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Amazon S3 Glacier vs Microsoft Azure File Storage comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

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
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure File Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 17.7%, up from 15.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure File Storage is 10.8%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

ArunDhwaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Versatile data storage improves security and supports increasing data volumes
Amazon S3 Glacier offers robust security features and practically infinite storage, where we can store all kinds of media swiftly. It supports various data types, including semi-structured and raw formats. These features facilitate log management and data dumping since the service is versatile enough to handle large volumes of data and provide necessary security.
PrashanthR - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamlessly streamlines document processing with advanced file storage and OCR integration
We need to store data over there. We process documents through Kofax Time is a major benefit, as well as ease of processing. With configuration, it happens quite easily, and we can finish tasks early. File storage is complemented by OCR with Azure Cognitive Service. This enhances the processing…

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 scalable, flexible, easy to maintain and handle."
"Its auto-scaling capabilities allow us to add data continuously without needing to pre-provision storage."
"The solution is great for storing data you don't usually need access to. It's also well-integrated with Amazon S3."
"The reliability of storage is the main benefit."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a stable and scalable solution."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a scalable and easy-to-manage solution with good read-write capability."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The product is easy to use."
"The solution can scale to fit any requirement."
"Integration with the entire Azure platform."
"This solution supports all file formats."
"We have not explored the desktop performance analysis of the file storage, but the user interface, API, and the response that we receive over the file storage are very good. We have a lot of customers that connect to the client-side, click the images, and upload them. The beauty of the solution is that we can mount the file storage into a critical server as well as an external drive. The speed that we receive with the images is pretty good."
"Implementing Microsoft Azure has meant that we are using the same solution as our customers who use Azure Public Cloud. This allows us to integrate our application, as well as provide the solution to them."
"The product can integrate with all platforms. My team also does data visualization, and Power BI can directly connect with those nodes. We can very conveniently connect with multiple tools for our database. The benefit here is that by utilizing the same storage application, my application is linked with their application through the same server. This setup provides real analytics and data for a holistic purpose, which is advantageous."
"The immutable storage features are valuable."
"General user familiarity with Office 365 products make adopting this solution easy to adopt in production."
 

Cons

"The stability must be improved."
"The response times could be faster. When you are with Amazon and use Glacier, you expect a response time between four to seven hours to retrieve the data."
"The cost can be lower."
"The solution's cloud storage is very expensive, and users may not be able to afford cloud storage."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"Amazon S3 Glacier's data retrieval time is slow compared to other AWS storage services and should be improved."
"The pricing is a bit expensive. There is room for improvement in costs."
"The solution's cost optimization could be improved."
"I have used the file storage explorer in multiple systems, and it seems a bit cumbersome and not very efficient, particularly with authentication. It can be tricky to set it up."
"It’s a challenge to find the right support person."
"Lacks integration with other platforms."
"The support could improve."
"If the file is large, there may be a delay in download time."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage is not that scalable. Once you reach the boundaries, you need to migrate to another solution."
"Maybe Microsoft can make it more economical because it is a costly affair."
"Licensing costs are expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is cheap."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"Customers prefer Amazon S3 Glacier because it is a cheap and pay-as-you-go solution."
"We pay a monthly licensing fee for Amazon S3 Glacier."
"The pricing is average and reasonable. It varies depending on the region."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is very cheap, but the cost becomes a concern when you have a very large amount of data."
"There is no license, you pay for what you use."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a cost-effective solution for archiving."
"I give the pricing of the solution a seven out of ten."
"I think the pricing of the product can be reduced."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage is expensive."
"We pay for both yearly and monthly licenses. The yearly one is cheaper than the monthly one."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive. It's not cheap."
"The solution is a bit pricey compared to AWS and Google."
"We have Microsoft Azure File Storage's enterprise license."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage has a reasonable price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 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 ...
What needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?
The cost of retrieval in Glacier is quite high. It would be excellent if Amazon could work on reducing retrieval costs. Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure File Storage?
The price is almost the same as the competition. I would rate it three or three and a half out of ten on the pricing scale.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier
MS Azure File Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Talon, Camden
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.