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Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Amazon S3 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:
 

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
3.5
Users report positive ROI from Amazon S3 due to cost savings, scalability, data integrity, and advanced analytics benefits.
Moving infrequently accessed data to cheaper classes like Glacier is beneficial for long-term storage at a lower cost.
 

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
6.5
Amazon S3 support is knowledgeable and helpful, but users desire faster response times; documentation reduces support necessity.
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.
I rate the technical support from Amazon for S3 a ten out of ten.
An engineer is assigned based on the severity of the issue.
The technical support for Amazon S3 is rated ten out of ten.
 

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
8.3
Amazon S3 is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and security, ideal for enterprise-level applications despite cost considerations.
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.
Data placed in an S3 bucket is replicated across availability zones in a region, ensuring scalability and availability.
The level of scalability allows storage to automatically scale on demand, without the need for manual intervention.
Amazon S3's automatic scaling has benefited me, as I don't need to plan storage requirements.
 

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
7.7
Amazon S3 is highly stable and reliable with excellent performance, minimal maintenance, and slight security and upload speed concerns.
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.
There is zero latency or downtime.
Transitioning between S3 storage classes, like moving data from the standard class to Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive, has been challenging.
Amazon S3 is highly stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EFS needs setup simplification, enhanced Windows support, speed improvements, better security, and AI-driven ease for nontechnical users.
Users want a more intuitive Amazon S3 interface, enhanced speed, security features, simplified pricing, and better service integration.
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.
An improvement could be associating the naming with personal accounts, allowing more familiar or desired names without conflicting with global conventions.
The practice of protecting data could be more streamlined or mandatory.
I would like to see an increase in the data upload limit, similar to DynamoDB, where there is no data limit.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EFS provides flexible pricing based on storage and usage, but monthly costs can be higher than alternatives.
Amazon S3's pay-as-you-go model offers cost-effectiveness, though advanced features may increase expenses compared to competitors.
EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage.
Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS.
Elastic File Systems can be expensive due to the nature of data transfer costs.
I've used the free tier and haven't been charged yet.
S3 offers multiple classes, allowing you to move data to cheaper classes for cost savings.
It is somewhat justified due to the benefits, but there is room for reconsideration.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EFS provides scalable, flexible storage, seamless EC2 integration, and advanced security, ideal for efficient data processing and cost reduction.
Amazon S3 is favored for its security, scalability, unlimited storage, and integration with AWS, ideal for diverse data needs.
Its ease of integration with other AWS services enhances our infrastructure, while the shared storage access improves reliability and processing continuity for our applications.
They help me process data while maintaining low latency, which is crucial for efficient data processing.
The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability.
Its stability and scalability are also impressive, as it allows for increased storage space according to demand.
I appreciate its capability to create static websites and integrate with services like CloudFront, EC2, and DynamoDB.
Security measures like encryption, access controls, and the block public access feature are also important.
 

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)
Amazon S3
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Public Cloud Storage Services (2nd)
 

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.
Amazon S3, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 12.4% mindshare, up 12.2% since last year.
Cloud Storage
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Q&A Highlights

Jitendra Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 31, 2022
 

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.
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.
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Answers from the Community

Jitendra Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 31, 2022
Mar 31, 2022
Hi @Vipin Garg, @Oscar Mejia ​, @Shaban AL-Ahmad ​, @Nibrask Alambilat Kaniyat , @Marcelo Lucas and @Krishna Rao , Do you possibly have any answers to assist @Jitendra Patel ​with this question?​
See 2 answers
AC
Mar 22, 2022
It depends on the storage capacity you are looking for and expected data growth. You would need to ascertain these numbers before looking at backup volumes, and potential costs.
EB
Mar 31, 2022
Hi @Vipin Garg, @Oscar Mejia ​, @Shaban AL-Ahmad ​, @Nibrask Alambilat Kaniyat , @Marcelo Lucas  and @Krishna Rao , Do you possibly have any answers to assist @Jitendra Patel ​with this question?​
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
 

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)?
Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS.
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?
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...
What needs improvement with Amazon S3?
AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) should provide more attractive and comprehensive documentation, especially while integrating Amazon S3 with other AWS services like Elemental MediaConvert. Curr...
 

Also Known As

No data available
S3, Simple Storage Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend
Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3 and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
864,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.