No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Azure Files vs Azure NetApp Files 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Files
Ranking in Cloud Storage
19th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (19th)
Azure NetApp Files
Ranking in Cloud Storage
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (7th), Public Cloud Storage Services (13th)
 

Featured Reviews

Sameer_Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Solution Specialist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Migration has become seamless and cost tracking is simplified for hybrid file workloads
I think if Azure Files could integrate migration using Storage Mover, that would be an improvement. I don't think they have an option currently. Storage Mover only has an option to migrate blob storage or cold storage from one subscription to another subscription or from one tenant to another tenant. You only have options to migrate blob storage. For Azure Files, that is an SMB transfer, so you need to use AZCopy for that. If there is a migration where you want to migrate your blob storage from one subscription to another or from one tenant to another, you have the Storage Mover option where you can easily migrate blob storage. However, Storage Mover does not support Azure Files.
Rajat Wadhwa - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at IBM
Cross-region replication has delivered seamless disaster recovery for enterprise storage needs
In terms of improvement, I would say cost reservation; the cost is a bit high. If we compare Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files, I know that customers are using less of Azure NetApp due to the cost. If they bring the cost a little bit closer to what Azure Files offers, it can be a great product in the market and bring a lot of business to NetApp. Backup is quite critical. As of now, Azure NetApp Files requires you to use Azure NetApp Backup solution, which is in public preview at the moment. I would definitely expect NetApp to come up with that solution so that customers can start using it because they do not have confidence in backup as it is still in preview. They are still doing some testing and research on that product, which is not officially released for use by multiple customers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If we need to migrate data, Azure Files allows a seamless data migration."
"It all depends on the requirement; if the customer is an enterprise customer wanting a disaster recovery solution without manual efforts to migrate or replicate data from one Azure region to another, then Azure NetApp Files is a seamless solution."
"I like the SnapMirror feature in Azure NetApp Files. It helps me create backups with snapshots and makes data recovery and compression."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its flexibility."
"Azure NetApp Files has been stable."
"I think the easiest part is, when you do a comparison, it is the throughput versus the cost. And it's much easier to set up."
"You can change it non-disruptively. You can increase the size and decrease the size online, which is a huge benefit compared to Azure disks. It just works seamlessly. You don't need to stop the instances."
"It's elastic, so it scales with our demands. We can start small, then with the addition of customer loads, we can expand on-the-fly without the need to reprovision something."
"We recommend this solution to our customers because of its ease of use, availability, and security, but they don't usually go for it because of its price."
 

Cons

"I think if Azure Files could integrate migration using Storage Mover, that would be an improvement."
"Azure NetApp Files could improve by being more diverse to integrate better with other solutions, such as Splunk and the on-premise version. There are some use cases that are not covered natively by Azure. It is not the best solution because it is not external from the cloud which for me is the best type of solution."
"It is expensive in small environments, which could be better. The reason is the four terabyte minimum."
"I would like to see multi-zone redundancy so that I don't have to worry about it. I just back up my data to that one SMB share and I know that it's replicated to a different region."
"I have a hunch that storage could be now the most expensive portion of our monthly bill."
"The pricing definitely needs to be improved."
"Its pricing can be better."
"We would like for the files which are coming in that we can version them. So, if a file is accidentally deleted, there should have a recycle bin option where we can go back, and at least once, clean it up."
"We would like for the files which are coming in that we can version them. So, if a file is accidentally deleted, there should have a recycle bin option where we can go back, and at least once, clean it up."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"NetApp is a premium offering, so it's not a cheap product, but it is well-priced. It combines a couple of properties which customers like us are willing to pay. Could it be cheaper? Yes, but if you combine fully supported, fully managed, easily provisioned, scalable, and quick all in one product, it's a good selling point. You can ask a lot of money for all these. If you have a use case like we do, it's a perfect match. It's like the Porsche of storage solutions in the cloud. It is totally worth the cost."
"Our pricing has not been determined because we are still waiting on additional features."
"The licensing fees for this solution vary, ranging from a single shelf to a full suite."
"We are currently on a pay-as-you-go model with the storage that we use."
"Its price is double the price of the premium disks, which is the main reason why customers don't go for this solution in the end."
"It is expensive, especially with NetApp Ultra Storage."
"The performance has improved by about 30 percent."
"In the cloud, pricing depends on how you manage it. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's all about optimizing charges and showing the cost back. So, it's more about managing the expenses rather than being inherently expensive or cheap."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Storage solutions are best for your needs.
893,915 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Azure Files?
I think if Azure Files could integrate migration using Storage Mover, that would be an improvement. I don't think they have an option currently. Storage Mover only has an option to migrate blob sto...
What is your primary use case for Azure Files?
We are moving on-premise project data migrated to Azure file shares. We currently have all offices, and we have just moved our on-premise user data to Azure. We used Azure Files to sync our on-prem...
What advice do you have for others considering Azure Files?
We have Azure Files and Azure ML as well. I work on the infrastructure part of Azure like Azure Files. Integration is very simple. My overall review rating for Azure Files is nine.
How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?
Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to ...
What do you like most about Azure NetApp Files?
The availability is good, meaning downtime or network issues rarely occur. The system also offers flexibility, allowing for increases in data volume, IOPS, and other capabilities without requiring ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
NetApp ANF, ANF
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
SAP, Restaurant Magic
Find out what your peers are saying about Dropbox, Google, CTERA and others in Cloud Storage. Updated: April 2026.
893,915 professionals have used our research since 2012.