Why We Use Azure Static Web Apps for Everything

At CloudWerk, we’ve moved all our static web properties to Azure Static Web Apps (SWA). This includes our company website, product landing pages, and now this blog.

Here’s why — and how we set it up.

The Problem with Traditional Hosting

When we had our site on Umbraco, it was:

  • Expensive (full VM running 24/7)
  • Slow to update (manual deploys)
  • Painful to maintain (CMS updates, security patches)
  • Overkill for a mostly-static marketing site

We needed something leaner.

Why Azure Static Web Apps?

Free tier includes everything we need:

  • Global CDN distribution
  • Automatic HTTPS with managed SSL certificates
  • Custom domains
  • GitHub Actions CI/CD integration
  • Azure Functions backend (API routes)

Developer experience is excellent:

  • Push to GitHub → auto-deploy in ~2 minutes
  • Preview environments for pull requests
  • Environment variables for staging vs production

Our Setup

We use Hugo as the static site generator and connect it to Azure SWA via GitHub Actions.

The GitHub Actions Workflow

name: Deploy Blog to Azure Static Web Apps

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, closed]
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build_and_deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          submodules: true
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Setup Hugo
        uses: peaceiris/actions-hugo@v3
        with:
          hugo-version: '0.141.0'
          extended: true

      - name: Build Hugo site
        run: hugo --minify

      - name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps
        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1
        with:
          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN }}
          action: "upload"
          app_location: "/"
          output_location: "public"
          skip_app_build: true

The Result

Every time we push to main, the site builds and deploys automatically. The whole process takes under 2 minutes.

Cost

The free tier handles everything we need. For scale, the Standard tier at $9/month adds more features. We’re on free — and it’s plenty.

Conclusion

Azure Static Web Apps + Hugo + GitHub Actions = fast, cheap, reliable web hosting. Highly recommended for any static site project.

Have questions? Drop a comment or reach out via cloudwerk.com.