--- title: "Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) the right Cloud Storage solution for you? Explore 1120 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/174285/Amazon-S3/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-10-29" --- Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) 4.7 (1116) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/174285/Amazon-S3/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated October 29th, 2026 # Reviews of Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Ease of use 4.3 Customer Service 4.4 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews SB Sanskar B StudentHigher Education, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “I use it primarily for data storage and document management and it serves as a highly secure, rock-solid backend for backups. While the initial setup and AWS console have a bit of a learning curve.“ June 2, 2026 SB Sanskar B StudentHigher Education, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Also understanding the pricing structure(like data transfer out fees and different storage classes)can be quite confusing at first, so you really have to monitor your usage to avoid surprise costs.“ June 2, 2026 CQ Connor Q IT Team LeadMedia Production, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “For all of it's miseries and hair pulling from a configuration standpoint however, the platform absolutely works seemlessly once it's set up properly and never seems to have issues with downtime, latency, or general availability.“ April 9, 2026 CQ Connor Q IT Team LeadMedia Production, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “As with all AWS; the learning curve is more of a wall than a gentle gradient. And, following suit on the above statement - spending 100 hours on the platform configuring and setting up absolutely doesn't guarantee that you'll be setting things up best practice first thing moving forward - there are always new updates; subtle changes and new ways of working that will have you frustrated and realising you "should've/could've/woud've" ; but now it's live and in production you can't!“ April 9, 2026 Qin H Software engineerFinancial Services, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “It handles large volumes of data effortlessly, and the durability (11 9’s) gives strong confidence for long-term storage.“ March 30, 2026 SB Sanskar B StudentHigher Education, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “The user interface can feel a bit overwhelming and technical if you are a beginner.“ June 2, 2026 RA Ramit A ReviewArchitecture & Planning, Self-employedUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “The scalability is a big plus—you can start small and grow without changing anything—and it consistently feels secure and dependable for both backups and day-to-day use.“ December 22, 2025 Qin H Software engineerFinancial Services, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Also, managing permissions via IAM policies can be complex for beginners and may lead to misconfigurations if not handled carefully.“ March 30, 2026 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 1116 available reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Bibhishan D. DevOps Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Solid choice for AWS-native storage and Terraform backends" October 6, 2026 5.0 I've been using AWS S3 for over two years now across two main use cases in our DevOps workflow: storing project-related data and files, and maintaining Terraform state files as our infrastructure-as-code setup has grown. S3 has been a dependable backbone for both. For general project data storage, the durability and availability guarantees mean I never have to think about whether files will be there when needed, and access via the AWS CLI, SDKs, or console is straightforward for day-to-day operations. Pros The reliability and simplicity of the core service stand out most. Whether I'm storing application data, build artifacts, or Terraform state, S3 just works consistently without needing constant babysitting. The integration with the rest of the AWS ecosystem is seamless too — IAM policies for access control, encryption options, and native Terraform backend support mean it fits naturally into an existing AWS-based infrastructure without needing a separate storage solution or vendor. Cons Versioning and lifecycle rule management is more cumbersome than it should be. When we enabled versioning on the bucket holding our Terraform state (to protect against accidental state corruption or bad applies), managing the lifecycle rules to clean up old versions without accidentally deleting something we needed took more trial and error than expected. Review Source Ekpono A. Software Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "The Best Online Storage for digital assets" September 23, 2026 5.0 After using S3 to store documents, files and digital assets. S3 stands out to be the best storage service available for both technical and none technical users. I would highly recommend using S3 Pros As a software developer, using Amazon S3 to store your digital assets is inevitable when you are in the AWS ecosystem. The customization and permission/control over your access available on S3 is very good. You can use s3 SDK to upload and manage access of your files easily. Cons As far S3 is concerned, the learning curve to know what is accessible to use and complexity of permissions issue is my least favourite bit of the service. Review Source Swahibu B. AWS Solution Architecture Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Reliable, Scalable, and Flexible Object Storage" September 3, 2026 5.0 My overall experience with Amazon S3 has been very positive. It provides reliable, scalable, and durable object storage