Why were Morocco and Tunisia made a French protectorate, but Algeria annexed as part of France?

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One of the main differences between Algeria and other Maghreb countries controlled by France was the extensive settlements established there. European settlers began arriving immediately after the capture of Algeria in 1830.

These settlers were encouraged by the colonial policy which makes it easy for them to massively "buy" Algerian lands at the expense of the native population. Later a set of laws (Code de l'indigΓ©nat) was codified to create an inferior legal status for the natives and give even more special status to the colonists.

Anyway, in 1847 (slightly before the official annexation of Algeria in 1848), the settler population already reached 100,000, almost 5% of the total population. Later this reached around 10% of the total population, disproportionately holding a large part of the arable lands. The settler population was nowhere ever near this level in Morocco and Tunisia.

The_Pied_Noir_population_as_part_of_the_total_Algerian_population

Table source: Wikipedia

As for why Algeria had more settler population than the other colonies, a possible simple reason (highlighted by Medi Saif in the comments of this answer) might be that it was the first to be controlled by France. Algeria was captured in 1830, while Tunisia was captured in 1881 and Morocco became a French protectorate only in 1912.

So, the initial settlement of Algeria by the Europeans encouraged higher degree of integration with France (including annexation) and favorable laws to French citizens, and in turn all these things encouraged even more settlement to Algeria. I hope this answer your question.

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Timing was a major factor.

The French invasion of Algeria in 1830 (with the excuse that the Dey had touched the French consul with a fan) was in a period shortly after the Napoleonic wars when conquest was seen as an acceptable method of acquiring territory.

By 1880, the Scramble for Africa had led to the development of some forms of rules for civilised behaviour in imperialism. More significantly, in the Tunisian case Italy (with its eye on Libya) objected to French expansion, while in the Moroccan case Spain (with its eye on the north coast) and later Germany objected to French expansion. The desire to avoid European wars lead to a more moderate façade of colonial protection rather than annexation.

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