question

1) We can't really represent the capabilities of non-Microsoft services, but PlayFab provides auto-scaling server hosting, integrated with our matchmaker, so that you can get players into sessions on your custom game servers quickly without having to write a management layer to control adding/removing servers according to need, or a matchmaker. Azure also offers auto-scaling options - there's a full write-up on this here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/best-practices/auto-scaling

2) They're the same servers, so they're exactly the same in terms of the hardware and capabilties. The PlayFab hosting provides the additional services for scaling and matchmaking. The options in PlayFab's hosting are Linux and Windows servers, and we don't support the full range of all possible VM types, since some are not as populous in certain regions (though if you have specific needs in an Enterprise contract, feel free to reach out to us and we can work with you on that).

3) Yes, we provide free hours for testing (specifics are here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming/playfab/features/multiplayer/servers/billing-for-thunderhead), and our billing is metered on a per minute basis (the pricing is just listed per hour, for simplicity). And yes, as stated above, we have both Linux and Windows server hosting, and a matchmaker (adapted from the one built for Xbox Live).