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

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Google Cloud Storage Nearline comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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 Glacier
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Cloud Storage Nearline
Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 Glacier is 11.1%, down from 13.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is 8.0%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Public Cloud Storage Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon S3 Glacier11.1%
Google Cloud Storage Nearline8.0%
Other80.9%
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

PF
Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US
Archiving data has reduced storage costs and provides reliable long‑term retention
We have not really come across any downsides for us. It is possible that the retrieval of data may be expensive, which could be an issue, but we have not experienced that in fairness. Integration with our policies would be beneficial. We have policies for our systems where we delete data after a certain number of years, and having integration with Amazon S3 Glacier would be good. Having a guarantee that Amazon S3 Glacier would persist for the amount of time that we require in our archives would be valuable. In other words, Amazon would need to commit to support for the period we need. We could be talking about 20 years or longer. We cannot always move to the next version because we need to maintain old systems and legacy systems in order to maintain archives. A guarantee around support would be a good thing to have.
Seamless integration with cloud services improves workflows but documentation needs enhancement
One area that needs improvement is the documentation, which I find to be disorganized and not user-friendly. The lack of comprehensive walkthrough guides for specific use cases makes it difficult to follow. To enhance the experience, more detailed examples, guides, and tutorials from start to finish would be beneficial. Additionally, the cost compared to other providers like Amazon could be regarded as a downside.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There are never any issues regarding downtimes, uptimes and data recovery, and it's really nice."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is very simple and very easy to implement, with extensive AWS documentation and a free tier that lets you test a minimum solution in their environment before putting it into production or making a big purchase."
"The data archive feature is valuable."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a highly stable solution."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The cost is high, which I think is one of the best features of the product."
"AWS does support the ability for user controlled movement of data between regions for business continuance (BC), high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR)."
"The value of Amazon S3 Glacier for us is the lower cost. We put files there and tend not to touch them afterward."
"It can isolate files and stop them from corrupting other files."
"The data structure and the types of data that are supported are very good."
"There are no issues with the integration of Google Cloud Storage Nearline with other Google services."
"Nearline is highly stable."
"I find the flexibility in storing documents or data and the ease of retrieval valuable with this solution."
"The most valuable aspect of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is its integration with the wider Google Cloud ecosystem."
"The stability is excellent; I can't think of a better service that's provided in South America, and the infrastructure overall is very stable and reliable."
"We didn't face any downtime last year using the solution."
 

Cons

"The cost can be lower."
"Amazon S3 Glacier's data retrieval time is slow compared to other AWS storage services and should be improved."
"The support could be improved by having specialized support staff. When we submit a question, it gets passed between multiple people before finding the right expert."
"The pricing is a bit expensive. There is room for improvement in costs."
"The solution's pricing is too expensive and could be improved."
"I would like to see improvements in the transfer rate as it takes quite a long time to retrieve data from Glacier compared to standard S3 storage."
"I believe the usage reporting could be simplified, particularly for billing purposes. Overall, I find Amazon S3 Glacier's reporting system somewhat confusing compared to other hyperscalers in the market."
"The product needs to improve cloud security."
"The interface for managing file storage in the buckets could be improved."
"From a storage standpoint, it would be beneficial if the retrieval cost could be optimized, as it is comparatively higher than storage costs in Nearline."
"The suggestion for improvement primarily revolves around cost efficiency."
"They should provide more options or flexibility in terms of pricing."
"The pricing could be improved. It's completely non-competitive at this time."
"Nearline security could be better. The solution could integrate better with SEIM tools."
"They need a better, more visual, user interface for folders and files."
"The UI could be a little bit more effective."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay a monthly licensing fee for Amazon S3 Glacier."
"We don't pay for licenses. We pay based on consumption data, considering how much data is stored."
"Amazon S3 Glacier has a good pricing point, and you pay for what's being used."
"There is no license, you pay for what you use."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a little expensive solution."
"The product is cheap."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is much cheaper than competing products."
"Amazon S3 Glacier is a cost-effective solution for archiving."
"Google Cloud Storage Nearline is very inexpensive. It costs us less than $50 a month to store our files. We use approximately 10 terabytes. Overall, I would rate the product a five out of five for affordability."
"Right now, for the number of servers and the storage that I have, I would say I'm charged between $125 and $150 per month."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Public Cloud Storage Services solutions are best for your needs.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Amazon's S3 Glacier or EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon's S3 Glacier or Elastic Block Store data storage software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Amazon's S3 Glacier, whi...
What needs improvement with Amazon S3 Glacier?
We have not really come across any downsides for us. It is possible that the retrieval of data may be expensive, which could be an issue, but we have not experienced that in fairness. Integration w...
What is your primary use case for Amazon S3 Glacier?
We were using Amazon S3 Glacier, and I have experience with this solution. We had an S3 bucket that we were using about a year ago. We just started using Amazon S3 Glacier, and overall, I have been...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?
My experience with the licensing and cost of Google Cloud Storage Nearline has been positive.
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Storage Nearline?
Documentation is an area for improvement in Google Cloud Storage Nearline. Documentation might cause some issues during deployment in future updates of Google Cloud Storage Nearline. Other than tha...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Storage Nearline?
I have integrated Google Cloud Storage Nearline with BigQuery for analytics.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Glacier
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King Cpunty, Illumina, Backupify, Nearmap.com, Scribd, Baylor College of Medicine, SoundCloud
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 Glacier vs. Google Cloud Storage Nearline and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.