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Amazon S3 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
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
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
7.4
Number of Reviews
48
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 is 11.5%, down from 14.1% 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

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.
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

"The stability is very good."
"The solution auto-scales so it is easily scalable."
"I find the cost-effective models particularly suitable for our needs."
"The integration with Cloudfront helps in fetching the static phase and default phases in case our actual service is down."
"The product is easy to use."
"Amazon S3 is scalable and available."
"The solution's peak-up time is good."
"My company uses Amazon S3 by default for every single project. I like that you can use it for storing different file formats. Amazon S3 is also the easiest to use compared to other solutions."
"First of all, the solution is very secure. Secondly, the solution is very fast. It is reliable and available all the time."
"The profile management option is another valuable feature that allows us to manage the profiles and secure them."
"It helps us with geo-redundancy."
"The immutable storage features are valuable."
"The initial setup is fairly easy."
"What I like about Microsoft Azure File Storage is its convenience for customers, cost-effectiveness, and high availability."
"The security features and the ease of integration are good."
"The solution is user-friendly and integrates easily with web apps."
 

Cons

"The upload speed for data and documents is sometimes slow."
"I would like there to be more support without needing to use Transfer Family."
"No direct connector is available to connect Amazon S3 with other tools like MicroStrategy."
"We would like Amazon to reduce the price of storage."
"The product should enable users to create their own shortcuts."
"The initial setup was a bit hectic. Uploading data only allows for five GB chunks, creating challenges."
"Sometimes, there is latency in getting data, especially if the file size is large."
"Amazon S3's unit of measure for expansion should be smaller."
"Sometimes it takes very long to refresh the information."
"The transparency of cost should be improved."
"In our use cases, we see the weakness in mobile internet connectivity."
"I have had issues migrating my data to another subscription."
"It would be helpful if we could remove data that we don't frequently access to reduce the cost of the storage."
"Microsoft's technical support could be improved. Their response time is usually high, and it takes considerable time to get a response."
"There is a limitation on the storage capacity, like four terabytes. It could be improved to accommodate more data."
"It would be good if they added some features that make the solution easier to access for everyone."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 tool's licensing costs are monthly and cheap."
"The pricing is good."
"Amazon S3 is a cheap solution."
"The pricing for Amazon S3 is reasonable, so price-wise, it's a seven out of ten."
"I have seen the pricing on AWS, but I believe it's a discount price for organizations."
"The licensing model is complex."
"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 usually dependent on your storage requirements. Overall, I believe Microsoft Azure File Storage's price is reasonable."
"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."
"We have Microsoft Azure File Storage's enterprise license."
"We pay for both yearly and monthly licenses. The yearly one is cheaper than the monthly one."
"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."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. The pricing model is based on usage."
"The pricing could be more flexible."
"The solution is a bit pricey compared to AWS and Google."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
75%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
2%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
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 is a pay-as-you-go service. I pay based on the data volume I am using.
What needs improvement with Amazon S3?
There is a limitation with the data upload size, such as the five terabytes restriction. I would like to see an increase in the data upload limit, similar to DynamoDB, where there is no data limit.
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 pricing for Microsoft Azure File Storage is five out of ten, not so expensive and not so low.
 

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service
MS Azure File Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic
Talon, Camden
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.