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Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline 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 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Cloud Storage Nearline
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 16.8%, up from 15.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 10.3%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

ArunDhwaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Versatile data storage improves security and supports increasing data volumes
Amazon S3 Glacier offers robust security features and practically infinite storage, where we can store all kinds of media swiftly. It supports various data types, including semi-structured and raw formats. These features facilitate log management and data dumping since the service is versatile enough to handle large volumes of data and provide necessary security.
AmitKumar36 - PeerSpot reviewer
Flexible, seamless, and scalable document storage with AI and analytics integration, providing reliable support
The solution is very flexible in terms of scalability. It is an online service, so we can scale it anytime with some pre-planning. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. As for the users using this solution in our organization, that varies according to what time of the day and what day it is, but it goes around 2,000 to 3,000 users. The maximum is about 3,000. On average, it stays somewhere between 2,000 and 1,800.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Glacier is its storage capability and cost benefit."
"Amazon S3 Glacier can integrate seamlessly with other AWS services."
"Data retrieval, security, compliance, and storage archiving are the most valuable features of Amazon S3 Glacier."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is easy to use. The platform is straightforward, and the interfaces are user-friendly and responsive. Even with a limited budget, you can train someone without an AWS certification to use it. With on-the-job training, you can ensure they understand what needs to be done to use the service."
"The biggest advantage of the product is that AWS always copies the tool internally."
"The data archive feature is valuable."
"The tool is simple to use and not very expensive."
"The reliability of storage is the main benefit."
"It provides the necessary support and flexibility to manage data storage effectively, especially during times of variable data flow."
"The capacity and space on offer are excellent."
"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."
"It can isolate files and stop them from corrupting other files."
"Nearline is highly stable."
"Google is always introducing new features and tends to have a new release every month."
"The data structure and the types of data that are supported are very good."
 

Cons

"The product takes more time to secure data when the bandwidth is low."
"The response times could be faster. When you are with Amazon and use Glacier, you expect a response time between four to seven hours to retrieve the data."
"The solution's cloud storage is very expensive, and users may not be able to afford cloud storage."
"Although Amazon S3 Glacier is cheap, its data retrieval cost is very high compared to other solutions."
"The product needs to improve cloud security."
"I believe the usage reporting could be simplified, particularly for billing purposes. Overall, I find Amazon S3 Glacier's reporting system somewhat confusing compared to other hyperscalers in the market."
"The cost of retrieval in Glacier is quite high."
"Their pricing structure is always a big topic. It's so difficult to understand."
"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."
"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."
"They should provide more options or flexibility in terms of pricing."
"One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly."
"The pricing is quite high."
"Nearline security could be better. The solution could integrate better with SEIM tools."
"They need a better, more visual, user interface for folders and files."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon S3 Glacier has a good pricing point, and you pay for what's being used."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is not an expensive solution, and it has a pay-as-you-go pricing model."
"We don't pay for licenses. We pay based on consumption data, considering how much data is stored."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is much cheaper than competing products."
"The product is very cheap."
"The price point at which the product is available is pretty good."
"Customers prefer Amazon S3 Glacier because it is a cheap and pay-as-you-go solution."
"The pricing must be improved."
"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
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Amazon's S3 Glacier or EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon's S3 Glacier or Elastic Block Store data storage software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Amazon's S3 Glacier, whi...
What do you like most about Amazon S3 Glacier?
I like creating buckets where data can be segregated at a high level and then routing the appropriate data to each designated bucket. In terms of value, I would say that the tool gets the job done ...
What needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?
The cost of retrieval in Glacier is quite high. It would be excellent if Amazon could work on reducing retrieval costs. Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
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.
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.
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.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.