Platform as a Service (PaaS) in cloud computing is a model where the cloud provider gives you a ready-to-use environment for building, running, and deploying applications, without you needing to manage the underlying infrastructure like servers, storage, or networking. In practice, this means developers can focus mainly on writing and deploying code, while the platform automatically handles things like runtime setup, scaling, patching, and infrastructure maintenance—services like Microsoft Azure App Service or similar platforms from other providers take care of most of the operational heavy lifting. Compared to IaaS, where you manage the operating system and runtime yourself, PaaS abstracts more of the stack so you don’t deal with servers at all, while SaaS goes even further by providing fully finished applications where users just consume the software without building anything. The main benefits of PaaS include faster development, easier deployment, built-in scalability, and reduced operational overhead, making it ideal for startups and development teams that want to ship applications quickly. Common use cases include web and mobile app development, API hosting, microservices deployment, and rapid prototyping, where speed and simplicity are more important than deep infrastructure control.