Azure Static Web Apps alternative – no Azure required
Azure Static Web Apps is built for deploying web applications in the Azure ecosystem. Using it to share HTML files with company auth means wiring up Azure AD, GitHub Actions, and ARM templates – for a file you want to share in the next 15 minutes. display.dev gives you company SSO on any HTML file. No Azure account. No infrastructure.
display.dev vs. Azure Static Web Apps
| display.dev | Azure SWA | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price (100 viewers) | €49 flat | $9/app + Azure AD costs |
| Setup time | 15 seconds | 1–2 days |
| Google Workspace SSO | ✅ Included | ❌ (Azure AD only) |
| Microsoft 365 SSO | ✅ Included | ✅ (Azure AD) |
| File upload (no git project) | ✅ | ❌ (requires git/pipeline) |
| CLI publish | ✅ (dsp publish) | ❌ (Azure CLI + SWA CLI) |
| Non-Azure viewers | ✅ | ⚠️ Requires Azure AD guest accounts |
| Unlimited viewers flat price | ✅ | ❌ (per-seat at scale) |
| MCP for Claude Desktop | ✅ | ❌ |
| Requires Azure subscription | ❌ | ✅ |
| Requires DevOps knowledge | ❌ | ✅ |
The Azure auth problem
Azure Static Web Apps Standard tier costs $9/app/month. But authentication in Azure SWA is built around Azure AD – which means your viewers need to be in your Azure AD tenant.
If your viewers use Google Workspace, they're not in Azure AD by default. You'd need to either:
- Set up B2B guest invites for every viewer in Azure AD, or
- Configure a custom OpenID Connect provider
That's IT work, not a 15-second task. And every new viewer needs to be provisioned in Azure AD before they can access the page.
display.dev's Pro tier includes Google Workspace SSO and Microsoft 365 SSO – both, at €49/month flat. If your company uses Google, viewers authenticate with their company Google account. If you use Microsoft, they use Microsoft. No Azure required for either.
Azure SWA is excellent – for Azure-native deployments
Azure Static Web Apps is the right tool when you are:
- Deploying a production React/Angular/Vue application
- Deep in the Microsoft/Azure ecosystem with Azure DevOps CI/CD
- Already using Azure AD for all identity management
- Building apps that need Azure Functions backends
For permanent infrastructure deployments in a Microsoft shop, SWA is well-integrated and cost-effective.
The overhead for sharing internal HTML files
Sharing an HTML file via Azure SWA requires:
- Create an Azure subscription (if you don't have one)
- Create a Static Web App resource via Azure Portal or ARM template
- Connect a GitHub/Azure DevOps repository
- Configure the build/deploy workflow
- Configure authentication in the Azure Portal
- Provision viewers in Azure AD (or configure B2B)
- Push your file to the connected repo and wait for CI
That's 1–2 days of setup for the first artifact. And every new artifact either goes into the same repo or requires a new SWA resource.
With display.dev:
dsp publish ./proposal.html --name q1-architecturedisplay.dev: publish anything, no infrastructure
display.dev isn't a deployment platform. It's a publishing layer – the step between "file on disk" and "authenticated URL." You don't need a git repo, a CI pipeline, or an Azure subscription. You need an HTML file and 15 seconds.
For Google Workspace companies: Viewers authenticate with their @yourcompany.com Google account. One click. No Azure AD. No guest provisioning.
For Microsoft 365 companies: Same experience with Microsoft SSO. No Azure AD configuration beyond your existing M365 setup.
Pricing
Try it. No credit card.
- Included: 10 gated artifacts
- Included: Unlimited public artifacts*
- Included: 50MB storage
- Not included: Version history
- Not included: Google + Microsoft SSO
- Not included: Private artifacts
- Not included: Audit logs
display.dev branded
Individuals. Unlimited gated sharing.
- Included: Unlimited gated artifacts
- Included: Unlimited public artifacts
- Included: 1GB storage
- Included: 10 versions
- Not included: Google + Microsoft SSO
- Not included: Private artifacts
- Not included: Audit logs
For teams that need company auth.
- Included: Unlimited gated artifacts
- Included: Unlimited public artifacts
- Included: 25GB storage
- Included: 50 versions
- Included: Google + Microsoft SSO
- Included: Private artifacts
- Included: 90 days audit logs
For compliance-driven organizations.
From €499/mo
- Included: Unlimited gated artifacts
- Included: Unlimited public artifacts
- Included: Custom storage
- Included: Unlimited versions
- Included: Google + Microsoft SSO
- Included: Private artifacts
- Included: 365 days audit logs
Azure SWA Standard starts at $9/app/month – but authentication setup, Azure AD costs, and engineering time make the true cost significantly higher for the first internal sharing use case.
Features
Viewers click a link and sign in with their Google or Microsoft account, or a one-time password. No app to install. No account to create. No IT ticket.
Inline comments on every artifact. Your agent reads them via MCP, fetches the current version, republishes with short_id and base_version, and resolves the thread. The artifact stays a living document, not a one-shot screenshot.
dsp publish ./file.html from your terminal, or one sentence in Claude Desktop. No git repo, no deploy pipeline, no project to configure.
Every artifact gets a URL that keeps working. Share in Slack, link in Notion, paste in email. It still works six months later.
No per-seat pricing at any tier. Share with your PM, exec, legal team, or designer for the same flat price.
Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor all work, along with anything else that creates HTML or Markdown output.
Common questions.
Does display.dev work if our company uses Microsoft 365?
Yes. display.dev Pro includes Microsoft 365 SSO – viewers sign in with their @yourcompany.com Microsoft account. No Azure AD configuration required beyond what's already in your M365 tenant.
What if we already have Azure SWA deployed for our app – can we use display.dev alongside it?
Absolutely. Azure SWA for your production application, display.dev for sharing internal HTML artifacts. They're complementary, not competing.
Can display.dev replace our existing SWA setup?
For published web applications with CI/CD and backend functions – no, keep SWA. For sharing internal HTML files, reports, and artifacts with company auth – display.dev is significantly simpler.
Is display.dev SOC 2 compliant?
SOC 2 Type II audit is on our roadmap. Cloudflare R2 (storage) and Postgres (metadata) are both SOC 2 certified. A DPA is available for Enterprise customers. See security for details.
What about on-premises or Azure Government?
display.dev Enterprise includes on-premises deployment options. Contact us for pricing and setup details.
Publish your first artifact in 15 seconds.
Free tier. No credit card. One-time password auth on free, Google + Microsoft SSO on Pro (€49/month flat).