that is easy to integrate with other AWS services. I find it particularly useful for storing application files, backups, datasets, and other types of data. Its flexibility and scalability make it suitable for both small projects and large production workloads. Pros Amazon S3 is a highly scalable, durable, and reliable object storage service. I like how easy it is to store and retrieve different types of data, while its integration with other AWS services makes it useful for a wide range of applications and workloads. Cons The main limitation is that S3 pricing can become complex as storage, requests, and data transfer increase. Managing access permissions and organizing large numbers of objects can also require careful configuration. Review Source Collis C. Internet Marketer Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "My Experience Using Amazon S3" June 30, 2026 5.0 My overall experience using Amazon S3 was great, an awesome way to host numerous websites in one place. Pros I found Amazon S3 to be very affordable and reliable to use. I really like using this product and how it functions. Cons I don't have any issues that I can consider a con, except that you need to be tech-savvy to deploy on the platform. Switched from [DigitalOcean](https://www.capterra.com/p/205055/DigitalOcean/) Didn't fulfil all my needs for my projects. Review Source Student Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Highly reliable and scalable storage though it has a bit of a learning curve." June 5, 2026 5.0 My overall experience has been highly positive. I use it primarily for data storage and document management and it serves as a highly secure, rock-solid backend for backups. While the initial setup and AWS console have a bit of a learning curve. the value for money and the absolute peace of mind regarding data safety make it completely worth it. Pros The best part about Amazon S3 is its reliability and how easily it scales. Whether you are uploading small text files or massive data backups it just works without any lag. The file management and bucket system make it very easy to organize data once you get used to it. Plus the uptime is incredible I have never faced an issue where my files were unavailable when needed. Cons The user interface can feel a bit overwhelming and technical if you are a beginner. It's not as simple as Google Drive or Dropbox right out of the box. Also understanding the pricing structure(like data transfer out fees and different storage classes)can be quite confusing at first, so you really have to monitor your usage to avoid surprise costs. Review Source Designer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Amazingly easy " May 21, 2026 5.0 Amazingly quick and easy. I find it addictive sometimes as it’s such a useful site. No complaints. Will keep using in the future Pros It’s quick and easy to use with a large variety of products to choose from customer service is easy to use and is very quick and effective. Cons I’m not sure I have too many negative things to say about this. It seems difficult at times to leave a review but other than that it’s great. Review Source Impresa delle pulizie Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Amazon shopping " May 14, 2026 5.0 Sono anni che la uso ed adesso non posso farne ad meno, amo perché c'è roba che costa di meno e non roba scadente roba nuova imballata ., Pros Che può ordinare qualsiasi cosa e il bello e che puoi usare Amazon prime che ed e concluso con Amazon e non solo può anche cercare prodotti che non ci sono in negozi fisici Cons Che ci sono dei fornitori non apropriati e sicuri , c'è gente che a comprato la roba su Amazon e gli e arrivata rotta e senza scatola Review Source connor Q. IT Team Lead Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Powerful and versatile, perhaps not so "Simple" Storage Solution" April 13, 2026 4.0 As with all AWS; the learning curve is more of a wall than a gentle gradient. And, following suit on the above statement - spending 100 hours on the platform configuring and setting up absolutely doesn't guarantee that you'll be setting things up best practice first thing moving forward - there are always new updates; subtle changes and new ways of working that will have you frustrated and realising you "should've/could've/woud've" ; but now it's live and in production you can't! For all of it's miseries and hair pulling from a configuration standpoint however, the platform absolutely works seemlessly once it's set up properly and never seems to have issues with downtime, latency, or general availability. This extends from our personal experience where we have all manner of different interfaces accessing and managing the objects within S3; from end users using file connect clients to access and download/upload objects; to third party solutions accessing via API and interpreting objects in all manner of formats for automations and project managers to interface with. Pros A powerful file sharing solution included in the AWS suite of services and tools. It provides a platform that, using extended functionality (APIs, SSH, web console, etc) provides a plethora of various mediums for interfacing with files (or, 'objects') in this respect. Being part of the AWS platform means that there is almost infinite redundancy, functionality for global regional accessibility, and many more other admin settings/configs that can expand on the baseline service. Cons As with all AWS services; nothing is as straight forward as they would have you believe from the name ("Simple" storage solution is perhaps an exaggeration). Dependencies can/do include additional configurations such as region locking (Unless you want to get fancy with advanced settings and integrating other services); IAM permissions and access keys for access (How you configure this really