Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Amazon S3 Glacier comparison

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3 Glacier

March 2024

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

3.7

Amazon EFS offers scalable, cost-effective storage with minimal maintenance, enhancing productivity and benefiting businesses through pay-as-you-go pricing.

Sentiment score

4.0

Organizations benefit from Amazon S3 Glacier with cost savings and high ROI, despite needing better support and cost management.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) report

If AWS improves support and cost management, there would be fewer reasons for users to consider other cloud platforms.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Technical Owner at Harman International

As it is Amazon S3 Glacier, it is used only for archival purposes, so it is comparatively okay to use it, and we can save money compared to the standard which is high.

Arun-M

Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Customer Service

Sentiment score

5.5

Customers find Amazon EFS support reliable, though resolution times may vary based on the complexity and support plan.

Sentiment score

5.4

Amazon S3 Glacier support receives mixed reviews, with some praising assistance and others noting delays and occasional unresponsiveness.

While the time to respond was good, the time to resolve was not optimal, as it took more than a week.

Amaratunga Arachchige Vimukthi Amaratunga

Regional Manager at Aspire Lifestyles

Amazon's support model is consistent across services.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) report

AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Training and support depend on the plan you have, with centralized support being very helpful in case issues arise.

ChanchalSingh1

Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Amazon S3 Glacier is a good solution for us, and I am very happy with it.

Pat Fogarty

Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US

There is room for improvement in providing more skilled and comprehensive solutions.

Technical Owner at Harman International

They provide documentation and resolve issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Amazon EFS offers scalable and cost-effective file storage, but users occasionally face challenges with scalability, latency, and connections.

Sentiment score

5.1

Amazon S3 Glacier excels in scalability and integration, handling large data volumes effortlessly with high user ratings and reliability.

Its auto-scaling feature is a crucial point, providing high scalability that I would rate at ten out of ten.

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

Elastic File Systems allow me to scale up or down easily.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) report

Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies

It is very cost-effective, and there's no need for initial charges.

ChanchalSingh1

Head of Engineering - Data and Machine Learning at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Amazon S3 Glacier auto-scales according to the data.

Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global

Amazon S3 Glacier is infinitely scalable, with no issues on our end.

Technical Owner at Harman International

Glacier has excellent scalability, with elasticity and security that meet industry standards.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

Amazon EFS is generally stable, with users praising reliability, though some report minor issues mitigated by strong support.

Sentiment score

6.7

Amazon S3 Glacier is highly stable, with minimal outages and enhanced performance from AWS tools, ensuring reliable data access.

Amazon EFS is extremely stable, as it is managed by AWS.

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

While I experienced an EFS mount dropping, it was related to server issues rather than EFS itself.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) report

AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

It is specifically designed for cold storage.

Technical Owner at Harman International

I do not experience any stability issues.

Arun-M

Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Amazon S3 Glacier is quite stable, nine out of ten.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global

Room For Improvement

Amazon EFS needs improved connectivity, Windows integration, cost transparency, and one-click setup for enhanced user experience and support.

Amazon S3 Glacier needs improvements in retrieval speed, integration, pricing, support, security, compliance, billing, and storage efficiency.

Database-type workloads do not run properly on Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) because at the end of the day, it is a network file system and requests must travel from one place to another and then return.

reviewer2784675

Sr. Technical Account Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Enabling AI-driven or automatic features would be beneficial for new or nontechnical users.

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

In my project, there are challenges related to AWS, such as ensuring proper security measures with IMS code and encryption.

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Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies

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.

Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global

Support could be more robust, with a focus on providing comprehensive solutions even for novel issues.

Technical Owner at Harman International

Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Setup Cost

Amazon EFS charges based on usage with higher costs compared to S3, making it less budget-friendly.

Amazon S3 Glacier's pricing is affordable but confusing, with no licensing fees and potential long-term costs for large data volumes.

EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage.

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS.

AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Elastic File Systems can be expensive due to the nature of data transfer costs.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) report

Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies

Compared to competitors like GCP, AWS can work on reducing hidden costs and overall pricing to retain startups and medium-sized businesses.

Technical Owner at Harman International

The storage cost is minimal, which is beneficial for archival purposes.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Amazon S3 Glacier is beneficial due to its lower cost.

StevenLai

Sr. Data Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Valuable Features

Amazon EFS provides scalable, secure, and flexible storage with fast data access, auto-scaling, and seamless AWS integration for dynamic workloads.

Amazon S3 Glacier provides affordable, secure archiving with easy integration, strong encryption, user-friendly features, and reliable data management.

Its ease of integration with other AWS services enhances our infrastructure, while the shared storage access improves reliability and processing continuity for our applications.

AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

They help me process data while maintaining low latency, which is crucial for efficient data processing.

Data Engineer at Softtech Cloud Technologies

The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) report

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

Glacier greatly helps in managing storage costs by moving historical data to a lower-cost storage option.

Sr Data Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The security features include object lock encryption and immutability options, so we can use this for backups.

Arun-M

Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

The most valuable features of Amazon S3 Glacier are its cost-effectiveness for data archiving and its durability.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon S3 Glacier report

Sr DevOps Engineer at HTC Global

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EFS (Elastic File Sy...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Storage (11th), File and Object Storage (10th)

Amazon S3 Glacier

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Public Cloud Storage Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Cloud Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is designed for Cloud Storage and holds a mindshare of 3.1%, down 8.6% compared to last year.
Amazon S3 Glacier, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 10.9% mindshare, down 17.4% since last year.

Cloud Storage Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)	3.1%
Dropbox Business - Enterprise	7.3%
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP	6.4%
Other	83.2%

Cloud Storage

Public Cloud Storage Services Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon S3 Glacier	10.9%
Amazon S3	13.4%
Microsoft Azure File Storage	8.2%
Other	67.5%

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Amaratunga Arachchige Vimukthi Amaratunga

Regional Manager at Aspire Lifestyles

Security features impress while response times need improvement

We use cloud storage security, which is a virus scanner for their infrastructure, as a new addition. Other than that, it focuses on serverless features, such as Lambda and Aurora SQL server databases. CSS cloud storage security, which is offered by AWS, is integrated into our system. It functions as a virus scanner that monitors whenever any incoming file arrives. The AWS service is excellent security-wise, and I have seen some other features besides security, such as automatic scaling that helped us significantly. Regarding integration, it provides us with the benefit that our data is kept within our account only.

Read full review

Pat Fogarty

Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US

Archiving data has reduced storage costs and provides reliable long‑term retention

We have not really come across any downsides for us. It is possible that the retrieval of data may be expensive, which could be an issue, but we have not experienced that in fairness. Integration with our policies would be beneficial. We have policies for our systems where we delete data after a certain number of years, and having integration with Amazon S3 Glacier would be good. Having a guarantee that Amazon S3 Glacier would persist for the amount of time that we require in our archives would be valuable. In other words, Amazon would need to commit to support for the period we need. We could be talking about 20 years or longer. We cannot always move to the next version because we need to maintain old systems and legacy systems in order to maintain archives. A guarantee around support would be a good thing to have.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	25
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?

The product's initial setup phase is easy, as per the configurations.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?

We don't need to purchase it; we are just using it and paying Amazon as per the utilization. We make direct payments to Amazon based on our usage.

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?

The support could be improved by having specialized support staff. When we submit a question, it gets passed between multiple people before finding the right expert. We typically see the case being...

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

Comparisons

Compared 84% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 2% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 2% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 2% of the time

Amazon FSx vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 1% of the time

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) Competitors

Google Cloud Storage Nearline vs Amazon S3 Glacier

Compared 40% of the time

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Amazon S3 Glacier

Compared 10% of the time

Wasabi vs Amazon S3 Glacier

Compared 10% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon S3 Glacier

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Azure Object Storage vs Amazon S3 Glacier

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon S3 Glacier Competitors

Product Reports

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

February 2026

Download Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) product report

Download Amazon S3 Glacier product report

Amazon S3 Glacier

February 2026

Also Known As

No data available

Amazon Glacier

Overview

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides simple, scalable file storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances in the AWS Cloud. Amazon EFS is easy to use and offers a simple interface that allows you to create and configure file systems quickly and easily. With Amazon EFS, storage capacity is elastic, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage they need, when they need it.

When mounted to Amazon EC2 instances, an Amazon EFS file system provides a standard file system interface and file system access semantics, allowing you to seamlessly integrate Amazon EFS with your existing applications and tools. Multiple Amazon EC2 instances can access an Amazon EFS file system at the same time, allowing Amazon EFS to provide a common data source for workloads and applications running on more than one Amazon EC2 instance.

It’s designed for high availability and durability, and provides performance for a broad spectrum of workloads and applications, including Big Data and analytics, media processing workflows, content management, web serving, and home directories.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Glacier is a secure, durable, and extremely low-cost cloud storage service for data archiving and long-term backup. Customers can reliably store large or small amounts of data for as little as $0.007 per gigabyte per month, a significant savings compared to on-premises solutions. To keep costs low, Amazon Glacier is optimized for infrequently accessed data where a retrieval time of several hours is suitable.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud