door to boost performance and HTTPS support. But if you’re on a Free Trial, you’ll probably hit this:

> Error: Microsoft.Cdn is not registered for the subscription

✅ How to Fix It (If You Have Access)
If you’re not on a Free Trial, here’s the fix using the Azure CLI:

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.Cdn

Done! Now, you can use Azure Front Door or Azure CDN. But if you’re on a trial account, just know it won’t work until you upgrade. Not a dealbreaker for simple sites.

🧹 Clean-Up: Don’t Forget to Shut It Down

If you’re done with your project and want to avoid unexpected charges (or just like a clean dashboard), here’s how to clean up:

  • Delete the Blob Container
  • Delete the Storage Account
  • Double-check Resource Group usage if you created one just for this

That’s it — you’re done.

🏁 Final Thoughts

Hosting a static site on Azure is easy, fast, and free (if you’re on a trial). You don’t need VMs or complicated infra to get a portfolio or simple app online.

And if you want more performance or HTTPS, Azure Front Door is there when you’re ready (and off the free trial 😅).

Judewakim (Judewakim) / Repositories · GitHub

Hi, I’m a DevOps Cloud Engineer. I use AWS ☁️, Python 🐍, Terraform🏗️, and Linux 🐧 to build things for fun. - Judewakim

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Want to see more quick cloud wins like this? Follow me — I build fast, clean, cloud-native solutions for real-world projects. Check out my other Medium posts and check out my Github and LinkedIn.

Catch you in the cloud. ☁️