AWS S3 vs EBS vs EFS vs Glacier: Which Storage is Best in 2025?

Nitin Yadav
December 4, 2025
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Discover which AWS storage service fits your workloads as we break down S3, EBS, EFS, and Glacier performance, durability, and budget needs

Amazon S3 vs EBS vs EFS vs Glacier, AWS archival storage, AWS block storage, AWS cost optimization storage, AWS file storage, AWS Glacier Deep Archive, AWS object storage, AWS storage best practices, AWS storage comparison, AWS storage pricing, AWS storage service, AWS storage solutions 2025, EBS gp3 io2 storage, EFS shared file system, S3 storage tiers

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Cloud adoption across the US has accelerated rapidly, with businesses from SaaS startups to global enterprises storing more data than ever before. As platforms scale, requirements around performance, durability, compliance, analytics, backups, and cost optimization have become increasingly complex. This is why choosing the right AWS storage services is no longer simply a technical decision, it is a financial and strategic one.

Amazon Web Services offers multiple storage solutions, but the four most widely used options in 2025 are:

Amazon S3 – Object storage for scalable, durable, low-cost data.
Amazon EBS – Block storage optimized for high-performance workloads.
Amazon EFS – Elastic file system for shared, distributed environments.
Amazon Glacier – Archival storage for long-term retention and compliance.

While all four services fall under the AWS storage umbrella, they serve fundamentally different purposes. Yet, many US companies overspend or underperform simply because they selected the wrong service for their workload.

This guide provides a detailed AWS storage comparison, breaking down the pros, cons, pricing, and best use cases of S3 vs EBS vs EFS vs Glacier to help you determine the most optimal storage solution for your business in 2025.

In the end, you’ll have a clear framework for choosing the right service based on performance needs, compliance rules, and budget considerations plus tips to significantly reduce storage costs.

What Are AWS Storage Services?

AWS storage services are a suite of cloud-based solutions designed to store, manage, secure, and access data at scale. These services support everything from real-time applications and databases to archival data and backups, making AWS the most widely adopted cloud storage provider in 2025.

AWS categorizes its storage offerings into multiple types based on how data is stored and accessed:

a) Object Storage (Amazon S3)

Stores data as objects, ideal for unstructured data such as images, logs, videos, backups, datasets, and static web content.

b) Block Storage (Amazon EBS)

High-performance storage attached to EC2 instances. Used for databases, transactional apps, high-performance computing (HPC), and low-latency workloads.

c) File Storage (Amazon EFS)

Fully managed, elastic file system accessible across multiple EC2 instances simultaneously. Best for shared workloads and Kubernetes clusters.

d) Archival Storage (Amazon S3 Glacier)

Ultra-low-cost storage designed for long-term backups, compliance archives, and infrequently accessed data.

Why These Four Services Matter Most in 2025

Although AWS provides more than a dozen storage options, S3, EBS, EFS, and Glacier are the core building blocks for 95% of enterprise data workloads. They define how companies handle:

Performance
Cost optimization
Scalability
Retention & compliance
Data availability
AI/ML pipelines

Understanding where each service fits is the foundation for choosing the right storage strategy and avoiding unnecessary cloud spend.

Amazon S3: Scalable Object Storage for Modern Applications

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is AWS’s flagship object storage solution and the most widely used cloud storage service in the world. It is designed for unlimited scalability, 11 nines of durability (99.999999999%), and easy integration with analytics, AI/ML, and serverless workloads.

Businesses in SaaS, FinTech, healthcare, media, and e-commerce rely on S3 for everything from logs and backups to big data pipelines and static website hosting.

Key Features of Amazon S3

Unlimited storage capacity

Store petabytes of data without provisioning resources.

11 nines durability (99.999999999%)

Data is automatically stored across multiple Availability Zones.

Multiple storage tiers for cost optimization:

S3 Standard – frequent access
S3 Intelligent-Tiering – automatically moves objects to cheaper tiers
S3 Standard-IA – infrequent access
S3 One Zone-IA – one AZ only (cheaper)
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
S3 Glacier Deep Archive (cheapest)

Strong security

Encryption at rest & in transit, IAM policies, bucket policies, ACLs, versioning, MFA delete.

