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Microsoft Azure Block Storage vs Microsoft Azure File Storage 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

Microsoft Azure Block Storage
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
64
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
48
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 Microsoft Azure Block Storage is 0.9%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure File Storage is 10.0%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

MatsHagberg Olsson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowers secure data management with affordable tools and minimal hassle
The most valuable feature is that it's very affordable in comparison to competitors. The absolute best feature is the Azure Storage Explorer tool. The tool allows me to download to my device, control access, and manage data with ease. Additionally, the joint use of Azure portal further facilitates management depending on my location.
PrashanthR - PeerSpot reviewer
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can easily access your data whenever you need it."
"It is easy to integrate with applications."
"The solution is stable."
"Azure Block Storage lets you customize code you can use on that endpoint. If you want to write a logic for something, Azure Function can be used to deploy that application."
"This is a very robust and flexible solution."
"This is a very stable solution."
"The product is very easy to use."
"The solution's most valuable feature revolves around the security-wise functionalities of the tool our company gets from using SAS keys."
"General user familiarity with Office 365 products make adopting this solution easy to adopt in production."
"The profile management option is another valuable feature that allows us to manage the profiles and secure them."
"Very user-friendly and intuitive."
"Implementations with other products are easy."
"It is very easy to use SSTP and some traditional code to move the data into a database because we can easily use the permissions and we don't have any integration or conversion issues."
"The most significant aspect of Microsoft Azure File Storage is its life cycle functionality, which enables us to transfer files to various storage options, such as hot storage, full storage, and archive. This feature is crucial since we can apply a life cycle method to files that have not been in use for an extended period, and then move them to a cheaper cold storage option to save costs. Since the newest files are stored in the hot storage, it met our specific requirements. Consequently, older files can be transferred to archive and cold storage."
"What I like about Microsoft Azure File Storage is its convenience for customers, cost-effectiveness, and high availability."
"This solution supports all file formats."
 

Cons

"Support is an area where improvements can be made, particularly in response time for enterprise support."
"I want to see my region added to the data center. I'm in Africa, and if a data center is specifically added under Central Africa, that will reduce data latency when accessing data."
"I encountered a challenge where certain metadata was located on a secured network that could only be accessed through a VPN. As there was no direct connector available to reach the private networks that require VPN access, we had to rely on manual effort to access the data. This could potentially be addressed as an area of improvement, especially with regard to accessibility issues where data is only accessible through a VPN connection."
"The solution's downside is related to its documentation, which I believe can be difficult to navigate because it is hidden between or within other pages of the product's manual."
"The performance could be improved, but all the services in the cloud are improved every week."
"Microsoft Azure Block Storage can improve the configuration to be more user-friendly."
"The solution can be improved by including quicker hard drive access and larger bandwidth as part of the standard licensing fee."
"The tool could be cheaper."
"Licensing costs are expensive."
"It should allow better methods for handling large files."
"The security could always be modernized."
"The product must provide better security functions."
"The provider needs to collect more information about the products."
"It's a bit complex to set up. Other than that, there is nothing to improve."
"Some chunking logics need to be better to address issues with processing bigger files. It should allow better methods for handling large files."
"The solution should support all the legacy storage systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution requires an input-output operations fee as well as pay per gigabyte of storage."
"The solution is affordable, and we only pay for what we use."
"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a pretty cheap and affordable product, so we have not seen any budget issues related to the solution in our company."
"Microsoft Azure Block Storage is an expensive solution and I pay monthly."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The price could be more flexible, and it can be expensive."
"Azure Block Storage is higher priced than its competitors."
"In terms of pricing, Azure is quite cheaper than AWS. However, I have recently read that Oracle Cloud Generation 2 storage is quite cheaper than Azure. I haven't used it yet. We need to look at a customer's requirements, and, based on that, we can suggest the storage. You can save at least 20% with Azure as compared to AWS, which is quite costly."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage is expensive."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being the most expensive. It's not cheap."
"One needs to pay according to the storage they plan to use in the solution. The payments are to be made yearly. It is usually monthly, but we opted for yearly subscriptions in our company."
"The price is comparable to other competitive solutions."
"I think the pricing of the product can be reduced."
"The price of Microsoft Azure File Storage is expensive, we do not know exactly how the price is calculated."
"The licensing cost for Microsoft Azure File Storage comes with an agreement from Microsoft."
"Microsoft Azure File Storage has a reasonable price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Block Storage?
We use the solution to develop SaaS platforms on Azure. We utilize various Microsoft components like block storage and databases for this purpose.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Block Storage?
Our experience with pricing has been positive. The budget for Microsoft Azure services has been within expectations for the last couple of months. The cost for Azure Data Factory ( /products/azure-...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Block Storage?
We encountered an issue where enabling SFTP on Microsoft Azure Block Storage didn’t allow us to get the IP address, as Azure ( /products/microsoft-azure-reviews ) doesn’t support it. We had to set ...
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...
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.
 

Also Known As

MS Azure Block Storage
MS Azure File Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mazda, BlinkBox, Rakuten Showtime, Xbox One, Serko, ChronoDrive
Talon, Camden
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Block Storage vs. Microsoft Azure File Storage and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
858,327 professionals have used our research since 2012.