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# Don't use Azure Functions as a web application

**[Maarten Balliauw](https://daily.dev/sources/maartenballiauw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Azure Functions are designed as a reactive orchestrator for handling messages (queues, events, storage triggers), not as a full web application platform. Using an HTTP trigger gives you an HttpRequestMessage that's conceptually the same as any other triggering message - it's not building a real web API. For simple APIs handling a few events from a front-end, Azure Functions work fine, but if you need full ASP.NET Core middleware and pipeline capabilities, use ASP.NET Core directly rather than trying to shoehorn that functionality into Functions. If you only need parts of that stack, put API management, Cloudflare, or nginx in front of the HTTP-triggered function instead.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://blog.maartenballiauw.be/posts/2019-10-02-dont-use-azure-functions-as-a-web-application>

## Questions this post answers

### Should I use Azure Functions with HTTP triggers to build a full web API with ASP.NET Core middleware?

No, Azure Functions are designed as a reactive orchestrator for handling messages like queue events or storage triggers, not as a full web API platform. An HTTP trigger just provides an HttpRequestMessage as one of many possible input types, conceptually no different from a BlobUpdatedEvent. If full ASP.NET Core middleware and pipeline features are needed, use ASP.NET Core directly instead of forcing it into Functions.

_Developers weighing Azure Functions against ASP.NET Core can compare real-world architecture trade-offs on daily.dev._

### Is it okay to use Azure Functions for a simple API behind a React or Vue front-end?

Yes, using Azure Functions with HTTP triggers to handle a handful of events from a Vue, React, or Angular front-end is perfectly fine. Functions work well when they do one thing with minimal complexity; problems arise only when trying to shoehorn the full ASP.NET Core stack and its middleware pipeline into a function-based architecture.

_Teams scoping serverless versus traditional backends can track practical guidance like this on daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#azure](https://daily.dev/tags/azure), [#serverless](https://daily.dev/tags/serverless), [#aspnet](https://daily.dev/tags/aspnet), [#azure-functions](https://daily.dev/tags/azure-functions)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-use-azure-functions-as-a-web-application-ccacohc0v)

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