Easy integration

Works seamlessly with Lambda, Redshift, Athena, Glue, EMR, Snowflake & more.

Pros of Amazon S3

Pros	Why It Matters
Highly scalable	No limits on object count or size (up to 5 TB per object).
Cost-efficient with tiered storage	Reduce cost by moving older data to Glacier tiers.
High durability	Ideal for compliance-heavy workloads (HIPAA, SOC2).
Strong ecosystem integrations	Perfect for data lakes, ML, analytics pipelines.
Global availability	Serve content anywhere using CloudFront CDN.

Cons of Amazon S3

Cons	Impact
Higher latency compared to block storage	Not suitable for databases or transactional workloads.
Complex pricing structure	Improper configurations can lead to higher bills.
Eventual consistency (for some operations)	Must be considered for critical systems.

Pricing Overview for S3 (2025)

Pricing varies by tier and region, but generally:

S3 Standard: ~$0.023/GB per month
S3 Intelligent-Tiering: ~$0.023/GB + small automation fee
S3 Standard-IA: ~$0.0125/GB
S3 One Zone-IA: ~$0.01/GB
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: ~$0.004/GB
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval: ~$0.0023/GB
S3 Glacier Deep Archive: ~$0.00099/GB

Retrieval and API request costs apply separately.

Best Use Cases for Amazon S3

Data lakes & big data analytics

Perfect for storing raw & processed datasets.

Backup & disaster recovery

Highly durable and cost-effective.

Static website hosting (serverless)

Ideal for front-end hosting with CloudFront + Route 53.

Log storage

Integrates with CloudWatch, Kinesis, and third-party SIEM tools.

ML & AI pipelines

S3 is the default storage layer for training data.

Cloud Spend Management vs Cloud Cost Optimization

These terms are related but different:

Cloud Spend Management	Cloud Cost Optimization
Organizational strategy	Technical actions to cut costs
Visibility, budgets, governance	Rightsizing, automation, cleanup
Finance + engineering collaboration	Engineering-driven
Ongoing FinOps cadence	One-time or periodic tuning

You need both to control cloud spend long-term.

The Biggest Cloud Cost Drivers (What Tech Leaders Often Miss)

Most cloud waste comes from invisible or neglected areas.

Idle EC2, EKS, RDS, and Load Balancers

CloudWatch metrics often reveal:

EC2 CPU usage < 10%
RDS idle connections
EKS worker nodes underutilized
LB serving zero traffic

Yet teams keep paying for them.

Over-Provisioned Storage and Orphaned Volumes

Wasteful patterns include:

Unused EBS volumes
Old snapshots
Multi-AZ RDS when not needed
Large S3 buckets with no lifecycle policies

Storage sprawl adds hidden costs.

Inefficient Kubernetes / EKS Configurations

Common EKS cost issues:

Over-sized node groups
Pods requesting unnecessary CPU/memory
Lack of cluster autoscaler
Too many idle daemonsets

Kubernetes cost optimization requires observability + autoscaling + rightsizing.

Lack of Tagging for Cost Allocation

Without tags, you cannot track:

Project costs
Team-wise usage
Environment-level billing

This blocks true FinOps visibility.

Misuse of On-Demand Instances

Using On-Demand for predictable workloads is the fastest way to burn money.

Savings Plans and Reserved Instances can reduce EC2/RDS costs by up to 72%.

Data Transfer Costs

Often overlooked, cross-region and inter-AZ traffic can explode costs.

Fixing the architecture design solves this instantly.

FinOps: The Modern Foundation for Cloud Financial Governance

FinOps = Financial Operations, a discipline combining:

Finance
Cloud engineering
Operations
Leadership

Its principles include:

Visibility:

Real-time dashboards for spend, per team, per service, per environment.

Optimization:

Eliminating unused resources, using automation, and selecting cost-efficient architecture.

