Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8, while Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.5. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 10.9% mindshare in PCSS, compared to Google’s 6.5% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon S3 Glacier

Read 43 Amazon S3 Glacier reviews

3,246 Views
3,051 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Read 10 Google Cloud Storage Nearline reviews

1,708 Views
1,691 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon S3 Glacier

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Amazon S3 Glacier and Google Cloud Storage Nearline compete in data storage solutions. Amazon S3 Glacier is often deemed more cost-effective, especially for infrequently accessed data, while Google Cloud Storage Nearline is noted for its enhanced access features and integration with Google's ecosystem.

Features: Amazon S3 Glacier offers low-cost archival storage, auto-archiving capabilities, and strong integrations with AWS services, making it ideal for various storage needs. Its security features and scalability enhance its value. Google Cloud Storage Nearline is favored for its ease of access and adaptation to data flow changes. It provides seamless integration with Google Cloud services and offers enhanced accessibility features.

Room for Improvement: Amazon S3 Glacier could enhance data retrieval speeds and improve its pricing model transparency. Users suggest better GDPR compliance and security features. Google Cloud Storage Nearline can work on reducing costs, enhancing security features, and improving its documentation and user interface for better navigation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Amazon S3 Glacier and Google Cloud Storage Nearline are widely used in public cloud environments. Amazon provides extensive partner support and efficient customer service, though response times could be quicker. Google Cloud offers robust support with specialized options for business services, ensuring swift issue resolution.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon S3 Glacier is generally viewed as more affordable due to its pay-what-you-use model with low storage costs, although data retrieval can be costly. Google Cloud Storage Nearline, while more expensive, offers higher availability and access speed, with both products providing strong ROI by reducing the need for on-premises infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Amazon S3 Glacier

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 10.9%, down from 17.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 6.5%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Amazon S3 Glacier	10.9%
Google Cloud Storage Nearline	6.5%
Other	82.6%

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Pat Fogarty

Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US

Archiving data has reduced storage costs and provides reliable long‑term retention

We have not really come across any downsides for us. It is possible that the retrieval of data may be expensive, which could be an issue, but we have not experienced that in fairness. Integration with our policies would be beneficial. We have policies for our systems where we delete data after a certain number of years, and having integration with Amazon S3 Glacier would be good. Having a guarantee that Amazon S3 Glacier would persist for the amount of time that we require in our archives would be valuable. In other words, Amazon would need to commit to support for the period we need. We could be talking about 20 years or longer. We cannot always move to the next version because we need to maintain old systems and legacy systems in order to maintain archives. A guarantee around support would be a good thing to have.

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Yogesh Daga

Works

Optimized cost solutions boost long-term data retention across multiple regions

The best part of Nearline storage is the ability to take backups at optimal costs and its availability across multiple regions. It has 99.99% availability, which is extremely good. It provides an ideal storage solution for data that needs to be kept for thirty days or longer. Each storage class, such as Standard for daily data, Nearline, Coldline, and Archive, serves a specific purpose. Coldline is for ninety days, and Archive is for three hundred and sixty-five days.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We get free credits from Amazon, and we like the overall stability. We haven't had to rely heavily on their customer success teams, which is a good sign."

"It is the most feature-rich platform."

"AWS does support the ability for user controlled movement of data between regions for business continuance (BC), high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR)."

"The solution is great for storing data you don't usually need access to. It's also well-integrated with Amazon S3."

"We save money with the product."

"Its auto-scaling capabilities allow us to add data continuously without needing to pre-provision storage."

"Amazon S3 Glacier is a very cheap storage, where we store infrequently used data."

"Amazon S3 Glacier is scalable, flexible, easy to maintain and handle."

More Amazon S3 Glacier pros

"It provides the necessary support and flexibility to manage data storage effectively, especially during times of variable data flow."

"The data structure and the types of data that are supported are very good."

"I find the flexibility in storing documents or data and the ease of retrieval valuable with this solution."

"It can isolate files and stop them from corrupting other files."

"The capacity and space on offer are excellent."

"The best part of Nearline storage is the ability to take backups at optimal costs and its availability across multiple regions."

"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."

"Google is always introducing new features and tends to have a new release every month."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline pros

Cons

"The solution's cloud storage is very expensive, and users may not be able to afford cloud storage."

"Their pricing structure is always a big topic. It's so difficult to understand."

"Amazon S3 Glacier could be more secure."

"The user experience must be improved."

"The solution's dashboard is a bit complicated and could be improved."

"The technical support has room for improvement."

"The stability must be improved."

"Amazon S3 Glacier is a cheaper tool if you're running it on-prem, but it is expensive if deployed on the cloud."

More Amazon S3 Glacier cons

"They should provide more options or flexibility in terms of pricing."

"The solution needs to offer better System Information and Event Management (SEIM). I'd like to discover how we could implement something like that within Google's cloud."

"They need a better, more visual, user interface for folders and files."

"Nearline security could be better. The solution could integrate better with SEIM tools."

"The interface for managing file storage in the buckets could be improved."

"The pricing is quite high."

"The UI could be a little bit more effective."

"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is cheap."

"The price point at which the product is available is pretty good."

"Amazon S3 Glacier is much cheaper than competing products."

"I've operated with Amazon S3 Glacier in two modes. Firstly, there's the trial mode, where I experimented with the platform, learned its functionalities, and applied it to my work. Secondly, there's the corporate account mode, where my team handles the operations, and I receive billing reports."

"We don't pay for licenses. We pay based on consumption data, considering how much data is stored."

"The solution is cost-effective."

"Amazon S3 Glacier is very cheap, but the cost becomes a concern when you have a very large amount of data."

"The pricing must be improved."

More Amazon S3 Glacier pricing and cost advice

"Right now, for the number of servers and the storage that I have, I would say I'm charged between $125 and $150 per month."

"Google Cloud Storage Nearline is very inexpensive. It costs us less than $50 a month to store our files. We use approximately 10 terabytes. Overall, I would rate the product a five out of five for affordability."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Computer Software Company

15%

University

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	25
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

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...

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What do you like most about Amazon S3 Glacier?

I like creating buckets where data can be segregated at a high level and then routing the appropriate data to each designated bucket. In terms of value, I would say that the tool gets the job done ...

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What needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

The storage and access cost of Nearline are considered optimal compared to other cloud storage solutions, although I lack a clear view of other cloud storage costs.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

From a storage standpoint, it would be beneficial if the retrieval cost could be optimized, as it is comparatively higher than storage costs in Nearline.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

I mostly use Google Cloud Storage Nearline ( /products/google-cloud-storage-nearline-reviews ) for backing up data that is not needed for daily activities. It is ideal for files that need to be sto...

See all answers

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 Glacier

February 2026

Download Amazon S3 Glacier product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

February 2026

Download Google Cloud Storage Nearline product report

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier

No data available

Overview

Amazon Glacier is a secure, durable, and extremely low-cost cloud storage service for data archiving and long-term backup. Customers can reliably store large or small amounts of data for as little as $0.007 per gigabyte per month, a significant savings compared to on-premises solutions. To keep costs low, Amazon Glacier is optimized for infrequently accessed data where a retrieval time of several hours is suitable.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

A low-cost, highly-durable and highly available storage service for infrequently accessed data, data archiving, online backup and disaster recovery. Data is available instantly, not within hours or days. With sub-second average response times and 1 cent per GB/month pricing, Cloud Storage Nearline gives you terrific performance at a low cost.

Google

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

February 2026

Free Report: Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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