Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Amazon S3 comparison

The compared Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) and Amazon S3 solutions aren't in the same category. Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is ranked #4 in CS , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 7.6% mindshare in the category. Amazon S3 is ranked #2 in PCSS , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 11.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Amazon S3 users who would recommend it.

Amazon EFS (Elastic File Sy...

Read 15 Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) reviews

1,193 Views
1,029 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon S3

Read 82 Amazon S3 reviews

5,148 Views
2,759 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Amazon EFS (Elastic File Sy...

Amazon S3

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) and Amazon S3 based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3 Report (Updated: March 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3

March 2024

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Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

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 EFS (Elastic File Sy...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Storage (4th), File and Object Storage (8th)

Amazon S3

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

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 7.6%, down 9.8% compared to last year.
Amazon S3, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 11.5% mindshare, down 13.9% since last year.

Cloud Storage

Public Cloud Storage Services

Q&A Highlights

Jitendra Patel

Technology Lead, Global Database Services at Johnson & Johnson

Mar 31, 2022

What is the true cost of storing database backup to Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Amazon S3?

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.

See all answers

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

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.

Read full review

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.

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

"We can run code and deploy it whenever we want."

"We haven't seen any downtime or challenges when using the services."

"We are not that big of a cloud user. We just use it for the storage of our bytes. The most valuable aspect is the storage."

"The platform is highly scalable."

"I appreciate Amazon's extensive range of services, which makes it a favorable choice."

"Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is secure as it is used under VPC."

"The most beneficial feature of the product for data storage stems from the fact that it serves as a shared file storage."

"Amazon EFS offers the flexibility of scaling as needed without requiring pre-provisioned storage."

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) pros

"Amazon S3 is easy to use and it is beneficial to use the CLI to make the backups. Since I use the CLI I do not have to do it on a web portal which is a big advantage because everything can be automatized. Automation can be done very well in Amazon S3."

"Cloud infrastructure is the most valuable feature."

"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."

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

"The scalability of Amazon S3 is good."

"S3 is a great service offering numerous possibilities."

"The solution auto-scales so it is easily scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the storage."

More Amazon S3 pros

Cons

"Elastic File Systems can be expensive due to the nature of data transfer costs, using services like SSTP, and potentially being costly in a rate-shift context."

"When we faced some issues, the support team took a lot of time to resolve them."

"It should be simplified. There are people who don't have cloud experience. It should be storage that we are able to just connect to."

"The product's stability has some shortcomings where improvements are required."

"The platform's connectivity could be improved to be more comparable to S3 buckets, which offer better API availability."

"EFS could be improved by including a one-click setup."

"The initial setup requires prior experience and technical skills."

"The deployment is definitely not an easy process."

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) cons

"AWS should provide more attractive and comprehensive documentation, especially while integrating Amazon S3 with other AWS services like Elemental MediaConvert."

"I would like a batch downloading option added to the AWS console."

"The stability of the solution has room for improvement."

"Sometimes, there is latency in getting data, especially if the file size is large. This could be improved."

"The cost of the solution should be reduced."

"The installation could be more straightforward for inexperienced users."

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

"In the next release, I think that it would be good to have wizards that would update into specific applications, for example, a one-touch configuration in Pagemaker."

More Amazon S3 cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's price depends on the services and the size and capacity at which it is used in a business environment."

"The solution's price is mid-ranged."

"I would rate the pricing 7 out of 10."

"It has flexible pricing. You are charged based on your storage."

"The main challenge with EFS is its cost, which is slightly higher compared to EBS or S3. For one GB or ten GB of data, S3 is much cheaper. EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage."

"Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) offers a pay-as-you-go model, so whenever you use its services, you need to pay."

"The product charges are based on the amount of data stored."

"It's worth the price considering its functionality."

"With S3 Standard, there is not a charge for deletion of objects."

"The tool's licensing costs are monthly and cheap."

"Amazon S3 is a cost-effective solution compared to the others."

"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 cost depends on the data we access."

"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 price of Amazon S3 should be reduced."

More Amazon S3 pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Jitendra Patel

Technology Lead, Global Database Services at Johnson & Johnson

Mar 31, 2022

What is the true cost of storing database backup to Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs Amazon S3?

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

goforitandy

IT Consultant at Woohoogeeks

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.

Read full answer

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

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?

Read full answer

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

75%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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...

See all answers

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

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

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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?

S3 is a pay-as-you-go service. I pay based on the data volume I am using.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

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

Compared 53% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 8% of the time

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

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) Competitors

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Amazon S3

Compared 20% of the time

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 14% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 12% of the time

Rackspace Cloud Files vs Amazon S3

Compared 7% of the time

More Amazon S3 Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

April 2025

Download Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) product report

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3

April 2025

Download Amazon S3 product report

Also Known As

No data available

S3, Simple Storage Service

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 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)

Sample Customers

Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3

March 2024

Free Report: Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. Amazon S3 and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.

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