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Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Cloud Storage Nearline
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 11.1%, down from 13.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 8.0%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon S3 Glacier11.1%
Google Cloud Storage Nearline8.0%
Other80.9%
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

PF
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.
Seamless integration with cloud services improves workflows but documentation needs enhancement
One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly. The lack of comprehensive walkthrough guides for specific use cases makes it difficult to follow. To enhance the experience, more detailed examples, guides, and tutorials from start to finish would be beneficial. Additionally, the cost compared to other providers like Amazon could be regarded as a downside.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon S3 Glacier is a highly scalable and available solution."
"The main advantage of Glacier is its low cost. It is incredibly cheaper than other storage options, especially for objects you don't access frequently. Glacier would add value if you have a staging area for objects you only need to access occasionally. Since we have data in terabytes between S3 buckets, we can significantly reduce our storage and cost footprint by using Glacier."
"AWS does support the ability for user controlled movement of data between regions for business continuance (BC), high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR)."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is very simple and very easy to implement, with extensive AWS documentation and a free tier that lets you test a minimum solution in their environment before putting it into production or making a big purchase."
"There are never any issues regarding downtimes, uptimes and data recovery, and it's really nice."
"Amazon S3 Glacier offers robust security features and practically infinite storage, where we can store all kinds of media swiftly."
"The biggest advantage of the product is that AWS always copies the tool internally."
"The data archive feature is valuable."
"I find the flexibility in storing documents or data and the ease of retrieval valuable with this solution."
"The most valuable feature of Nearline is the access. It's helpful to move data that is generated once a month, such as salary information, to Nearline."
"We didn't face any downtime last year using the solution."
"There are no issues with the integration of Google Cloud Storage Nearline with other Google services."
"The capacity and space on offer are excellent."
"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."
"Nearline is highly stable."
"The best part of Nearline storage is the ability to take backups at optimal costs and its availability across multiple regions."
 

Cons

"Amazon S3 Glacier could be more secure."
"The product takes more time to secure data when the bandwidth is low."
"The learning curve is very high."
"They should increase the data limit for the free version or reduce the price."
"I would like to see improved storage capacity and enhanced security features for better protection."
"Their pricing structure is always a big topic. It's so difficult to understand."
"The tool could be made cheaper."
"The support could be improved by having specialized support staff. When we submit a question, it gets passed between multiple people before finding the right expert."
"The UI could be a little bit more effective."
"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."
"Documentation is an area for improvement in Google Cloud Storage Nearline."
"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."
"The pricing is quite high."
"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."
"The pricing could be improved. It's completely non-competitive at this time."
"They should provide more options or flexibility in terms of pricing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay a monthly licensing fee for Amazon S3 Glacier."
"Customers prefer Amazon S3 Glacier because it is a cheap and pay-as-you-go solution."
"There is no license, you pay for what you use."
"The price point at which the product is available is pretty good."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is very cheap, but the cost becomes a concern when you have a very large amount of data."
"Amazon S3 Glacier has good pricing."
"The pricing is average and reasonable. It varies depending on the region."
"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."
"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
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

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 needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?
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 w...
What is your primary use case for Amazon S3 Glacier?
We were using Amazon S3 Glacier, and I have experience with this solution. We had an S3 bucket that we were using about a year ago. We just started using Amazon S3 Glacier, and overall, I have been...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?
My experience with the licensing and cost of Google Cloud Storage Nearline has been positive.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Storage Nearline?
Documentation is an area for improvement in Google Cloud Storage Nearline. Documentation might cause some issues during deployment in future updates of Google Cloud Storage Nearline. Other than tha...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?
I have integrated Google Cloud Storage Nearline with BigQuery for analytics.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,325 professionals have used our research since 2012.