S3 vs EFS vs EBS

Overview

What is being compared

S3, EBS and EFS are the three main AWS storage services, and each targets a different access pattern. Choosing the wrong one creates unnecessary cost or compatibility problems.

• Storage type — Object — Block — File (managed NFS)
• Access — HTTP API — Attached like a virtual hard drive — Mounted as a file system
• Who can use it — Any client over HTTP — A single EC2 instance — Many instances at once
• Typical use — Static assets, backups, data lake, media files, application artifacts — Root volumes, databases needing low-latency block access — Shared file systems for several instances or containers

Reach, footprint and billing

In each row, green is the wider or more flexible of the three and yellow the narrower one.

> [!TIP] Where each store lives in a region, what a new web server gets from each one and the choice between them play step by step in Visual Explanation below.

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