is use case dependent); etc - Also worth mentioning that unless you are already familiar with AWS and their suite, expect to spend a good few hours going through and navigating the platform to understand the interconnectivity between functions and services. A final note to mention that trying to specifically find an easy readable guide on best practices is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack - difficult and likely to be difficult to extrapolate for your use case (especially when integrating it with more AWS solutions). Switched from [IBM Aspera](https://www.capterra.com/p/235275/IBM-Aspera-on-Cloud/) A lot of partners, clients and suppliers have started to leverage S3 and it ultimately made more sense from an admin perspective to simply follow suit and have native interactions rather than constantly interfacing with AWS using 3rd party solutions Review Source Senior Product Manager Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Industry Standard Cloud Storage" April 10, 2026 5.0 Overall, it is a key cloud storage platform for our company. It is durable, secure, and an industry standard. It's great for storing, sharing and dumping large and datasets, which is vital for our workflow. Pros It is perfect for our cloud storage needs, it is scalable, and we only pay for what we use. It is also easy to set up S3 buckets for our clients to deliver them large datasets. We use Amazon athena and other apps which mean that everything is linked together well. It is a backbone service for our company. Cons There is a bit of a learning curve for non-developers, when I first started I wasn't too sure how to access files etc, and was scared to make big changes as didn't want to mess something else! Also, sometimesI'm not too keen to be locked into the Amazon ecosystem, as we are at the mercy of their pricing models. Review Source Software engineer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Reliable, Scalable, and Easy-to-Integrate Object Storage" March 31, 2026 5.0 Amazon S3 has been a core part of our infrastructure for storing and retrieving data at scale. It’s highly dependable and integrates well across the AWS ecosystem. Once you understand the pricing model and set up proper governance, it becomes an incredibly powerful and cost-effective solution. Pros Amazon S3 is extremely reliable and scalable. It handles large volumes of data effortlessly, and the durability (11 9’s) gives strong confidence for long-term storage. Integration with other AWS services like Lambda, CloudFront, and Athena is seamless, which makes building data pipelines and serverless architectures much easier. The API is straightforward, and SDK support across languages is excellent. Features like versioning, lifecycle policies, and fine-grained IAM permissions add a lot of flexibility. Cons Pricing can become confusing, especially with multiple tiers (standard, infrequent access, glacier) and data transfer costs. Without proper lifecycle policies, costs can grow unexpectedly. Also, managing permissions via IAM policies can be complex for beginners and may lead to misconfigurations if not handled carefully. Review Source IT Administrator Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Amazon S3 review" June 28, 2023 3.0 Amazon S3 did exactly what I wanted it to do once I got past the setup obstacles. It is a bit difficult to navagate. Amazon does offer free training for their products which is a plus. Pros With Amazon being such a large company, we can use multiple technologies with only one bill. Amazon is well known and does a good job at storing and retaining my data. Amazon has many more features than their competitors which is great if you know how to set them up and run them. Amazon S3 does offer free training for their products which is helpful. Cons Amazon S3 platform is hard to navigate, I feel it is ment for an advanced user rather than someone who is trying out new technology. Amazon is a bit higher priced than many competitors. Reasons for choosing Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) I used Amazon S3 for several years before moving to a competitor earlier this year. We decided to move our storage to a cheaper solution. Review Source CEO CTO Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Smashed Potato" March 2, 2026 4.0 Pros Very vercitile and easy to use storage system, which become small standard in the industry. With very easy way to implement it inside applications. Cons I think overall pricing, comparing to other providers which implemented same "s3 compatible" storage system Switched from [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/) Azure storage was very pain to implement from Dev perspective Review Source Review Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Reliable and Scalable Cloud Storage Solution" January 22, 2026 5.0 Overall, my experience with Amazon S3 has been positive. It’s reliable, scalable, and easy to use for storing and managing data. Pros What I liked most about Amazon S3 is how simple and reliable it is. It makes storing and accessing data really easy without worrying about infrastructure or maintenance. The scalability is a big plus—you can start small and grow without changing anything—and it consistently feels secure and dependable for both backups and day-to-day use. Cons What I liked least about Amazon S3 is that its pricing can be confusing and sometimes unpredictable. While storage itself is relatively affordable, the additional costs for data transfer, API requests, and retrieval can add up quickly if you’re not careful. It also requires a good understanding of AWS permissions and policies, which can be overwhelming for beginners. Setting up proper access control and lifecycle rules takes time and experience. Without close monitoring, it’s easy to incur higher