Accountability:

Teams must own their cloud budgets.
Tagging + policies enforce ownership.

Core FinOps Practices Include:

Cost allocation & showback
Budget alerts
SKU-level optimization
Forecasting & capacity planning
Automated governance
Monthly optimization cycles
Cross-functional cloud committees

Organizations that adopt FinOps typically save 25–40% annually.

Amazon EBS: High-Performance Block Storage for EC2

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is AWS’s scalable block storage service designed for workloads that require low-latency, high-performance disk access. EBS volumes act like virtual hard drives that attach to EC2 instances, making them ideal for databases, enterprise applications, and mission-critical systems.

If your workload needs consistent IOPS, persistent storage for EC2, or transactional read/write patterns, EBS is the best option.

Key Features of Amazon EBS

Low-latency block storage

Designed for databases, file systems, and boot volumes.

Persistent storage

Data remains intact even after the EC2 instance stops or restarts.

Multiple performance-optimized volume types:

General Purpose SSD (gp3)

Balanced performance, default choice for most workloads.

Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2 & io2 Block Express)

Ultra-fast IOPS for high-performance databases (Oracle, SQL Server, SAP HANA).

Throughput Optimized HDD (st1)

Good for big data workloads and streaming.

Cold HDD (sc1)

Cost-effective for infrequent access workloads.

Snapshots & backups

Automate EBS backups using AWS Backup or Lifecycle Manager.

High availability

Replicated automatically within an Availability Zone.

Pros of Amazon EBS

Pros	Why It Matters
Ultra-low latency	Suitable for production databases & real-time applications.
Multiple performance tiers	You can optimize for IOPS, throughput, or cost.
Persistent & reliable	Ideal for EC2 boot volumes and application storage.
Easy snapshots	Simple backups & disaster recovery using S3-based snapshots.
Encryption & security	Seamless KMS integration for data protection.

Cons of Amazon EBS

Cons	Impact
Tied to a single Availability Zone	Extra steps required for cross-region or cross-AZ replication.
Scaling requires planning	Increasing IOPS/throughput can increase costs.
Not shareable across instances (without EBS Multi-Attach)	Standard volumes attach to only one EC2 instance.
Higher cost for provisioned IOPS volumes	Enterprise-grade performance → enterprise pricing.

Pricing Overview for EBS (2025)

Pricing varies by region but here are approximate costs:

Volume Type	Approx. Price
gp3	~$0.08/GB per month
io2	~$0.125/GB per month + IOPS charges
st1	~$0.045/GB per month
sc1	~$0.025/GB per month

Additional charges apply for:

Snapshots ($0.05/GB-month)
Provisioned IOPS (for io2/io2 Block Express)
Data transfer across AZ/regions

Best Use Cases for Amazon EBS

Relational databases

MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server.

NoSQL databases

MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis (self-managed).

Enterprise applications

CRM, ERP, financial systems requiring deterministic performance.

VM or container storage

Persistent storage for EC2-based Kubernetes clusters (EKS).

Boot volumes for EC2

Every EC2 instance typically uses an EBS volume as a root disk

Amazon EFS: Fully Managed, Scalable Network File Storage

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is AWS’s managed, shared file storage solution. Unlike EBS (block storage) or S3 (object storage), EFS provides a POSIX-compliant, Linux-based file system that multiple EC2 instances and containers can access simultaneously.

It automatically scales up and down based on usage, making it ideal for distributed workloads, microservices, content management systems, and shared application data.

Key Features of Amazon EFS

Fully managed, elastic storage

Automatically expands to petabytes and shrinks when files are deleted no provisioning required.

Shared access across multiple compute resources

Mount EFS on:

EC2
Containers running on EKS/ECS
Lambda functions
On-prem servers via Direct Connect

High availability & durability

Stored across multiple Availability Zones (Multi-AZ file system).

POSIX-compliant

Supports standard Linux file permissions and directory structures.

