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Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs Amazon FSx comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 EBS (Elastic Block S...
Ranking in Cloud Storage
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Amazon FSx
Ranking in Cloud Storage
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (4th), File and Object Storage (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Storage category, the mindshare of Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) is 2.3%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon FSx is 3.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Diverse features and affordability drive effective resource management
Amazon EBS offers diverse features. It can be used for multi-purpose storage, supporting single, multiple, or heavy loads. It has different types for various use cases, allowing me to choose based on my specific requirements. The primary advantage of Amazon EBS is affordability compared to other solutions like EFS or FSX. It acts as a hard drive for servers, making it essential for operation.
MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Shared storage capabilities provide enterprise value with good reliability
Amazon FSx is more costly compared to other storage solutions like EBS or EFS. The auto-scaling feature should be improved, as it currently includes downtime. I need to manually increase the storage, which is not ideal. Integrating FSx with Windows Server is challenging; it's a long process involving Active Directory (AD) setup and synchronization.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think everything is great."
"One of the most valuable was snapshots. There were scenarios in which the whole EC2 crashed, or we were unable to use it for some time, but the data on the mounted volumes were crucial to us. So, at that time, snapshots were very helpful."
"The most impressive aspects of Amazon EBS are its scalability and high availability."
"The integration of Amazon EBS with EC2, S3, and Amazon Glacier is seamless and easy, creating a comprehensive cloud environment."
"The most important feature is the volume types in those hundred EDS. For example, if you need a volume with high IOPS, you should choose an io2 or io2 Block Express volume type. The default volume type for EBS is GP3, which is a good balance of performance and price for most workloads."
"EBS can handle Apex, which helps us manage many issues. EBS is easy to use and has high performance."
"EBS is a very crucial tool as it acts like a hard disk on cloud, providing cost savings compared to physical hard disks, and only incurring costs based on actual usage."
"The most valuable features of Amazon EBS are the ease of mounting any file system and good for block storage. We can use secondary storage for our difficult instances and it performs well."
"We used it for disaster recovery perspective behind a number of resources, like batch services and RDS."
"I rate the stability of Amazon FSx ten out of ten."
"The shared storage capability is highly valuable."
"FSx operates as an independent service, not tied to any server, which eliminates dependencies between applications for storage."
 

Cons

"It would be good if the solution added a button to increase the size and make the EC2 machine recognize the increased capacity of the EBS."
"The main challenge with Amazon EBS is cost management, as it is a high-performance volume."
"There is room for improvement in terms of file storage. Recently, we had a scenario in which, in a file share, we had increased the IOPS capacity; this was for the production environment."
"There is a challenge of intermittent reachability with instances, where the product is sometimes available and other times not, which affects the development environment's stability."
"I see a need for improvement in the scalability of Amazon EBS."
"There is a concept called Snapshot, which is a backup of the entire EBS volume, however, the cost is quite high."
"Regarding EBS, if an instance is terminated, the volume is also deleted, which leads to data loss."
"One of the major issues in the tool arises whenever it handles a large amount of traffic in the system, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Amazon FSx is more costly compared to other storage solutions like EBS or EFS."
"I've been facing a challenge when doing a failover from FSx side. AWS console does not refresh within a half hour."
"Amazon FSx is more costly compared to other storage solutions like EBS or EFS."
"A direct FTP feature would be beneficial instead of relying on transmission services."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing models may be for general purposes, such as Amazon EBS Provisioned IOPS Volume or Amazon EBS Cold HDD Volumes."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high, I rate the price a seven."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"What I want Amazon to do is lower the price."
"The cost can vary greatly depending on the use case, ranging from one dollar to over $1200 dollars per month."
"The solution is quite costly."
"The product is low-priced than other solutions."
"You need to pay additional costs for support."
"The lowest price I have paid is $370 or $380 per month, while the highest can exceed $3,000 per month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
The durability and snapshot capabilities are good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
The cost of Amazon EBS storage is high. I rate the price as eight out of ten. It is expensive to store a lot yet provides significant cost-efficiency as I pay only for the storage time required.
What needs improvement with Amazon FSx?
Amazon FSx is more costly compared to other storage solutions like EBS or EFS. The auto-scaling feature should be improved, as it currently includes downtime. I need to manually increase the storag...
What is your primary use case for Amazon FSx?
I use Amazon FSx as a shared storage service for Windows, particularly when there are multiple Windows servers and a need for shared storage. I use it when shared resources with different servers, ...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon FSx?
I must be aware of my specific use case and choose the solution accordingly. I use FSx when shared storage is required without the need for internet connectivity. It is cheaper to use Amazon S3 whe...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, Amazon FSx for Lustre
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bazaar Voice, Crowd Strike, Adobe, Gamevil, Hess, CopperEgg, TotalJobs Group, SuperCell, Dropcam, Unilever
Neiman Marcus, T Mobile, Docxellent, Matrix, Lyell
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs. Amazon FSx and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
852,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.