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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.0
Amazon S3 offers scalable, cost-effective storage, reducing infrastructure and manpower costs while ensuring data integrity and financial benefits.
Sentiment score
6.3
Amazon S3 Glacier offers cost savings, simplified data management, and security, with room for improvement in support and cost management.
Moving infrequently accessed data to cheaper classes like Glacier is beneficial for long-term storage at a lower cost.
If AWS improves support and cost management, there would be fewer reasons for users to consider other cloud platforms.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Amazon S3 support is responsive and knowledgeable, generally rated highly despite occasional response delays and perceived inefficiencies.
Sentiment score
5.5
Feedback on Amazon S3 Glacier is mixed, noting helpful service but concerns over responsiveness, costs, and regional support.
An engineer is assigned based on the severity of the issue.
The technical support for Amazon S3 is rated ten out of ten.
There is room for improvement in providing more skilled and comprehensive solutions.
They provide documentation and resolve issues.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon S3 is popular for its scalable, reliable, secure storage solutions, despite pricing considerations and a manageable learning curve.
Sentiment score
9.2
Amazon S3 Glacier offers highly scalable infrastructure trusted by many for managing large data volumes and expanding user adoption.
The level of scalability allows storage to automatically scale on demand, without the need for manual intervention.
Data placed in an S3 bucket is replicated across availability zones in a region, ensuring scalability and availability.
Amazon S3 is easily scalable and performs better compared to other cloud storage solutions.
Amazon S3 Glacier auto-scales according to the data.
Glacier has excellent scalability, with elasticity and security that meet industry standards.
Amazon S3 Glacier is infinitely scalable, with no issues on our end.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon S3 is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, high user ratings, and excellent data security across regions.
Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon S3 Glacier is highly stable, reliable for cold storage, with robust monitoring and minimal issues, within AWS environment.
There is zero latency or downtime.
Transitioning between S3 storage classes, like moving data from the standard class to Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive, has been challenging.
Amazon S3 is highly stable.
It is specifically designed for cold storage.
Amazon S3 Glacier is quite stable, nine out of ten.
I would rate the stability of Glacier for archival purposes at around eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon S3 users call for improved interface, security, speed, cost transparency, and enhanced data storage and access features.
Amazon S3 Glacier requires faster retrieval, simplified pricing, better security, user-friendly interface, and enhanced integration, compliance, and support.
An improvement could be associating the naming with personal accounts, allowing more familiar or desired names without conflicting with global conventions.
The practice of protecting data could be more streamlined or mandatory.
I would like to see an increase in the data upload limit, similar to DynamoDB, where there is no data limit.
Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
Support could be more robust, with a focus on providing comprehensive solutions even for novel issues.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon S3's pay-as-you-go model is cost-effective but can become complex with additional features, requiring early optimization.
Amazon S3 Glacier offers cost-effective archival, but complex pricing and hidden costs concern enterprises with large data volumes.
I've used the free tier and haven't been charged yet.
S3 offers multiple classes, allowing you to move data to cheaper classes for cost savings.
It is somewhat justified due to the benefits, but there is room for reconsideration.
Compared to competitors like GCP, AWS can work on reducing hidden costs and overall pricing to retain startups and medium-sized businesses.
The storage cost is minimal, which is beneficial for archival purposes.
While it's generally cost-effective, the pricing model could be clearer.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon S3 provides fast, scalable, and secure storage with notable features like integration, global accessibility, versioning, and cost-effectiveness.
Amazon S3 Glacier is cost-effective for data archiving, offering ease of use, security, scalability, and intelligent data management.
Security measures like encryption, access controls, and the block public access feature are also important.
I appreciate its capability to create static websites and integrate with services like CloudFront, EC2, and DynamoDB.
Its stability and scalability are also impressive, as it allows for increased storage space according to demand.
Glacier greatly helps in managing storage costs by moving historical data to a lower-cost storage option.
These features facilitate log management and data dumping since the service is versatile enough to handle large volumes of data and provide necessary security.
The most valuable features of Amazon S3 Glacier are its cost-effectiveness for data archiving and its durability.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon S3
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
80
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
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 is 11.4%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 17.4%, 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.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
77%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Manufacturing Company
2%
Educational Organization
34%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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.
839,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.