Amazon S3 vs Microsoft Azure File Storage comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 11.6% mindshare in PCSS, compared to Microsoft’s 10.0% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon S3

Read 83 Amazon S3 reviews

3,165 Views
3,070 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure File Storage

Read 48 Microsoft Azure File Storage reviews

5,580 Views
2,623 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Amazon S3

Microsoft Azure File Storage

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure File Storage are prominent cloud storage solutions offering distinct advantages. Amazon S3 holds the upper hand due to its higher scalability and better integration, while Microsoft Azure File Storage shines in hybrid compatibility and seamless collaboration.

Features: Amazon S3 provides high availability, flexible storage options, and extensive integration with AWS services. Microsoft Azure File Storage supports SMB protocols, achieves easy scalability, and offers robust security features.

Room for Improvement: Amazon S3 users desire enhanced usability, clearer billing structures, and improved cross-platform compatibility. Microsoft Azure File Storage users seek better support, improved performance for large file transfers, and enhanced user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon S3 is noted for swift deployment and reliable support, despite a steep learning curve. Microsoft Azure File Storage is recognized for straightforward deployment and efficient customer service, with occasional performance issues noted.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon S3 is acknowledged for its cost-effectiveness and significant ROI. Microsoft Azure File Storage is appreciated for competitive pricing but raises concerns about long-term cost efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage

July 2025

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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

6.8

Number of Reviews

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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 is 11.6%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure File Storage is 10.0%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

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.

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PrashanthR

Lead Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

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…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Easy to use, very intuitive, fast, and quite flexible."

"One of the benefits is being a global service, so it can be accessed from anywhere."

"The most effective features of Amazon S3 are its robust storage capabilities wherein you can combine it with different solutions, using it as a repository for analytics, whether for video analytics or data analytics, allowing for dynamic adjustment of storage automatically without any requisition or long process."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon S3 is the data transfer acceleration because it can enable fast, easy, and secure data transfer."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its security, as it does not provide public access."

"The most useful features of Amazon S3 are the intelligent multipart upload."

"It's reliable and stable."

"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."

More Amazon S3 pros

"File storage is complemented by OCR with Azure Cognitive Service."

"The initial setup is fairly easy."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure File Storage is the cloud file storage capability."

"Implementations with other products are easy."

"I recommend Microsoft Azure File Storage for medium and above-sized companies."

"We have not explored the desktop performance analysis of the file storage, but the user interface, API, and the response that we receive over the file storage are very good. We have a lot of customers that connect to the client-side, click the images, and upload them. The beauty of the solution is that we can mount the file storage into a critical server as well as an external drive. The speed that we receive with the images is pretty good."

"The best part is the accessibility to all the files."

"General user familiarity with Office 365 products make adopting this solution easy to adopt in production."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage pros

Cons

"There's a lot of complexity."

"No direct connector is available to connect Amazon S3 with other tools like MicroStrategy."

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

"We would like to see improvement in the ability to moves files within this solution. At present the process is not straightforward, and requires us to download files to our micro service service before then uploading into the solution. In addition, the transfer bit rate for the process is very slow."

"A feature that should be included is to find and provide a HIPPA compliant solution for the Presigned URL."

"The read drive speed is not as fast as it should be."

"Could include some additional security features."

"We would like some improvement in the cost of storage via this solution, as it currently has a very high price point."

More Amazon S3 cons

"They should make the solution more user-friendly."

"The storage account key could be a security issue."

"Licensing costs are expensive."

"The provider needs to collect more information about the products."

"Maybe Microsoft can make it more economical because it is a costly affair."

"One thing that Azure File Storage could help us with is some kind of impact assessment. When we talk to some of our larger customers who have between 500 and 1,000 applications, we normally do an assessment of all these applications and then tell them which ones are ready to be lifted and shifted, and which ones need to re-architected. It would really help if Azure File Storage could come up with a better way to give estimations of the total investment required, including all costs incurred during the migration."

"Considering the enterprise licensing required for the solution, the cost of the solution is an area where the product needs improvement."

"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."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for Amazon S3 is reasonable, so price-wise, it's a seven out of ten."

"The cost varies based on the type of subscription you chose."

"The pricing depends on your region and is reasonable."

"The cost depends on the data we access."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly. I rate it a six to seven out of ten."

"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten. Pricing depends on a particular class where you want save your objects. There are different classes when it comes to storage in S3."

"One can manage the price of the tool. The tool is worth the money if we want to store the data in Amazon S3."

"The solution is cost-effective because it is based on a pay-as-you-go model, where I can purchase and use it according to my needs."

More Amazon S3 pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable. The pricing model is based on usage."

"Microsoft Azure File Storage has a reasonable price."

"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."

"For one terabyte of data, we are spending about 150 Euro every month."

"I think the pricing of the product can be reduced."

"The licensing cost for Microsoft Azure File Storage comes with an agreement from Microsoft."

"Microsoft Azure File Storage is expensive."

"The solution is a bit pricey compared to AWS and Google."

More Microsoft Azure File Storage pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 Microsoft Azure File Storage?

The product is a reliable cloud solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure File Storage?

The pricing for Microsoft Azure File Storage is five out of ten, not so expensive and not so low.

See all answers

Comparisons

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Amazon S3

Compared 17% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 12% of the time

Rackspace Cloud Files vs Amazon S3

Compared 8% of the time

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs Amazon S3

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon S3 Competitors

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

Compared 50% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 18% of the time

Wasabi vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 6% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Microsoft Azure File Storage

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure File Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3

July 2025

Download Amazon S3 product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure File Storage

July 2025

Download Microsoft Azure File Storage product report

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service

MS Azure File Storage

Overview

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)

Fully managed file shares that use the standard SMB 3.0 protocol

Key scenarios:

Share data across on-premises and cloud servers
Migrate file share-based applications to the cloud with no code changes
Integrate modern applications with File storage
Simplify hosting for high availability workload data

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic

Talon, Camden

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage

July 2025

Free Report: Amazon S3 vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage

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