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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

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
5.1
Amazon EFS offers scalable, cost-effective storage with minimal maintenance, enhancing productivity and benefiting businesses through pay-as-you-go pricing.
Sentiment score
3.3
Microsoft Azure File Storage offers easy global file sharing and cost savings, though ROI impact varies for medium businesses.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Amazon EFS customer service is rated well for responsiveness and effectiveness, with appreciated support plans and documentation.
Sentiment score
5.8
Microsoft Azure File Storage customer service varies in response time, with premium contracts offering better efficiency and support.
While the time to respond was good, the time to resolve was not optimal, as it took more than a week.
Amazon's support model is consistent across services.
Training and support depend on the plan you have, with centralized support being very helpful in case issues arise.
As and when we require, they are able to provide solutions or guide us toward solutions.
Microsoft technical support is very prompt.
The perspective documentation is good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Amazon EFS excels in scalability and auto-scaling, supporting large users but may face connection restoration issues.
Sentiment score
6.1
Microsoft Azure File Storage offers exceptional scalability, accommodating diverse business needs with automatic scaling for substantial user bases.
Its auto-scaling feature is a crucial point, providing high scalability that I would rate at ten out of ten.
Elastic File Systems allow me to scale up or down easily.
It is very cost-effective, and there's no need for initial charges.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Amazon EFS is considered stable and reliable by users, with minor issues that are generally resolved quickly.
Sentiment score
6.0
Microsoft Azure File Storage is highly rated for stability and reliability, with minor connectivity issues and minimal disruptions.
Amazon EFS is extremely stable, as it is managed by AWS.
While I experienced an EFS mount dropping, it was related to server issues rather than EFS itself.
I rate the stability of Microsoft Azure File Storage as a seven out of ten.
We sometimes encounter glitches with bigger files, but everything else works as expected.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EFS needs setup simplification, enhanced Windows support, speed improvements, better security, and AI-driven ease for nontechnical users.
Microsoft Azure File Storage needs cost transparency, better support, performance, security, usability, and improved integration and management features.
Enabling AI-driven or automatic features would be beneficial for new or nontechnical users.
In my project, there are challenges related to AWS, such as ensuring proper security measures with IMS code and encryption.
Expanding the storage capacity would be beneficial.
Some chunking logics need to be better to address issues with processing bigger files.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EFS provides flexible pricing based on storage and usage, but monthly costs can be higher than alternatives.
Microsoft Azure File Storage pricing is moderate, flexible, and usage-based, but transparency and competitiveness could be improved.
EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage.
Elastic File Systems can be expensive due to the nature of data transfer costs.
Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS.
I would rate it three or three and a half out of ten on the pricing scale.
The pricing for Microsoft Azure File Storage is five out of ten, not so expensive and not so low.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EFS provides scalable, flexible storage, seamless EC2 integration, and advanced security, ideal for efficient data processing and cost reduction.
Microsoft Azure File Storage provides scalable, secure cloud storage with seamless Azure integration, supporting multiple file formats and Active Directory.
They help me process data while maintaining low latency, which is crucial for efficient data processing.
Its ease of integration with other AWS services enhances our infrastructure, while the shared storage access improves reliability and processing continuity for our applications.
The AWS service is excellent security-wise, and I have seen some other features besides security, such as automatic scaling that helped us significantly.
It is satisfying our requirements with encryption and security features in place.
The storage solution saves time and makes document processing seamless.
In Microsoft Azure File Storage, the S3 bucket is the most helpful feature for my use.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EFS (Elastic File Sy...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Storage (10th), File and Object Storage (10th)
Microsoft Azure File Storage
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Public Cloud Storage Services (4th)
 

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 6.4%, down 9.7% compared to last year.
Microsoft Azure File Storage, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 9.8% mindshare, down 13.5% since last year.
Cloud Storage
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Nov 21, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Auto-scaling capabilities enhance file management while reducing downtime
The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability. It's really easy to configure EFS by just creating it and running a command to directly configure it with my servers. It supports unlimited use, and charges are applied based on the file usage at the end of the month. The solution offers reduced downtime and increased durability through its auto-scaling features.
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…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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.
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.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure File Storage?
There is a limitation on the storage capacity, like four terabytes. It could be improved to accommodate more data. Expanding the storage capacity would be beneficial.
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS Azure File Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend
Talon, Camden
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: August 2024.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.