Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Amazon EBS offers 20-25% ROI by saving time and resources, enhancing scalability, and eliminating physical disk investments.
Sentiment score
3.7
Amazon EFS offers scalable, cost-effective storage with minimal maintenance, enhancing productivity and benefiting businesses through pay-as-you-go pricing.
As a cloud storage option, it is flexible and cost-effective, eliminating the need for a permanent investment in hard disks.
NoSQL Data Engineer at Extractta
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Amazon EBS support is generally well-received for responsiveness, despite occasional delays, high costs, and chat issues.
Sentiment score
5.5
Customers find Amazon EFS support reliable, though resolution times may vary based on the complexity and support plan.
Enterprise support provides access to AWS developers 24/7.
AWS solution architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
They provide instant and chat support, addressing concerns in a timely manner.
Scrum Master/ Agile Coach at Porch Group
Once subscribed, the support team is very responsive, connecting remotely to assist with troubleshooting.
Lead Cloud Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
While the time to respond was good, the time to resolve was not optimal, as it took more than a week.
Regional Manager at Aspire Lifestyles
Amazon's support model is consistent across services.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Training and support depend on the plan you have, with centralized support being very helpful in case issues arise.
Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Amazon EBS delivers scalability and flexibility, requires manual scaling, supports diverse environments, but lacks auto-scaling for some users.
Sentiment score
6.6
Amazon EFS offers scalable and cost-effective file storage, but users occasionally face challenges with scalability, latency, and connections.
Amazon EBS is easy to scale up or down as needed.
AWS Consultant at Virtual University
Vertical scaling can be achieved by adding additional volumes whenever the created storage is insufficient.
Scrum Master/ Agile Coach at Porch Group
All cloud solutions permit scalability, and this is an important feature.
Arquitecto De Soluciones De TI at Claro Colombia S.A
Its auto-scaling feature is a crucial point, providing high scalability that I would rate at ten out of ten.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Elastic File Systems allow me to scale up or down easily.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
It is very cost-effective, and there's no need for initial charges.
Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Amazon EBS is praised for reliability, ease of use, stable performance, effective replication, and handling increased data loads.
Sentiment score
7.1
Amazon EFS is generally stable, with users praising reliability, though some report minor issues mitigated by strong support.
AWS provides infrastructure stability like data centers, ensuring high stability.
AWS solution architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
I have never had problems with its stability.
NoSQL Data Engineer at Extractta
If the server is stable, then EBS is stable.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Amazon EFS is extremely stable, as it is managed by AWS.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
While I experienced an EFS mount dropping, it was related to server issues rather than EFS itself.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EBS struggles with latency, cost, complex integration, scalability, encryption, multi-region accessibility, and lacks automation and improved support.
Amazon EFS needs improved connectivity, Windows integration, cost transparency, and one-click setup for enhanced user experience and support.
Regarding EBS, if an instance is terminated, the volume is also deleted, which leads to data loss.
DevOps Engineer at SONIX
I would like EBS to have no limitations, similar to stream-like block storage, which can accommodate an unlimited amount of sales.
AWS solution architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Deployment is not easy as it requires server downtime to map newly created volumes, impacting operations during additional volume additions.
Scrum Master/ Agile Coach at Porch Group
Database-type workloads do not run properly on Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) because at the end of the day, it is a network file system and requests must travel from one place to another and then return.
Sr. Technical Account Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enabling AI-driven or automatic features would be beneficial for new or nontechnical users.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
In my project, there are challenges related to AWS, such as ensuring proper security measures with IMS code and encryption.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EBS pricing varies; seen as costly or efficient, it's affected by storage type and appreciated for transparency.
Amazon EFS charges based on usage with higher costs compared to S3, making it less budget-friendly.
For SSD IOPS, you only pay $0.125 per gigabyte.
AWS solution architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
The pay-for-what-you-use model justifies the amount paid, with no extra or hidden charges.
Cloud AWS Fellow at Bytewise Limited
Users are charged only for the data used, not for the allocated volume.
Lead Cloud Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Elastic File Systems can be expensive due to the nature of data transfer costs.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EBS provides scalable, high-performance storage with integration, encryption, and reliability for diverse workload needs.
Amazon EFS provides scalable, secure, and flexible storage with fast data access, auto-scaling, and seamless AWS integration for dynamic workloads.
Amazon EBS is also scalable and provides high availability.
AWS solution architect at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
EBS provides vertical scaling options to add additional volumes when more storage is required.
Scrum Master/ Agile Coach at Porch Group
Amazon EBS allows seamless changes to the instance type without affecting application availability.
Lead Cloud Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its ease of integration with other AWS services enhances our infrastructure, while the shared storage access improves reliability and processing continuity for our applications.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They help me process data while maintaining low latency, which is crucial for efficient data processing.
Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies
The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block S...
Ranking in Cloud Storage
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Amazon EFS (Elastic File Sy...
Ranking in Cloud Storage
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) is 2.9%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is 3.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)2.9%
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)3.3%
Other93.8%
Cloud Storage
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Diverse features and affordability drive effective resource management
Amazon EBS offers diverse features. It can be used for multi-purpose storage, supporting single, multiple, or heavy loads. It has different types for various use cases, allowing me to choose based on my specific requirements. The primary advantage of Amazon EBS is affordability compared to other solutions like EFS or FSX. It acts as a hard drive for servers, making it essential for operation.
MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Auto-scaling capabilities enhance file management while reducing downtime
The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability. It's really easy to configure EFS by just creating it and running a command to directly configure it with my servers. It supports unlimited use, and charges are applied based on the file usage at the end of the month. The solution offers reduced downtime and increased durability through its auto-scaling features.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Storage solutions are best for your needs.
879,455 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Performing Arts
10%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Amazon's S3 Glacier or EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon's S3 Glacier or Elastic Block Store data storage software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Amazon's S3 Glacier, whi...
What do you like most about Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
The durability and snapshot capabilities are good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
The cost of Amazon EBS storage is high. I rate the price as eight out of ten. It is expensive to store a lot yet provides significant cost-efficiency as I pay only for the storage time required.
Which file storage system is better - Amazon EFS (elastic file storage) or Azure File Storage?
Amazon EFS is easy to set up: you can use the AWS management console, API, or command-line. Amazon EFS can grow to petabytes and deliver consistent low latencies and high levels of throughput. This...
What do you like most about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?
The product's initial setup phase is easy, as per the configurations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?
We don't need to purchase it; we are just using it and paying Amazon as per the utilization. We make direct payments to Amazon based on our usage.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bazaar Voice, Crowd Strike, Adobe, Gamevil, Hess, CopperEgg, TotalJobs Group, SuperCell, Dropcam, Unilever
Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs. Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,455 professionals have used our research since 2012.