Amazon S3 vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.5. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 12.4% mindshare in PCSS, compared to Google’s 9.6% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon S3

Read 83 Amazon S3 reviews

2,760 Views
2,705 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Read 10 Google Cloud Storage Nearline reviews

1,627 Views
1,611 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon S3

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage Nearline offer cloud storage solutions, each with unique strengths. Amazon S3 holds an advantage due to its extensive features and configuration options, although Google Cloud Storage Nearline is noted for its cost-effectiveness and customer support.

Features: Amazon S3 features data replication, lifecycle policies, and integration with AWS services. Google Cloud Storage Nearline offers low-latency access, lower retrieval costs for infrequent data, and seamless integration with Google Cloud services.

Room for Improvement: Amazon S3 could enhance cost predictability, simplify pricing structure, and improve user interface. Google Cloud Storage Nearline can improve documentation, offer more intuitive management tools, and enhance data migration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon S3 is noted for straightforward deployment and comprehensive customer service, including reliable AWS support. Google Cloud Storage Nearline is also easy to deploy, with responsive support and useful resources.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon S3's setup costs are higher but offer significant long-term ROI due to robust features and reliability. Google Cloud Storage Nearline stands out for lower initial costs and favorable ROI for infrequently accessed data.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon S3 vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

July 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

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 is 12.4%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 9.6%, up from 6.5% 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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Victor Oladejo

Data Engineer at Electronics Collections Group

A reliable solution for long-term data storage with room for improvement regarding its cost efficiency

The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency. Currently, Google Cloud Storage Nearline charges a minimum of thirty days for data access. I propose a more flexible approach. Instead of a fixed thirty-day minimum charge, there could be a programmatic adjustment based on data access patterns. For instance, if Google Cloud notices that certain data is no longer frequently accessed, they could automatically adjust the billing. When data isn't actively used, the charges for access to that data should decrease. This approach would ensure that users are billed fairly for the actual access they require, especially when data access patterns vary over time.

Read full review

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 easily connects with the cloud, hardware, or other services to move data."

"Amazon S3 is very flexible and provides high storage."

"We have cold storage here, and I think that's useful. When it comes to commercialization, it's cheaper to put data that you won't be using into the data storage. You only use a little bit of the data needed each day for your transition, so you pay less."

"Amazon S3 is easily accessible, fast and effective. Its performance is good."

"The solution is easy to use for anyone with minimal technical knowledge."

"Amazon S3 is highly stable."

"It's reliable and stable."

More Amazon S3 pros

"Nearline is highly stable."

"The data structure and the types of data that are supported are very good."

"It can isolate files and stop them from corrupting other files."

"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."

"I find the flexibility in storing documents or data and the ease of retrieval valuable with this solution."

"Google is always introducing new features and tends to have a new release every month."

"It provides the necessary support and flexibility to manage data storage effectively, especially during times of variable data flow."

"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline pros

Cons

"An encryption mechanism and storage optimization could be added."

"The solution requires you to buy and use Amazon services."

"If a certain resource is left unchecked, you can easily use a lot of it and drive up costs."

"Amazon S3 could improve some of the features, such as indexing, or we should have more information about all the data stored in a single place. This way we can see what data resides where instead of going in different buckets, file locations manually, or searching. An index would be nice, allowing us to directly go to a location to use the date."

"When we need to find the queries there is no user interface, it is the only textual format that is bulky. If we need some data we will use Athena for queries and we will get results. When comparing this solution to others, such as DataDog, they provide a wonderful UI, and user-friendly dashboards, and many other features that this solution is lacking."

"The solution's data transfer speed could be improved."

"You do need to get training on the setup process."

"The console could be improved - it's not very user friendly for non-technical guys."

More Amazon S3 cons

"From a storage standpoint, it would be beneficial if the retrieval cost could be optimized, as it is comparatively higher than storage costs in Nearline."

"The solution needs to offer better System Information and Event Management (SEIM). I'd like to discover how we could implement something like that within Google's cloud."

"They need a better, more visual, user interface for folders and files."

"Nearline security could be better. The solution could integrate better with SEIM tools."

"The interface for managing file storage in the buckets could be improved."

"The pricing is quite high."

"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."

"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The cost of Amazon S3 is low. For R & D purposes there is a free option available. There is a license needed to use the solution."

"The pricing is good."

"The price of Amazon S3 should be reduced."

"The license of Amazon S3 is based on volume, capacity, and time. The overall price of the solution could improve. The support has to be added if you want it at an additional cost."

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

"The cost of storage is cheap. However, the cost to have a better interface can get expensive. We are using Athena for this purpose and if we did some heavy queries the cost will start adding up. When the Athena query is running, it will scan the bucket and they charge for how many GBs we are going to scan. The function of scanning has a lot of costs attached to it, this is a negative point."

"The pricing for Amazon S3 is reasonable, so price-wise, it's a seven out of ten."

More Amazon S3 pricing and cost advice

"Google Cloud Storage Nearline is very inexpensive. It costs us less than $50 a month to store our files. We use approximately 10 terabytes. Overall, I would rate the product a five out of five for affordability."

"Right now, for the number of servers and the storage that I have, I would say I'm charged between $125 and $150 per month."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

University

Computer Software Company

17%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

University

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?

AWS pricing for Amazon S3 starts at a higher cost, particularly in the standard class. However, with lifecycle management policies, costs can be optimized over time. On a scale from one to ten, I w...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon S3?

Areas of improvement should focus more on the services of Outposts rather than the Amazon S3 portion. AWS should sell Outposts in the Philippines because currently, only a few companies are using i...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

The most valuable feature of Nearline is the access. It's helpful to move data that is generated once a month, such as salary information, to Nearline.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

The storage and access cost of Nearline are considered optimal compared to other cloud storage solutions, although I lack a clear view of other cloud storage costs.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Storage Nearline?

From a storage standpoint, it would be beneficial if the retrieval cost could be optimized, as it is comparatively higher than storage costs in Nearline.

See all answers

Comparisons

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Amazon S3

Compared 16% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 9% of the time

Wasabi vs Amazon S3

Compared 4% of the time

More Amazon S3 Competitors

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Compared 94% of the time

More Google Cloud Storage Nearline Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3

August 2025

Download Amazon S3 product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Storage Nearline

August 2025

Download Google Cloud Storage Nearline product report

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service

No data available

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)

A low-cost, highly-durable and highly available storage service for infrequently accessed data, data archiving, online backup and disaster recovery. Data is available instantly, not within hours or days. With sub-second average response times and 1 cent per GB/month pricing, Cloud Storage Nearline gives you terrific performance at a low cost.

Google

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

July 2025

Free Report: Amazon S3 vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline

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