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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

"One of the benefits is being a global service, so it can be accessed from anywhere."
"Amazon S3 is a storage bucket service with good stability."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon S3 for me is static deployment; it doesn't charge much, and I can integrate CloudFront for DNS and routing. It is very useful and affordable."
"The product is easy to use."
"I find the cost-effective models particularly suitable for our needs."
"The initial setup is not difficult or overly complex. It's very straightforward and easy to implement."
"Overall, I rate Amazon S3 a ten out of ten."
"I used Amazon AWS/S3 solution to prove my concept before deploying it on real hardware. It was a great experience and was really scalable."
"The tool offers a secure way to access storage. You can also easily share the files securely across Azure."
"The biggest advantage of Azure File Storage vis-à-vis other public cloud storage providers, and why we recommend Azure first and foremost, is that many of our customers have partnerships with Microsoft and so they have access to better cloud economics. Compared to AWS, we have found that (from a customer perspective) Azure is much more competitive."
"It's a scalable solution."
"The best part is the accessibility to all the files."
"It helps us with geo-redundancy."
"I recommend Microsoft Azure File Storage for medium and above-sized companies."
"Its most valuable features are speed and security."
"It was easy to set up."
 

Cons

"One thing would be automatic replication between buckets, some feature like that."
"A feature that should be included is to find and provide a HIPPA compliant solution for the Presigned URL."
"We need the mapping to Windows. That feature is needed in S3. That feature is in the Azure cloud where we can map it like a drive. We can map the cloud storage to the effort driving our Windows PC. But Amazon is not providing that feature for the S3 solution."
"The only pain point is migrating the life cycle policy because if someone is a newbie, they cannot easily create the life cycle policy."
"I would like there to be more support without needing to use Transfer Family."
"The product should enable users to create their own shortcuts."
"The tool helps us with data backup storage of payment files and helps us avoid issues with clients when we miss the data. For instance, in the payment file of my Google client, you can find details of one-to-one transactions like the payment information on the file header, payment ID, payment client ID, group headers, etc. We get these details into the file format of ISO which is the accepted format at JP Morgan & Chase. Once we get the file format, we process it through S3."
"Sometimes, there is latency in getting data, especially if the file size is large."
"The pricing and technical support could be better."
"If the file is large, there may be a delay in download time."
"The pricing could be improved. They need to make the costs more transparent so users know what they will be charged and why ahead of time."
"I have had issues migrating my data to another subscription."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage should improve its pricing."
"The transparency of cost should be improved."
"Licensing costs are expensive."
"Some of the procedures are a bit more complex in Azure than in other providers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For pricing, I would give it a six or seven out of ten."
"This solution has reasonable pricing and a low cost."
"The cost varies based on the type of subscription you chose."
"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."
"I use the tool's free tier. I believe that there is a need to make annual payments towards the licensing charges associated with the product."
"The licensing model is complex."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly. I rate it a six to seven out of ten."
"The solution is fairly priced."
"The product's pricing need improvement."
"I think the pricing of the product can be reduced."
"The solution is a bit pricey compared to AWS and Google."
"The price is comparable to other competitive solutions."
"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."
"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."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive. It's not cheap."
"There are fewer hidden costs involved compared to other solutions, and when our customer is already a Microsoft partner, they typically have access to more affordable fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
77%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Manufacturing Company
2%
Computer Software Company
17%
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 price is almost the same as the competition. I would rate it three or three and a half out of ten on the pricing scale.
 

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: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.