---
title: Azure Container Apps
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: Docs > Serverless > Azure Container Apps
---

# Azure Container Apps

## Overview{% #overview %}

Azure Container Apps is a fully managed serverless platform for deploying and scaling container-based applications. Datadog provides standard metrics and log collection for Container Apps through the [Azure integration](https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/azure/#log-collection). Datadog also provides a solution for instrumenting your Container Apps applications with a purpose-built Agent to enable tracing, custom metrics, and direct log collection.

{% image
   source="https://docs.dd-static.net/images/serverless/azure_container_apps/aca_top_2.151fa6ea92f58138759fa0a344e084c9.png?auto=format"
   alt="Datadog UI, Serverless Monitoring page with Azure Container Apps selected." /%}

## Choosing an Instrumentation Method{% #choosing-an-instrumentation-method %}

To instrument your Azure Container App with Datadog, choose one of two options:

- [](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/azure_container_apps/in_container)
- [](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/azure_container_apps/sidecar)

- [**In-Container**](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/azure_container_apps/in_container): Wraps your application container with the Datadog Agent. Choose this option for a simpler setup, lower cost overhead, and direct log piping.
- [**Sidecar**](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/azure_container_apps/sidecar): Deploys the Datadog Agent in a separate container alongside your app container. Choose this option if you have multiple containers in a single service, if you prefer strict isolation of the Datadog Agent, or if you have performance-sensitive workloads.

## Comparison: In-Container versus sidecar instrumentation{% #comparison-in-container-versus-sidecar-instrumentation %}

| Aspect            | In-Container                                             | Sidecar                                                                                                                                                      |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Deployment        | One container (your app, wrapped with the Datadog Agent) | Two containers (your app, Datadog Agent)                                                                                                                     |
| Image changes     | Increases app image size.                                | No change to app image.                                                                                                                                      |
| Cost overhead     | Less than sidecar (no extra container).                  | Extra vCPU/memory. Overallocating the sidecar wastes cost; underallocating leads to premature scaling.                                                       |
| Logging           | Direct stdout/stderr access.                             | Shared volume + log library routing to a log file. Uncaught errors require extra handling, since they are not automatically handled by your logging library. |
| Failure isolation | In rare cases, Datadog Agent bugs can affect your app.   | Datadog Agent faults are isolated.                                                                                                                           |

## Further reading{% #further-reading %}

- [Disable Serverless Monitoring](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/guide/disable_serverless)
- [Collect traces, logs, and custom metrics from Container Apps services](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/azure-container-apps/)
- [Build secure and scalable Azure serverless applications with the Well-Architected Framework](http://datadoghq.com/blog/azure-well-architected-serverless-applications-best-practices/)
- [Azure Integration](https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/azure/)
- [Instrument your container with the in-container approach](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/azure_container_apps/in_container/)
- [Instrument your container with the sidecar approach](https://docs.datadoghq.com/serverless/azure_container_apps/sidecar/)