Amazon S3 vs Microsoft Azure File Storage comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 11.7% mindshare in PCSS, compared to Microsoft’s 12.0% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon S3

Read 79 Amazon S3 reviews

6,158 Views
3,342 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure File Storage

Read 47 Microsoft Azure File Storage reviews

3,748 Views
3,103 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Amazon S3

Microsoft Azure File Storage

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure File Storage are prominent cloud storage solutions offering distinct advantages. Amazon S3 holds the upper hand due to its higher scalability and better integration, while Microsoft Azure File Storage shines in hybrid compatibility and seamless collaboration.

Features: Amazon S3 provides high availability, flexible storage options, and extensive integration with AWS services. Microsoft Azure File Storage supports SMB protocols, achieves easy scalability, and offers robust security features.

Room for Improvement: Amazon S3 users desire enhanced usability, clearer billing structures, and improved cross-platform compatibility. Microsoft Azure File Storage users seek better support, improved performance for large file transfers, and enhanced user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon S3 is noted for swift deployment and reliable support, despite a steep learning curve. Microsoft Azure File Storage is recognized for straightforward deployment and efficient customer service, with occasional performance issues noted.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon S3 is acknowledged for its cost-effectiveness and significant ROI. Microsoft Azure File Storage is appreciated for competitive pricing but raises concerns about long-term cost efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage

January 2025

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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

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 is 11.7%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure File Storage is 12.0%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Vagner Martins

Information Security Analyst at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

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.

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PrashanthR

Lead Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

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…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Amazon S3 is easily scalable and provides fantastic performance, especially in comparison to other cloud solutions like OCI and Azure."

"We can easily connect to the AWS resources."

"The solution's peak-up time is good."

"The most valuable features of Amazon S3 are the accuracy and the life cycle policies, which help when moving from Amazon S3 to Amazon Glacier."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon S3 is storage, which provides a personal capacity."

"We find the archival capabilities of this solution quite valuable, because we can have set policies of exactly when, and what to archive."

"I don't have any problems with the solution. It's issue-free."

"Cloud infrastructure is the most valuable feature."

More Amazon S3 pros

"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."

"It is a good service for file storage."

"The product is a reliable cloud solution."

"The biggest advantage of Azure File Storage vis-à-vis other public cloud storage providers, and why we recommend Azure first and foremost, is that many of our customers have partnerships with Microsoft and so they have access to better cloud economics. Compared to AWS, we have found that (from a customer perspective) Azure is much more competitive."

"The storage in this solution is excellent."

"The initial setup is straightforward and takes approximately twenty minutes."

"The initial setup is very seamless."

"It's a stable product."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage pros

Cons

"The down side is the web app should be aware of all the features that S3 provides in order to leverage its full potential."

"Could include some additional security features."

"The support is better than other cloud providers but sometimes it takes a while to have a resolution to our issues."

"Amazon S3 can improve by decreasing the overall costs."

"We would like to see improvement in the ability to moves files within this solution. At present the process is not straightforward, and requires us to download files to our micro service service before then uploading into the solution. In addition, the transfer bit rate for the process is very slow."

"I would like to see an easier setup that doesn't require as much training."

"We need the mapping to Windows. That feature is needed in S3. That feature is in the Azure cloud where we can map it like a drive. We can map the cloud storage to the effort driving our Windows PC. But Amazon is not providing that feature for the S3 solution."

"They should improve in the area of metadata curation."

More Amazon S3 cons

"The initial setup is complex. Unless you have done it a few times it, it is going to be hard."

"Considering the enterprise licensing required for the solution, the cost of the solution is an area where the product needs improvement."

"Azure File Storage's stability is okay, but sometimes we have trouble with the link to the Azure VPN disconnecting."

"It’s a challenge to find the right support person."

"It should allow better methods for handling large files."

"The pricing and technical support could be better."

"Microsoft Azure File Storage needs more integrations. In the future, I also want to see GRC added to the portal. If you enroll or sign up for Azure services, your country may not have GRC available in the portal, so you may have to choose a strange country, for example, Kenya, to activate credit."

"The provider needs to collect more information about the products."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly. I rate it a six to seven out of ten."

"For pricing, I would give it a six or seven out of ten."

"While storing data in Amazon S3 is relatively inexpensive, there are costs associated with retrieving or transferring data across continents."

"The tool is not too expensive considering the various pros."

"The licensing model is complex."

"The solution is very inexpensive at 50 cents per gigabyte, per month."

"The tool's price is a little bit high, but it is reasonable."

"The cost depends on the data we access."

More Amazon S3 pricing and cost advice

"One of the major benefits for AWS is that they have a very large customer representative base where clients can be picked from, they offer large discounts and credit. We were not able to receive the same kind of offers from Microsoft Azure File Storage. We tried to approach Azure while hiring for our disaster recovery discussion, but we didn't receive anything from Azure."

"Microsoft Azure File Storage has a reasonable price."

"The product's pricing need improvement."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive. It's not cheap."

"One needs to pay according to the storage they plan to use in the solution. The payments are to be made yearly. It is usually monthly, but we opted for yearly subscriptions in our company."

"I give the pricing of the solution a seven out of ten."

"The price is comparable to other competitive solutions."

"The pricing could be more flexible."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

78%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon S3?

In terms of security, I struggled with setting permissions and access control initially.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure File Storage?

The product is a reliable cloud solution.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Amazon S3

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 18% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 11% of the time

Rackspace Cloud Files vs Amazon S3

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Amazon S3

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon S3 Competitors

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 48% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 18% of the time

Wasabi vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 6% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Azure File Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3

February 2025

Download Amazon S3 product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure File Storage

January 2025

Download Microsoft Azure File Storage product report

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service

MS Azure File Storage

Overview

Amazon Simple Storage Service is storage for the Internet. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.

Amazon S3 has a simple web services interface that you can use to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Fully managed file shares that use the standard SMB 3.0 protocol

Key scenarios:

Share data across on-premises and cloud servers
Migrate file share-based applications to the cloud with no code changes
Integrate modern applications with File storage
Simplify hosting for high availability workload data

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic

Talon, Camden

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage

January 2025

Free Report: Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage

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