Multiple performance modes

General Purpose – balanced performance for most workloads
Max I/O – highly parallel workloads, big data, analytics

Storage classes to optimize cost

Standard (frequent access)
EFS Infrequent Access (IA) (up to 92% cheaper)

Pros of Amazon EFS

Pros	Why It Matters
Fully serverless & elastic	No provisioning or capacity planning needed.
Multi-instance shared access	Perfect for microservices & distributed apps.
High availability & durability	Built-in multi-AZ replication.
POSIX compatibility	Works like a traditional Linux file system.
Automatic lifecycle management	Move cold data to EFS-IA to reduce costs.

Cons of Amazon EFS

Cons	Impact
Higher cost than EBS & S3 (Standard tier)	Pricing may increase for large workloads.
Best for Linux workloads only	Does not support Windows.
Latency higher than EBS	Not suitable for high-performance databases.
Performance depends on bursting limits unless provisioned	Might require tuning for heavy workloads.

Pricing Overview for EFS (2025)

Approximate prices:

Storage Class	Approx. Cost
EFS Standard	~$0.30/GB per month
EFS Infrequent Access	~$0.025/GB per month
Provisioned Throughput	Additional throughput charges

Other cost factors:

Data transfer across AZs
Backup (via AWS Backup)
Provisioned I/O (if selected)

Despite higher costs, lifecycle policies can reduce bills by up to 85–90%.

Best Use Cases for Amazon EFS

Container storage (EKS / ECS)

Ideal for microservices needing shared state.

Web content management

WordPress, Drupal, media hosting.

CI/CD pipelines

Persist build artifacts across multiple agents.

Shared developer environments

User home directories, shared tools, code repos.

Big data & analytics workloads

Max I/O mode for parallel processing.

Amazon S3 Glacier: Ultra-Low-Cost Archival Storage for Long-Term Data Retention

Amazon S3 Glacier (now part of S3’s tiered storage ecosystem) is AWS’s cold storage solution designed for long-term archival, compliance storage, and data that is rarely accessed. Glacier offers the lowest storage cost in AWS but comes with trade-offs in retrieval time.

In compliance-driven industries like healthcare, finance, government, and insurance, Glacier is essential for cost-effective retention of logs, backups, audit records, research data, and historical archives.

6.1 Glacier Storage Classes

AWS offers three Glacier tiers, each balancing cost and retrieval speed:

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

Retrieval time: milliseconds
Cost: mid-range
Ideal for:
- Security logs
- Archived documents that need occasional fast access

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly Glacier)

Retrieval time: minutes to hours
Lowest retrieval cost
Ideal for:
- Backups
- Compliance storage
- Disaster recovery archives

S3 Glacier Deep Archive

Retrieval time: 12–48 hours
Cheapest storage option in AWS
Ideal for:
- Long-term compliance
- Rarely accessed archives
- Government/medical/legal retention

Pros of Amazon Glacier

Pros	Why It Matters
Cheapest storage in AWS	Perfect for long-term data retention.
Highly durable (11 nines)	Meets strict compliance/regulatory needs.
Secure & encrypted	Built-in encryption + IAM controls.
Integration with S3 lifecycle rules	Fully automated archival processes.
Excellent for DR & cold backups	Low-cost retention for petabyte-scale archives.

Cons of Amazon Glacier

Cons	Impact
Slow retrieval (for deeper tiers)	Not suitable for interactive workloads.
Additional fees for retrieval	Cost must be planned to avoid surprises.
Not for frequent access	Designed for 0–1 reads per year.
Limited use cases	Strictly archival storage only.

Pricing Overview for Glacier (2025)

Approximate costs:

Storage Tier	Approx. Cost/GB-Month
Glacier Instant Retrieval	~$0.004/GB
Glacier Flexible Retrieval	~$0.0023/GB
Glacier Deep Archive	~$0.00099/GB

Additional charges apply for:

Retrieval requests
Data restore fees
Early deletion charges (for <90 or <180 days depending on tier)

Bottom Line: Glacier is the most cost-effective way to store terabytes or petabytes of rarely accessed data.

Best Use Cases for Amazon Glacier

Compliance & legal archives

HIPAA, SOC2, PCI DSS record retention.