costs or misconfigure security settings, especially in larger or more complex projects. Review Source TWI West Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Amazon gives you the ability to redeem amazon gift cards and it's alright " February 12, 2026 5.0 I tend to think that are fee are high and they been shutting quit accounts lately mine and everyone which I haven't liked Pros My Amazon Review for the customer and everyone websites to go on to buy everything and get it shipped to their house Cons I don't like when I used amazon gift card it's not easy and they restricted my account and everyone's account Review Source VP - Business Analysis Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "S3 is still the leader in cloud-based distributed storage" February 11, 2020 5.0 S3 has, truly, changed the world at least when it comes to distributed storage. To call an API, push data to it, and then forget about maintaining the datacenter that houses with is a concept none of us would have believed in the recent past but here we are with monumental amounts of businesses depending on S3 and succeeding with it. Amazon has aggressively developed and released features steadily since the initial launch of S3 and each wave of features is impressively useful and complimentary to the previous feature-set. We use S3 for literally dozens of applications ranging from buckets that store public UGC for web apps to internal data vaults that hold sensitive and private information that is encrypted at rest. S3 has fit so many of our needs and saved us countless hours in trivial datacenter maintenance. Pros Objects are globally available but can still be geographically "homed" to a specific region. At-rest encryption can be configured for storage of all objects in an S3 bucket. Cost savings can be achieved by selecting the desired storage class that matches the type of data you're storing. Object life-cycles can be configured that will automatically take certain actions on an object when it reaches a certain age. Object versioning in S3 prevents a lot of anxiety around object corruption in multi-user applications. Object attributes can be set through headers that can facilitate intelligent hosting natively through S3 or through CloudFront CDN hosting. Full-featured static websites can be hosted using S3 and CloudFront. Cons Presumably due to the number of press pieces on corporations having data compromised from S3 buckets due to their own negligence, Amazon has invested a lot into preventing unwanted public access to S3 buckets. These extra layers can be a bit cumbersome to those of us who "got it" from the beginning and already know how to secure and S3 bucket. Alternatives considered [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/)[Google Cloud Storage](https://www.capterra.com/p/253631/Google-Cloud-Storage/) Reasons for choosing Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Amazon S3 simply beats all other alternatives with their reliability, featureset, and experience level. Any seriously competitor is deep into a game of catch-up at this point. Review Source Senior Data Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Store, transfer and secure data with Amazon S3 " February 22, 2023 5.0 The overall experience with S3 is great . I gave us lot of flexibility to store our huge volume of more securely and safe . Pros The data storage made really easy with Amazon's S3 service. The power of the cloud helps the data transfer and encryption easy . Cons There are cases where the S3 event triggers at times wont work . Also ,If the S3 get a desktop client by AWS , I feel it would be a great value add. Switched from [Google Workspace](https://www.capterra.com/p/247901/Google-Workspace/) We wanted a data storage solution in AWS landscape . Hence, the move. Review Source Owner Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Ready to use" July 7, 2025 5.0 It is easy to connect with my own Amazon-account, which I already have and use. Everything online, nothing to install. Pros It is an excellent backup for all my data, specially for my videos. Even not finished videos, I can store there. Cons It is Amazon and as a European I have to make sure about the data protection. But they use servers in Europe. Review Source Software Engineer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "simple to use s3" February 26, 2025 5.0 Overall my experience is good. S3 does exactly what it needs to do, and not much else Pros It is very simple to use, and integrate with from within java code. Cons searching for and downloading files from s3 involves a lot of clicking on the UI, and files are hard to find if you have a lot of data. The UI is a bit clunky. Review Source Senior Analyst Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "efficient cloud storage service with seamless support to API integration. " February 11, 2025 4.0 It is a good cloud storage service, which any organization can leverage keeping in mind of the costing. Our compliance and Audit is taken care by storing all the necessary and raw data. Pros It is one of the most cost effective cloud storage service. Best for industrial use we store our 3rd party application logs. The same logs are fetched and retrieved using API for querying. The service can be well integrated with 3rd party applications by defining the adequate scope of API. Cons The cost forecast for the service is not accurate. There is room for improvement. The over head charges sometimes feel beefed up. There is also sync delay sometimes. Review Source Iddy I. Solution Architect Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Amazon S3 it is the future" January 9, 2025 5.0 I have an experience of 2 years using the Amazon S3 to store and Archive my data. Pros I like the Amazon S3 because it has ability to store my data at high