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Amazon S3 vs Amazon S3 Glacier 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
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Amazon S3 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 is 11.6%, down from 14.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 17.6%, up from 15.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

Vagner Martins - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced data security with seamless integration and static website capabilities
S3 is a great service offering numerous possibilities. It allows for storing objects and files of various types. I appreciate its capability to create static websites and integrate with services like CloudFront, EC2, and DynamoDB. Despite being focused on security, I leverage features such as cryptography and integration with CloudTrail.
Deepak  Nagar - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable, flexible, and user-friendly solution that is easy to maintain and handle
The solution's initial setup is straightforward and not complex. In the initial legacy, we used to put our servers in our data centers, look for storage, and give a path to that storage. In Amazon S3 Glacier, you can directly put your credentials for the portal login and upload your data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of Amazon S3 are compatibility and reliability."
"We can store incremental data and get high availability and fault tolerance."
"The solution auto-scales so it is easily scalable."
"The main aspect we like is that it's been easy to use."
"An important feature of the Amazon S3's system is that it offers encryption while the files are at rest. This is crucial in ensuring the security of the files being restored and addressing potential security risks. That's what I would emphasize."
"We appreciate that this solution is relatively easy to use, straightforward, and reliable."
"Great for storing all types of data."
"The versioning of this solution for accidental deletion has been most valuable."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is an easy-to-use solution."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is scalable, flexible, easy to maintain and handle."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a scalable and easy-to-manage solution with good read-write capability."
"The product is easy to use."
"Amazon S3 Glacier can integrate seamlessly with other AWS services."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a very cheap storage, where we store infrequently used data."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a highly scalable and available solution."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
 

Cons

"An encryption mechanism and storage optimization could be added."
"The query size in Amazon S3 has room for improvement because it's limited. Querying on Amazon S3 is also expensive with Amazon Athena, so that's another area for improvement in the solution."
"Amazon S3 should have more frequent updates."
"Amazon S3 could improve the limitation on how much data can be stored."
"The solution's pricing should be modified to automatically expand storage based on prior usage."
"Everything around visibility, dashboards, and all of the statistics through which the tool provides information 24 hours a day means that it is not done on a real-time basis."
"Could include some additional security features."
"The solution could improve by having a simpler way to have the detail size of a file in the CLI to be read or understood easier. Today, it's a little raw in the way the details are presented. You have to make some scripts and some modifications to be able to see the information properly of the size of a given bucket or the size of a file."
"The tool could be made cheaper."
"Billing issues can be a nightmare. It's tough reaching the right person to get them sorted out."
"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."
"I would like to see improved storage capacity and enhanced security features for better protection."
"They can improve data discovery."
"I believe the usage reporting could be simplified, particularly for billing purposes. Overall, I find Amazon S3 Glacier's reporting system somewhat confusing compared to other hyperscalers in the market."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"There is room for improvement in handling GDPR compliance better. GDPR is about personal data protection and retention. It would be great if S3 Glacier could handle compliance items related to this, especially with upcoming legislation like the California law, which restricts data storage time and allows users to request data deletion."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is cost-effective because it is based on a pay-as-you-go model, where I can purchase and use it according to my needs."
"The pricing is good."
"There is a license to use Amazon S3."
"The licensing model is complex."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly. I rate it a six to seven out of ten."
"The pricing depends on your region and is reasonable."
"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten. Pricing depends on a particular class where you want save your objects. There are different classes when it comes to storage in S3."
"The price of Amazon S3 should be reduced."
"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 pay a monthly licensing fee for Amazon S3 Glacier."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is not an expensive solution, and it has a pay-as-you-go pricing model."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"Amazon S3 Glacier has good pricing."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is expensive."
"The tool is too expensive."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is much cheaper than competing products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
78%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Manufacturing Company
2%
Educational Organization
35%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
University
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon S3?
We can easily connect to the AWS resources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon S3?
S3 offers multiple classes, allowing you to move data to cheaper classes for cost savings. AWS provides solutions to monitor your budget.
What needs improvement with Amazon S3?
In terms of security, I struggled with setting permissions and access control initially.
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?
I would like to see improvements in the transfer rate as it takes quite a long time to retrieve data from Glacier compared to standard S3 storage. Additionally, improvements in configuration manage...
 

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service
Amazon Glacier
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic
King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 vs. Amazon S3 Glacier and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.