Disaster recovery storage

Keep offsite, secure backups.

Research & scientific datasets

Large datasets that must be stored for decades.

Media archives

Old footage, long-term digital preservation.

Log retention for audits

Financial, tax, and security logs.

AWS Storage Comparison: S3 vs EBS vs EFS vs Glacier (2025)

A clear comparison is essential for users evaluating AWS storage options. Below is a side-by-side breakdown of the four major AWS storage services across performance, pricing, durability, scalability, and ideal use cases.

Quick Comparison Table

AWS Storage Services Overview

Feature / Service	Amazon S3	Amazon EBS	Amazon EFS	Amazon Glacier
Type	Object Storage	Block Storage	Network File Storage	Archival Storage
Durability	99.999999999% (11 nines)	99.999%	99.999999999%	99.999999999%
Latency	High	Low	Medium	Very High
Access Pattern	Frequent / infrequent	High-performance transactional	Shared file access	Rare access
Scalability	Unlimited	Scales per volume	Automatic scaling	Unlimited
Multi-AZ	Yes	No (single AZ)	Yes	Yes
Pricing	Low–Mid	Mid–High	High	Lowest
Best For	Backup, logs, data lakes, ML	Databases, EC2 apps	Containers, shared storage	Compliance archives

Detailed Comparison: S3 vs EBS vs EFS vs Glacier

1. Performance

Category	Winner	Reason
Lowest latency	EBS	Suitable for databases and real-time apps
Best throughput	EFS (Max I/O)	Ideal for distributed workloads
Object-level access	S3	Perfect for analytics, ML
Not performance-focused	Glacier	Built for archival only

Cost Comparison (Approx. 2025)

Service	Typical Cost/GB	Notes
S3	$0.023/GB	Multiple tiers available
EBS	$0.08–$0.125/GB	Extra cost for IOPS
EFS	$0.30/GB (Standard), $0.025/GB (IA)	Expensive but elastic
Glacier	$0.00099–$0.004/GB	Cheapest option

Cheapest storage overall → Glacier
Most expensive → EFS Standard

Typical Use Cases

Service	Ideal Workloads
Amazon S3	Data lakes, analytics, ML training data, logs, backups, static websites
Amazon EBS	Relational/NoSQL databases, EC2 boot volumes, ERP/CRM apps
Amazon EFS	Shared file systems, Kubernetes (EKS/ECS), CMS apps, DevOps pipelines
Amazon Glacier	Compliance archives, DR storage, scientific research data

Pros & Cons Summary

Service	Pros	Cons
S3	Cheap, scalable, integrates with analytics, durable	Higher latency, complex pricing
EBS	Fast, reliable, predictable performance	Single-AZ, costly at scale
EFS	Elastic, shared access, POSIX	Expensive for large datasets
Glacier	Cheapest, secure, perfect for archival	Very slow retrieval

Which AWS Storage Service Should You Choose in 2025?

If You Need…	Choose
A scalable, cost-effective storage layer	Amazon S3
Ultra-fast storage for databases	Amazon EBS
Shared, scalable file system for microservices	Amazon EFS
Cheapest long-term retention	Amazon Glacier

Expert Recommendations (SquareOps Insight)

For SaaS platforms → S3 + EFS

For FinTech → EBS for databases + Glacier for logs

For Healthcare → S3 (HIPAA-ready) + Glacier for compliance

For Big Data / ML → S3 as data lake storage

For Kubernetes → EFS for shared volumes + EBS for persistent workloads

How to Choose the Right AWS Storage Service

Step-by-Step Decision Framework

Step 1: Identify Your Access Pattern

Access Pattern	Best AWS Service
Frequent read/write	EBS / S3 Standard
Occasional access	S3 IA / EFS IA
Rare access	Glacier tiers
Shared multi-instance access	EFS
High-performance disk access	EBS (io2/gp3)

Step 2: Determine Performance Requirements

Do you need ultra-low latency?

Choose: Amazon EBS

Do you need distributed parallel throughput?