level and being able to access it whenever i wanted and it very affordable in terms of pricing and also durable. Cons I think of how it has fewer rules during creation of the buckets may sometime do a little harm or being tiresome process. Review Source Principal Consultant Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "One of the best object storage" December 17, 2024 4.0 enable soft delete feature is wonderful as a security feature. This provide an extra layer of security. Pros cost of the service, easy to configure, can configure HA in different region. Cons There should have been some tier made of SSD disk to serve better performance. Review Source Member Of Technical Staff - I Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "AWS S3: The Ultimate Storage Solution with file versioning, integration with multiple AWS services" February 15, 2024 5.0 I am happy with AWS s3 with handling large static data with one write and many read purpose, good experince with s3 Pros Its support multiple AWS services, we can easily integrate s3 with other aws services, we can add media images, videos, zip files, log files in s3 and access anywhere in internet with permission. we can also use s3 for storing and hosting static website and low cost. offering different storage classes for cost optimization and uses. Cons 1\. Permission Handling 2. Access data anywhere in internet 3. Support CDN 4. Integration with multiple AWS services 5. storing archive data files 6. versioning control 7. transfering speed Reasons for choosing Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Support of amazon and commonly many service and applications are using s3 Review Source DevOps Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Simple Storage Service: Amazon S3 " December 8, 2021 5.0 Amazon S3 is appropriate for facilitating any kind of item. Energetically suggested assuming previously utilizing with some other AWS administration since combination becomes simpler. It is useful for any association that has a committed IT Department. Not suggested in case the organization doesn't have a group with experience in AWS administrations that screens it since it could wind up being a wreck or costly. Pros Exceptionally accessible and repetitive; we don't stress over the assistance having vacation Basic utilization from various structures utilizing Amazon's SDKs, or roll your own An enormous number of container approaches and security changes in accordance with tailor use to client needs Solid reconciliation with the AWS biological system, particularly concerning access consents. It's astoundingly steady you can believe it'll remain on the web and accessible for anyplace on the planet. Its static site facilitating highlight is a secret jewel - it gives maybe the least expensive, generally steady, most high-performing static web facilitating accessible in PaaS. Cons The entire AWS environment has a great deal of confounding and unintuitive arrangement choices, and S3 is no special case. Fortunately it's entirely comprehensively utilized, to the point that you can dependably observe arrangements on outside destinations like StackOverflow. Getting IAM consents perfectly for Static Website facilitating require somewhat experimentation since S3 defaults to security rather than open access. Alternatives considered [Google Cloud Storage](https://www.capterra.com/p/253631/Google-Cloud-Storage/) Review Source dhavan M. Software Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Best product to save and maintain file on the cloud" June 13, 2023 5.0 My experience with AWS s3 is good so far. It has make my work of storing object very easy. It has great security features too. Pros I like the way AWS S3 makes it simple to store different kinds of files on the AWS Cloud. It is not just limited to the storage service. It allows hosting static websites as well. By providing various types of storage services such as s3 standard, s3 intelligent storage, s3 one zone storage, s3 glacier and flexible storage, it offers a one-stop solution for all kinds of storage needs from urgent retrieval of files to delayed recovery. It is also an economical solution for the organization which wants to store its data on a large scale. The thing which I like the most about s3 is it's bucket name is globally unique. Cons S3 doesn't allow renaming buckets, which AWS could add-in the future. Review Source CEO / Chief Software Architect Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "A benchmark service for all others to aspire to" March 10, 2020 5.0 Once you get beyond the basics, the learning curve can be pretty steep, but given a bit of time to research the service can be a very powerful tool for a large swath of use cases. Pros Amazon's S3 service is the benchmark that all others compare themselves to and has inspired an entire industry of object storage services. In fact in our experience with other "S3 Compatible" services, they generally recommend installing the AWS CLI application in order to manage the advanced features of their own services. S3 provides a highly customizable service at a very cost effective price, with the added benefit of either reduced performance or redundancy for even lower prices. Cons In some cases the documentation and examples available are a little thin or spread out in different places. The examples specifically surrounding bucket policies are a bit cryptic but usable. Reasons for choosing Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) To be honest, no comparable service existed when Amazon S3 was launched, but since then a number of competing services have been rolled out. The one we have most experience with is Linode Object Storage which offers a compelling alternative and will likely play a role in our future offerings. Review Source Similar Products Featured