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Amazon S3 vs Amazon S3 Glacier 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.5
Users report positive ROI from Amazon S3 due to cost savings, scalability, data integrity, and advanced analytics benefits.
Sentiment score
7.0
Organizations achieved 300% ROI with Amazon S3 Glacier through infrastructure savings, improved efficiency, and resource reallocation, despite support challenges.
Moving infrequently accessed data to cheaper classes like Glacier is beneficial for long-term storage at a lower cost.
If AWS improves support and cost management, there would be fewer reasons for users to consider other cloud platforms.
As it is Amazon S3 Glacier, it is used only for archival purposes, so it is comparatively okay to use it, and we can save money compared to the standard which is high.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Amazon S3 support is knowledgeable and helpful, but users desire faster response times; documentation reduces support necessity.
Sentiment score
5.5
Amazon S3 Glacier support is mixed: efficient assistance but variable response times, sufficient documentation, and varied support levels impact experiences.
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.
There is room for improvement in providing more skilled and comprehensive solutions.
They provide documentation and resolve issues.
If it is a business plan, then the support we have is really good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon S3 is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and security, ideal for enterprise-level applications despite cost considerations.
Sentiment score
9.2
Amazon S3 Glacier excels in scalability, supporting vast data volumes and seamless integration, meeting diverse enterprise demands globally.
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.
Amazon S3 Glacier auto-scales according to the data.
Amazon S3 Glacier is infinitely scalable, with no issues on our end.
Glacier has excellent scalability, with elasticity and security that meet industry standards.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Amazon S3 is highly stable and reliable with excellent performance, minimal maintenance, and slight security and upload speed concerns.
Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon S3 Glacier is praised for reliable performance, excellent SLA, and is ideal for cold storage despite occasional regional issues.
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.
It is specifically designed for cold storage.
I do not experience any stability issues.
Amazon S3 Glacier is quite stable, nine out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Users want a more intuitive Amazon S3 interface, enhanced speed, security features, simplified pricing, and better service integration.
Amazon S3 Glacier needs improved speed, security, compliance, pricing clarity, user experience, support, cost efficiency, and interface usability.
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.
I would like to see improvements in the transfer rate as it takes quite a long time to retrieve data from Glacier compared to standard S3 storage.
Support could be more robust, with a focus on providing comprehensive solutions even for novel issues.
Another improvement is making Glacier available in all regions.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon S3's pay-as-you-go model offers cost-effectiveness, though advanced features may increase expenses compared to competitors.
Amazon S3 Glacier provides cost-effective data archiving, though pricing complexity raises concerns despite lower initial costs and operational flexibility.
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.
Compared to competitors like GCP, AWS can work on reducing hidden costs and overall pricing to retain startups and medium-sized businesses.
The storage cost is minimal, which is beneficial for archival purposes.
While it's generally cost-effective, the pricing model could be clearer.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon S3 is favored for its security, scalability, unlimited storage, and integration with AWS, ideal for diverse data needs.
Amazon S3 Glacier offers affordable, secure, and scalable long-term storage, ideal for infrequent data access and efficient cost management.
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.
Glacier greatly helps in managing storage costs by moving historical data to a lower-cost storage option.
The security features include object lock encryption and immutability options, so we can use this for backups.
The most valuable features of Amazon S3 Glacier are its cost-effectiveness for data archiving and its durability.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon S3
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Amazon S3 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
41
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 Amazon S3 Glacier is 15.7%, down from 16.2% 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.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
7%
 

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?
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?
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...
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?
I am not sure about improvements; so far it has been good for me. The pricing is on the higher side. I have not mentioned any features as the product is good. Pricing is my concern; this is the onl...
 

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service
Amazon Glacier
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic
King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 vs. Amazon S3 Glacier and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.