Choose: Amazon EFS (Max I/O)

Is performance less important than storage cost?

Choose: S3 or Glacier

Step 3: Evaluate Scale & Future Growth

Scaling Requirement	Best Option
Petabyte-scale growth	S3
Automatically scale with traffic	EFS
Pre-sized disks with predictable performance	EBS
Archive that grows slowly over time	Glacier Deep Archive

Step 4: Understand Your Use Case

Use Case	Recommended AWS Storage
Databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB)	EBS
Data lakes, analytics, ML	S3
Microservices on Kubernetes / ECS	EFS
Backup, archive, compliance storage	Glacier
Web hosting/media	S3 + CloudFront
CI/CD pipelines	EFS or S3

Step 5: Balance Performance vs Cost

If you want lowest cost possible:

Glacier Deep Archive → Lowest cost per GB
S3 IA + Lifecycle rules → Reduce S3 Standard cost by 70–80%

If you want best performance:

EBS io2 Block Express → Highest IOPS in AWS

If you want performance + shared access:

EFS → Fully elastic shared storage

Simple “Cheat Sheet” for 2025

Question	Service to Choose
Need fast storage for an app?	EBS
Need shared storage for multiple servers?	EFS
Need unlimited, scalable object storage?	S3
Need ultra-cheap archival storage?	Glacier

Ready to Optimize Your AWS Storage Strategy?

SquareOps helps US SaaS, FinTech, and enterprise teams:

Reduce AWS storage costs by 30–70%
Build efficient S3/EBS/EFS/Glacier architectures
Implement lifecycle rules, automation, and security best practices
Achieve compliance (HIPAA, SOC2, PCI DSS)

Want a free AWS storage audit?
We can identify quick wins and long-term savings in under 48 hours.

Frequently asked questions

What is an AWS storage service and when should I use one?

An AWS storage service is a cloud storage offering (S3, EBS, EFS, Glacier) for objects, blocks, files, or archives choose based on access patterns: S3 for data lakes, EBS for low-latency disks, EFS for shared files, Glacier for long-term archives.

How do I decide between Amazon S3, EBS, EFS, and Glacier?

Match your workload: use EBS for databases/low latency, EFS for multi-instance shared file access, S3 for scalable object storage and analytics, and Glacier for very low-cost, infrequent retrieval archives.

Is Amazon S3 considered an AWS storage service for backups and ML pipelines?

Yes S3 is the primary AWS storage service for backups, data lakes, and ML training data thanks to its scalability, tiering, and wide analytics integrations.

Use EFS for POSIX-compliant, multi-instance mounts; S3 can be used for shared object access, but EFS is the right choice when you need a traditional shared file system.

Which AWS storage service offers the lowest storage cost for long-term retention?

Glacier Deep Archive (part of S3 Glacier tiers) is the cheapest AWS storage service for long-term retention best for rarely accessed compliance and archival data.

What are quick cost-saving tips for AWS storage services?

Enable lifecycle rules (S3 → Glacier), switch snapshots to EBS Snapshot Archive, use EFS-IA for cold files, move to gp3 for EBS, and tag resources for FinOps visibility.

Can I use more than one AWS storage service in a single architecture?

Absolutely hybrid designs are common: S3 for the data lake, EBS for DB volumes, EFS for shared app state, and Glacier for archival retention.

Which AWS storage service is best for databases and high IOPS?

EBS (gp3 or io2 / io2 Block Express) is the recommended AWS storage service for databases and workloads needing predictable, high IOPS and low latency.

How does data durability and availability compare across AWS storage service

S3 and Glacier provide 11-nines durability for objects; EBS offers high durability within an AZ (snapshot to S3 for cross-AZ durability); EFS is multi-AZ and built for availability across instances.

How do I ensure compliance and security when using AWS storage services?

Apply encryption (KMS), IAM and bucket policies, versioning & MFA delete for S3, restrict network access (VPC, NFS mount controls for EFS, security groups for EBS), and enable audit logging and retention policies for Glacier.